Godzilla

Muito bom. Mas tem partes que é uma seca.

Why must Hollywood scriptwriters of some genres of movies, especially monster, superhero and horror movies, so often think that the audience are total idiots? Or maybe they themselves are severely lacking in brainpower and do not understand the level of trash in what they spew out. In Godzilla scriptwriter Dave (David) Callaham should have a special dishonourable mention for ruining a promising movie.

The movie started of with the obligatory nuclear power plant scenes. When it started I first thought, oh no not the blame nuclear power scare again. However, as it turned out, this was not so. Unfortunately, this was pretty much the only good part in the entire script. The rest of the script is just a collection of illogical, unintelligent garbage.

It starts quite quickly when Ford’s father suddenly pulls of his mask, takes a sniff, and declares that there is no radioactivity in the air. Only a scientifically ignorant idiot writes something like that. Then we have the scene were the soldiers rush into The Nevada nuclear waste facility and checks the inspection hatch on every door until they find one where there is a light only to discover that the monster have broken free and left a gargantuan hole. A huge monster have broken through the walls of a nuclear waste facility leaving a whole big enough to drive a battleship through and no one would have noticed until some marines goes around and inspects the doors on the inside? Again, you have to be pretty unintelligent to write a scene like that.

The entire plot is basically the same unintelligent mess. They follow the creatures around until they reach civilization. First then do they actually try and do something. That is just so nonsensical. In the case that a huge city-destroying creature would approach any large population center it would be blasted way before it reached it. Also, when they do attack they fire some light weaponry and maybe a tank gun or two against it. If millions of people were at risk I thi...

Fundamentals, reception.

1. American/Japanese live action feature length film, 2014, PG-13, 123 minutes, science fiction, action, thriller. The spoken word is in English, with some sub-titled Japanese.
2. IMDB: 6.6/10.0 from 239,012 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 74% on the meter (average 6.6/10); 67% liked it from 171,052 audience ratings.
4. I saw this film off DVR from Cinemax.
5. Directed by: Gareth Edwards.
6. Starring: Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody, Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody, Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ford Brody, Carson Bolde as Sam Brody, David Strathairn as Admiral William Stenz, Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody.
7. Demographic targets: Godzilla fans, action fans, international market.
8. (from Box Office Mojo) Estimated production budget, 160 million USD. Estimated gross revenue as of 01jan2015: States, 200.7 million USD (38%); overseas, 328.0 million USD (62%).

Setup and Plot

1. In the opening sequence, Joe Brody, his wife Sandra and son Ford are in Japan. Joe and Sandra work at a project that aims to contain some unexplained phenomena involving huge amounts of energy and a partially buried large object. The object turns out to be living, breaks much of the containment apparatus, and causes widespread tragedy. A heavier blanket of secrecy is applied.
2. Jump forward to the present. Ford is grown up, is in the US armed services, and has a wife Elle and son Sam in San Francisco. Ford gets a call from Joe, then goes to Japan to get him out of jail. While Ford helps out Joe, the object (a 'muto') revives, breaks free this time, and flies away, leaving even more destruction and death than in years before.
3. A second, larger muto awakens in Nevada. The two mutos are tracked by the US Navy, which is now actively involved. The mutos' activity awakens Godzilla from his long slumber in the Pacific.
4. Ford and Dr. Serizawa are drawn into the mil...

The big atomic lizard gets another make over.

Back in 1954 Ishirô Honda introduced to the film world Gojira, a creature that is still today seen as viable cinematic interest. Gojira, in spite of being a man in a rubber suit monster movie, is a smart and feisty film. Tapping into an oppressive nuclear age via moody atmospherics, whilst simultaneously imbuing plenty of creature feature carnage, it got the balance right. The makers of Godzilla 2014 have tried to do the same, they look back fondly to the original wave, pay it respect, but sadly they don't quite pull it off.

Plot essentially finds the world under attack by some Kaiju (MUTO) monsters after humans keep dabbling in all things nuclear. The end is nigh, that is unless mankind can find an ally in Godzilla, an almighty prehistoric type lizard who itself is a product of some prior nuclear shenanigans.

The human plot strands feature the usual secretive government suits mixing with science guys, all looking worried or running around in a fretful state. There's a father and son axis - with the son a bad ass army guy who has a loving wife and child back home. Characters are many, and they take up a good portion of the film, unfortunately very few of them are interestingly written, which is a shame given the pic is packed with acting talent.

It's a two hour plus movie, with the build up being very prolonged, with Zilla not showing up till the hour mark. This renders the main monster as a bit player in its own movie, a mistake often made by others in many a sequel to Honda's original. There's also the irritating fact that what all good Zilla movies need is a shed load of monster mayhem, plenty of smack-downs, but sadly they are in short supply here and are often rendered as background staples. Until the finale that is.

