Nerdism at its best

May 29, 2014

GODZILLA: *spoilers*

I have had some time to think about this movie and I even downloaded a horrible cam just so I could watch it again. Then I watched the original Godzilla film. I have a new understanding and appreciation to this film.

People complaining about there being not enough of Godzilla apparently haven’t sat down and taken the time to actually watch the source material. He wasn’t eye candy, he wasn’t the main character, he wasn’t MEANT to be the center of attention, he was meant to be an allegory and the destruction he caused and the people’s lives he affected were the main focus of the original.

Everyone had the same complaint: Not enough monsters fighting and the human stuff was boring. So basically every Godzilla movie. Ever.

TL;DR The movie is like the original which was amazing and the movie is SUPPOSED to be about the human element, so quit whining about there not being enough monster even though he is there for a reasonable amount of time.

***From here on contains spoilers you have been warned.***

I know that some were disappointed. I know we got spoiled with Pacific Rim and a lot came to see a solid hour and half of Kaiju fighting. But I think maybe getting that would have disappointed us more. I know that sounds crazy but I want you to just think about it for a second.

I don’t think it will fulfill the expectations of audiences used to lots of action and none of the leave-it-to-the-imagination-suspense built on a slow pace in here.

Sure they could have pulled a Michael Bay and spent a solid 60 minutes having a bunch of CGI puppets roll around in an incomprehensible mass of twisting metal shards. But instead they decided to pick their moments and I thank them for it. Yes, I left wishing I could have seen more of Godzilla, but I think that was the point.

Gareth Edwards, the director of this film, had to make a creative decision with this movie. And he decided to go the Jaws route, showing us just enough of the monster we came to see until it was just the right time to show us all of him. And when they do show us all of him it’s glorious. And everyone cheered. And then it was over and we were elated.

Context is so important. And I think that had this movie come out pre-Pacific Rim people would have felt so much differently about it. You can only show monsters punching each other for so long and Edwards knows this. So he let us know they were fighting. He showed us glimpses of it, and he never overdid it.

Because he did have a fight to show us and he wanted that fight to have power and gravitas. And it only had that because he didn’t precede it with 60 minutes of monster-punching. When these things finally get ahold of each other and throw down, shit’s gonna escalate quickly. You gotta save that for the right moment.

Compare the lightsaber fight in Star Wars: A New Hope; between Vader and Obi-Wan and remember, really stop to remember, the feeling in your stomach when you watched that. Remember thinking how cool it would be to see Jedi in their prime fighting? Remember getting it and it was boring?

I can’t tell you how happy I was that this movie ended with him diving under the water. It was so perfect. Monsters dead, big roar, you’re welcome, dive into the water and CUT TO BLACK!

godzilla

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