MovieChat Forums > Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Discussion > Now That I've Seen It...

Now That I've Seen It...

posted 5 years ago by FilmBuff (6692)
14 replies | jump to latest

How much can one really spoil when it comes to a Godzilla movie? Nonetheless, if you don't want to know anything about the film, don't read this.

The reviews I read for this film seemed evenly split between good and bad, and the bad ones kept stressing how nonsensical the plot was. I went in assuming that would be the case, but left puzzled as to why that was a common complaint. I mean, sure, it's a monster movie, so on some level nothing's going to make sense. Setting off an atomic bomb 20 feet from Godzilla's head should vaporize him, not rejuvenate him, but hey, it's a Godzilla movie. It's about a 350-foot-tall lizard that can breath atomic fire, so clearly all rules of biology and nature are out the window from the get-go, but in terms of the story it all worked.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters feels almost exactly like a Toho Godzilla film, except with believable effects, quality acting, and none of the campy cheeziness. It has all the moments of nonsense one expects-- Godzilla has an underwater castle, for example, decorated with painting of him fighting monsters and statues of spear-wielding Godzillas. Sure, why not? Mothra disintegrates into magic dust to revive an ailing Godzilla? Of course she does. Hell, Rodan did the same once, so it's right out of the Toho playbook.

Enough beating around the bush. The movie is great for what it is. It's by far the best giant monster battle movie ever made. The 2014 Godzilla is a better film, but this is the better kaiju film, if you get the difference. The first fight between Godzilla and King Ghidorah is like nothing I'd ever seen before in my life, and it left me, and the entire audience, it seemed, breathless. The trailers don't do this film justice-- the creatures look utterly real and the battles are breathtaking. They're well-lit, and seen from various points of view at various times in the film.

The film also balances the plot and the battles nicely. You don't get as much monster fighting as you might think, and you really only get glimpses of the monsters who aren't in the trailer, but you get what feels like the perfect amount of fighting.

Lastly, both in this post, and in the film, the final shot before the end credits roll (stay to the very end for a post-credits scene btw) is nothing short of amazing.

[–] WhereIsRent (1014) 5 years ago

Sorry I disagree, I thought it was all done very poorly. No fight in this movie was as good as the final fight in the 2014 film. Every fight was poorly directed and edited and it was annoying trying to figure out what was going on.

I wish they’d got Gareth Edwards to return to direct, you could maybe forgive the laughably bad human story if the monster mashups satisfied but to me they didn’t.

[–] FilmBuff (6692) 5 years ago

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2014 film. I went three times to see it, and bought the BluRay. I think as a complete film it's the best kaiju movie of all time, but you'll never convince me that final fight was done correctly. The actual fight was perfect, but the screen was so dark you couldn't make out what was happening. It wasn't until the third time watching that I even realized the first M.U.T.O. died because it was impaled on something. At home, I maxed out the brightness on my television and tried everything I could to enhance the end, but I could never get it to a point where anything was visible.

As a contrast, the fights in this film were about equal in terms of choreography-- the first fight between Godzilla and Ghidorah was better than the final Godzilla/M.U.T.O. fight, in my opinion-- but well-lit so you could see what was happening.

I get that it's all opinion, but did you really not think that first fight was spectacular? Ghidorah dodging Godzilla's breath, then blasting back with all three of his was insane, and the way Godzilla was knocked back, and over, looked incredible.

What about the final shot in the film, with Godzilla standing tall amidst the subdued titans? That didn't give you chills?

[–] WhereIsRent (1014) 5 years ago

It all falls into what you expect out of a Godzilla movie I suppose. I found the human stuff in this movie so terrible that when the monster stuff finally happened I didn’t care.

You can defend this as ‘well what did you expect from a Godzilla movie’ but if this is the case then I could have just waited 3 months and watched a HD compilation of all the monster fight scenes on YouTube.

Obviously the human story in the 2014 film is nothing to write home about but it did a competent enough job getting us to the monster fights and making it a complete film. This film every time it cut to one of the countless human characters the movie became an insufferable and unenjoyable experience for me. It was great actors spewing awful exposition dialogue.

Yes, there were some fantastic shots but I bought a ticket for a 2 hour movie and only half of it is monster fights (understandable considering budget) but then for my money I expect the other half to tell a competent human story that doesn’t bore me into not caring.

I could watch the 8 minutes of Godzilla 2014 screen time on YouTube, but it’ll be an enjoyable experience again to just sit down and watch the whole movie, with the suspense and build up and serviceable human drama culminating in a fantastic payoff.

This movie had none of that and therefore failed as a movie. But it’ll make for a great YouTube compilation in a few months time to watch some of the stuff you mentioned.

Just my opinion, I really wished I’d liked it as a whole movie like I did the 2014 movie.

[–] FilmBuff (6692) 5 years ago

That's the difference, then. I found the actors engaging, and enjoyed the human parts as much as the kaiju parts. I wish it had been as enjoyable for you. Hopefully Godzilla vs. Kong will be the best one yet. Do you suppose they'll fight a bit, then team up and take on Ghidorah?

