Smogon Forums

what 2 changes?

I'M GLAD YOU ASKED

ok so like what are the two biggest criticisms against this movie? 1: Brian Cranston died too early 2: Not enough Godzilla in Godzilla

even though this is one of my favorite movies I do not defend against these two arguments because I actually agree with them. The fix to this movie is actually so simple, just keep Brian Cranston alive and put Godzilla in it more. But the why and how is more important than the what and I think that's what most people don't get.

So one: keeping Brian Cranston alive. Why? It's not just star power or anything like that, even though star power is nice and Brian Cranston is cool af. But it's because he is the character who can actually drive the plot amongst the other characters. Like another criticism of the movie is that the human characters are not that interesting, except for Brian but of course he died. But the thing is: keeping him alive would actually make the other characters more interesting!

The characters never really evolved beyond their roles in the story. Aaron Taylor-Johnson was a soldier so he acted like a soldier, Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins were scientists so they acted like scientists, David Strathairn is a navy Admiral so he acts like an Admiral, etc. Brian Cranston is the only character who is defined by something other than what his job is in the story. He's a guy who was driven crazy by his wife's death and has let this obsession run his life.

People say Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) was boring and that's because despite being the main character, his character never really has a development arc. He just wants to get through the conflict and get back to his wife. Cool and all but not that interesting. But if you throw Brian Cranston back into the story, it suddenly becomes way more interesting. Because now you have this strife between Joe (Brian Cranston) and Ford, which we care about in the beginning, carried throughout the film. Joe lost his wife and then went crazy which caused him to push his other family (his son) out of his life. Clearly that affected Ford growing up as he was just a boy when it happened. All of this is set up in the beginning, but for some reason abandoned after Joe dies. But now if we keep Joe alive, this arc goes on throughout the story. Therefore we have something to be invested in and care for the characters and want them to make it to the end. The unresolved strife in their relationship slowly heals over the events of the story until it finally reaches closure at the end. Something to get involved in and character development.

He would also enhance Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins because they are really just there to give out exposition in the movie. They basically see Godzilla as a god and want everyone to just stay out of his way while he handles the MUTOs. But Brian Cranston is def gonna be opposed to that as a kaiju hater in general because of losing his wife. He'll be all like "these monsters killed my wife, I'm not gonna let them tear apart any other families" and just be really concerned about all the damage they'll cause. He'll be a supporter of the Navy's idea to bomb them. Sally and Ken will argue with him and David Strathairn will be on his side. And these four are all great actors so give them some material to really show off with each other. It'd be great! In the end, he will warm up to Godzilla knowing that he is an enemy to the MUTOs and therefore begrudgingly respects him for giving him the retribution he's been looking for the whole movie. More character development. Did you know in the original movie Brian Cranston never even gets to find out about Godzilla???

Second one is a little more obvious. The action in this movie is SO good and I didn't expect it. Like I really was not a huge fan of Pacific Rim, the fighting really seemed to drag and was kind of boring to me. Honestly I think most of this was due to the rules of the movie not being too well established or consistent, like you never really get a feel for how much damage any jaeger or kaiju is taking and like Gypsy Danger has a sword that can slice through any kaiju so like why wouldn't you just lead with that...? Whatever. Getting off topic.

I didn't expect the action in Godzilla to be so great and of course the golden rule in movies is that you can't have big moments without earning them. The system of build-ups and pay-offs you know what I'm talking about. So of course there is a ton of build up throughout the movie. I actually really admire the restraint on this movie such as with the original Godzilla reveal sequence. Like the fact that you can actually call it a sequence. Like you just get these amazing long unbroken shots of Godzilla swimming onto shore and the displacement of his mass causing a huge flood in Hawaii and everything is shot at the human level so you never see all of him at once. Then you got those cool ass flares shot at him and there's the juxtaposition of fire and water imagery. Really cool dude.

Basically this movie earned more than it got, to go back to that idea. Show the Honolulu fight, it is already like in the hour mark in, it's time to get an appetizer. Have like a 3 minute fight and continue to use good camera angles and cinematography and show people running away and stuff and that'd be great. It was already earned.

The climax is definitely full of big moments like both atomic breath scenes and has cool action but a lot of that is cut between the scenes of the soldiers hauling out the bomb, which is actually the majority of the screentime in this sequence. So it is just kinda frustrating too. The action they had was good, so if they just put a bit more of it it would be PERFECT.

I didn't really have any complaints about the build-up to the action when I first saw it in theaters, because the big moments were real surprises. Like when he first did the atomic breath I literally shouted "OH SHIT" in the theater as his spikes started to gradually light up and all. But I think you have to consider the people who come back to re-watch this movie, obviously when you know what's coming the build-up factor becomes more tedious than suspenseful, know what I mean.

Still man, the direction in this movie was wicked. The cinematography was absolutely breathtaking and I cannot wait to see Rogue One and see the Star Wars universe in all those beautiful angles man

cool, I never saw Godzilla tho

seriously dude wtf I asked you a while ago and you said "i thought it was ok" OK THEN

why did you ask me then :|

did you see Pacific Rim

nope

I asked what the changes were cause curiouso

ok den

at least I can just copypasta this next time it comes up ?_?

sure!

tbh I am proud of myself I love armchairing this shit

yeah its fun

yeah do you ever think though that like it hurts how much you can enjoy a film. thoughts on that

for me personally I think that understanding story and how films are made helps me to appreciate what goes into them and actually enhances the experience for those that are good. I can always find something good in even "bad" movies because there is effort put into stuff that a lot of casual people just don't really care about. Unless it is something like Food Fight that had no effort and is just garbage. while no movie is perfect there are a few I am satisfied with and wouldn't really change or at least not in any major way.

there's a LOT of people that put their literal life into every film.