Godzilla (2014)

[BathTub]

What moron stops evacuating public transport on a bridge?

[Relaxing Dragon]

What moron stops evacuating public transport on a bridge?

My go-to explanation for that bit is that it was a combination of a general traffic jam at one end and a whole column of tanks suddenly rolling in and taking up most of the bridge. Which was itself bad timing, but then, you can never really properly plan for a giant creature appearing out of the sea.

[The Lurker]

What moron stops evacuating public transport on a bridge?

My go-to explanation for that bit is that it was a combination of a general traffic jam at one end and a whole column of tanks suddenly rolling in and taking up most of the bridge. Which was itself bad timing, but then, you can never really properly plan for a giant creature appearing out of the sea.

Which is consistent with how the military acts in Godzilla films.

[Henry88]

Japanese Warm Up to Idea of American 'Godzilla'
http://variety.com/2014/film/asia/japanese-audiences-anticipate-new-godzilla-1201185049/

[Johnny Unusual]

Saw the movie the other night.  Mostly I liked it but there are some BIG problems that would have made the movie much better if fixed.

First of all, killing Bryan Cranston was a big mistake.  Not just because I love Bryan Cranston, but because he was easily the most engaging character and totally brought his a-game to this role. But beyond that, it really didn't effect the story that much.  His was the only really memorable human character who wasn't Ken Watanabe (I'll get to that), who had a tragic arc (I basically knew that he was going to lose his wife, but he makes it heartbreaking) and I would much rather see him seeing the film through.
My second major problem ties into the first: Ken Watanabe.  I think he can be a great actor, but I think he couldn't overcome the exposition-based dialogue and I really couldn't buy his "Just let these monsters fight and it will all work out" mentality.  He felt really out of place in the film and I think the film almost didn't need him.  After all, while the lead is a bit flat, he does give a good human level view of things but after the beginning he sort of feels unnecessary and like a distraction (jingling the keys as Dragon said, except this was overtly cheesy stuff.)  I would rather Cranston playing that role or having the two together with Cranston and Watanabe butting heads about how the truth was hidden.
Finally, the very last scene is such a head slapper.  The TV with the "King of the Monsters - Savior of the City?" could in a Hulk movie or a 60's-70's Godzilla movie, but here, especially considering the film's tone, feels DEEPLY wrong headed and silly.  As my friend said "YAY!  HE KILLED SLIGHTLY FEWER PEOPLE!"  I mean, no one outside of the audience should be happy he's alive.  I would much rather see the last scene played as a moment of horror for the characters and a mix of horror and triumph for the audience.  No human should be considering Godzilla a savior.  He's a natural disaster made flesh!  Oi.

But despite these complaints, I rather liked it.
My favourite scene is probably the train bridge scene, which is a scene that really makes the idea of sharing the world with giant monsters truly horrifying.  The moment the "mountain" moves is pretty great.
In fact, scale is NOT a problem with this movie.  The 1999 film kept messing with the scale, but here, not only is it consistent, the director knows how to make it FEEL big.  When a big monster shows up, it is really impressive.  And as RD said, the Edwards knows how and when to show the monsters for maximum effect.  I've heard that Gareth Edwards is a big fan of Jaws and it shows, the way he knows when to spring things on you and Ken Watanabe and the last scene aside, when to sell something that could come off silly.  Rather than an exploding air tank, Gareth completely sells fire breath by holding off on it until it becomes a bad-ass, exciting surprising moment.  Yes, this is a world with EMP monsters and a giant lizard, but the fire-breath still could have either seemed silly in this films reality or even worse, is just another thing.  But Gareth turns it into an event.  (As my friend pointed out "I'm glad they did it like that but logically... wouldn't you open with that?")  But like the exploding air tank, you don't have to care because it makes sense in the narrative (not in the sense that an explanation is given but rather that it "feels right" in the story).
And finally, a small thing, but I really liked that the city had more texture than in the old movies.  In those, the buildings just crumble, but here, we see a monster get impaled on rubble.  I like that.

So flawed, but overall strong and while I'm not sure I'm up for another Godzilla, I want more movies from Gareth Edwards.  And Gareth Evans.  I think I just like directors named Gareth.

[The Lurker]

Hopefully the director's commentary will answer the second question.

[The Lurker]

Saw the movie the other night.  Mostly I liked it but there are some BIG problems that would have made the movie much better if fixed.

