I would have preferred to not wait so long for Godzilla screentime. The “I have to get home” stuff was too reminiscent of World War Z (not a fan). Right down to the handy kids happening along to be rescued when own family is absent. Once the beautiful monster appears it’s all good.
It didn’t go down as much as suggested (looks into Godzillas eyes, a meaningful roar)
that they were beaten by the fight and still going on… Probably because the Ford guy was so generic. I appreciated that they tried to convey his appeal. But yeah, more like a gist than a gut feeling.
I don’t know if it was something wrong with the projection at the theater I saw this movie, but the 3D seemed somehow off to me. I don’t know quite how to explain it other than that a lot of the 3D effect seemed blurry. In fact, it seemed like the weakest element to me. But at any rate, I did love it. I’m glad the movie put a quick kibosh on “character development” and “character arcs.” Giant monsters are destroying the frakkin’ city! There’s no time for character development!
Anyway, as for some particular nitpicks I’ve read in this thread, here’s my fanwanky explanations:
Godzilla wasn’t hungry then. (Actually, there is some slight rationale for this explanation in the film. Just before the first MUTO hatches in Japan, Watanabe remarks that it has “stopped eating!” The creature had sated itself, and was entering its mating cycle, so it can be assumed the Godzilla, like the MUTO’s, follows very strict primal cycles of behavior.)
Well wikipedia says that the Yucca Mountain is 6707 ft tall, that’s over a mile high. and certainly stretches on for quite a bit. They’d have to be coming from exactly the wrong direction, but it is possible for nobody to have seen THAT side of the mountain with the gaping hole in it.
That said, I would certainly hope that the real-world Yucca Mountain storage facility had some kind of alarm system to indicate if a containment breach occurred…
My own personal theory is that Godzilla (who appeared to be on the verge of dying at that point) absorbed the radioactive energy from the explosion to save himself. (Because after a long, hard-fought battle royale Godzilla would certainly have been hungry THEN.)
Instances of pure desperation that I readily understand. If I were a soldier armed with a ‘mere’ assault rifle and a 300 ft tall Kaiju flew out of the sky and landed before me – I’d probably shoot at it out of sheer panic. Likewise, if I were a civilian that didn’t make it out of the city before it was blocked off and giant monsters were tearing it up – I’d run down into a cellar or into the subway too, not out of a *rational[/i[ expectation that it’d be safe, just out of sheer panic to get away. In such a situation, blind primal instinct certainly would trump logical thought processes.
With all that said, I’ll chime in with my own nitpick – at the end of the film, we see a cable news channel showing Godzilla inert in Longshoreman’s Wharf with a crawl reading “Godzilla - Savior of the City?”
First off, in the universe of the movie “Godzilla” was the name that the super-secret agency Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins belonged to. Where did the news media learn that name?
Second of all, the idea that Godzilla would be considered a “savior”? No, he’d be just viewed as another threat. I don’t think The SF citizens would’ve made a distinction between Godzilla and the MUTO’s - that one was ‘good’ and two were ‘bad.’ His actions were just as destructive and dangerous to humans as the MUTO’s.
After all, Godzilla was directly and solely responsible for the tsunami in Honolulu that doubtless killed thousands of people. You can’t really expect that people would really cheer him on after that.
When dad and son went back to their old house in the quarantine zone, they were walking through the debris in the house and there is a shot of an aquarium with a label with the word “MOTH” on the side of the tank. Next to the label in other font coloring are the letters “RA”.
I’d go down into the subway too … then keep walking through the Transbay Tunnel to Oakland where the military was. :smack: Bay Area Rapid Transit, remember. Of course, if I was in the military I’d use the same tunnel to get my nuke “rescue” team into downtown San Francisco rather than a risky HALO drop by a presumably first-time Navy man. :dubious: (I know, Rule of Cool. It was cool, especially with the music.)
No, the organization was Monarch. Godzilla was the name they used for, umm, Godzilla, but Watanabe’s character used it in front of the military, and I presume someone in the military used it in front of a news crew.
I generally agree, but (1) the “savior” line ended in a question mark, and (2) Godzilla was definitely the lesser of [del]two[/del] three evils; no eggs to multiply the threat exponentially, for one. :eek:
Oops. My bad, I should have double-checked my own typing. What I meant was that “Godzilla” was the name bestowed on the large fire-breathing lizard creature BY the Monarch organization.
