Solid Snake

No. I don't think PR's concept would work with the approach given here.

And I do think we needed to care more for the Brody family. As Mallet mentioned, it'd be better for the narrative if it just cut out the fact that Ford has a wife and kid. And focus on the father and son. They're rather pointless. Though Olsen was selling what she could out of it. Lover her work.

Critically speaking, PR was better than G. As a Kaiju film? I don't know. The approaches are polar opposites. It's not really far to compare on that aspect. I think I liked G a bit more cuz of the approaches to him. Been a damn long time since he was something this serious.

The images Edwards have of G were the best G has ever had. Really selling the point of his presence and the unnerving nature of something like this existing.

hanshotfirst1138

Yeah, but then isn't it then cause for worry that he'll come and cause destruction now that they're gone? Once he woke up, he just seemed to wander back into the ocean. I guess he was too hurt to reek anymore havoc, but it seems like he could be an even bigger problem in the future.

Neil M.

The prequel graphic novel explains this. No. Godzilla only hunts MUTOs and then goes back to the bottom of the ocean. Godzilla needs to live in a radioactive environment. I'm assuming that the reason he collapses at the end is because he used up all his atomic energy fighting the MUTOs.

Godzilla has been seen throughout history. The images in the opening credits show different pictures of him or his relatives including a cave painting that is over 30,000 years old. The scientist in the prequel novel believes they are much older in that they lived on the surface when it was radioactive.

dex14

I didn't care for this at all. I was completely bored and uninterested in anything going on. I'm all about slow builds and set ups with big payoffs at the end. But I just didn't care about any of the characters, and the ones I did care about were gone to soon. The writing was completely lame as well.

This was already touched on, but everything that happens is just way to convenient and forced.

So... father is the 1 person who knows whats going on 15 years prior. Loses his wife. Son grows up to have the 1 job expertise with this bomb and can save the day. Sure...

On top of that... He's in Japan when everything goes down. They send him to Hawaii to catch a commercial flight, where the one monster just happens to be as well. Then there is the pointless waste of time with him trying to take care of this kid. And then we learn that they're all headed to the exact location that this guys family lives. How convenient.

By the time Godzilla shows up I really don't even care because I just wasted 75 minutes on some other monsters. Was I supposed to be touched when he saves the city? I've only seen the original and the Emmerich versions so I was unaware of this compassionate version of him. I'm used to just seeing him come in and fuck shit up.

Elizabeth Olsen was wasted. All Ken Watanabe did was show up and make this OH MY GOD face the entire movie.

It's a real shame because I thought the movie looked fantastic.

Lara Means

90 minutes of a bad movie + 30 minutes of exciting Godzilla action = Overall a bad movie.

Why So Blu?

It was a better film. Kaiju-wise, destruction-wise, and as a film in general. PR nailed all the proper beats.

Granted, Godzilla has the nostalgia factor, so I can see why folks will gravitate towards G rather than PR, even though PR is clearly the better film overall. Hey, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed G and the Blu-ray will be mine, but it had lots of faults.

Neil M.

I probably need to watch Pacific Rim again but I wasn't that impressed with it. I enjoyed the final Godzilla fight more than any of the fights in PR. And I hated Charlie Day in it.

Solid Snake

Its faults were stronger than the one in PR. I kind of have a hard time even accepting this with the generic norm proper of the Kaiju film. Hell, Gojira I don't consider a Kaiju film.

TomOpus

I really liked PR but I thought Charlie Day was a little too over-the-top.

Solid Snake

In comparison to what? A lot of characters skewed to an extreme in personality. He fit in fine. Especially with his scientist buddy.

gp1086

I found it enjoyable, albeit with some serious script flaws. Video review:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/D-RDM1V5Jxc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Solid Snake

You really need to get the videos to stop giving you a weird embed screen cap image. They're always funny to me.

Neil M.

Nice review. I'd be interested in hearing what you felt were the serious script flaws.

Inhumans99

Folks...stop trying to claim that Pacific Rim was the second coming of Wonder Bread when it comes to monster films, it was good, but surprisingly un-exciting during the many monster battles.

Godzilla will gross nearly as much this weekend as PR did in its entire domestic run, and it had to overcome the sour taste the Broderick Godzilla left in folks mouths.

I honestly think a lot of monster film fans are frustrated that PR did not receive more critical praise, and was not a major moneymaker...however, it is what it is. I also disagree that Cloverfield's monster was better than the insect mutos, and the acting...gah, Clover had some really annoying performances, and I will take bland over annoying any day of the week.

Edited to add- Folks, this is clearly a mini rant I wanted to put on paper...a lot of the criticisms of Godzilla are actually dead-on, but I would still not put Pacific Rim on a higher pedestal.

Solid Snake

I think most of us are being pretty objective, as much as one can.

Soooo Legendary Pictures is the new Kaiju king now? Cuz two Kaiju films from them. Both good too.

TomOpus

Back to the movie,

Did anyone try to read the parts of the opening credits before they were "censored?" I did catch the words "fire breathing" before they were "whited out." I guess we'll have to wait for the video release and some freeze-framing.

Why So Blu?

There was a link (can't find it now) where someone who works in a theater jotted down everything from the credits sequence. It was neat. I don't remember if it was the Cinema Blend website or not.

robin2099

Haven't seen it yet but James Rolfe liked it even claiming it was the movie the 98 version should have been and it came 16 years too late.

candyrocket786

For an original property Pacific Rim did pretty damn good. Hell you couldve taken PR and replaced the Jaegers with just Godzilla and still have a more superior film than what Edwards delivered.

The Military + Godzilla fighting multiple Kaiju all over the world.

Thats what I fucking wanted.

Supermallet

People are taking Godzilla to task for the human drama, but PR's human drama was far more formulaic and perfunctory. Don't get me wrong, I liked PR, but I also liked Godzilla and it's silly to claim that one smokes the other. Both are good, and both have some big flaws.

Also, the family being named Brody was an obvious Jaws homage, but that pales in comparison to all the cues the film took from Jurassic Park. Honestly, it was a better JP movie than any of that series' sequels.

islandclaws

http://badassdigest.com/2014/05/16/b...illas-credits/

TomOpus

Oh figures. Thanks!

Neil M.

I knew I saw "rubber suits" in the credits. Thanks for posting that.

hanshotfirst1138

It's really starting to concern me how often I'm agreeing with you. Personally, I thought PR was more fun and I like it better, but you're right that both films have their flaws. I enjoyed both. Both Blu-rays shall be in my collection.

asianxcore

Thanks for posting this! I loved the opening credits but didn't catch most of what was listed there.