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Godzilla Cinematic Universe Thread


Unlucky Bastard

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Clips are all over YouTube now. Movie premiered yesterday in some areas. 
 

I will say this, 

Spoiler

I think they made mechagodzilla too powerful. 
 

although I will admit he looks good on screen compared to how awkward the toy version looks.

 

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Judging by the fight clips on YouTube, this will be my favorite over Godzilla II even. Seeing Godzilla fight without cuts, that alone puts it over the others. 

Seems with every movie, they're getting closer to the originals. Now we need to get rid of that awful score. 

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Just saw it. Some initial notes:

 

Spoiler

It seems Godzilla has become a luddite, because when Madison observes aloud "they're trying to replace him", I couldn't help laughing that even Godzilla isn't immune to automation and Big Tech, and he's out on a campaign of sabotage! And Kong is just a pawn in this insidious plot concocted by the broadest stereotypical villains I've seen since a Fast and Furious flick.

 

Probably one of the most vacuous films I've ever seen, and almost fittingly, I bet general audiences will embrace this one more than the previous three films. This in no way resembles the brooding 2014 film, if that was more ya thing. The outlandish tech alone makes it feel almost like a separate universe to the 2014 film. That said, you get your bang for your buck and all the money spent is on the screen.

 

My audience groaned aloud that there was no post-credit scene. Haha.

 

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Spoiler

A lot of the speculation about Godzilla's death in the Monsterverse led to a big nothing-burger in GvK. In fact, he just swims away like he did in the first movie, sans the fanfare. Gives me hope they'll do another film or two in this timeline.

 

In fact, it was Kong who was so almost-dead, that Sarsgard bloke had to use some advanced tech to jump-start his heart so he can have his big Rocky moment. He's really the most sympathetic and developed character in this movie, which says little about the humans, but who gives a toss about them?

 

Btw, did anyone else catch the blatant 2001: A Space Odyssey stargate scene rip-off when they go into the centre of the Earth? And Kong in his own holodeck?

 

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2 hours ago, The Big Man said:

Just saw it. Some initial notes:

 

  Hide contents

It seems Godzilla has become a luddite, because when Madison observes aloud "they're trying to replace him", I couldn't help laughing that even Godzilla isn't immune to automation and Big Tech, and he's out on a campaign of sabotage! And Kong is just a pawn in this insidious plot concocted by the broadest stereotypical villains I've seen since a Fast and Furious flick.

 

Probably one of the most vacuous films I've ever seen, and almost fittingly, I bet general audiences will embrace this one more than the previous three films. This in no way resembles the brooding 2014 film, if that was more ya thing. The outlandish tech alone makes it feel almost like a separate universe to the 2014 film. That said, you get your bang for your buck and all the money spent is on the screen.

 

My audience groaned aloud that there was no post-credit scene. Haha.

 

 

More outlandish tech than Godzilla Final Wars? 

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45 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

 

More outlandish tech than Godzilla Final Wars? 

 

For what was initially meant to be a "realistic and relatable" universe in 2014, you betcha! This movie, just like KOTM, is a Saturday morning cartoon shot in live action.

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3 hours ago, The Big Man said:

 

For what was initially meant to be a "realistic and relatable" universe in 2014, you betcha! This movie, just like KOTM, is a Saturday morning cartoon shot in live action.

 

I would hope so. 

No future film should ever use 2014 as template. 

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31 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

 

I would hope so. 

No future film should ever use 2014 as template. 

 

2014 is my favorite one of new ones personally. Lol. Will we ever agree on something?

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34 minutes ago, TSMefford said:

 

2014 is my favorite one of new ones personally. Lol. Will we ever agree on something?

 

This may come as a shock, but I really don't care :biglaugh:

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Thanks to the coronavirus, we'll have to wait until April 29 for the movie to come out here in theaters - that is, IF there is any theaters opened by then.

 

It'll be hard to be spoiler free until then.

