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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    Reviews    Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  ›  Godzilla Moderators: Nixon
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KevinLenihan
Posted: May 31st, 2014, 8:17am Report to Moderator
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Awful, just awful.

I want to first mention that I am not one of those cynical people that goes into a movie looking to hate it. Like some of those movie critics that think that no film measures up to those films of the past and meanwhile they overlook any flaws in those films.

I read a film review this morning about Malificent. I couldn't tell you if the movie stinks or is decent. But the reviewer rubbed me the wrong way. He went into it with an attitude, complaining about the Hollywood "trend"(even though this trend is 20 years old!) of making villains who have depth and a human side. It seems ridiculous to me to complain about that, especially in a film that is centered on that very concept. I mean that's the movie.

Some of these critics are the first to complain about something being familiar and at the same time lament that we don't make movies like we used to. I think those kind of reviews say more about the reviewer than the film.

Ok, Godzilla was awful in every possible way. I didn't see it in 3D, and many moment were designed for that. The problem is with the absolute atrocious story telling. They tried to do it right and maybe as a result literally nothing worked.

The plot is overly complicated and non-sensical. They tried to stay true to some of the things that made the original Godzilla popular and to it's theme. The original Godzilla, I believe, was a creature spawned by the nuclear age. It was meant as a cautionary tale. And I believe the first Godzilla was all evil, but proved popular, so in later movies he became the good monster that fought the really bad guys. This film tried to capitalize on all those things.

The exposition to explain all this in the film is a never ending nightmare. If you see the film with someone else, expect to have to continually explain what's going on. I'm not going to discuss it in depth here unless people want to. It's so silly it's a waste.

But the movie also fails because the characters completely do. The story spends the first half hour trying to get us to care about them, and it completely misses the mark. Which means we spend the entire film with characters we could give to shites about what happens to them. I mean it's the most emotionally flat movie you could imagine.

The protagonist is horribly written and acted even worse. The Olsen girl and the Breaking Bad dude do a reasonable job acting, but they are seldom in the film.

Ironically, the only part I was pleased with was the monster...and he was silly too. He actually looked just like the old Godzillas, a guy in a costume, with the same screech. I liked it just because it seemed authentic and nostalgic.

I went with eight people, some of them my teenage cousins, and no one liked it. The theater was completely quiet.

There were some learning moment for writers though:

1) add humor to movies if you're not sure anyone would take them seriously. There was not one attempt at humor in Godzilla, and humor could have saved it. One of my early scripts was a zombie/Prohibitions gangsters story. The first draft had no humor, and it dawned on me that, Jeez, this is gangsters and zombies, something like that needs humor. I mean it's not exactly Canne's material. So I rewrote it adding a lot of humor and it became a horror contest finalist, despite its cheese. Maybe because of it. So monster movies, over the top horror, or over the top action...these can be saved by humor.

2) I'm not overly sensitive to exposition. I like a good sophisticated explanation. But if that explanation is both tortured and non-sensical, you're better off keeping it simple. In Godzilla, it's probably enough just to tell people who the good monsters are and who the bad monsters are and let them watch.

3) don't build overly dramatic moments too early in the story when we don't know the characters and have not invested enough to care. There is a moment like that about 5 min into it when the guy's wife dies, and we don't even really know them. It was just overdone and didn't have the emotional impact the writers hoped.

4) find a way to make the protag interesting. Humor really helps if you can manage it. Give him some personality. This guy had zero. Maybe it can help to give him a flaw that we can relate to. They didn't do that here. I'm not talking about arcs. It could be something quirky, like Indiana Jones being afraid of snakes. Will Smith works in Independence Day because he's funny. And when you think about it, most of that humor came from the scene where he battled the alien. That was enough to make him interesting to us. A few little things like that can go a long way.
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Grandma Bear
Posted: May 31st, 2014, 11:36am Report to Moderator
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Guest
Posted: May 31st, 2014, 4:15pm Report to Moderator
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*MAJOR SPOILERS THROUGHOUT*

