The Lack of Godzilla in GODZILLA (2014)? - Discover The Real Problem!

Nice post. You nailed the problem here. Not the lack of Godzilla, but the lack of caring for characters. I like the JP bit as well. 

Thanks. And I'd like to also point out to all who read this that I don't hate or even think this film's okay. It's an 8.0 or 8.5 out of 10 for me, I'm just pointing out the problem that does exist in the film and pretty much a summary of everyone's negatives with the film. 

I'm one of those Godzilla fans who hated the movie.  I blamed everybody: the writers, the directors, the producers, the studios... everybody!

You are right, I didn't care...which is odd for me, because even in the worst Godzilla movies, it would tug at my heart, when Godzilla roared.  But not this time.

All the talk about sequels don't excite me, I've already been disappointed twice.  I won't fall for the okeydoke, again.

I think some Godzilla fans have convinced themselves and each other that the film is better than it is, and they seem reluctant to admit some of its failings and flaws.  I'm glad to see that you have the courage to admit the things that you disliked.

Who cares anymore. Movies out and more in the works. Its a win regardless, all this stuff is irrelevant now. 

Agree I js wish the fanboyld just get over it and be greatful.

I agree completely on this topic. And the problem I've always kept mentioning is the fact that movie didn't have enough room the breathe. It always needed more, but it became constrained by the ridiculous 123 minutes span, which is very much another Spielberg token.

The movie is awesome, but the real film that was actually meant to be seen was not from the theaters, but in a future director's cut. And Gareth needs to get on board and deliver it.

I think you said, far better than I, some of the same points I tired to say.  You're probably technically right in calling it "lack of caring" over "lack of Cranston," but you said it earlier about how it became evident after he died.  I viewed lack of Cranston as more than just that the actor wasn't there; I considered it a plot mistake as well.  We had built a bit of investment in him and his character...and then it was gone.  It was obvious we were supposed to somehow transfer that to his son, but I was never feeling it.  it was never replaced.  And so it went.  I wanted to know more about Watanabe's character, but there was nothing to know.  Admiral Stenz seemed okay.  He certainly didn't seem like a dope, or arrogant or anything else...and he could have been capably played by a cardboard cutout...but not David Strathairn's fault either...

So, you're probably right about writiing vs. acting...probably more the writers' faults and we writers should have picked up on it.  I never condemned Johnson's acting job, I just felt he didn't stand out--didn't make me care for sure...but you're right, it had more to do with the lines he had and what he did.  Was Keanu Reeves ever a great actor?  No, but he did at least 2 (some would say 3 or 4) blockbusters and he was somehow memorable in them...so yeah, writing sure matters.

So, with that in mind, InstinctiveG, I think you, Something Real, and I should write the sequel..LOL  Are you up to it?

Great topic, very well thougt out. And I agree, I didn't care so much about ATJs character, and that IS a problem. At the same time though, I did care about Olsen's character. Partly because (I felt) she gave a realistic performance of a mother who had to make some impossible choises about what to do in an unprecidented situation. Do I get my child to safety myself, or trust a friend? If I leave, how will I find my husband? Nobody can know how they would react in this situation, and I thought she made realistic choises for a mother and a wife. I also cared about Godzilla in this movie. He had a strong personality that shown through, and I was concerned for his safety. So while the main character was a bit dull, I still found things to care about.

There are those who care a great deal about the movie and its future, which is why they actually bother to write long walls text, detailing their thoughts. The fact that there were occasions when representatives from Warner Bros. / Legendary had to inform certain members into taking down leaked videos or spoilers from their posts, shows that they do read what is going on in this sites and other forums. 

Which is why all the more its great that ideas and opinions about Godzilla 2014 are pouring in from fans like us, in the hope that the producers or even the director Gareth Edwards himself could take notice or absorb these feedback and take them into consideration when drafting his next sequel. 

I noted there are a number of folks here who keep telling others to stop criticizing Godzilla 2014 simply because: "Nobody cares and the movie's already a hit." I think its rather pre-mature at this stage to call Godzilla 2014 a sure-mega-hit when only the first week of sales has passed. The first wave of audiences are important because they are the ones who will go on to influence the next wave of audiences with their comments if the movie is worth a go. 

