Godzilla (2014) Review/Discussion (Spoilers)
 

Hey, so Godzilla was released today in Australia and I went to go see it, so I thought I'd share my thoughts plus I noticed there's not an actual discussion on the movie in general so I thought pretty soon everybody'll be seeing it too, so let's discuss it here! Yaaaay!

Anyway, let me start by saying if you're after a movie with lots of Godzilla and plenty of GODZILLA destroying stuff, then you're out of luck. Godzilla is on-screen for maybe 10 minutes of footage and the majority of that is through the viewpoint of humans, so most of the scenes are fleeting at best. What you do see is awesome, but I definitely left the cinema wanting more. Godzilla is also the hero of the story. I know I speculated that when we saw the first MUTO toys and was snapped at for that being wrong but that is most definitely the case here.

So, as for the story. Basically, Godzilla and the MUTO are ancient beings that lived "when the earth was far more radioactive" and feed of radioactivity. Godzilla was awoken in the past and during 1954 they set off bombs to destroy him, although it failed. The MUTO are parasites that were discovered deep in the earth, when a mining site collapses. They had eaten a monster (implied to be the same species of Godzilla) and cocooned themselves. Two cocoons, one is deemed dead and the other hatches, travels to a nuclear site in Japan, consumes it and then re-cocoons itself.

The human story takes up most of the footage. Joe Brody worked a the nuclear plant with his wife when the MUTO attacked and his wife was killed. Since then he became obsessed with discovering what the true story behind the site's collapse. 15 years later he gets arrested and his son, Ford, who now has a family in San Fran, comes to bail him out, but gets convinced to check out the Quarantine Zone where they used to live. There, they discover that Dr. Serizawa and his crew are experimenting on the concooned MUTO in order to understand it, just as the MUTO hatches and Joe Brody is killed in the confusion. For the rest of the film, Ford is finding his way back to his family in San Fran while constantly running into the MUTO or Godzilla, who is hunting the MUTO. The cocoon that was deemed dead is discovered to actually be a gigantic female, non-flying MUTO, which proceeds to hatch and head for San Francisco, making a quick stop off at Las Vegas in order to destroy it. The majority of the movie chronicles Ford racing the MUTO and Godzilla to San Fran.

Godzilla wants to hunt the MUTO because he is an "Alpha Predator" (Apex?) and he wants to "restore balance". He appears when the flying MUTO reaches Hawaii but the scene cuts away before the two fight, which I found very annoying. The only glimpses of the battle are seen on a small TV screen that Ford's wife and son are watching. When the MUTO flees Hawaii, Godzilla follows it to San Francisco, where it wants to meet its mate and lay eggs.

The big scenes of the movie all happen in San Francisco, where the three monsters collide. Godzilla himself isn't on screen for the fights too much, because the movie follows Ford, who is with the Halo team trying to deactivate a nuclear bomb that was being used to try and lure the MUTO and Godzilla away from the city and then detonate. Most of the fights are seen from Ford's view looking up and there is far more focus on Ford and the bomb then on the monsters themselves. What we DO see is epic, Godzilla is huge and fierce and the MUTO are also pretty awesome. Godzilla is his classic self, grabbing, wrestling, throwing, slamming with his tail, biting and, most importantly, breathing that blue atomic breath of his, glowing blue spines and all.

The movie ends with Ford blowing up the MUTO's eggs and managing to get the bomb off-shore enough to not threaten humans, Godzilla crushing the flying MUTO with his tail and dispatching the giant female with an Atomic Breath straight into the mouth. Godzilla collapses and Ford is reunited by his family, however Godzilla soon awakens, to the cheers of the people (A TV-Screen reads "King of Monsters, our city's saviour?") and Godzilla returns to the ocean, diving and swimming away.

Godzilla 2014 definitely focuses a lot on the humans, which isn't a bad thing early on, but I FAR preferred Joe Brody to Ford Brody. I was really surprised when Joe unceremoniously died in the MUTO's first scene. I love Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kick-Ass, but here all his personality is just bland. There's nothing notable about him, you wouldn't be able to decipher a single trait of him either then "blank slate hero character". His son also has the distinction of being THE WORST child actor I've seen in ages. The kid would probably died if he had to show emotion. I think the reviews of Rotten Tomatoes are being very fair with their scores. Its current 84% seems really good, but I wouldn't be shocked if it settles at about 75-79%.

The movie was good. It reached my expectations but it didn't exceed them. I didn't leave going "Ohmygod that was so amazing" like I did with Pacific Rim, I left thinking "Yep, that was pretty good". I was never bored during the movie, but I often felt like I wanted more. I'm not exaggerating when I say the first two Acts are like a big Godzilla strip tease and the third Act doesn't quite feature the big fight the movie was leading up to as much as I would've liked. Still, it was definitely a fun movie and worth the watch. I recommend it.