Wow, what a huge disappointment for me. And I'm kinda pissed because my girlfriend loved it. You should have seen her face when we walked out of the theater and I looked over to her and said that sucked. She was crushed. Finally, a stupid movie that I am dragging her to see - and she loves it and I hate it. Well, I wouldn't say hate. Maybe that's too strong a word. It's way, way better than the shitty 98 remake. That's for sure. That is one thing I will give it. But I just didn't like it. To me, there were a lot of things that were off. It wasn't "firing on all cylinders" or whatever. I don't know. Maybe it was the running time that destroyed it? Who was in the editing room with this?

I think the best part of the film died when Bryan Cranston did. I felt his pain. He's a great actor. The scene where he's running to his wife and then stands at the door, ripping himself up about whether he's going to leave it open or not, was amazing. The urgency, the conflict - it was STUFFED into a really great scene. I was hoping we would get more of that (however, after ripping myself up about it for some time now, I have came to the same conclusion that you have, Kevin - the scene doesn't work.  At the time I liked it, but I don't dig on it anymore).  For instance, that scene on the bridge where the black bus driver decided it's do or die. Wasted opportunity. Just when you think it's going to be an edge of your seat sequence of him trying to get the kids off of that bridge before it collapses...it's over. It happens before you could snap your finger. This is one thing I haven't changed my mind on.

Speaking of great actors, Elizabeth Olsen goes completely wasted here. Why is she even in the film? What does she do? She doesn't do anything. She's given nothing to work with. She sends her kid off with some lady and that's it? Then we have scenes of her looking scared, and running down a street. Wow, that's really great. Give the character a goal. Add a sense of urgency to that goal and some serious stakes to go with it. And With what was going on, would anyone really let their own child go like that? Just send them on a bus. Are you kidding?! What was the point in having her around? As a character, she should have been 1) axed in the rewriting process to make room for a better story or 2) rewritten to fit into the story.

As for our protag, the dude from Kick Ass, whatever his name is, I forget it right now, man, talk about bland. I liked him in Kick Ass but here I thought we could have went with someone else. I didn't really care for him. I didn't believe that he needed to get home and save his family. He didn't convey his emotions enough for me. It goes back to Olsen. Her husband could be dead and when he finally calls her, she's nowhere near a phone and she's laughing and having a good time. Are you serious? If that was me, I'd have the cell phone super glued to my hand. And Olsen just hands her kid away and expects someone else to keep him ALIVE amidst all this CARNAGE? Are you kidding? There was just something missing here. Something was off. I sense that we could have cut these 3 characters and it wouldn't have been a problem. Hell, we probably could have just stayed with Cranston. We felt his pain. He lost his wife and everyone's trying to cover it up and he wants to know why. He wants answers. He wants to right his wife's death or whatever. Understandable.  No need for that massive 15 years later time jump, either.

Maybe I would have disregarded all of this if they didn't cut away from Godzilla every time it looked like something cool was about to happen with him. They did it too much. I started getting aggravated with it and I wasn't the only one. Some people in the theater voiced my concerns by shouting out stuff like Cmon, this is some dumb shit or What the hell is going on? Godzilla's intro was cool, his massive foot entering frame, the camera rising up toward his absolutely terrifying mug, he roars so loud the theater shakes and I can feel it in my heart - and then we smash cut away from the scene (and there was too much of this to be honest that by the time we got the full on fight it was too little too late for me) just to see tid bits of it on TV and get a cheap funny joke: Mommy, look, dinosaurs on tv!! Give me a break.

And then Godzilla spends most of the movie swimming toward the battle ground destination? Lame. That's throwing urgency out the window. I wanted to see shit happening.

And what was Godzilla's purpose in the movie? He's the equalizer that suddenly appears every time it seems like mankind is going to be wiped out. Because that's what it came across as and I think the idea of it was forced and rushed. I think one of the character's said it in a single line of dialogue and we were supposed to just buy it. I wasn't buying anything. This movie feels like it was butchered in the editing room. 2 hours 3 minutes? The way this whole film was packed with shit, it should have been 2 hours and 50 minutes, with a page 1 rewrite.