And what @InstinctiveGigan has written about Godzilla 2014 is surely a key complaint that both fans and non-fans have about the film. There were indeed key moments in the movie that could have been expanded, but it just didn't happen. So as it turns out, when I randomly asked many of my friends who haven't watched a Godzilla film before about what they felt after watching Godzilla 2014, almost all of them thought the story was just "okay" and it wasn't really as great as they thought it out to be from the trailers. I personally love Godzilla 2014, but I just felt elements were missing in this movie, that made me kept thinking that something somehow was not complete in Godzilla 2014. The movie just didn't feel complete much as I love it. 

Is it a cause for worry if many people are coming out from theatres with such thoughts about Godzilla 2014? I think it is. There are certainly supposed Blockbuster movies that opened to big sales during the first weekend and declined sharply at the next. So in the case of Godzilla, we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that the movie maintains its strong ticket sales throughout. 

Yes, I definitely agree with this.

@DESTROYAH-X  @THE WEAVER

The movie  felt incomplete because it played like a dress rehearsal, instead of the real thing.  There was never enough of anything.

Why do you mention Spielberg's influence when you write about Godzilla's running-time.  Spielberg had some pretty long movies: Schnindler List, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, Warhorse, Munich... I could go on.

I am another long time Godzilla fan, and I really hated the movie. Its not a Toho movie, and I think people who keep comparing it to the early movies which were mostly only an hour and a half is ridiculous.

The problem I had and a number of people I have spoken to about the movie, was the whole of the attention was Ford Centered. It was a movie about this guy. I didn't care about him. He was everything in the movie. 

He lives in Japan as a young guy, comes back and a Muto hatches. Godzilla lives I suppose not to far from there. He is in Hawaii, and both monsters end up there. It doesn't stop there. He is currently living in San Fransico and it just so happens that is where all the monsters are going. 

It was like this adventure was totally around this guy. For what though? The movie was supposed to be about Godzilla. You could tell a human story without making the film revolve around someone like that.

I didn't mind Godzilla coming in around 50 minutes, but cutting away? That is the big reveal. Then doing that again later. That drove the Ford centered movie to be more about Ford.

Godzilla could have been any monster they made that would restore things. Did not have to be Godzilla. Any creature they invented would have worked in that story. Because it wasn't Godzilla centered.

Ford also survived so many different things, he was one lucky guy. So many things happened to him.

That coupled with limited screen time for me was what made this movie a very poor experience.

I felt the same way Gigan! I LOVE this movie, yet there is much improvement. Its not Gareths directing nor the special affect. Not even the amount of monster screen time. Its the writing. The first act of the movie made me belive it to turn out as an EMOTIONAL disaster film revolving around Godzilla. Yet the secnond act took a step back to almost a "Campy/serious" tone. As opposed to a serious and emotional tone. HOWEVER, this movie was not a failure attempt(Even though that may be my opinion). I personally hope they find a new writer OR the existing writer can improve for the next movies. Nothing is perfect yet, if they fix these actual issues.. The next 2 movies could absilutely outstanding. Hell, why didn't Gareth write this? lol

I do agree with a lot of your points, and better story/characters would have carried things better in the second act, but I also do feel that Godzilla would have benefitted greatly from a bit more Godzilla.

I also want to say I did like the movie, but didn't love it.

I’m tired of all the comparisons of Godzilla to Alien, Jaws and Jurassic Park. There are payoffs in all of those movies throughout. There are no such payoffs with Godzilla until the end fight. The slow reveal of the shark in Jaws and the T-Rex in JP CANNOT be compared to Godzilla's reveal or lack of screen time, as I'll point out below.

Our movie is called Godzilla, and although there are other creatures in Godzilla, people are going to the movie to see him. There definitely was not enough Godzilla in this. Let’s be honest! I had no problem with the buildup to seeing him. My problem came with once we see him, we cut away! Time and time again! These were the opportunities for Godzilla payoffs that we should have had before the climax, to whet our appetites. That’s a slap in the face to fans, don’t you think? This movie was announced 4 years ago! We’ve been juiced all that time waiting for it, clinging on every bit of news. It’s the first Godzilla movie of any kind in 10 years, and the first American-made in 16 years. It’s good, but we deserve better.

Yes, I think Godzilla definitely would have been better with more Godzilla. No question. A five minute fight after the airport reveal would have been nice. Then you have the “Let them fight” sequence. How about showing them actually fighting? No, they cut away, and next thing we see is Ford and company HALO jumping into a living hell. Of course we don’t get to see how it got that way, because our stars have been doing their thing offscreen!

