Beijing Annihilated: Godzilla Stomps in at $36 Million Opening Day in China
54 replies, posted
[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];45128353']Well, I didn't watch Godzilla for the humans.
But I got more humans than Godzilla and the humans, save a couple, were boring as fuck.
way to make your monster movie about shitty mcnoname and his shitty mcnoname average american family and [sp]kill off the only interesting characters 20 minutes into the film while you keep dodging everyhting worth seeing until the last half hour[/sp][/QUOTE]
SPOILER TAGS EXIST FOR A REASON YOU NIT
[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];45128353']Well, I didn't watch Godzilla for the humans.
But I got more humans than Godzilla and the humans, save a couple, were boring as fuck.
way to make your monster movie about shitty mcnoname and his shitty mcnoname average american family and [sp]kill off the only interesting characters 20 minutes into the film while you keep dodging everyhting worth seeing until the last half hour[/sp][/QUOTE]
That's pretty much what most Godzilla movies did, though. Most of the time they focus on the humans and how they react to the monster's presence, with monster scenes sprinkled around until the climax where Godzilla opens a can of whup-ass on whatever monster's plaguing Japan at that time. Even the best Godzilla movies (including the original) put focus on the humans. The ones that didn't were mainly the cheesy movies Toho churned out once a year in the late 60's and early 70's, which seem to be the only ones people with a passing knowledge of Godzilla really knew about. Which, I guess, is just another reason why this movie didn't do as well as it could have, although at $440 million worldwide that's pretty decent considering it was the director's first major feature. And I guess that lack of experience can be considered another contributing factor...
God damn, I don't even remember what my point is anymore. I just want all this discussion of the new movie to die down so that I can stop trying to prevent other people's negativity for ruining the fact that I genuinely loved this movie like it almost did when Pacific Rim came out.
[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;45128365]SPOILER TAGS EXIST FOR A REASON YOU NIT[/QUOTE]
not really much of a spoiler. movie aint even playing in theaters anymore, i never mentioned a character, and it's not really even an important plot point because there isn't any plot worth giving a shit about.
[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];45128574']not really much of a spoiler. movie aint even playing in theaters anymore, i never mentioned a character, and it's not really even an important plot point because there isn't any plot worth giving a shit about.[/QUOTE]
You're quite condescending
[QUOTE=Xenomoose;45128539]That's pretty much what most Godzilla movies did, though. Most of the time they focus on the humans and how they react to the monster's presence, with monster scenes sprinkled around until the climax where Godzilla opens a can of whup-ass on whatever monster's plaguing Japan at that time. Even the best Godzilla movies (including the original) put focus on the humans. The ones that didn't were mainly the cheesy movies Toho churned out once a year in the late 60's and early 70's, which seem to be the only ones people with a passing knowledge of Godzilla really knew about. Which, I guess, is just another reason why this movie didn't do as well as it could have, although at $440 million worldwide that's pretty decent considering it was the director's first major feature. And I guess that lack of experience can be considered another contributing factor...
God damn, I don't even remember what my point is anymore. I just want all this discussion of the new movie to die down so that I can stop trying to prevent other people's negativity for ruining the fact that I genuinely loved this movie like it almost did when Pacific Rim came out.[/QUOTE]
Sure, but for the most part there were actual human plots with actual human characters that existed besides Godzilla.
The plot in this movie sucked major kaiju cock.
Guys get ready because you're getting a movie review.
So I came into this movie with an open mind because there were two ways this shit could go and they could both be pulled off fairly well if they did it right: either they were going to take it seriously, or they were going to take it lightly. Because the old Godzilla were not very serious films, they were monster fights with aliens and cheesy plots and nothing you could really sit down and digest as anything but light-hearted. Pacific Rim pulled this off really well, striking the balance between a kinda goofy monster mash but with an interesting premise and plot to follow. The alternative would be making it gritty and realistic, taking it seriously, which would be taking a step away from traditional Godzilla but could also make it fucking fantastic.
