MORE SCATTERED THOUGHTS ON GODZILLA. This one's spoiler-heavy, so DO NOT READ if you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want to be spoiled, okay?
I feel like nobody is talking about how wonderfully shot and edited this movie is. Transitions from shot to shot make sense, and while things get wobbly, we never get any full-on shaky-cam crap. You're never confused about what's going on, you're always aware of where everyone is, where the humans are in relation to the monsters, et cetera. Just a tremendously good use of scale and space. Probably the best movie I've seen this year so far next to Noah.
That shot that opens on a closeup of a chameleon seems like a sly "fuck you" towards the Emmerich Godzilla, and I appreciate that. And I feel like the plot point about the analogue timer on the warhead was a bit of a playful jab at the analogue line in Pacific Rim, like, "no, THIS is what analogue REALLY means."
I'm really okay with them cutting away to the kid watching TV and giving us those quick little glimpses of the first fight, it doesn't bother me at all. Actually, it seems like less of a fight and more like Godzilla stumbling around like "what the fuck is this thing?! It keeps flying around godammit KILL IT KILL IT FUCK"**
**I don't know about other people, but when I watch a Godzilla movie, I imagine he's just constantly cursing in anger and confusion at the military and whoever he's fighting, just all the time. The fact that it was so easy for me to do that in this new one was the big thing that let me know they got him right, heh.
People are hating on Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance, but I think he does a pretty good job...when he's around other people. He's a great counterbalance to his insane father, and he does really well with his wife and kid, and even the boy on the train, but on his own, or with other military folks, he kind of goes dead.
Admiral Stenz doesn't fully work for me, possibly because he's not the angry, hard-headed stereotype military commander I'm used to seeing. He's compassionate, open to suggestions, not butting heads with Serizawa or anything like that. Interesting choice for his character.
Like a lot of people, I was a little annoyed they killed Bryan Cranston off so early, but I feel more like it was a good move in that having him in the rest of the movie would have been too much. He would be stark-raving mad and annoying, wouldn't he? I also feel like they front-loaded the movie with all the heavy emotional stuff just to get it out of the way and move on to the carnage, which...maybe it doesn't work, but it's a decision I certainly would have made, and similar to a decision I made with Other Sleep.
The birth of the male MUTO in the plant is probably my favorite scene. I love that wire grid they had set up to contain him, the weird electronic chirping sounds he makes, stomping on not one but two poor dudes.
I'm into the MUTOs in general. The female mimicking the walkie talkie at the bridge scene made me grin, and while I'm getting tired of giant monsters with tiny arms on their torsos, at least these two made use of them. The male is like a mosquito crossed with a bat, I feel like, and the female's more like...I dunno, a gorilla? I like how she's so freakin' huge in comparison to her mate. The size difference made their showdown with Godzilla more interesting.
Favorite shots: Godzilla in the water, spines wobbling a little bit back and forth like the old Showa suits, flanked by aircraft carriers. He doesn't care that they're following him, he just wants to stomp MUTO after that embarrasing first encounter. Elle on the road, running from MUTO as he's just landed, only to turn around and see Godzilla rising up, caught between the two huge monsters. Definitely an "oh SHIT" moment. The team, shortly after landing in the ruins of San Fransisco from the halo jump, heading towards the warhead, and you see in the distance, up top, the female MUTO's head coming out of the smoke, briefly, and as the camera pans down you see they're heading RIGHT FOR HER.
And of course...
GODZILLA'S BREATH. First viewing, I wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. It doesn't seem as unstoppable and powerful as it is in the Millenium series, but now I'm really into it. It's more like his breath in the first movie, a blue flamethrower, than the beam that it became in the Heisei and Millenium series. Also, the glow starting at the tip of his tail and working its way up like it's charging? Brilliant.
Oh, and when he kills the female MUTO, the music swells triumphantly. A perfect "FUCK YEAH" moment. Yeahhhh.
Okay, yeah, I'm done talking about Godzilla, I guess. Next post will be a return to regular programming...maybe.