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56 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

 

This may come as a shock, but I really don't care :biglaugh:

 

Nah. That's not shocking to me in the slightest.

 

8 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Thanks to the coronavirus, we'll have to wait until April 29 for the movie to come out here in theaters - that is, IF there is any theaters opened by then.

 

It'll be hard to be spoiler free until then.

 

Ah yeah that's tough. Perhaps I missed this, because I haven't been paying the best attention to all these streaming + theater releases, but do you guys have HBO Max there? I have no idea where they have or haven't released it.

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3 minutes ago, TSMefford said:

Ah yeah that's tough. Perhaps I missed this, because I haven't been paying the best attention to all these streaming + theater releases, but do you guys have HBO Max there? I have no idea where they have or haven't released it.

 

As far as I know, HBO Max is only available in the US. Not even Canada has it yet. But it'll start expanding to other countries this year. I received an e-mail from HBO Go the other day saying that Max arrives here in Brazil this June.

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Just listened to Junkie's OST album.

 

If you like his DC/super-hero scores, then you'll like this too. Plenty of bits similar to Justice League, and the choir reminded me of Batfleck's theme from BvS.

 

There's some cool electronics though.

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1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

Just listened to Junkie's OST album.

 

If you like his DC/super-hero scores, then you'll like this too. Plenty of bits similar to Justice League, and the choir reminded me of Batfleck's theme from BvS.

 

There's some cool electronics though.

 

It's not a bad score, it's just run-of-the-mill after KOTM's. It certainly sounded better than the majority of his work on Dark Fate. I'm not sure if that's saying all that much, though. The first track was quite clearly an attempt at a riff on Ifukube, and it's very reminiscent of how KOTM's cover of the original theme starts.

 

It's also pretty obvious that no orchestra was used in the production of this (likely due to COVID).

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14 minutes ago, Giftheck said:

It's also pretty obvious that no orchestra was used in the production of this (likely due to COVID).

 

I don't know about that, because apparently Snyder's Justice League apparently did have orchestra recorded for it. That also did not sound like live orchestra to me. So it might be a mixing thing.

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Seems a lot of effort: record an orchestra, just to process the fuck out of it and make it sound synth? Better off cutting out the middle man and just use synths.

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In many of Junkie's scores the orchestra sounds a little synth-y. His partnership with Conrad Pope in movies like Alita and Mortal Engines made their orchestras to sound like real orchestras, but apparently he returned to his more processed sound for ZSJL and GvK.

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4 minutes ago, Giftheck said:

Seems a lot of effort: record an orchestra, just to process the fuck out of it and make it sound synth? Better off cutting out the middle man and just use synths.


What are you talking about? RCP made its name by processing the fuck out of orchestras.

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15 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

In many of Junkie's scores the orchestra sounds a little synth-y. His partnership with Conrad Pope in movies like Alita and Mortal Engines made their orchestras to sound like real orchestras, but apparently he returned to his more processed sound for ZSJL and GvK.

 

I'm not even sure what he does to it exactly. It's not distorted or so heavily effected to where it's super obvious what he's done, but the nuance and life of an orchestra is just not there in these scores. I imagine some of it is the heavy compression, but it just sounds sampled, like everything is too perfectly on time, that quantized feel. It's really dry and close sounding as well.

 

As far as GvK's score. I just got to "Tasman Sea" and this is...something. This doesn't sound like a Godzilla score, it doesn't really have much of an identity to me. Could be anything. It does sound a lot like it could've come out of Justice League but without any of the thematic material, like you said, or any modern action movie really. Nothing I've heard so far makes me go "Hell yeah! THAT'S a Godzilla score."

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7 hours ago, gkgyver said:

 

I would hope so. 

No future film should ever use 2014 as template. 

 

I'm not saying they should, but I'm just observing how distant GvK is from 2014. I mean...

