Movies in General

I went to film school and what was taught to me isn't what they're practicing in a lot of movies these days. So it's not just Godzilla. The studio suits are a lot of people who didn't go to film school. The first thing is what does your protagonist want? What is his or her goal and how does that play with the story?

Ford Brody wanted to be with his wife and kid because his father didn't do that for him when he was a kid, first because of his work and now because of his obsession to know the truth. The antagonist is there to throw obstacles in front of the protagonist in order to prevent him or her from getting what he or she wants. Of course the Mutos were antagonists but also his father played an obstacle who was obsessed with finding the truth and when he went to jail in Japan delayed Ford from being with his wife and kid. Even though the monsters on are the loose, Ford's only obstacle after that was his duty as a soldier. His only part in helping the scientists deal with the Mutos was to pass on the info from his father about the echo biology theory to Ken Watanabe's character which didn't really serve a purpose. It did not get them to Yucca Mountain any faster to deal with that Muto because it had already hatched and was on the loose.

So what was Ford's next purpose? To arm the nukes with an analog trigger? He wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. They had to have someone else there that knew how to arm an analog trigger. After all that now they want to disarm the nuke because they lost possession and it was in San Francisco ticking away to explode. So in the end the nuke part didn’t do what they intended it for and was reduced to being a simple plot device of trying to stop the nuke from exploding and killing everyone in San Francisco. Ford’s father spent all his time wanting the truth to come out like the public needed to know and it ended up with just his son knowing in the end his father wasn’t crazy. That might’ve been enough for a character drama but this was a Godzilla movie… The public didn’t know about what was going on from Ford’s father nor because of him and the info Ford gave to Serizawa didn’t do anything except to reveal the two Mutos were communicating with one another.

The problems with this Godzilla movie from a film criticism perspective are the characters are just taking a passive spectator role. Nothing they did actively helped deal with the monsters. Serizawa’s line of “Let them fight!” was correct if they believe nature has to deal with nature. This is a Godzilla movie and what’s expected is Godzilla battling whether it’s man or monsters. If nature has to deal with nature, then it makes it especially “off” the characters actions didn’t do anything so why show so much of it. The whole echo biology was made to be very important information. What they should’ve done is use it against the Mutos. If nature has to deal with nature, they could’ve had it where the two Mutos were separately destroying different cities and the scientists use their own communications to get them where Godzilla is to have them or all destroyed. Or lead them to the nuke... Not sure if that would’ve worked on monsters that eat radiation.

Like I mentioned before Director Gareth Edwards did the movie Monsters. What was on his side there that his monsters didn’t have was the notoriety of Godzilla. Godzilla is the star. In Monsters his characters were the center of the movie. This Godzilla needed more monster battles because that was the good part.

Here's a great essay that pretty effectively explains everything wrong with a lot of tent pole movies these days, check out more of this writer's work for a lot more on the state of screenwriting/filmmaking, his most recent on Amazing Spider-man 2 is a great little Orci bashing fest.

Just for the heck of it, I applied for a part as a extra in the sequel to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. They are shooting two scenes in West Auckland.

Went to see Godzilla last evening. Noticed a monster plothole (hehehe)... (Spoiler ahead)
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The nuke that detonated off on the boat would've totally flatten the entire SF area and killed everyone (except big G of course) since it is implied that the nuke is in the megaton range. The countdown timer was about 5 minutes and the boat was going 5-15 knots. At best it would've made a couple miles out to sea most likely less when it went off. It would've totally destroyed SF and all the surrounding areas.
Initial blast wave would've killed everyone in a 15 mile radius and the Westerly wind patterns would've would've made most of northern California, parts of Oregon and Idaho inhabitable for decades.


/ I know, I'm being nitpicky after all this is a monster movie but even then we need to have some good science behind them.

It's not that I don't enjoy movies being the reason for why I don't bother going very much. I find the volume much to loud for my liking in many of those action movies to the extent that when I put down roots I'm going to have a very good home theatre system and watch them at my leisure.
Having watched a pirated download of Godzilla at a friends place, I can't say the movie will be amongst my collection.The whole concept of Godzilla and it's presentation won't get any applause from me.