So I went in wondering how seriously I should take it. From the beginning until the first [sp]MUTO[/sp] I was convinced that this movie was going to take the gritty serious route, but it proved otherwise. After hours of ridiculous fights in unrealistic places, with silly and unrealistic instances of suddenly appearing kaiju, I knew I was going to have to sit back and take it for what it was because this wasn't going to be gritty and realistic. It turned out to be more Pacific Rim than Cloverfield, which are both two excellent points on the spectrum of good monster movies that sit on the "silly-serious" spectrum. It's also a relatively good spectrum from "monster focused-human focused". While Godzilla solidly pulled off the semi-serious monster feel, it failed to mark down its focus. Instead of emphasizing one or the other, it provided lots of blatant focus on the monsters, only to constantly pull us away at the beginning of each fight or conflict to focus on a cliched and totally boring human drama that no one gives a shit about.
The biggest offender here is [sp]Hawaii[/sp]. I can't get over this. I really can't. I can't get over how they [sp]set us up for a monster fight, and they even show the fucking thing on a tiny TV screen, but cut away from the FUCKING MONSTER FIGHT. What excuse is there to actively attempt to cut away from that? Why would you not show us that? Instead, we magically move away from the middle of the fight in order to focus on human drama. Later on, we're accosted by the boring antics of the army heroman as he saves Japanese kids, tries to find his wife and son, and his wife runs around in a hospital as giant monsters scuff it out outside[/sp]. Again, instead of choosing a focus or providing a proper balance, we're greeted with 20 mins of boring shit in order to push the big fight until later in the film. We are constantly cut away from the [sp]macro scale monster fights to the minor stupid little human stories. This would be less a problem if there was a single interesting character in this film other than Cranston and the Japanese fellow who miraculously knows that Godzilla is there to "restore balance" or some shit[/sp]. The only interesting [sp]human scenes are late into the film, on the bridge with the nukes and in the nest, when the film has decidedly gone to the monsters at that point, spending less and less time with the humans. Putting the only interesting human scenes in the part of the movie dedicated to the climatic monster fight[/sp]. kk. Also, they paradoxically [sp]expected us to give a shit about these uninteresting blobs while also apparently not caring about the destruction of the entire city of Las Vegas because they just cut away from that too[/sp].
So besides that, we have the pleasure of plotholes:
*[sp]The didn't notice the giant skidmark through the island from the cave with the egg in it?[/sp]
*[sp]They had to check every door in the mountain in order to notice that half the mountain is missing?[/sp]
*[sp]Why are they transporting the missile by train? Wouldn't it be faster by aircraft?[/sp]
*[sp]Why does the GPS on the boat work even after the EMP? Why did the boat work?[/sp]
*[sp]There's no way the boat got far enough away in less than 5 minutes to not nuke the city. It even looks too close. And what about fallout?[/sp]
*[sp]So they had time to lower down and pick up heroman but not to disarm the nuke?[/sp]
*[sp]Whose fucking bright idea was it to let the monsters fight in the city instead of nuking them or nuking in the country where they'd be attracted?[/sp]
*[sp]How did Japanese man know that Godzilla was there to "restore balance"?[/sp]
*[sp]How did they not know where the MUTO was for most of the first half of the film? How did Godzilla know? Do they not have satellites or high-atmosphere spyplanes like the SR-71? How would they let the MUTO sneak up on Las Vegas?[/sp]
*[sp]What exactly was the pulsing pattern that Cranston's character recorded? It's suggested that the MUTOs are communicating by the pulse or something but it's shown that the pulse is the EMP they release. But it's also seismic activity? And sonar or something? What is it?[/sp]
compared to Pacific Rim, 7/10
compared to Cloverfield, 6/10
don't get me wrong, wasn't a bad movie, just wasn't anything more than good.
How some can enjoy themselves at all when they go into the cinema with stupidly high expeditions is beyond me.