The movie had it's moments: Cranston was good and tried his best. Godzilla was badass and this is the best he will ever look, until they make the sequel and improve upon it, I suppose. Godzilla's big fight spots were badass - using his tail to impale the Muto into the building, his scales lighting up in the dark right before he shot out his atomic breath, and ripping open the Muto's mouth and shooting the fire down it's throat, WOW, that was fucking amazing and probably the coolest thing I have ever seen in a Godzilla film, EVER, but like I said, it was too little too late for me. Oh and it was way, way better than the 98 remake. It wasn't no fucking mockery. To me, even though I was disappointed with this film, this is what we should have received in 1998. Period. But I still didn't like it all that much.  I was looking forward to this movie the day I found out it was official. I was pumped for months. I was going in super positive. I wasn't being negative. Even when I heard a few things I thought were a little off, I still maintained my positive outset, but in the end, I was terribly let down.

On a side note, I rented Gojira -- the original and uncut Japanese masterpiece -- from the library and just finished watching it about an hour ago.  Amazing film.  Makes the watered down Godzilla, King of the Monsters look extremely lame.  I was even emotionally moved a couple of times.  Something the 2014 remake was lacking as well...emotion.


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Demento
Posted: May 31st, 2014, 5:07pm Report to Moderator
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I'm gonna watch this some time this week. I watched a few of the old Godzilla movies when I was young. I didn't like them. Surprisingly I wasn't all that down on the 1998 version. I thought that was Ok.

I'm excited to watch this one, even though the reviews haven't been great.
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KevinLenihan
Posted: May 31st, 2014, 5:12pm Report to Moderator
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It will be about 15 years before they make another Godzilla, and by then movies will be virtual reality and the viewers will be running on the streets with Godzilla crashing between the buildings. But then when the technology reaches that level, there will be no more stories...just porn!
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Guest
Posted: May 31st, 2014, 5:20pm Report to Moderator
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Actually I heard Godzilla has already been given the go a head for 2 more sequels, so a trilogy has been green lit.
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KevinLenihan
Posted: May 31st, 2014, 5:54pm Report to Moderator
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Wow. I won't be seeing it. It did well at the box, but I have to think a lot of those people were disappointed.
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TheReccher
Posted: May 31st, 2014, 10:46pm Report to Moderator
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Almost fully agree except for 3). I definitely found the death of his wife gripping and emotional. It's not so much I didn't know enough about his character to justify that heavy a scene early on, but that a scene where he's forced to sacrifice a loved one for the greater good tells me a lot abot his character early on and what he's going through. I was ready to call this film a masterpiece in the first 20 minutes, and than they killed off the only character I gave a damn about and it was all downhill from there.

I appreciate what Edwards was going for. He was clearly trying to take a page from the book of Predator, Alien and Jaws and do a slow buil, reveal later kind of thing. IT doesn't work here because:

a) The characters are too shallow. I'm getting sick and tired of piggy-backing on the whole "family-man" trope writers do. Give a guy a wife and kids and somehow I'm suppose to care. Every attempt to squeeze shallow and predictable melodrama from those cliched family scenes had me screaming in my head like Elaine when she was crowded in the sub-way! "I DON'T CARE!! PLEASE! GET TO THE F** MONSTER ALREADY!!!!

b) Godzilla was a minor character in his own film. 90% of the back-story and science was given to the MUTOS and as far as I can tell, Godzilla's purpose was to "restore balance" or something. Jaws did the slow burner pacing right. Jaws always felt like the main draw and character of the film when he was on or off camera. You felt his presence all the time. Here, Godzilla was just a plot device.

c) The film spends most of the focus on the boring human characters, but the climax doesn't involve humans vs. Godzilla, but Godzilla vs. MUTOS. Godzilla ends up being a hero or something. Wait a minute. So the humans could have just ran off, let Godzilla do his thing, and no one would have been harmed? Humans didn't even matter? Humans weren't being directly threatened in any way by Godzilla? Than why the heck did you spend so much camera time forcing me to try and care about the humans?!! For crying out loud I could have seen more Godzilla.