First of all, killing Bryan Cranston was a big mistake.  Not just because I love Bryan Cranston, but because he was easily the most engaging character and totally brought his a-game to this role. But beyond that, it really didn't effect the story that much.  His was the only really memorable human character who wasn't Ken Watanabe (I'll get to that), who had a tragic arc (I basically knew that he was going to lose his wife, but he makes it heartbreaking) and I would much rather see him seeing the film through.
My second major problem ties into the first: Ken Watanabe.  I think he can be a great actor, but I think he couldn't overcome the exposition-based dialogue and I really couldn't buy his "Just let these monsters fight and it will all work out" mentality.  He felt really out of place in the film and I think the film almost didn't need him.  After all, while the lead is a bit flat, he does give a good human level view of things but after the beginning he sort of feels unnecessary and like a distraction (jingling the keys as Dragon said, except this was overtly cheesy stuff.)  I would rather Cranston playing that role or having the two together with Cranston and Watanabe butting heads about how the truth was hidden.
Finally, the very last scene is such a head slapper.  The TV with the "King of the Monsters - Savior of the City?" could in a Hulk movie or a 60's-70's Godzilla movie, but here, especially considering the film's tone, feels DEEPLY wrong headed and silly.  As my friend said "YAY!  HE KILLED SLIGHTLY FEWER PEOPLE!"  I mean, no one outside of the audience should be happy he's alive.  I would much rather see the last scene played as a moment of horror for the characters and a mix of horror and triumph for the audience.  No human should be considering Godzilla a savior.  He's a natural disaster made flesh!  Oi.

But despite these complaints, I rather liked it.
My favourite scene is probably the train bridge scene, which is a scene that really makes the idea of sharing the world with giant monsters truly horrifying.  The moment the "mountain" moves is pretty great.
In fact, scale is NOT a problem with this movie.  The 1999 film kept messing with the scale, but here, not only is it consistent, the director knows how to make it FEEL big.  When a big monster shows up, it is really impressive.  And as RD said, the Edwards knows how and when to show the monsters for maximum effect.  I've heard that Gareth Edwards is a big fan of Jaws and it shows, the way he knows when to spring things on you and Ken Watanabe and the last scene aside, when to sell something that could come off silly.  Rather than an exploding air tank, Gareth completely sells fire breath by holding off on it until it becomes a bad-ass, exciting surprising moment.  Yes, this is a world with EMP monsters and a giant lizard, but the fire-breath still could have either seemed silly in this films reality or even worse, is just another thing.  But Gareth turns it into an event.  (As my friend pointed out "I'm glad they did it like that but logically... wouldn't you open with that?")  But like the exploding air tank, you don't have to care because it makes sense in the narrative (not in the sense that an explanation is given but rather that it "feels right" in the story).
And finally, a small thing, but I really liked that the city had more texture than in the old movies.  In those, the buildings just crumble, but here, we see a monster get impaled on rubble.  I like that.

So flawed, but overall strong and while I'm not sure I'm up for another Godzilla, I want more movies from Gareth Edwards.  And Gareth Evans.  I think I just like directors named Gareth.

The question mark seems to show that there was uncertainty to it, like they weren't sure.

[Johnny Unusual]

The following ticker then said "Nope.  He killed a lot of people."

[The Lurker]

He did fend off the invader that was attacking them.  I do find it interesting that they didn't have him go on a mindless smashing rage.  Most of it was a result of him surfacing at inopportune times, a result of the  MUTO fights, or because people were attacking him from those points (like the bridge scene). Gareth mentioned in an interview that he considered Godzilla an anti-hero.

[Johnny Unusual]

As my friend said "Yay!  He killed slightly fewer people!"  I agree he is an anti-hero but while he isn't going out of his way to hurt people, his sheer presence causes a LOT of death.  My feeling is the ending would of worked better if the AUDIENCE was allowed to enjoy his survival and victory, but for the people in the movie to be horrified as in "OH GOD, IT ISN"T OVER!"  And I don't mean that he's going to continue destroying the city, because he isn't.  But other cities will be destroyed and lives lost while he hunts for other monsters. 

[The Lurker]

I get what you're saying.  I think that the people were relieved that he was leaving or that there were less monsters now.

I do think that if they continue with the tone, Destroyah would be a good fit for one the sequels.  Not sure how they plan on dealing with the proposed look into the Son of Godzilla mythos.

[The Lurker]

[The Lurker]

http://www.kdramastars.com/articles/24052/20140605/godzilla-2014-end-credits-scene.htm

[Darth Geek]

http://www.kdramastars.com/articles/24052/20140605/godzilla-2014-end-credits-scene.htm

I thought the director has gone on record that there was no end credits scene. And the one they describe sounds like it'd be pretty damn expensive for them to just included in certain areas.

Oh, and also, A FUCKING MOTH?!

[The Lurker]

This was for the version released in Asia.