[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];45128744']Sure, but for the most part there were actual human plots with actual human characters that existed besides Godzilla.
The plot in this movie sucked major kaiju cock.
don't get me wrong, wasn't a bad movie, just wasn't anything more than good.[/QUOTE]
I've said this before and I'll say it again, [B]what did you expect?[/B] All the Japanese Gojira movies just had mostly humans talking to each other to keep the film long with a few minutes of Godzilla fighting another monster in a cardboard city.
We got the same thing except I actually sorta give a shit about the characters and you get a whole lot more of Godzilla and him fighting MUTOs
[sp]Dat atomic breath when he decapitated the female, holy shit, I watched it in IMAX and I needed a change of underwear[/sp]
[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];45128744']
*[sp]Why are they transporting the missile by train? Wouldn't it be faster by aircraft?[/sp][/QUOTE]
[sp]i dont think diesel trains are affected by EMP where-as an aircraft is[/sp]
About [sp]Hawaii[/sp], the director and writers said that they [sp]cut away from the monster fight[/sp] because they believed that if they [sp]started showing monster action too early, it would lessen the impact and scale of the final battle[/sp].
The title got me for a second. I thought Beijing had been bombed or something.
[QUOTE=hunter_killah;45132682][sp]i dont think diesel trains are affected by EMP where-as an aircraft is[/sp][/QUOTE]
[sp]They are. Diesel engines require an electrical charge to start up[/sp]
But, about the fight [sp] On the bridge, a lot of people wondered why the Air Force had planes there already. In the novelization, Godzilla's atomic breath is used first in Hawaii, but he misses, and hits part of the airport. The military then deems Godzilla threat, hence why they want to kill him too. They engage Godzilla on Alcatraz, and are so distracted with the current fight that they forget the Male MUTOs inevitable arrival for the warhead, hence the aircraft.[/sp]
I find it hilarious people are getting anal over spoiler tags for this movie. You can't argue, "Well nobody watches it for the human plot." And then freak out cause we mentioned the death of a human who dies within 15 minutes for bullshit reasons, acting like we ruined the oh so meaningless plot. I mean did anyone actually enjoy that sequence?
[sp]Bryan Cranston got paid for a cameo and a hook to get people like me in the film who were hesitant.[/sp] Not really a spoiler but oh well.
[QUOTE=Tudd;45134899]I find it hilarious people are getting anal over spoiler tags for this movie. You can't argue, "Well nobody watches it for the human plot." And then freak out cause we mentioned [sp]the death of a human who dies within 15 minutes for bullshit reasons, acting like we ruined the oh so meaningless plot. I mean did anyone actually enjoy that seaquence?
Bryan Cranston got paid for a cameo and a hook in to get people like me in the film who were hesitant.[/sp][/QUOTE]
Dude, it's called a spoiler tag because it still spoils the movie. Be civil and actually add the tags, seriously. Some people might not have seen it yet.
[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;45134914]Dude, it's called a spoiler tag because it still spoils the movie. Be civil and actually add the tags, seriously. Some people might not have seen it yet.[/QUOTE]
I'm sure the people who could have cared at this point have already seen the film.
[QUOTE=Tudd;45134932]I'm sure the people who could have cared at this point have already seen the film.[/QUOTE]
What do you mean "could have cared"? That they don't want to see spoilers? It's called common courtesy.
[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;45134942]What do you mean "could have cared"? That they don't want to see spoilers? It's called common courtesy.[/QUOTE]
I have the common courtesy to spoiler tag things when the plot actually mattered. I just think it is hypocritical you guys ignore others and I opinions about how we found the plot super shallow, saying nobody watches Godzilla for that, but then absolutely throw a tantrum for something so lame.
Using the porn metaphor, it's like if I said, [sp]"Someone came really early, and we have to wait 45 minutes before it gets interesting again."[/sp] And you want me to spoiler tag that.