B.I.B. said:

It's not that I don't enjoy movies being the reason for why I don't bother going very much. I find the volume much to loud for my liking in many of those action movies to the extent that when I put down roots I'm going to have a very good home theatre system and watch them at my leisure.
Having watched a pirated download of Godzilla at a friends place, I can't say the movie will be amongst my collection.The whole concept of Godzilla and it's presentation won't get any applause from me.

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the whole concept of Godzilla is that it is crazy, just like any syfy stories and movies. So you leave logic at the door when you go watch the movie. And your expectation should be that the movie should be as crazy as possible. If you expect to see something that is completely logical and plausible, then syfy is not your cup of tea.

B.I.B. said:

It's not that I don't enjoy movies being the reason for why I don't bother going very much. I find the volume much to loud for my liking in many of those action movies to the extent that when I put down roots I'm going to have a very good home theatre system and watch them at my leisure.
Having watched a pirated download of Godzilla at a friends place, I can't say the movie will be amongst my collection.The whole concept of Godzilla and it's presentation won't get any applause from me.

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The problem I have going to the movies is usually not the movie itself but the other patrons!

I'm not saying I condone acts of violence in the movie theater but I can somewhat understand. This is why I prefer the weekdays and also not on opening weekends. Too many teens, talkers, chair kickers and rude idiots.

There were maybe 20 people total in my showing yesterday and even then we had one talker and another chair kicker which of all the places he could've sat, he sat right behind me!

A good rule of thumb with any kind of SF or fantasy property is not apply real life physics to it.

Like magic in LOTR it exists to service the story and not vice versa, after all 2001 a Space Odyssey is the most scientifically accurate film ever made and it hinges on the most anti-scientific premise of ancient astronauts and intelligent design.

That's not say it shouldn't be criticized mind you, but only by default since like the Red Matter in JJTrek when the story is shit and the movie is garbage that's already fair game as any kind of contrived plot device, like the time turner in Harry Potter or Gandalf getting resurrected if it fails to make the story work or is overly contrived than its fair game of criticism. If you want facts watch a documentary, fiction is designed to tell a story and not present scientific accuracy, though how much should be included is up to the freedom of the author, the way i see it if you start criticizing Star Trek for FTL travel you should also criticize LOTR for featuring humans living alongside other species of hominids who don't match existing fossil records.

Otherwise some plot holes are valid i feel if they can serve a purpose to advancing characters and drama and world building e.g. the Ghouls in Fallout don't make a lot of sense, they can heal and are ageless and more or less immortal, but they necrotize and their tissue breaks down with age but this doesn't inhibit their healing abilities. That is an inherently contradictory entity, but they serve an important purpose of representing a past age of living history, being survivors who were there when the apocalypse happened, and in the case of Raul in NV serve an important story about the nature of duty and heroism vs growing old and even deconstructing adherence to duty when it ultimately just leads to endless revenge and bloodletting.

If a story is set in a fantasy world then they can do whatever they want but I have to insist if a story is set in the real world or if real world items are used in a story where the item is meant to be realistic then it should behave accordingly or when it does not that the story does not exploit that.

For example I agree with kwaigonegin's complaint regarding the nuke in Godzilla... Or a better example is I am willing to overlook how buildings don't collapse realistically when the story does not exploit the unrealistic collapse, however I am not willing to overlook that if it is used to further the story such as in Cloverfield (2008) where the upper segment of a glass and steel skyscraper is kind of chopped off and leans against another highrise as if both are solid pillars just so the main characters can brave the building to rescue a girlfriend/friend. Have her be in a big pile of rubble which they have to dig through, that's OK.

Just to point this out, That was not the real World. It's a relatable world but not the real one. As a example I point to five things.
first) the US military in the Godzilla movie were flying UH1 single engine. those are have been out of the inventory for some time
second) F35's were deployed against the Muto's and Godzilla in far higher numbers then currently available.
Third)CVN-88 USS Saratoga. The CVN 78 is the highest number in the Carrier sequence as it stands. Unless there was a massive rapid construction breakthrough or shift CVN 88 should not enter service until the 2040's
Fourth) there Russian Akula class submarine was no such thing
fifth and final) M4A1 against Kiju? AR10's at least.