Godzilla didn’t have particulary engaging characters, so between the MUTO/Godzilla scenes, it wasn’t that interesting quite honestly. Certainly that would have made the movie better in the second half, but I left Godzilla feeling a bit cheated. I loved him in it and wanted to see more of him, plain and simple.

There have been comparisons of Godzilla to the aforementioned films. I don’t think you can compare Godzilla to any of these movies. Each has its own dynamic, and each works for completely different reasons. Let’s break those down a bit:

Alien

• One creature on board a claustrophobic vessel, hiding out in conduits.
• The alien IS the star of the movie.
• Alien has several payoff scenes with the monster peppered throughout.
• The suspense and terror come from the cat and mouse aspect and that this thing is hunting them and picking them off one by one.
• You have the whole company angle.
• The characters were strong and likable.

Jaws

• One of the main reasons we don’t see the shark much stems from a happy accident – It wasn’t working properly and Spielberg was not too happy with how it looked. He thought it would illicit laughs instead of fear, so he thought to show it much less and from shark’s POV.
• Although we don’t see the shark (full on) for a while, it’s what the shark does that is frightening and suspenseful, and is felt right from the get go. The most intense scenes happen long before we ever get a good look at it.
• The shark’s presence is felt in the first five minutes. It grabs you where it counts and doesn’t let go. There are at least 3-4 more such payoff scenes before see the shark.
• In between the shark stuff, we have characters that we like (dare I say love?), who are engaging and have a great dynamic together.

Jurassic Park

• Again, as in Jaws, Spielberg has a payoff scene at the start of the movie. It grabs you and you know what you’re in for.
• A lot of folks compare Godzilla’s screen time with the T-Rex. If the T-Rex was the only dinosaur in the movie, I think it would have played out a bit differently, and not for the better. He’s the crown jewel of the movie, true, but it’s not all about him. There are several other great dino scenes throughout the movie.
• Again, in between the dino mayhem, we have likable characters, and who work well together.

Honestly, people put up such a hissy fit about Godzilla not having a lot of screentime that I was actually shocked [and pleased] at how much screentime he got once I saw the movie.

As for the characters, they could've been doing a lot more. They're a lot like the post-Showa era characters in that regard. But clearly, they communicated with someone. (Caution: Pretty blunt.)

Just one other quick point. If you all think about it, with all of the teasers, trailers, extended looks and leaked WonderCon footage, we all saw every scene Godzilla was in except the final battle, and in fact there was footage in a couple of trailers that wasn't in the movie!

GMAN2887 - That's cool that you thought there was enough G or even more than you thought would be, but how did you feel about Gareth's cutting away at what appeared to be key moments with the big guy? Did you find those clever, or frustrating like I did?

I was fairly indifferent to the cutaways. The movie was flowing fine so I didn't think much of them either way.

I'll say the cutaway that elicited the most emotional reaction was to Ford's son watching Godzilla fight on TV. It was a moment of franchise reflexiveness for many younger westerners who had been regulated to watching these movies on television. I enjoyed the nod to, what no doubt many of us fans were doing at that age, watching Godzilla movies in the living room with our dinosaur toys. It was one of those small, but impressionable, moments that reached outside the movie and affected the longtime fan. I'm sure it hit some casual viewers in some other, relatable way.

Interesting take on that scene. When I was Ford's son's age, I thought all Godzilla movies were in black and white, because I first saw them on a black and white TV, complete with rabbit ears!

That is true. It wasn't as emotional as they made it out to be. I wish they had invested more time in to Bryan Cranston's character

@GMAN2887

I've been a loooonnnnggggg time Godzilla fan.  When I was a kid ( in the 60s) I saw his movies in the theatre.  So the kid-watching-Godzilla-on-TV thing wasn't a connection for me.  And if what you wrote was Edwards intent, then that was an idiotic attempt at nostalga.  We as Godzilla fans don't care that crap, at that particular time, we want to see Godzilla BE Godzilla. That's why we threw down our $14.

Everytime I think about some of Gareth Edwards' missed opportunities my blood pressure goes up!

@KOLDWARKID62:

Your post is the best post ever on this site.  I was tempted to write an entire review of Godzilla, but my review would have been too negative.  I think your review is fair.  I agree with almost everything that you have written.  The biggest problem for me is that we rarely saw the destruction and we rarely saw the fear or the awe.  Godzilla walked around as if he was the neighbor's pet poodle.