 

Spoiler

LOTR-style fantasy lands at the centre of the earth, giant glowing axes, intercontinental vacuum transport tubes, hovercraft, holodecks, 2001-style stargate sequences, giant robot titans controlled via human brainwaves...

 

...christ, remember when 2014 was just a disaster flick masquerading as a moody little monster thriller about the "sins of the father"? I don't mean this as a criticism, just an observation, but as far as visuals, style and tech goes, GvK feels like the Die Another Day or Batman & Robin of the Monsterverse. Could you have imagined freezeguns, Bane serums and cryogenics existing anywhere in Batman 1989? Or whatever weird shit from DAD appearing anywhere in GoldenEye? It's similar to how these Monsterverse movies have developed over time.

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2 hours ago, TSMefford said:

 

I'm not even sure what he does to it exactly. It's not distorted or so heavily effected to where it's super obvious what he's done, but the nuance and life of an orchestra is just not there in these scores. I imagine some of it is the heavy compression, but it just sounds sampled, like everything is too perfectly on time, that quantized feel. It's really dry and close sounding as well.

 

Because it knows no dynamic range except brooding and fff

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On 10/15/2015 at 3:28 PM, The Big Man said:

 

On 10/15/2015 at 3:35 PM, #SnowyVernalSpringsEternal said:

I doubt any of this will actually happen.

 

Hehe

 

Also funny to see Gareth Edwards announced in that press release as the director of Godzilla 2.

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I love how the 2014 movie's title screen was just "GODZILLA" in plain black text on a white background, with ominous Desplat music with ethereal female choral elements. Whereas Godzilla vs Kong is the cheesiest of the lot, flashing on-screen almost like a 90s Heisei movie, with loud, generic Junkie XL score screaming out.

 

The tone couldn't be more polar opposite. KSM and KOTM existed somewhere in-between.

 

Another thing Wingard borrows from the Heisei Godzilla films is the use of wireframe computer graphics for in-story tech demos on large computer monitors. The 90s movies were loaded with these moments.

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11 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

So, is this better, I.e. more like classic GODZILLA( 1954, 2014), or stylistically following the KONG mode?

 

Tone-wise, it's nothing like 1954 or 2014. It follows Kong: Skull Island more, but even pulpier. And it's even crazier than KOTM.

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7 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

 

Tone-wise, it's nothing like 1954 or 2014. It follows Kong: Skull Island more, but even pulpier. And it's even crazier than KOTM.

 

Ugh. I'm gonna hate this one I just know it. These American ones should just stick with the tones of 1954 or 2014, they can not do pulp well.

 

EDIT: Waiting for the retort where they couldn't do the original well either.

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Stop using words like „art“, „story“ or „logic“ when talking Godzilla movies.

 

Your head would explode watching the Millennium series.

 

Listening to the soundtrack now. French horn patch ridden garbage. Desplat didn‘t get the Godzilla feel at all, too, but at least that was good music.

Like all RCP music makers, zero sense for dynamics.

He managed to minimalize the already short Ifukube motif down to five notes.

The wrong notes.

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47 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

Stop using words like „art“, „story“ or „logic“ when talking Godzilla movies.

 

Your head would explode watching the Millennium series.

 

They're kitschy pulp art. And of course they have a story. Formulaic, but story nonetheless.

 

2014 was about a father and son reconciling. You hated it, but it is what it is.

 

KOTM was a redemption story, loaded with Dougherty's usual theological symbolism and overt iconography.

 

GvK is about the consequences of automation.

 

Yeah yeah, you've gone on the record before claiming these movies are about nothing, and should always and only be about nothing. But that simply isn't true. Some effort actually went into giving these films individual stories, as feeble as they might be.

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25 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

 

They're kitschy pulp art. And of course they have a story. Formulaic, but story nonetheless.

 

2014 was about a father and son reconciling. You hated it, but it is what it is.

 

KOTM was a redemption story, loaded with Dougherty's usual theological symbolism and overt iconography.