Sorry about my incoherent wall of text, I'll let the movie settle in a bit and then probably be able to discuss it better.

I have heard A LOT about there being a Mothra reference. I sure didn't see one, though.
But there IS a returning actor from the 1998 film! Doug Savant cameos as a medic. I forgot about his role in that film, but I always love seeing my much loved Desperate Housewives actors in films!

7/10

There ain't no post-credits scene either, I waited but there's not even a single roar!

Saw the movie today as well and I really really enjoyed it. It was far from the perfect Godzilla movie or the best but it was a damn good one.

Godzilla (2014) – In 1998 Sony released an abomination of a movie that was called “Godzilla.” While the movie had some really great effects at the time, the overall results of the movie were less than stellar. It also does not help that the creature called “Godzilla” in that movie never truly resembled the monster everyone knows and loves. That movie was also filled with terrible one liners, dated jokes, and hardly stands the test of time at all. In fact, the only thing the movie had going for it was its hype. As such, it was obvious as to why there would be mass skepticism brought about when Legendary announced they were going to be creating their own Godzilla movie. Thankfully, their take on the king of the monsters is truly one to behold.

The movie’s plot is extremely simplistic and yet, done with care for the monster’s origins in both the world the movie takes place in and in our own reality. If there is one thing Gareth Edwards has proven with this movie, it is that if you care about the original source material enough you can truly create a great experience to go with it. There is also a certain amount of suspense the movie holds to keep the viewer interested without boring them or annoying them.

The characters of the movie are pretty good, even if some of them are underused or seem to have the invincibility shield surrounding them. Bryan Cranston’s character is good while Ken Watanabe plays a scientist named Serizawa and is probably one of the best characters in the movie. It was extremely nice to finally see his talents and acting used in great detail here. Cranston’s son, Ford, is a pretty likable guy but he could have been developed a bit better. His wife, on the other hand, was utterly useless as most females tend to be in the Godzilla universe.

The monsters of the movie were done very well and the new design for Godzilla looks great on screen. He is the biggest incarnation of the monster yet, standing at about 110 meters, which is taller compared to the Heisei Godzilla whose height was 100 meters. The MUTO make for an interesting set of monsters to give Godzilla his motivations. Thankfully, the designs are followed greatly but top notch effects as the CGI never seemed to drop in quality one bit during the movie. In fact, as far as the effects go, despite it being all CGI, they are some of the best the series has ever had, and rightly so.

Some of my favorite scenes cannot be said because of spoilers, but the HALO jump scene from the trailer is truly fantastic to see when you are watching it as part of the movie and it gives great depth to what is transpiring during those moments. The music used in that scene just adds up the tension to it.

If there was anything I needed to complain about it would be the lack of monster action. There is quite a bit of it, but at the same time there is just a tad too little of it. Thankfully the movie is extremely well paced and does a great job at building up the monsters with an added bonus of suspense in the process. It is also one of the few movies in the series to truly treat the story as an anti-nuclear one, mimicking the original’s message. Overall, while there are some nitpicks to the movie, I give it a nice 8/10 as it is one the best Godzilla movies released thus far and I look forward to seeing what Legendary can come up with next in their Godzilla universe.

BTW, there is nothing after or during the credits, so there is no need to stay if you don’t want to.

My favorite scene was the build up of Godzilla's atomic breath attack.

#AtomicFrenchKiss

Seriously though,great movie. A little too much time on Ford,who in the end did absolutely nothing. Protect the train,failed and only survivor. Defuse the nuke,failed and only survivor.

Oh,as for the Mothra reference,it was in the classroom.When they show the teacher,the poster to the right. The biggest bug on there is a moth with the exact same colors as Mothra. Also in the Brody household after the nuclear event in Japan,one of the cases had a gigantic cocoon in it.

I did enjoy the fact that they showed the MUTO and then Godzilla I think about 30-40 minutes into the film.Even if it was just a tail,it ramped up from there on.

it blew my mind, i was crying from how good it was

for me it too much human dramatic scene. I need more monster rampage scene. and that atomic breath was Epic.

My prediction was correct; in a few hours its settled at 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, I expect it'll stay hovering around there.

I wouldn't have minded the emphasis on human drama had they stuck with Joe. Ford just could not carry a film well. He was extremely bland, I couldn't find myself caring about him or his family.

Makes sense their isn't a post credit scene since we don't know if Toho will let them do anything more with Big G. My guess it all hangs on the Japanese fans response to the film as to whether they'll let legendary take another shot at it or make the next one themselves.