It takes a long time to get there, and thankfully saving the pic from below average hell, it's not a let down. It thrills and opens up the eyes and ears considerably, and fans of all thin...

OK, let me start off by saying that the new Godzilla is definitely an entertaining movie and well worth the price of an admission ticket. That is – so long as you go into it with popcorn-level expectations. Now, it has to be said that the bar, since the most recent attempt by Roland Emmerich in 1998 (which was hilarious at best) wasn't set particularly high, to say it nicely. So in all honesty, with today's budget and special effects, it never had big chance of being that bad. But I have to admit, judging from the trailer – I thought it would be better.

It starts off pretty good. There is proper story build-up and character lay-out. Where we are – what's happening... It's all there. In fact, the story revolving around the main characters is pretty dramatic from the get-go. Death in the family, trauma leading to obsession over finding the truth surrounding the circumstances. Bryan Cranston is impressive as the family father and science guy. He just knows something is up concerning some big beastie and he won't let up until he figures it out. That is – if he gets the chance. Something happens around one third into the movie that is a pivotal turning point in the story. I knew this immediately when it happened and in the end I realised that I had been correct.

From this point on, it's out with the story and in with the action. An almost mind-numbing, pummelling assault of non-stop action. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it's a lot less interesting than it could have been.

Here's the deal: instead of just one Big Monster, they bring in three. One Godzilla, and two huge insect-like creatures that are only designated as MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Object). Seriously, they couldn't come up with a proper name? And instead of Godzilla being the big threat to mankind, the MUTO are. In fact, Godzilla turns out to be the good guy because he's the only one that can defeat these insect creeps. This story line is factor one in the reason that this movi...

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It's not easy to start off a new cinematic universe. The first installment must be an undeniable success on almost all fronts for the franchise to take off. From interesting world-building to delivering a good first film, it's a brutally challenging task for any director and writer to take on. Godzilla has been around forever, but Warner Bros. And Legendary Entertainment bravely brought on an inexperienced filmmaker, Gareth Edwards (Monsters), and a debutant screenwriter, Max Borenstein, to handle yet another version of the Godzilla story. Expectations-wise, I know that audiences look at this type of movie from an action-heavy perspective. A massive majority of the viewers just want to see monsters fighting, which is understandable.

I enjoy a big battle as much as any other moviegoer, but I do desire a remotely decent story. When it comes to this particular genre, I don't ask for an Oscar-worthy screenplay that leaves me floored by the end of the film. I don't need incredibly complex, multi-layered characters with exquisite motivations. I don't even mind heavy exposition as long as it's not overdone and sluggish. With that said, I also don't want the most annoying, cliche archetypes nor nonsensical plot points. I genuinely hate myself when I get too nitpicky with "movie logic" issues, but when the characters make the most ridiculously absurd decisions that no sane human being would make, then the film is really asking for a negative commentary.

Borenstein - who goes on to co-write two of the following three installments in the MonsterVerse - gets close to a perfectly balanced narrative, which in this genre is related to the amount of screentime allocated to humans and monsters. This movie can't just be Godzilla fighting a random monster since the visually appealing, constant battles would lose impact with time (besides the lack of a story), but it also can't...

"Godzilla" is the sort of cinematic gift that keeps on giving, and the hunkily beefed-up Aaron Taylor-Johnson is always worth looking at - but sadly, neither of these features do enough to rescue this from a sort of disappointingly derivative mediocrity. This iteration of the plot picks up the story many years after a nuclear disaster in Japan. "Ford" (ATJ) is the son of the plant supervisor "Joe" (Bryan Cranston). They are not exactly close, but when they discover evidence near the ruins that the destruction was not accidental - and that a giant trapped, flying, "MUTO" - which feeds on radiation - might well be coming for more lunch, they can only hope that "Godzilla" might become aware and come to the rescue of a totally out-gunned mankind. It's a bit of a sprawler, this film. It takes far too long to get going, with characterisations that offer little of substance and a dialogue that borders on the inane - especially when the military are involved. The supporting cast features a sparingly used Juliette Binoche and Elisabeth Olsen, but they aren't really on screen long enough to add much value. On the plus side, the photography and visual effects are good - they flow with a realism that is quite convincing, but that's standard fayre nowadays for this kind of adventure. The rest of the photography really could have done with some more wattage. Darkness can add eeriness to a scenario, but after a while I do want to recalibrate my eyes! The ending is certainly effective, but I'm just not sure it was worth the wait - the whole film just needed something to bring it to life more.