 

GvK is about the consequences of automation.

 

Yeah yeah, you've gone on the record before claiming these movies are about nothing, and should always and only be about nothing. But that simply isn't true. Some effort actually went into giving these films individual stories, as feeble as they might be.


No, that’s not what I said. I didn’t say they were about nothing, and I didn’t say there’s never a story. What I said was in the context of KoM reviews criticizing the story of the film for being flat and illogical, to which I said that’s ludicrous because the appeal of Godzilla films never were and never will be complex stories, putting it mildly. And of course I stand by that.

 

They‘re not about nothing either. Someone not into Godzilla wouldn’t understand why Godzilla fans think that some movies are way worse than others, because from an outside objective standpoint, all of them look bad.


I disagree about the story of 2014, too. Only 1/3 of the movie was about a father and his son reconciling. The rest was about soldier in peril and Godzilla not doing Godzilla things.

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6 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

I disagree about the story of 2014, too. Only 1/3 of the movie was about a father and his son reconciling. The rest was about soldier in peril and Godzilla not doing Godzilla things.

 

Ehh superficially yeah. After Cranston is killed, ATJ's character has a renewed motivation to succeed at protecting his family because his own father largely failed at that. Oh I know, it's flimsy and weak, but it's there.

 

BTW, Madison and the black dude in GvK largely follow in Cranston's footsteps as they're overtly portrayed as tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists in the broadest sense. They did it better and more believably with Cranston.

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Speaking of Japanese monsters....Anyone seen this?

 

Screenshot_2021-03-25-20-23-23.png

 

 

GOJIRA is a serious film masquerading as a monster movie.

2014 is a serious film in the trappings of a modern action flic.

 

They transcend the genre.

The others don't.

They're pure escapism entertainment.

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I’ve come to conclusion Godzilla fans have no clue as to want they want. 

They want a serious film, you give it to them, they want more monster action, you give it to them. But they are never happy. 

 

Truthfully, there’s only two films in the entire series that hold up and that’s the original 1954 film and Shin Godzilla. Why? Because they actually have an important message and they mean something to Japan. 
 

There are a few quality films sprinkled in thru out the entire series but nothing has come close to the original.

 

The Legendary series has the Toho films best in terms of acting, plot, direction and visuals. The story lines are no more sillier or boring compared to what we got from Toho. 
 

The Showa era kept the films streamlined, the Heisei era tried to stay true to the original but often had bloated story lines with way too many characters.

 

The Millennium era was a mixed bag, GMK felt like it was outside of the Toho box, which was good and the Mecha G films had an interesting premise. 
 

The lless said about Final Wars, the better.

 

The 2014 film could have done better by not killing Cranston off early but it was welcomed effort that took its time to tell a story. Which was greatly appreciated.

 

KOTM was okay it the problem was everything happened with no true buildup or suspense, the monster scenes were great and I had no problem with human interaction. I wish Charles Dance’s character was a bit more fleshed and I would have scrapped 3-4 characters from Monarch out of the film. 
 

As for KvsG, it looks entertaining and the human interaction looks to be normal to me.

 

Much like the Toho films, the series as moved more from reality to fantasy. 
 

Maybe after 30+ films it’s time for the big guy to retire. There’s only so many stories you can tell about big monster fights and worldwide destruction.

 

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, The Big Man said:

 

Ehh superficially yeah. After Cranston is killed, ATJ's character has a renewed motivation to succeed at protecting his family because his own father largely failed at that. Oh I know, it's flimsy and weak, but it's there.

 

BTW, Madison and the black dude in GvK largely follow in Cranston's footsteps as they're overtly portrayed as tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists in the broadest sense. They did it better and more believably with Cranston.


Putting it more simply: When thinking back to, for example, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 1974, what’s the things that made it memorable and you remember? Godzilla killing Anguirus, Mechagodzilla, King Caesar - or the story of Keisuke and Masahiko Shimizu?

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