I came away from this movie unimpressed. I guess, with it being done in 2014 and all, maybe I was too hopeful. The things they can do with CGI and special effects these days is just so much better than they could do with the movies I watched as a kid. And don't get me wrong, the special effects were good in this movie. But the increase in technology was offset by the movie kinda being Godzilla-less. I mean, Godzilla didn't show up until the movie was about half way done.
As a stand-alone movie, it wasn't bad. The plot was a little predictable, but the characters had depth and it isn't as if the movie didn't have story. As a monster movie, it was pretty good. The MUTOs were very cool, and they probably did the most work out of carrying the movie. But as a Godzilla movie, I don't know. Godzilla seemed to be a secondary character, and that shouldn't happen in a Godzilla movie. I wanted more. I did think it was way better than the 1998 Mathew Broderick movie (Bueller? Bueller?). I was extremely disappointed with that one, where Godzilla was supposedly a mutant iguana and laid eggs asexually. Talk about ruining Godzilla. So, yeah, it was better than that one. But you'd think with what they are capable of nowadays, they'd be able to make the kick-ass Godzilla movie of your dreams. It just hasn't happened. I remember seeing the old movies as a kid. I was always so excited to see them, and I guess as a kid, you do tend to overlook a lot of problems. But I liked them all, save for the one where Godzilla fought King Kong and lost (What? Godzilla can't lose!). That was also the only one I can remember where he wasn't kind of a hero-like monster that worked with the humans, even if it was more of a things just worked out kind of thing (and ignoring the financial burden the humans would have to pay in rebuilding cities!).
In this movie, he did save the day, and was kinda with the humans, but also, in a things just kind of worked out as an enemy of my enemy is a friend sort of way. And that's probably staying true to the character of Godzilla. In the old movies, he wasn't really a friend of the humans, but ended up saving them kind of as aftermath. One thing to note, and not sure how relevant it is to true Godzilla fans, but in the old cartoon in the late 70's and early 80's, Godzilla was absolutely a friend of the humans, and was actually called by them to fight dangers.
I think in my perfect Godzilla movie, he'd be more like that cartoon version. Not as campy, but actually working with the humans in some sort of cooperative way, but then maybe going rogue when he had to... when human error or betrayal (from "bad guys") caused him to. In a way where he figures out what the humans can't, and goes on his own to accomplish what must be accomplished. He's Godzilla for a reason.
This movie did have Godzilla as a bit of a hero, and in that I was happy. But this movie had far too little of Godzilla in it to really appease a Godzilla appetite.
I love your point about how Godzilla is the title but hardly made an appearance. The appearances made were great, but I also wished to see more. The MUTOs held it up on the monster side, but then that leaves me with: why not title it MUTOs and have Zilla save the day? Considering they were the main monsters in the film, it only seems logical. I enjoyed the story and I thought the characters were well done as well. So, I cannot say the movie did not impress me in that sense.
ReplyDeleteI get your point about the special effects and CGI, but I felt the movie was place well for 2014. Remember when films started going out of control with CGI when it first became a hit? That was a YIKES. I was very happy to see Godzilla as the hero instead of the one being the problem.
Thanks for helping me with the gender. I hadn't seen the movies since I was younger and I swore it was female. Good to know it is a male. Hence the follow up to this film, as you said, KING of Monsters. I still wish I had the child impression of it as a female though. She was badass. I mean, Zilla is badass regardless, but you catch my drift.
I haven't seen any other Godzilla movies, but the idea of her laying eggs asexually actually sounds pretty cool to me. Also, I didn't think Godzilla was working with the humans at all in this movie. They shot rockets and things at Godzilla and the MUTOs both. I didn't even know Godzilla was supposed to be the hero until ear the end of the movie when my dad told me that Godzilla is supposed to be the hero in most of their movies. And I haven't seen King Kong vs Godzilla, but if Godzilla is normally a hero and King Kong a kidnapping bad guy, why didn't they make Godzilla win? Sounds odd to me, but I don't know much about either of them, so I could be misinformed.
ReplyDeleteSince this is the first Godzilla movie I've seen, I didn't know that he's almost always been portrayed as a friend to the humans—but I like that idea a lot. I think I agree with your assessment of the ideal Godzilla movie: he needs to help the humans, but not in a way that makes the humans themselves feel unnecessary. I guess, knowing that, the notion that the humans saw both Godzilla and the MUTO's as a threat comes off more as the intensional subversion of a trope—but I think in order to pull that off they would have needed to invest more into the storyline of *why* certain groups of humans wanted to ignore Monarch's warnings about Godzilla, especially given that they called in Monarch specifically as experts on the topic... Still, it helps.
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