Well, the extremely slow burn and human plot with a kaiju b-plot are similar to the 1954 original. The crazy Godzilla antics were mainly there in the sequels. Considering the filmmakers put a lot of emphasis on the first Godzilla movie, I went in there knowing that it'll be a long time before we properly see Godzilla.
And frankly, I wasn't too miffed by this. I thought Ford Brody was pretty interesting. He's not very emotional, but I get the feeling he's not supposed to be. He's a bomb disposal guy for the Navy, so he needs to learn how to remain cool in intense situations (lest he accidentally blow himself up with the bomb he's trying to defuse), so the fact that he doesn't emote much isn't that big of a negative for me.
And narmy dialogue in a Godzilla movie... Dude, it's a Godzilla movie. The very premise will result in some bits of narm. It comes with the territory. Even the Dark Knight comes with a boatload of narm simply due to the fact that it's still about superheroes.
For me, it was a great Godzilla movie. It was the movie I was promised in 1998. Godzilla was great, and I enjoyed seeing everything from the human perspective, though that's probably because I haven't seen very many Godzilla movies that really look at Godzilla from the level of humans, but hey.
Pretty much all Godzilla movies are about the Humans. Several of the godzilla movies are almost entirely about humans dealing with aliens, with Godzilla and the other monsters on the side. Hell one of the movies about Godzilla jr centers entirely around some elementary school kid for 90% of the movie.
Some of the movies have more monster scenes than others but none of them have constant monster attack scenes through-out.
Maybe I should be more clear; I wasn't necessarily upset at the monsters having less screentime, but that oftentimes the film teases the audience a lot more than it should have. Like the airport sequence, where we smash cut from Godzilla to the protagonist's kid. We do get glimpses of the two monsters fighting, but it's very brief and it's us watching the people watch the news. I can't really recall that many fight scenes from prior Godzilla films where the vast bulk of the fight happens offscreen (we'd get reaction shots from the humans, maybe with someone giving commentary), but in general, once the monsters start destroying something, we see it. I'm sure there are a few like that; but having the mid-movie fight happen entirely offscreen really deflated me.
Here we jump cut away from the scenes of the monsters way too much for my liking. Female Muto escapes! It's heading for Vegas! We see a Casino get trashed... end scene, go to the firefighters. We're with Aaron Johnson on the train. Something's on the other side of the tunnel! Aaron goes through it... and the Muto had finished wiping out the military, then climbs over the mountain (where we used to be, but now aren't) to attack the train.
Like, in previous films, when they showed a monster attack, they showed a monster attack. They didn't immediately cut to the aftermath, or have the monster attack over when the protagonist shows up, monster exits stage right, and conducts another attack offscreen. I wasn't asking for a 120 minute monster smashup. But when the monsters actually show up, I expect them to be around for longer than thirty seconds before we jumpcut away to Admiral Stenz talking about devasting they are.
With that said, my problems with the movie aside, I'm thinking I underrated it somewhat in my initial reaction.
I agree with you entirely. Whenever the scene would switch away from the monsters, I would be more than a little upset of the battle being mostly offscreen. I did come here to see Godzilla kick ass, not watch Aaron Paul constantly stealing the scene. Also, I was hoping Brian and Ken would get more screen time but nooooo. However, the battles were very awesome and worth the wait, but it also makes you wish there was more screen time for said battles.
"You know I'm just kidding."
^ It's not Breaking Bad Aaron Paul, it's Aaron Taylor-Johnson from the actual Kick-Ass films.
Oh, yeah. Sorry. Messed up there. (:
"You know I'm just kidding."Leave a Comment:
Very Cool Godzilla flick... when it tries to be a Godzilla flick
Off the bat, I knew that the film would be heavy on the human characters. That it would revolve around Ford Brody, and we'd get the boots-on-the-ground perspective of a Kaiju attack. Like the original, there would be a slow burn before we see Godzilla. Problem is, even when we see Godzilla, they film will quickly jump to another seen as far away from him as possible.
When Godzilla or the Mutos show up, it is downright amazing. However, it often feels not like a Godzilla film with a human b-plot starring Aaron Paul, but an Aaron Paul film with a kaiju b-plot starring Godzilla. A lot of what could have been amazing scenes happen either off-camera or are glossed over; with the viewers just getting to see the fight on television news or something.
Compounding this... Ford Brody isn't particularly interesting. Brian Cranston and Ken Watanabe have much more interesting characters (and are more charismatic in their roles), but they don't particularly do much.
At times, the movie gets almost narmy with the dialogue, and a moment towards the end made me roll my goddamn eyes. Godzilla honestly is portrayed far more heroically than he has been in a long time, which is an odd choice given how serious the film tries to play things.
With that said. When the movie finally gives us what we came for, it is extremely well done. The final fight between the Mutos and Godzilla may just be my favorite fight of the franchise; it's a good combination of brutal, and finally seeing his spines light up had the entire theater hyped up. And despite what I said about it being narmy at times... it goes with the territory; I've seen Godzilla fly and do a tail-sliding dropkick, and what happens in this film isn't nearly as bad.
All in all, it's not as amazing as I had been hyped up for. It's a competent Godzilla film dragged down by some pretty serious issues, and for what it was I really enjoyed myself. It's not the best film Godzilla's been in, but it's also very far from the worst film. All things considered, first thoughts are that it was a solid Godzilla film that could've been great had there been more focus on the monsters.