See this on the biggest screen you can. Its good, not the greatest, but still pretty good.
[QUOTE=Tudd;45134993]I have the common courtesy to spoiler tag things when the plot actually mattered. I just think it is hypocritical you guys ignore others and I opinions about how we found the plot super shallow, saying nobody watches Godzilla for that, but then absolutely throw a tantrum for something so lame.
Using the porn metaphor, it's like if I said, [sp]"the dude came really early, and we have to wait 45 minutes before he gets it back up again."[/sp] And you want me to spoiler tag that.[/QUOTE]
The people saying that nobody watches Godzilla for the plot and the people freaking out about spoiler tags are completely different people.
And when I watch a Godzilla movie, I do give a shit about the plot. Quite a few Godzilla movies actually do have decent plots with likable characters. They'd probably be more likable if I were watching them undubbed, but still.
[QUOTE=Tudd;45122706]Because the acting sucks, save Bryan Cranston but yeah that didn't do much. The story was pretty shallow and while you can just say, "it's a Godzilla film." I'm just telling you watching it as somebody who mildly appreciates Godzilla films it wasn't even cheesy good.
Something I noticed was Pacific Rim had me and my friends roaring with laughter or excitement. [B]We expected the same with Godzilla[/B], and at most that happen was maybe we woke up when Godzilla did one nuke breath.[/QUOTE]
THIS is part of the problem. Don't blame a movie for being different from YOUR expectations. I mean, did you even watch the previews? They never gave an inkling that Godzilla was going to be a big, campy monster movie.
Godzilla is supposed to be serious, and I will argue the film is very average on a sheer written level, just because you failed to realize what kind of movie this would be doesn't mean it is bad. It isn't supposed to be cheesy, or campy, or hammy.
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;45126539]
With the movie doing so good in China this should guarantee Godzilla stomps around China in the sequel. The Chinese audience would go crazy for that.[/QUOTE]
Surely they'd rather see Tokyo destroyed
[QUOTE=Jund;45138670]Surely they'd rather see Tokyo destroyed[/QUOTE]
Honestly I hope that's what happens in the sequel v:v:v
It'd be a classic turn of events
[QUOTE=Xenomoose;45132839]About [sp]Hawaii[/sp], the director and writers said that they [sp]cut away from the monster fight[/sp] because they believed that if they [sp]started showing monster action too early, it would lessen the impact and scale of the final battle[/sp].[/QUOTE]
[sp]I don't buy that though. Why even write the fight into the script then? Why not just show a minute of fight and then show the MUTO flying away? This was a bad decision to make and there were better ways to do it. [/sp]
[QUOTE=BananaFoam;45138614]THIS is part of the problem. Don't blame a movie for being different from YOUR expectations. I mean, did you even watch the previews? They never gave an inkling that Godzilla was going to be a big, campy monster movie.
Godzilla is supposed to be serious, and I will argue the film is very average on a sheer written level, just because you failed to realize what kind of movie this would be doesn't mean it is bad. It isn't supposed to be cheesy, or campy, or hammy.[/QUOTE]
By "expected the same" I ment actually getting excited throughout the film and being engaged, not the acutal tone of the film needed to be the same. Just reread what I said and no where did I say I wanted it campy. It could be serious and exciting and it wasn't.
So keep on zinging, but no matter what this film literally had people taking naps in the middle of it.
I like how [sp]they kept saying Godzilla would restore balance by beating the MUTOs even though he was losing against them until the human dude came to the rescue by distracted them.[/sp] I found that really lame
[QUOTE=Jund;45138670]Surely they'd rather see Tokyo destroyed[/QUOTE]
No, I'm sure the Chinese know you haven't arrived on the international scene until Godzilla stomps around one of your cities. There could be an epic fight where Godzilla uses his radioactive breath against a gigantic Chinese monster and accidentally sets the air over Beijing on fire. Godzilla saves Beijing from the monster AND solves their air pollution problem at the same time! Win/win!
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