Make Godzilla a thoroughly enjoyable movie that could potentially be one of the best movies ever made.
AHC: Make the 2014 Godzilla movie better
- Thread starter idontlikesand
- Start date
Cut the Aaron Taylor Johnson scenes. Don't kill off Bryan Cranston.
The scenes with ATJ sucked the life out of the film IMO.
It's about as good as it's gonna get. I mean it will never be a Citizen Kane because you know.... It's a giant lizard destroying stuff but I think it was handled alright.
The film was a good film - to make it great, all you really need to do is have fewer scenes with Aaron Taylor Johnson and keep Bryan Cranston's character alive.
What I wanted
Don't kill off Joseph Brody. I wanted to see him at the end being vindicated in light of the Godzilla-Muto events, reconciling with his son, and finding peace after years of mourning over his wife's death.
More scenes that show just how *massive* Godzilla and the MUTOs really are. Godzilla's foot slowly coming down in view of the folks in the airport terminal was brilliant in that regard. Some of the later shots didn't offer the same scale.
Don't kill off Joseph Brody. I wanted to see him at the end being vindicated in light of the Godzilla-Muto events, reconciling with his son, and finding peace after years of mourning over his wife's death.
More scenes that show just how *massive* Godzilla and the MUTOs really are. Godzilla's foot slowly coming down in view of the folks in the airport terminal was brilliant in that regard. Some of the later shots didn't offer the same scale.
The movie itself was very good - the only things I could think to improve it was not to kill Bryan Cranston, polish the script a bit more, and MORE GODZILLA!
It was the American Godzilla film I'd been waiting for since I was a kid.
As an aside, I saw Godzilla '98 when I was around six, and to this day I still consider it one of the worst movies I've ever sat through. At that age, I thought it was boring 'cause there wasn't enough Godzilla in it. I tried watching it again recently to see if my thoughts on it would be any different now that I was older. Unfortunately, it was still just as boring as ever. The side story with Broderick and Pitillo was not all that interesting (although I have to admit I felt sorry for Broderick's character after the way Pitillo nearly ruined his career by stealing classified data from him - seriously, I've got no clue how he was able to forgive her in the end). Of course, the fact that many of the jokes were dated and that the CG looked primitive didn't help. However, I have to say that the parts with the monster were decent (unlike many people, I'm actually quite fond of Zilla's design
) and there were some good action scenes. Unfortunately, there weren't enough of those to save the movie, and even then it didn't really feel like a Godzilla movie. If anything, it was just a generic 90's action movie featuring an appearance by a giant monster that happened to resemble Godzilla. It was more like Independence Day crossed with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms than an American Godzilla movie. Even Zilla's design bears more resemblance to the Beast than to Godzilla: Zilla is oriented horizontally like the Beast as opposed to vertically like Godzilla. As a kid, I tried to rectify this by posing my action figures of Zilla (I had a whole bunch - and I loved them!
) so that he was standing upright like a "proper" Godzilla.It's still a bad movie - no question about it - but it's slightly less bad than I'd thought it was when I was little.
How about a Japanese-American co-production, or in the case of live-action adaptation of Rourin Kenshin (Samurai X), Japanese themselves only.
It was brilliant, just swap Bryan and Aaron around, so Cranston stays protagonist and Taylor Johnson gets a bridge drop. Also a little more Godzilla would be nice.
Also given that the Big guy saved their collective asses maybe have a moment at the end where the admiral admits he was wrong, and that Godzilla was not their enemy.
Also a shame they cut this bit that was in the trailer.
"CAN YOU KILL IT?"
"I know something that can"
"A monster..."
"No...a God"
Also given that the Big guy saved their collective asses maybe have a moment at the end where the admiral admits he was wrong, and that Godzilla was not their enemy.
Also a shame they cut this bit that was in the trailer.
"CAN YOU KILL IT?"
"I know something that can"
"A monster..."
"No...a God"
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If your main complaint is how much time Godzilla got then the best PoD would be to have the studio give them a bigger budget. Godzilla had a smaller budget than PacRim by $30 million which significantly impacted the amount of screen time Godzilla and the Mutos had. Remember, most of Wall Street expected Godzilla to flop (Imax stock took a massive hit because Godzilla was expected to severally under preform). Bad press and low expectations bred an environment where the studio execs were to afraid to give Godzilla a budget equal to the one they gave to PacRim.
And thank god for that- one of the things that the makers of 'Godzilla' recognised that their counterparts on 'Pacific Rim' did not was how boring Kaiju are when they're just left to their own devices on screen.
Keeping Godzilla's screen time so low for maximum impact was the smartest thing they did. I agree that the human scenes were sometimes dull, but the issue there was in execution not in choosing to focus on them.
Keeping Godzilla's screen time so low for maximum impact was the smartest thing they did. I agree that the human scenes were sometimes dull, but the issue there was in execution not in choosing to focus on them.
Agreed. It's like Jaws or Jurassic Park in that respect.
All Godzilla needs to be 'fixed' is to have a better lead. Aaron Taylor-Johnson has absolutely zero presence or charisma in the movie, and it really brings down a lot of the human stuff. But slot in someone I can properly root for, and it'll come together much better
MORE BRYAN CRANSTON!
his death was the only thing I saw that made this movie not as amazing as it could be.
it was still pretty damn good though.
his death was the only thing I saw that made this movie not as amazing as it could be.
it was still pretty damn good though.