Posted on 05/17/2014 7:59:48 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
The new Godzilla is out, and while I'm not the biggest fan I saw it last night and enjoyed it.
Some dissapointing statements were made by the filmmaker about the film being about climate change. Seeing the film, I don't understand how he would make that connection other than to score Hollywood points. That isn't what it is about. The original film was about the destructive power of the atomic bomb, and the beliefs that despite our technological arrogance, nature was still in control. This is the opposite of saying that emitting some carbon dioxide can destroy the Earth. Happily, this film stays with the original theme that nature is in control.
The previous American try at a Godzilla film was a disaster, and like a diehard Denver Bronco fan when the team makes it to the championship, fans were happy someone was making this new one, but worried it would be another disaster. The filmmakers knew this too of course, but made some good choices, and even some risky choices that turned out well. Good choices in that it follows the original faithfully, and risky in that it makes some of the same choices the 1998 film did, but executes them a whole lot better. By that I mean both films had human stories as the primary focus instead of just a monster smashing stuff.
What makes the difference between the 1998 failure and this movie is two events that happened in between, the Fukushima earthquake and meltdown, and the world trade center attacks. Both events have had profound effects on the people affected and by everyone in the countries hit. And where the 1998 film chose a lighthearted, don't take this seriously path, this one treats the monsters and their destruction as real disasters on the scale of 9/11. The humans don't go for comic relief, they are real people making realistic choices to stay alive, just as we have seen in the real disasters.
This film is about Fukushima and 9/11 as much as the original was about the atom bomb. It could not have been made before those events, and looking back, that explains the 1998 film perfectly. 1998 was simply too frivolous a time to make a Godzilla film.
I agree with others on this thread.
I didn’t like this film. Too much talking. Not enough action.
I should have rented it.
1. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
I disagree about the Body Snatchers, the 1978 remake is my favorite.
It wouldn't be a Godzilla movie if it wasn't stupid.
How about Rodan and Mothra?
I read a headline somewhere which said it was an anti global warming..blockbuster
It was a great original score occaisionally using other pieces from other composers. One of the best scene/score edits was the use of Ligeti’s duet for soprano’, chorus and symphony as soldiers are ready to be dropped from the plane and as the floor platform drops...the sun surrounded by storm clouds streams in. This particular piece is used in 2001 a space odyssey as the monolith is doing its thing to protohumans. It was fantastic the way the scene was edited and put together.
As a matter of fact, the cinematography in 3d was done never in a gimmicky way but in a way that enhances the action. The live scene...non cgi shots were beautifully done. The movie is more of a photographic tone poem... a symphony of light and sound and thematic moments that flare and die with other patterns emerging in layered form that bring the movie to a satisfying climax. The director, given the subject matter he had to work with, is an unsung genius, as the cinematography in 3d is simply state of the art (and the real 3d process has come a long way). Schemes of men and schemes of monsters intertwine...men struggle to defend and save the population while in the background monsters scream and bash...everywhere you look at the screen there is something interesting going on with sly asides to past movies or scenes from such. Aronson is a photographic maestro and his picture...one of the grandest of all photographic operas.
So don’t go to this movie looking for Michael bay type bombast, look instead for the subtle nuances, a kind of clean astringency brought to the editing of this conglomeration of light/sound and story. My wife and I were affected on multiple levels. We had been expecting a certain level of hoakiness, a kind of tongue in cheek swagger, a kind of quick fix taco in a movieshell...not the multi course meal we were served.
PAC RIM was done by Warner Brothers and Legendary pictures as well and the Kaijin...very similar. Can some one yell...commercial tie in? The Robots are all but beaten...the world is doomed but whom should appear on the horizon to save us; why it’s...Godzilla and his merry band of avengers...Mothra and Gamara!
Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
I only once noticed soundtrack music behind an action scene... I thought, it as unmemorable and superfluous. Last time I noticed music in a film was Oblivion... that film had an excellent score.
Someone was lying to appease some Hollywood Elite Censor Board. There was not a shred of “Humans have offended Mother Earth Gaia, and must bepunished” in this movie. The lack of it was actually noticable... surprisingly refreshing, I felt.
Thats what I was trying to describe the quote suggested that the movie did in fact seem to be somewhat anti Global climate change Hysteria oreinted
I found the quote
“Suspend your reality for Godzilla: It’s an anti-global-warming alarmism smash”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/17/review-godzilla-anti-global-warming-alarmism-block/
Not to take anything away from your comments but the 9-11 attacks didn't happen because we were engage in wars (abroad) that we shouldn't have been in, we were hit because we weren't fighting a war that we SHOULD have been. Bubba Jeff Clinton turned down Osama Bin Laden's (live) body.
Mr. Clinton instead of investigating the 9-11 (not yet) hijackers who had overstayed their visas and were busy trying to learn how to fly but not land planes, instead of looking at them, he had the FBI engaged in a partisan witchhunt looking for "southern racist arsonists" engaged in a non-existent hate crime campaign against black churches.
It was a frivolous time only because the Democrats and the media said that now that Democrats were in charge, everything was ok, safe, secure, the stock market was good (never mind that damned internet/tech stock bubble that burst and sent many companies including Compaq, Microsoft, and Apple tumbling).
Someone on radio said that this was much better than Pacific Rim, then bemoaned that there wasn’t enough Godzilla in it. So which is it (for those who’ve seen it)?
Pacific Rim had its strengths and weaknesses, but at least it delivered on the giant monster front.
Ha! I remember one night in high school when there wasn't much playing. The best we could do was "Death on the Nile." We watched the opening credits and a boat slowly moving down the river. One guy said, "I'll give everyone a dollar if we all leave now." We took him up on his offer.
The buildings in the 60s Gozilla films are actually a bit more elaborate than just balsa wood. Here are some outtakes/bloopers to review...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3oKqbQg33A
“The buildings in the 60s Gozilla films are actually a bit more elaborate than just balsa wood. Here are some outtakes/bloopers to review...”
Thanks for the link, but you’re taking my comment much too seriously.
ping
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