Honestly, while I think this one wasn't FANTASTIC, I think Legendary can do more with Godzilla then Toho. I'd be very happy with a sequel.

I thought it was fantastic,even very well paced for a two hour movie,but the thing that dragged it on,like you said before,was Ford.

If they make a sequel and it's got more focus on Godzilla then it'll be perfect. Still have the humanity aspect of it,but with better actors and less of it.

I mean they showed Godzilla. If a sequel does happen,they can't exactly hide him the second time. lol. That and they really didn't hide him for too long in this one. I've seen a lot of people say that it took a while to see him. While it was about 45-50 min in before you do see a full shot of him,it's still satisfying. And heck it is about the half way mark,so it's not bad.

They also gave us plenty of MUTO shots,so we still had a big monster to be in awe at till Godzilla showed up.

Btw,if I don't see a "Boomer will live!" or Doge meme after that Hawaiian scene,I don't know what's wrong with the internet.

I think the Movie would have worked better in that regard if they made Ford and Serizawa dual protagonists. Watanabe was my favorite performance in this movie next to Cranston.

I found myself caring enough for Ford that I didnt mind him but Serizawa was the one character in the movie I wanted to see more of.

Have to agree that Ford was a pretty lousy character overall. Watanabe gave a great performance so it was disappointing to see Serizawa had quite a limited role.

Happy to see that they absolutely NAILED the King himself. I loved the bulky, dominant predator look and that moment where the spines glowed and he shot the atomic breath was definitely the highlight, as was that glorious finisher. Sucked that he wasn't in it all that much but what we did get was just perfect.

The Mutos were a pretty rocking design too, they looked like Gyaos on crack. Come to think of it, the whole Godzilla/Mutos thing gave me serious Gamera: Guardian of the Universe vibes.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot, but I think the fact Pacific Rim is still fresh in my mind means I'm perhaps not as wowed as I could have been. Will be going to see it again next week so we'll see how it fares second time around.

Not just that, but I'm pretty sure the case even had Mothra on a card next to it.

I absolutely loved the movie! Great action. Great effects. I really do hope we can get more if toho allows it.

That's what I was thinking during that scene. :lol
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hZs8Wv8i1A8

Okay, can I just say...WOW, I am in love with this movie. I would totally pay to see it again and again, even in the more expensive luxury theater seats I used to watch it in.

And I heard that apparently Mothra was revealed to be "Queen of the MUTOs" or something like that in select asian theaters in their after credits scene. If this is true, than it would be shocking to see not only Godzilla's initial role being reversed, but Mothra's as well. Her being the bad guy and Godzilla being the good guy.

It would make for an interesting Godzilla vs Mothra "remake", though.

The highlights of the movie for me was a few things.

One was the first confrontation between Godzilla and the MUTO. How right before they started fighting,it cut away so that all you saw was them fighting on the television. It was kind of a "Hey look,to be fair we still showed them fighting early on!" lol.

Another was Godzilla's initial arrival in Hawaii. Even if they hid him,you knew shit was hitting the fan when the water went out.

The tail lighting up was awesome,but the charging up sound wasn't needed. Would've had much more effect if the whole thing was silent till he let loose with the breath.

And the biggest moment for me was how he killed the female MUTO. The crowd erupted with applause when he just opened her mouth and lit her up. #AtomicFrenchKiss

Funny,with all the spoilers on the pages of this thread,it's starting to look like the opening credits.lol

Queen of the MUTOs. :lol No, you just got trolled.

I still need more time - and at least a second viewing - to form full impressions, but I absolutely loved it this first time around.

I don't know what exactly there was to dislike about Joe's character, aside from being bland as shit. His determination to somehow make it back to his family while remain true to his duties as a soldier and at least protect their lives worked for me for what he needed to do. The parallel to Godzilla's determination to end the Muto threat was forced for sure, but he sufficed. I don't mind Ford's absence due to his death at the claws of the male Muto but I am in utter agreement that he could've carried the movie in an amazing capacity instead of Joe, obviously as a very different story.

A return to a heroic Godzilla is the dream I never fathomed becoming reality. And I actually loved the monster battle teases for the most part! The most glaring exception, I felt, was everything with the female Muto. I either needed to see more of her rampage west or her destruction of Vegas. The Hawaii "fight" looked like it was abrupt no matter what considering the male knew he was outmatched, and the San Francisco battle was lean but not so much that I was left wanting.

Well, it WAS from a google search, so I'm taking the news that some asian theaters have a Mothra glimpse with a grain of salt. Though, it would be awesome if it were true that they snuck in a Mothra preview.

