G: plus 4hr

Gojirathon is me just writing up some thoughts about the movies I see while I conduct my little marathon of Godzilla-movies in anticipation of the new Hollywood retooling. Why Gojirathon and not Godzillathon? Well, because Rolfe already did his Godzillathon as part of his Monster Madness, and I don’t want to steal his work. I’ll be using the terms, G, Big G, Godzilla and Gojira somewhat interchangeably… since I can be a bit lazy at times, when it comes to these things.

Godzilla (2014)

So this was the day I finally sat down with a few friends and a few of their friends. Even meeting up with an ex-c o-worker-/cinephile at the theater. And as you might have guessed. I was more than a little excited. I mean… why else would I have spent all this time doing this retrospective during the last 1.5 month? I found myself on the left end of our line of seats. Not really my plan. But I knew the screening-room from before (Room 1 in Biostaden Östersund). It’s the largest room available but the seating isn’t exactly stadium. So for a good portion of the auditorium the seats are well below the bottom of the screen and the seating is kind of flat for over half of the seats. This makes for a situation where I would probably recommend center seats on the back half of the auditorium. We were seated at Row 7 out of 10. I didn’t really want to go further back because I didn’t want to compromise the surround-channel feeling of a film I knew would be quite heavy on the audio side.

So the film started, ended and the short and spoiler-free version is what I will give you here. I really liked it. It really delivered on it’s mission. This is a real GODzilla film. Godzilla here is what he is supposed to be. A brute force of nature. And he is a territorial beast at that. Not really looking kindly at all at those who try to invade on his turf.

I read the first paragraph of some cautionary reviews who stated a dissapointment that Godzilla wasn’t really in a lot of it. But after having seen quite literally all of the previous entries (I had to skip Always: Sunset on 3rd Street II because of lackoftime-reasons) I can safely say that it is like going after Jaws because the shark isn’t seen full on for the first half. While in Jaws it was a technical necessity as the shark wasn’t even filmable for most of the production. Here the effect is used very much in the same way. You get glimpses and shots until the final real reveal. And with the reveal comes the roar. This is real buildup with a real pay-off. Christopher Nolan and Sylvester Stallone could do well to realize that most movies need payoffs and third acts. Of course there are examples that work in spite of these shortcomings. But when you promise something you better deliver on it. Right, Inception? You hear that?! Don’t just frigging end and call it complex to my face. Actually make it complex too dammit!

I’ll just say that you get everything that you would want from a classic Godzilla film. Albeit without the Maninasuitasaurus of course since it’s a 100miljon dollars plus production.

But if there was one thing that kind of irked me while watching, it was the design of Godzilla. In the promos all the shots have looked fine and awesome. Except the stubby elephant-feet. I just feel that the feet of such a behemoth would need bigger feet. And the face seemed strange at times too. But that could be me preferring the more horizontal design of the older ones instead of the more vertical of this new one.

Gareth Edwards, the director, Shows great love for the whole monster genre beyond just having done his previous debut feature called Monsters. And there are visual nods to both american films like Aliens and Jurassic Park and even a hint that we might get a sequel featuring our favorite furry flying insect.  But if they do do that one I am in doubt as the cosmic twins, while easy on todays tech, would be a hard sell for todays audience.

No post-credit scene as far as I could tell after waiting patiently. But if there’s thoughts on a continuation I would pay to see it if done this well or better.

Oh, and the obvious question on everyone’s mind… What about Boomer?!

Be Seeing You!