Godzilla and the summer of

[sabrelady]

Well ( to borrow a phrase) size does matter!

[canmark]

Alas, Godzilla does not live up to its billing. Meh.

Last summer's somewhat disappointing Pacific Rim was better, I think.

[James885]

Caught Godzilla this evening. I enjoyed it and thought it was miles better than the 98 Roland Emmerich version. I agree that it takes way too long for Godzilla to actually show up, but the reveal was fantastic and people in my theater cheered.

I loved the look of Godzilla and how he actually looks the way he did in the Japanese films.

A few semi-spoilers:








Bryan Cranston was good, although I wasn't expecting him to get killed off so early. Aaron Johnson was fine, but his character was boring.

I also liked how they gave the other two monsters something of a personality. When the nest was destroyed the "WTF?" moment the female monster had was good.

Loved the the final battle and thought it was very well done. People applauded when Godzilla finished off the last monster. I found it amusing that even though the monsters pretty much leveled downtown San Francisco, the Transamerica Pyramid was still standing intact at the end of the battle.

[rosscoe(au)]

My biggest issue with Godzilla, and the same with Pacific Rim last year was. I am over sloppy film makers using rain and darkness in films as a way too cover up poor special effects. Man up and if you are going to use that much FX have the balls to do it right and do it in daylight. There was no reason the final battle in Godzilla took place the way it did!

[ErikJ972]

I haven't seen it yet but...really?
Godzilla is the best action movie since Jaws

[strummergirl]

I know O'Hehir gets posted a lot on the Off-Topic board but his write-up on The Counselor being the worst film of all time is one of the worst pieces of 'criticism' on Salon's whole site, and considering how bad that website has become since Matt Zoller Seitz left, that is a remarkable feat.

Also, Pacific Rim was a bore for me but those visual effects were outstanding. Are you kidding me you thought they were bad?

[ErikJ972]

I was skeptical of the O'Heir review. Was curious what people who saw the film thought.
And I agree. The fx in Pacific Rim were phenomenal even if the movie wasn't.

[canmark]

The JAWS comparison is not a good one because it highlights what is good with JAWS and what is bad with Godzilla.

JAWS tapped into a real human fear of sharks. And it offered three very different and very compelling characters (played by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw) who drove the action. They were protecting the citizens, studying the phenomenon of the great white shark, and hunting a shark which seem to have a vendetta.

SPOILERS In Godzilla, the bland and uninteresting main characters merely follow the action. The one character who had the Richard Dreyfuss scientific drive – the Bryan Cranston character – is, unfortunately, killed off way too soon. Further, the environmental message in the original Japanese film was that humans were destroying nature through nuclear weapons and Godzilla was nature's retribution on humanity (later, though, Godzilla would become a good guy and save the earth from other evil monsters.). Here, nature (in the form of the MUTOs) bizarrely craves nuclear activity. Here, Godzilla acts as nature's balance, neutralizing the damaging effects of the MUTOs (more like the good guy Godzilla of the sequels than the original Gojira).

[rosscoe(au)]

Strummer maybe P Rim was a bad choice to use re the FX

[strummergirl]

I personally think Pacific Rim would have benefitted from making half of their human cast FX creations. Those would have been less stiff than Charlie Hunnam.

[scott68]

Speaking of charisma-free actors, Aaron Taylor-Johnson's single facial expression nearly ruined Godzilla for me. They might as well have carved a potato into the shape of muscles and cast it as the lead instead.