I don't think it's his character per se, but the events surrounding him. Until the final act, he was just an observer and not an active participant in the plot. It felt like everything was just..."happening".

But the final act, that was glorious!

Just got done with the film.

I. Am. FLOORED.

That was simply excellent. Absolutely fantastic. The perfect sense of scale was given to Godzilla and the MUTO's. I felt like they were real from the perspective we saw them from. But the inability to see them fully for most of the film, that lends to their god like prehistoric status making them seem even larger than life than they already are.

Ford was just the kind of protaganist it needed for the audience to identify with. I recognize his father and mother were nothing more than plot devices to get Ford involved, but once he was it was a pleasure to watch him grapple with concepts larger than he ever could have imagined in his simple life.

The fights were GLORIOUS. I've seen complaints that the lack of full on monster action somehow is a negative to the film. I wholeheartedly disagree. It's the fact that we glimpse the creatures so little, seeing only pieces of them, that creates the spectacle. It builds the tension for their eventual full on battle royal. And what a battle that was. I literally shouted in the theater when I saw Godzilla's tail and spines begin to glow. The first use of his atomic breath was magnificent. But the piece de' resistance of the film, that one moment, was him breathing fire down the females throat and cleaving it's head off. THAT was superb monster on monster action.

I read the prequel graphic novel Godzilla Awakening right before my viewing as well and while they move would be aces without it's knowledge, the read greatly enhance my viewing experience. I'll be writing up a full review for the site this weekend.

So....
I take it that this movie was somewhat better than the '98 movie? :p

In every single way imaginable.

As a GODZILLA movie, it was leagues above and beyond the 1998 one. Godzilla's depiction was, in my eyes, perfect in every way and I could not be more satisfied.

The human element was better too, but not to the same extent. :)

Saw it yesterday & Loved it. I hope for a Godzilla 2.This to me will all ways be the best Godzilla movie ever. It was Soo much better then 1998's.

heres mine. Godzilla was brilliant. And I love how it was more of are perspective if view how we would of saw it. Garry Chalk you were great as a little cameo at the beginning

Not perfect but I really really liked it. My biggest complaint is actually Dr. Serizawa. He just looks like he's in deep thought in every scene but never really offers much of anything. (Other than "let them fight", I guess) They supposedly studied one of the MUTOs for years and he still doesn't really know anything about them. Pretty useless overall.

Even though I'm a diehard suitmation fan, I really loved all of the monster scenes.

The movie was fantastic. I keep reading people say that they did not show enough Godzilla or it took too long for him to appear on screen.

Um. That is the case for a LOT of the Godzilla franchise. I have been watching them all since I was a kid and have seen every single one. Commonly Godzilla does not show up right away and is often not on screen as much as people remember. It is only in movies like Destroy All Monsters that he is there all the time.

This was a fantastic Godzilla movie. Probably in the Top 5 for the entire franchise. A Godzilla movie made for fans by a Godzilla fan.

The whole thing about there "not being enough Godzilla" in this movie is to build tension. You don't see the entirety of each battle between these creatures because we as humans wouldn't really be able to comprehend what they're doing anyway. We wouldn't be able to experience the full scale and scope of them. So by showing us brief looks at each creature we get a nice dose of reality, the reality that we are completely insignificant to them. And the climactic battle at the end really drives the point home even further if you ask me.

I enjoyed the hell out of it, and while I legitimately do get some of the criticisms the film is receiving, I feel like most of those criticisms aren't very well informed. Almost like people are ignoring the structure of the film and it's focus.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

Was tense and pumping with adrenaline from start to finish. Thought they handled both the human and monster elements of the film perfectly. I may not have watched many Godzilla movies, but this felt true to the source in every way.

EDIT: As for Ford not doing anything, I beg to differ. The guy completely destroyed the Muto nest on top of making sure the nuke got away from the city. He was prepared to die to do so.

I will say that ending is totally jacked from Dark Knight Rises. The way the nuke explodes in the ocean and the hero makes it out just barely.

:lol

Still fantastic though.

As a long Godzilla fan, I can safely say THIS IS THE AMERICAN GODZILLA FILM WEVE BEEN WAITING FOR!! I couldn't contain myself. I love how everything just goes together and the way they tease us until we get to the climax. I also love the MUTOs and how they handled them.

9.5/10
Highly recommend it.

I think the bigger problem with Godzilla's lack of appearance was how little he actually mattered to the plot. The movie was MUTO's show, hell, scenes in the trailer even have Godzilla in the place of where MUTO is on the final product (such as the train bridge). All Godzilla really contributed to the plot was a way to get rid of the MUTO.