[–] crc32 (2584) 5 years ago

This feels like prometheus all over again. Every one complained about promethous then when Alien Covenant came out giving the audience what it asked for every one pretended to like the first movie better. Same thing happened here. We all wanted more godzilla screen time and when this movie came out everyone wants to pretend to be contrarian by claiming the first movie was better.

This movie was better then 2014. It wasn't perfect but it is going back in the right direction of being a and actual Godzilla film.

[–] crc32 (2584) 5 years ago

No Gareth Edwards is done. I don't think we can tolerate another Garth Edwards film where the monsters being literally the title of the movies are used as Mcguffins to motivate the weak human character plot lines. I agree this film shoulden't have gone the micheal bay route which left us with confusing cuts and explosions too far but going with Gareth Edwards would still be a step backwords. It looks like holly wood is still trying to find the right balance of action and story. And to be honest it doesn't look like they were really interested in a plausible story but neither was Godzilla 2014 for that matter so it doesn't seem fair to ding this movie when comparing it to the 2014 movie.

[–] BrunoAntony (1198) 5 years ago

The fights were incomprehensible... shot in close-up and hazy af

[–] FilmBuff (6692) 5 years ago

I felt entirely the opposite. I saw it in IMAX, so maybe that made a big difference? Every fight seemed choreographed and I always knew where each monster was, and what was going on around them. It was like the polar opposite of, say, Pacific Rim, where darkness and never-ending cuts and camera movement obscured everything.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

It was like the polar opposite of, say, Pacific Rim, where darkness and never-ending cuts and camera movement obscured everything.

What's really odd is the sequel... I wasn't interested because PR2 looked lame, and it came and left theaters with no fanfare whatsoever. I expected it to be disposable and ignored it.

But then I was at a friend's place and we stumbled upon it about halfway through... And I stuck through to the end because it was a really fun movie.

It was a decent sequel because everything was ratcheted up and it embraced a real cartoonish fun factor.

The robot fights were clear, long, and honestly pretty badass. The physics was a bit cheated but it was awesome, and even the plotting was better done than the first one.

I will have to rewatch it from the beginning.

The way it was done, compared to Pacific Rim, sounds exactly like the comparison you outlined here with the new Godzilla movie, as the first Pacific Rim had LONG drama scenes that mostly ended up padding the running time instead of being necessary.

[–] FilmBuff (6692) 5 years ago

Now I'm curious enough to hunt down and watch Pacific Rim 2. Thanks for the info.

[–] crc32 (2584) 5 years ago

There was a couple of snafus on where the monsrters were. For example theres one cut where the plane is flying away from Godzilla and Monster Zero leaving them in the background but as few seconds later godzilla and Monster zero are tumbling in front of the large jet despite being left behind. To mask this they just appeared out of the cloud cover but that was completly illogical as the plane never circled around.

Also I'm assuming mothera has a stinger and thats what knocked out rodan (I thought he was dead when he got stung but he came back later on somehow). I know I saw a stinger but It wasn't clear it was motheras but I have top assume it was his/hers as him/her was the only insectoid monster present. What made this confusing was that it seemed like the stinger came from behind rodan while mother was infront of him but we didn't get to see mothera's abdomen as the focus was on rodan and motheras head with a breif cut showing a stinger that had struck through rodan. I mean why focus on their heads? Its not like they have facial expressions.

There were to many odd cuts that made the action jaring. For example Godzilla pulsed and explosion then Deus Ex style just see ghedoras head in Godzillas mouth with no indication of how that happened. This was supposed to be the climax of ghedora vs godzilla but we don't even see godzilla taking over the fight instead we see bulbous closeup of ghedoras head while the camera slowly pulls out reveal ghedoras head is in godzillas mouth. Like the audience is supposed to be going "Woah cool" but it would have been better to just show the action instead.

Don't get me wrong i still love Godzilla films but Hollywood has enough money and talent to have made an effort to make the fight scenes more realistic or at least coherent. A larger effort should have been made to make the action more coherent but the cinematographer focused more on suprise reveals of the monsters wondering into the shot hopeing to take the audience by suprise it felt so unnatural. Something the size of godzilla/mothra/rodan etc shoulden't be able to just sneak into frame like that. Its like they used a telescoping lense on all the monster shots to decrease the field of view to allow the monsters to sneak into frame. In real life we'd be able to keep our eyes on monsters that huge but the camera in the movie seemed to deliberately loose the monsters only so they could reappear later by complete suprise.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

Sounds perfect. I appreciate your review and particularly your context with the Toho movies.

Will be attending IMAX 3D this weekend.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

"It's about a 350-foot-tall lizard that can breath atomic fire, so clearly all rules of biology and nature are out the window from the get-go, but in terms of the story it all worked."

Exactly!

[–] Rorikon (16403) 5 years ago

I got a different experience. I had 2-3 people in front of me on their fucking cellphones while the movie was playing texting away along with some Chinese person in the back talking normally to his friend rather than whispering.

I'm wondering if we're going to see Mecha Ghidorah which is a more powerful version of King Ghidorah. I was interested in the lore where they said Ghidorah was not natural and didn't come from this world but from somewhere else. Would be interesting to see what other monsters could invade Earth where Godzilla must battle.