A lot of people criticized ATJ's performance. I disagree. I think he did an admirable job considering the material given. The failing of his character was 100% in the writing. Actually the failing of the film was 100% the writing. Outside of the terrible screenplay and structure, the film was fantastic technically. Great monster design, music, cinematography, action (when it was there) etc. Shame about that terrible writing though.
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KevinLenihan
Posted: June 1st, 2014, 6:11am Report to Moderator
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"Godzilla was a minor character in his own film"

Excellent point.

"The film spends most of the focus on the boring human characters, but the climax doesn't involve humans vs. Godzilla, but Godzilla vs. MUTOS. Godzilla ends up being a hero or something"

Yes. I didn't want to mention before because I didn't want to SPOIL in the first thread, but the hero is an expert at defusing bombs...and he doesn't even do that, the one thing he's good at. Instead he is rescued from the ship and the bomb explodes. So the hero achieves nothing.

I thought both the writing and the acting of the protag were awful. But since it starts with the writing, we'll blame that.

Regarding the opening death scene: the scene is well crafted and would work...except we don't know the characters, we haven't spent much time with them, so it's a lot of melodrama for characters we are not attached to. It's well acted.

You make a good point that this bonds us to his character going forward. However, his character doesn't last very long.
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Dreamscale
Posted: June 1st, 2014, 10:03am Report to Moderator
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I'll be seeing it this coming week, hopefully.  Problem is, school's out and I'll most likely have to put up with little kids and their big mouths.  
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KevinLenihan
Posted: June 1st, 2014, 12:47pm Report to Moderator
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Save your money, Jeff. When is that Tom Cruise sci/fi coming out? I read part of that script and it looks awesome and epic. Despite the fact it's Cruise!
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Posted: June 1st, 2014, 1:45pm Report to Moderator
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That would be Edge of Tomorrow, Kev.  I'll be seeing that (and many other movies) for free now that my new job is at a movie theater. haha
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albinopenguin
Posted: June 2nd, 2014, 1:24pm Report to Moderator
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This one was so close to being good. The battle at the end was so fucking cool, but alas, I can't say I liked the movie as a whole.

Once the action stops, the story is just...bland. Not terrible, just generic. They should have stuck with Cranston's character all throughout the film. They kept advertising the movie as Walter White vs Godzilla and unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Can anyone explain to me why Godzilla was fighting on our side? They didn't explore or explain his motivation at all. I realize that's a bit of an odd thing to say about a monster, but we need to know why he's doing what he's doing. If I remember correctly, in the original films, we would summon Godzilla in order to quench his lust for destruction. But that goes untouched in this film. There's just some Asian guy acting as Godzilla's spokesman.

This film was a major let down for me. I was hoping we could start the Summer off right. But unfortunately, I have to give this film a C+ at best.


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RayW
Posted: June 2nd, 2014, 1:36pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted from albinopenguin
Can anyone explain to me why Godzilla was fighting on our side? They didn't explore or explain his motivation at all.

Some lame-O hogwash about nature's balance of... something stupid.

Apparently every time some mega monster/god pops out of the earth Godzilla is also destined to pop out and make 'em go away.

Sigh...
Whatever.



It had too much of GEdward's "less is more" style.
The story looked a lot like 'Monsters' (which I liked) to me, right down to the VFX.

I think I'll be waiting for 'M2: Dark Continent' to come out on DVD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1qxx432mAY



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KevinLenihan
Posted: June 2nd, 2014, 2:37pm Report to Moderator
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Yeah, Godzilla was not exactly on our side, though they wanted us to feel that way. It was more the enemy of my enemy kind of thing. Godzilla is the enemy of those other guys, who for some reason have evolved with pulse bombs, lol.
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