InstinctiveGigan
MemberMothra LarvaeMay-23-2014 4:06 AM**MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING**
This movie has potentially become the Man of Steel of Godzilla in the sense that it has divided half of its audience. You either love it or hate it and the strange thing is this isn’t just a “Godzilla fans = positive half, non-Godzilla fans = negative half” kind of deal, it’s with all audience members. I have non-Godzilla fan friends that love the hell out of this film and I have Godzilla fan friends that have equal praise, I’ve also heard of Godzilla fans who’ve seen all the Toho films and still hate the film and normal, everyday film goers that will not see the film again anytime soon. So the main question is, why? Why is this film so dividing? It’s apparently the lack of Godzilla according to all the complaints but this one negative of the film is 100% wrong, that is not at all the problem. So what is the problem exactly? Let’s discuss!
Before we begin, let’s get all that “other Godzilla movies barely showed him” crap out of the room, because an everyday audience member who has never seen a Godzilla movie in their life won’t care, and for good reason. Picture yourself proving a point to a person like that:
“Man for a GODZILLA movie, Godzilla ain’t in it much, huh?”
“Dude, I’m really getting tired of telling this to people. Godzilla barely shows up in any of his classic films. Hell, the original 1954 film didn’t even show him till’ the last 15 minutes!”
“Oh wow, so this was a film made strictly for the fans? Nice, wish I had known that before spending my $9 on what I assumed was a dark monster movie made for all.”
I understand, you want to defend the film, and you have every right to; plus it’s a fantastic way of revealing people who claim to be “G-fans” but become hypocrites on the complaints they have on the film. To be 100% honest, I feel most of the hate from the film comes from nowaday audience members who have been dumbed down in movie watching intelligence to expect “Pacific Rim 2” or “Transfomers 4” type films with pure action for a whole hour. But the lack of Godzilla in this film is actually a problem people, just not for the reasons you think. Just to be clear people are full of crap when they blame the problem of the film being just “not enough Godzilla”, but what they’re basically doing is blaming the most obvious thing to help explain their disappointment but it’s not the lack of Godzilla that’s the problem, it’s the lack of caring. Let me explain…
The first act of the film does a fantastic job at making you care, you are given a Dad/son duo that has lost everything, legit heart-warming moments with Ford and his family, and of course there’s Bryan Cranston that just steals the show. The problem here after Cranston dies, however, is the film gives up on connecting us with anymore characters and instead focuses on getting us from Point A to Point B and establishing the danger of the movie’s situation without actually showing us the danger. It makes the film suffer for it and is sorely missed throughout and it isn’t just because of Cranston’s death, it’s the film’s lack of caring after that point. It also has nothing to do with Ford as a character (in that he’s too “dull” or “bland”) because we clearly see he’s a cool guy with other people, and that’s the key phrase there, “other people”; make him try to protect his family the whole film instead of getting to them, have him make a friendship with some of the other army men (a legit bond), or even connect him with Serizawa more.
And, ironically, it seems the second act of the film is the section where all of the movie’s problems are located. To let you know what the heck I’m talking about, let’s quickly analyze why the first and final act are the Godzilla masterpiece audiences expected that was swiftly destroyed by the second act…
The first act starts with the film’s beginning, obviously, and ends pretty much after Godzilla’s very first full-body appearance in Hawaii. The final act begins around the bridge scene where Godzilla reappears and ends with the film’s credits; everything else in between is the second act. Here’s the first act in a nutshell: Bryan Cranston’s amazing role before his untimely demise, great setup for all of our characters and conflict, the male Muto’s epic escape scene, and the legendary Hawaii scene with the first appearance of the big G himself. Now be honest here, had the rest of the film been exactly like the first hour or so would anyone be bitching? No, because the first 40 minutes were filled with great human turmoil, fantastic build-up (the way it’s supposed to be done), and Godzilla’s first appearance epically portrayed with plenty of Muto drama to balance it out. The kind of stuff the second act should play off of.
But before I get into that, let’s quickly talk about the final act. I mean, do I really need to go into detail here? It was fantastic! It gave us the Godzilla action we craved and more, it had the sense of urgency and danger the second act is mostly absent of, and it’s the very definition of climax; to a certain degree, the final act is the saving grace of the movie to a lot of people.