I still see in my mind an awkward epilogue scene for this film in which Watanabe tells the media:
Watanabe: “Monarch named this creature Godzilla when we first started studying it…”
Media Person 1: “Excuse me, when did you start studying it?”
Watanabe: (Pause) “In 1954.”
Media Person 2: 1954??? You knew about the existence of a 300 foot tall fire breathing monster for SIXTY YEARS??"
Watanabe: (Pause) “Well, yes.”
Media Person 3: “And you were studying the eggs the MUTO’s hatched out of for the past FIFTEEN YEARS before they hatched and destroyed two major populated U.S. cities?”
Watanbe: “Ummm, yes.”
Media Person 4: “Can you give us any logical reason why we shouldn’t just devolve into a vengeful mob and string you up right now???”
I got the impression that the events of the 1954 Godzilla had been known to the public since they happened, but it was widely believed that he had been destroyed or at least was dormant. The only knowledge Monarch was keeping secret was the current status of Godzilla, and the existence of the Mutos.
I’m going to have to go with the “best monster movie EVER” lot on this one. I’ll admit it had some plot holes (and I’m not exactly clear on why the train was on fire when it came out of the tunnel), but the thing that this movie did extraordinarily well was show off the scale of the monsters and the scale of the destruction that follows in their wake. In the classic movies, Godzilla knocks over a skyscraper and you don’t give it a second thought because it’s just a papier-mâché model anyway. Here, you really get a feel for the consequences of it.
I spent most of the movie with tears running down my face out of some combination of joy and amazement and sheer terror, and I can’t recall the last time a movie did that to me.
What a great movie. Giant monsters, mysterious holes where no holes should be, mass destruction.
Would have sucked for all the people living here in the Bay Area!
Gets in 101, jammed in traffic, looks up at sign
HEAVY TRAFFIC 101 AND 280 NORTHBOUND/GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE CLOSED DUE TO MONSTER ATTACK
:mad: “fffffffffffffffffff!”
Good movie, incredible disaster spectacle scenes (especially the tsunami), and lots of atmospheric moments (dat parachute scene) but something’s missing. Seemed like the MUTOs got more screentime than Godzilla. Ridiculous continual cock teasing scenes where they cut away from the action just as it starts. Seriously? That’s a paddlin’. The mission to get rid of the ticking nuke while the monsters fight started off great, but the payoff was a dud. So the military sent a copter and crew next to a ticking down nuke to rescue one dude? And the nuke goes off? And everyone gets out fine and the city isn’t destroyed? Bwuh?
Shouldn’t the entire Golden State bridge have collapsed when the cable snapped and Godzilla was man handling the other cable? Or at least it should’ve leaned or something.
For the most part they didn’t show the monsters wrecking shit. They start to fight, cut away, then later the entire city is in flames.
I liked how Godzilla’s spines lit up in sequence as he charged up his first shot of atomic breath. Also the first MUTO kill where he THWAPS it against the building. Ouch!
The biggest audience reaction here was the bridge scene when everyone was looking at the distance and a bird crashed into the glass in the foreground. The whole theater jumped.
Maybe I don’t remember it clearly, but when the first MUTO is chowing down on the submarine nuke it seemed like a copter just flew right inside of claw swiping distance with predictable results. Why does this always happen in these movies.
The MUTOs necking was kinda cute. I felt sorry for them when their eggs got zapped. Raising baby monsters in this day and age ain’t easy…
I thought that was kind of brilliant. It made the climactic fight actually climactic, instead of more of the same thing we’d just been watching for ninety minutes.
Here’s a question: if there are gonna be giant monsters fighting in your city, and you’re unfortunate enough to be stuck there-where are you gonna go? Underground you might get buried alive. On the street you might get squished by falling stuff. The streets out of town are packed with cars. I know folks plan for the zombie apocalypse, but what’s your Godzilla plan?
And wow, that film was a waste of some good actors, but I guess they knew it when they walked in the door.
Of course, if I was in the military I’d use the same tunnel to get my nuke “rescue” team into downtown San Francisco rather than a risky HALO drop by a presumably first-time Navy man. :dubious: (I know, Rule of Cool. It was cool, especially with the music.)
