Godzilla, King of the Monsters

[Pattern Ghost 2,685]

I concur. The wife and I had to watch the 2014 Godzilla in two sittings because it was less interesting than watching paint dry.

 

 

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8 hours ago, Grailknight said:

but you don't see lions digging in fire ant mounds or birds invading bee's nests

 

OK, I couldn't find lions digging in fire ant mounds, but as for the second:

 

 

😁

[Lord Liaden 7,484]

I feel like I need to present a different perspective on Gareth Edwards' direction of Godzilla. He was tasked with creating a new incarnation of this iconic creature which had, over the course of six decades, been reinterpreted many times, while still defining and remaining true to the essence of its character. His accomplishments on that front should not be dismissed. Every Legendary "Monsterverse" film featuring Godzilla has used Edwards' G. It looks and sounds like his G. It moves like his G. The way it's shot to show the scale of these creatures and the human perspective of them, is inspired by how Edwards did it.

 

The ranking of Gareth's work compared to other directors in the Legendary series is not universal. I know hard-core Godzilla fans who consider his 2014 film the best of them. I know moviegoers with no previous experience with the genre who consider it the best. Like I always say, "best" is subjective, but objectively there's a lot to admire in that movie.

 

Any time you're the first to do something, successors will take what you did farther. Anyone's personal reactions to a movie are valid, and reasonable criticism can certainly be made. But Gareth Edwards set a foundation for the directors who came after to build on, and it's a solid one. Give the man his due.

[Starlord 5,303]

The first was the best by far.

[Pattern Ghost 2,685]

4 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Give the man his due.

 

I will give him his due after I wake up from the coma his movie induced.

[Lord Liaden 7,484]

Enjoy your nap of delusion.

[Pattern Ghost 2,685]

It wasn't really that bad, just the pacing in the first half. I loved the visuals.

[Dr. MID-Nite 359]

Objectively, 

4 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I feel like I need to present a different perspective on Gareth Edwards' direction of Godzilla. He was tasked with creating a new incarnation of this iconic creature which had, over the course of six decades, been reinterpreted many times, while still defining and remaining true to the essence of its character. His accomplishments on that front should not be dismissed. Every Legendary "Monsterverse" film featuring Godzilla has used Edwards' G. It looks and sounds like his G. It moves like his G. The way it's shot to show the scale of these creatures and the human perspective of them, is inspired by how Edwards did it.

 

The ranking of Gareth's work compared to other directors in the Legendary series is not universal. I know hard-core Godzilla fans who consider his 2014 film the best of them. I know moviegoers with no previous experience with the genre who consider it the best. Like I always say, "best" is subjective, but objectively there's a lot to admire in that movie.

 

Any time you're the first to do something, successors will take what you did farther. Anyone's personal reactions to a movie are valid, and reasonable criticism can certainly be made. But Gareth Edwards set a foundation for the directors who came after to build on, and it's a solid one. Give the man his due.

 

With respect, POV shots are not unique to this version of Godzilla. As far as the design, it was reviled enough that it was changed for the next two outings to look more like....Godzilla. I don't hate the 2014 film by any means, but Edwards didn't create the foundation...Honda/Tsuburaya did and every other film maker has been building on or reinterpreting THAT legacy...so that's where I will give due credit.

[Lord Liaden 7,484]

I'm not going to get into a debate over the many fine Japanese filmmakers who contributed to Godzilla's distinctive style over the decades, or who did what. But "reviled" in relation to Edwards' Godzilla design is something I've never heard anywhere else. Michael Dougherty who directed KOTM said in interviews that his Godzilla is Gareth's Godzilla. He tweaked some visual elements to be more to his preference: enlarged the back spines to look more like stegosaurus plates, made the toes a little longer, the head and arms a little bigger.

[Pattern Ghost 2,685]

I thought it looked fine. The 1998 version from the one with Matthew Broderick in it, that was a true stinker.

[Lord Liaden 7,484]

1998 wasn't bad as a generic giant monster, but it was 'way away from all other Godzillas in both look and style, which was the biggest problem for fans. However, I do recommend the 1998-99 Godzilla animated television series which followed directly from the events of the movie. It's better written, has more interesting characters, plenty of imaginative monster designs and cool fights, and it really makes that design for Godzilla work, and corrects other flaws in the movie. The series' lead monster, often referred to among kaiju fans as "Zilla Jr.", is a worthy bearer of the name Godzilla. (YouTube has nearly all the episodes from the series.)

[Pattern Ghost 2,685]

I agree, as a generic monster, it was a good design, and the CGI was impressive for the time. But it just left too many design elements of every other Godzilla on the table.

[zslane 2,202]

I grew up during the 1970s loving Godzilla. But for me the Legendary Godzilla is the design my adult self sees as the "way he should have looked all along", conceding of course that it benefits greatly from exceptional CGI production. But Edwards' movie was the first time in 60 years that, to my eyes, Godzilla and the monsters he fought looked 100% real. I also really enjoyed the entire aesthetic of the 2014 movie along with its patient storytelling, and the decision to be sparing with showing the monsters.

 

We had decades of Godzilla movies that were non-stop monster slugfests. For me, that had become old hat and I wanted something different. By the end of the Showa era, I had outgrown Godzilla and the silly rubber suited action and low-budget stop-motion animation that came to define the look of the franchise. I had grown up and, without realizing it, wanted Godzilla filmmaking to grow up too. In my view it didn't do that until 2014. I kinda feel that for those who want to bathe in the cinematic tradition of previous eras, there are still Godzilla movies coming out of Japan that scratch that itch. I was hoping that the Legendary version would continue to be distinctive, modern, and American in the sense that it wouldn't feel quite so beholden to nostalgia for Japanese-derived tropes, traditions, and conventions.

 

But I am obviously in the minority here. One of the few who feels Gareth Edwards' film was the standard that should have set the tone and direction for the franchise going forward. In some ways it did, but I just feel that too much of the realism and nuanced storytelling was discarded in favor of "big dumb monster action" because, ostensibly, that's what audiences were demanding. Well, not this audience member.

[Mightybec 570]

I'm sure I'm late to the game, but I can honestly say that this pit bull headed version of Godzilla is the first version that actually looks intimidating to me.

[Dr. MID-Nite 359]

The Heisei 1991 Godzilla was plenty intimidating. Check out the scene where he stares down Yoshio Tsuchiya.

[Lord Liaden 7,484]

I was pretty impressed with the presence of the Millennium Godz, too. Godzilla 2000 is one of my favorites in the series, in no small part because it had IMO some of the more interesting human characters. While G in Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah... is the most evil-looking Godzilla I've ever seen.

[Dr. MID-Nite 359]

6 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

I was pretty impressed with the presence of the Millennium Godz, too. Godzilla 2000 is one of my favorites in the series, in no small part because it had IMO some of the more interesting human characters. While G in Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah... is the most evil-looking Godzilla I've ever seen.

 

This is not an unreasonable statement. Shin and Burning Godzilla (from 1995) are pretty intimidating in their own ways as well.

[Spence 1,517]

10 hours ago, zslane said:

But I am obviously in the minority here.

 

Maybe a minority, but not alone

[Lord Liaden 7,484]

14 hours ago, Dr. MID-Nite said:

 

This is not an unreasonable statement. Shin and Burning Godzilla (from 1995) are pretty intimidating in their own ways as well.

 

Shin Gojira is the most disturbing incarnation of the character to me. It's a true monster, a grotesque hideous abomination that never should have existed. And hence an appropriate vehicle for one of the picture's themes, the damage Man's carelessness inflicts on nature and how that comes back to bite us.