I could go into more detail here but let’s start analyzing my point, the second act. To be blunt, it’s a snore fest. Besides, what I’ll admit is a pretty scary female Muto scene with the train and some cool Las Vegas destruction shots, the film doesn’t feel like entertaining its audience anymore. Unfortunately, it seems the moment Godzilla first appears the film forgets what it just showed the audience. That being the human element done right, suspense that is great build-up as opposed to cockblocking, and stuff you give a crap about.
The second act of the film almost completely gives up on making you care and to make matters worse the suspense isn’t cool anymore, it’s just cruel. Good example? The first act showed tidbits of Godzilla and built him up with the fact that the dude just getting out of the water causes a tsunami and in the final act Godzilla rises from the ocean pounded by battleship missiles to no avail and inevitably saves some kids, what does he do in the second act? He swims in the ocean while military people give us lectures and plans, ugh! The female Muto gave us promise of a destruction scene in Vegas but almost all of it is skipped or on the news. Why? You’ve shown us these things already and you built them up spectacularly, there’s no reason to keep teasing them like we still haven’t seen them yet. Now I understand, as much as any Godzilla fan defending this movie that an orgy of action makes you feel overwhelmed like most Transformers films and even, dare I say it, Pacific Rim (hell showing us about a minute of the Las Vegas destruction would’ve probably done it). But there’s nothing wrong with having a little bit of action too without hurting the suspense one bit.
You know what Jurassic Park did? It didn’t show the T-rex till’ an hour in (similar to how they held Godzilla back), then when they finally gave us the T-rex they gave us the T-rex. They built it up just like Godzilla – showing body parts here and there, talking about it like it’s a god among men, and the infamous glass water vibration scene- then they showed the T-rex cause mayhem for about a few minutes before cutting away. Now imagine the scene different, (similar to what this Godzilla film did with the airport scene) the film builds up the T-rex the same, you see the creature break open its cage and climb out of its pen like the king of dinos it is, it roars magnificently and then.....it cuts away to the aftermath; with Ellen looking for Dr. Grant and finding Jeff Goldblum’s character in the broken hut and discovering the JP truck crashed on the otherside of the cage with their footprints leading away. You’d be rightfully pissed off, and if given a choice between the two different versions of the scene, which would you pick (with the movie’s further suspense and human element in mind)? The action packed one of course, and the film is better for that!
Because, you see, they built up something and they delivered it. What followed the rest of the Jurassic Park movie are a few scenes with the JP team trying to activate the power again, Dr. Grant and the kids trying to get back to everyone, and a small Gallimimus & Brachiosaurus scene before the glorious final act took place. Now from the sound of it, that sounds boring compared to the T-rex scene we just got but it isn’t because you actually cared. You actually hoped a dino wouldn’t show up since one of the characters could die any second from a random Raptor attack or a T-rex mauling, etc. Had the Godzilla film done something similar to this in keeping the suspense but still delivering a little payoff no one would be complaining. The T-rex in Jurassic Park gets even less screentime than Godzilla does, but no one complained about it; hell the JAWS shark gets even less screentime than that, but no one complains because, once again, you gave a crap about the characters.
And that’s where Godzilla (2014) fails, making you care. The lack of Godzilla isn’t the problem, I never knew anyone who complained on the lack of shark in JAWS or the lack of T-rex in Jurassic Park. That’s what people are upset about, not Godzilla’s limited screen time but the lack of human element in the second act; so if anyone bitches about this “no Godzilla in GODZILLA” crap please correct them, cuz they are clearly blaming their disappointment on something that is more obvious then the stuff I mentioned.
Overall, Godzilla (2014) is one of the greatest Godzilla films ever and Gareth has proven himself as the man I want to handle Godzilla from now on so don’t blame him. If anything it’s the writers fault for not creating enough of an interesting second act to perfectly bridge the suspenseful/emotional first act and the epic/perfectly paced final act. Think about it, compared to the first and final act the bland second act doesn’t belong in the tone of the film. Gareth’s vision is solid, but through some better writing it could’ve been perfect displayed for 100% of the film instead of just 60% of it; and in that -40% comes everyone’s complaints – it’s not a lack of Cranston or Godzilla, it’s a lack of caring.
So how do you guys feel on the lack of Godzilla? Do you feel my points explain it perfectly or is it something else?