Even a friendly Godzilla would have to be destroyed if this was real-life.  We would never feel safe with his existance.

I mentioned it was a moment for younger western fans, not us. Nor did I hint at any deliberate intention of the scene, but I believe all filmmakers tend to integrate a world view or personal experience into their movies, subconcious or not.

In the case of that scene it's not so much nostalgia as a comment on the franchise-- and a true one at that. It was an amusing mirror for where the franchise had been for the last thirty to forty years. Barring minor exceptions.

Yah, I agree, during the second part I felt that there was no emotion at all. But the fighting made up for it. Sadly, these people need a lot of explaining...

http://forum.rottentomatoes.com/posts/list/458734.page

Hey, this is my first reply in the Godzilla Forum...

RATEDREX

Those are all historical drama movies, have you seen the others which Godzilla was inspired from? Jaws was 124 minutes, War of the Worlds was 116, Jurassic Park was 127, The Lost World was 129. All these are in common with Godzilla. It's not hard to see the connection.

The problem with the second act is you either need strong characters or action.

Te firs act was done well due to Bryan Cranston's character, while the third act was awesome due to the action. The thing is the second act had neither. If you can't have strong characters then you need some type of thing to distract from that, since Godzilla didn't have the strongest main character when Godzilla didn't appear it seemed boring thus people asked for more of Godzilla. The thing about Godzilla's screentime is a fair amount was in the water swimming, so when you go from boring character to Godzilla swimming not much is acheived. Had they taken out some of the swimming scenes and maybe had more action scenes replacing them I don't think the movie would have been viewed the same.

As for this comparison between the t-rex in Jurassic park; I don't think they're very comparable as Jurassic park had other dinosaurs to take up screentime and still have action along with better characters. The thing about Godzilla is that even the mutos weren't used very often. The flying muto opening was done well but the Las Vegas attack was non existant, and you only really have the train scene left till the final confrontation. Jurassic park has dinosaus all the time so even if its characters weren't done well, you could at least see dinosaurs.

@THEWEAVER:

I don't see the connection.  Most movies are around two hours, or so.  Spielberg running times are no different than any other director.  And believe me, if Spielberg thinks it should take 2:20 minutes to tell his tale, that's exactly how much time he will take.

You keep talking about a director's cut for Godzilla.  How do you know this?  Where have you read this?  Director's cuts are rarely as good as the original movie.  Occasionally a "Kingdom of Heaven" or a  "Donnie Brasco" director's cut will come along and help explain some things that was missing in the original cut, but usually a director's cut means a lot of meaningless shit included.

@RATEDREX:
I just can’t compare this to those other movies. Apples and oranges in my book. As for Godzilla’s screen time, I think most if not everyone on this site, if asked, would love to see more Godzilla. Who wouldn’t? Many were perfectly happy with the amount he was in, and I respect that. I do.

They got a lot of things right in this movie. It was light years away from GINO. I had no problem with the MUTOs. I wouldn’t take out any of the scenes they were in. They were pretty cool. But this is Godzilla’s movie. He’s the star. I want to see more of him.

The other things that folks are talking about obviously are the characters, which I’ve touched upon, as many others have, and the tone of Godzilla/the movie in general. It is definitely different than what was inferred/portrayed in the 2012 teaser (which is one of the best, if not best, I’ve ever seen), and many subsequent trailers. I’m not going to dive into that topic now, but I’d certainly chime in if/when it becomes a discussion.

It’s amazing how divided we all are over it, isn’t it? Who would have thought? Bottom line, we’re all Godzilla fans. It’s also amazing the age range of people on this site. It’s all over the place! It’s great that we have this place to come and discuss, share stories, compare, vent, share art and other media. I Thank Chris, GMAN2887 and all the other moderators for having and maintaining this site as a place for us all to come to.

Look, maybe the movie wasn’t perfect; it wasn’t everything we all wanted it to be, but our favorite monster’s back, and we should hopefully be seeing more of him.

Have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend all!

@instinctivegigan,

you hit the nail on the head with this topic and i am glad that you did.

Getting tired of most people out there saying well they should have showed more of godzilla, the 1954 film didn't show much of him either but when they did it counted for it, just like it did in the new 2014 film. :)

Most people don't get that in most monster movies they don't have to show off the monster alot to make it a great movie.