Heaps of people (not on this forum) have made a comparison to Jaws and Alien, however I'm inclined to agree with my brother when he says "that comparison only works if Jaws was called "Giant Shark" but was actually mostly about a giant crocodile". I personally think, for the first in a reboot, Godzilla himself should've been a bit more important to the overall story. The promotional material definitely implied a far more Godzilla centered film and that's what I was personally hoping for. The MUTO were cool and all, but they were FAR more plot relevant then the Big G himself.

Also I don't think the Hawaii scene built tension as much as it just frustrated the audience. The TV screen copout was weird. Maybe a second viewing will improve it for me but I was wanting more.

Exactly. It kinda irks me to hear how people are complaining about that aspect, But hey... Some people wanted to see more and I was happy with the "less is more" approach they took.

Increased focus on Godzilla would have made the film more of a giant slugfest rather than an actual plotted movie. It would have looked nice, but it would have lost its flair rather quickly.

The way they did it made you look forward to every Godzilla vs. Muto scene, thus making the pay-off that much more worth it.

I remembered another thing I liked. I liked the role given to Godzilla. He's the alpha-predator who fights off any renegade or rampaging monsters that may be upsetting the current balance of the world. He'll still destroy stuff and there will be casualties in the long-run, but in the end he's ultimately on our side. A nice twist on the whole "Righteous Godzilla" depiction.

Increasing the exposure of the monsters themselves would have turned this into a licensed character version of Garreth Edwards previous film Monsters, which is awful. He learned from that mistake to craft this excellent film.

And you're totally right. The Alpha Predator idea really hearkens to Godzilla's true character. We see him as the anti-hero of sorts that some times defends humanity, but only as a by-product rather than actively. Here it's the same but at a very basic natural predator level. He restores the balance. I love that.

That's the thing that bugs me most about Ford and the nuke

To me,Johnson's acting was pretty dry. It was all the same tone,no matter what the situation was. Even his yelling pretty much had the same tone.

As for him not doing anything,I guess I should word it correctly. Everything he said he was going to do,he failed. Spontaneous actions,like blowing up the nest,he succeeded. Case in point. He told his wife that he'd bring back his dad. Failed. He said he would ride the train to San Fran and told his wife he would get them out of the city. Failed. He said he would disarm the nuke. Failed. Return the kid to his parents. Failed. (Yeah,the kid made it back,but not before Ford almost lost him. Heck,the parents didn't even realize Ford brought him back) I understand they were trying to get across that mankind isn't perfect,but damn. lol

As for there not being enough Godzilla,I agree that is bull. There was just enough Godzilla to make it perfect. Now the critics are all switching to "Well why didn't they focus more on Godzilla?" I agree with them to a degree on that point,but how well the movie did and how well it was received,we can always get that in a sequel. Heck,the big guy is revealed now,so they can't spend half the movie hiding him.

I hate to say it, but I guess movie audiences today just don't understand the concept of pacing and plot. They want a non-stop 90 minute action sequence at the end of the movie that has nothing but Bayplosions and no plot or character development.

If people don't like this movie, that is fine. However, a lot of the complaints people are making are in EVERY Godzilla movie. Rarely is there A LOT of the monster until the final sequence, especially during the Showa era, which is what this movie felt like it was paying homage to.

This movie sounds really neat. I like the "Heroic Godzilla" interpretation.

This movie wasn't exactly full of plot and character development, so don't make such a silly blanket statement. It wasn't necessarily bad in that regard, but the main character himself doesn't have a decipherable character trait about him either then "he's nice" and the plot wasn't exactly anything to get super-excited about. The movie wasn't bad at all, it was good, but I actually think a lot of this forum is exaggerating just how good simply because it was a good Godzilla movie (which is admittedly a rarity) and are fan boying a bit.

Its not that the movie lacked monsters and action, it had plenty, just comparatively little of it had Godzilla in it. I just would've preferred Godzilla be more important to the plot. Take him out and replace him with practically anything that could kill the MUTO and you have practically the same story. The bait and switch promotional material didn't help either. Not only did they make it seem like Joe was the main character, scenes of the MUTO appear to be edited to feature Godzilla, even if he wasn't in the scenes at all.

I think the problem is that Pacific Rim before it balanced both decently, but Godzilla was far more one then the other. Pacific Rim also ended with a more memorable cast and what I consider a funner, less serious kaiju movie.

Ok I just been watching Godzilla king of monster the first American adaption due to how it was made. Now I am looking back to 2014 and to king of monsters and I feel like it was taken elements from king of monsters.

Agreed 100%.
(Well, apart from the bit about good Godzilla films being a rarity :lol)