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david_a posted:Silliest thing IMO was the back lasers. Shooting out a laser beam - fine, tail shoots lasers too - OK I guess, BACK LASER GRID OF DOOM - really? Godzilla can do some pretty strange things. 
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Oct 18, 2016 18:13
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DeimosRising posted:The text says something garbled about "beating" [of wings] presumably causing an "anticyclone" which trapped mundane pollution a la Mexico City or Salt Lake City. Hedorah ain't got no wings and that doesn't sound like the same thing at all Maybe he was fighting something with wings.
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Jul 15, 2017 23:57
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Good lord, I'm going to love this movie.
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Mar 22, 2019 13:31
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GATOS Y VATOS posted:I am so hyped from that footage but Mothra Mothra is very strong! Have faith.
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Mar 29, 2019 01:08
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GATOS Y VATOS posted:Ok. They are showing way too much now. I'm out. See y'all on the other side I have to agree. It's going to be amazing, and I don't want to be weak and take too much in now!
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Apr 1, 2019 23:42
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HannibalBarca posted:The marketing has been at least decent from what I can tell, although I'd be the first to admit I don't know many "normal" people, even where "normal" means "typical filmgoing americans aged 18-34" or whatever the marketing sweet spot is. I think those of us who were here for G'14 are extremely wary of the fact that that movie opened really strong (stronger than people were expecting) and then faceplanted week-over-week and barely limped across $200m domestic after opening at around $95m. 2014 was a year full of extremely front-loaded movies, though. Off the top of my head, Days of Future Past and Amazing Spider-Man 2 also opened around $90+ million and barely broke $200 million.
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Apr 4, 2019 11:26
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Tekne posted:That is correct. Funny thing is the image was made before we saw that Godzilla's breath at max output can lift and push Ghidorah back. It stands to reason that he could propel himself with it. In all fairness, that still might not have been his atomic breath's maximum output.
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Apr 24, 2019 19:59
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Binary Badger posted:https://twitter.com/Mike_Dougherty/status/1121236143607967744?s=19 I think that's Rodan's design from Godzilla: Final Wars!
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Apr 26, 2019 18:43
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Arcsquad12 posted:99 tonnes or 9,9000 tones? The metric system uses periods instead of commas, so 99,634 tons! He's a big boy.
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Apr 26, 2019 20:24
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Vintersorg posted:I understand that! I think the idea is that they have to try something, anything, to at least distract the kaiju and buy people in urban centers more time to evacuate. Every second Godzilla spends annihilating an armored battalion is another second that civilians have to flee.
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Apr 29, 2019 13:13
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mandatory lesbian posted:ya know that list would almost be reasonably believable if they didn't have varan of all kaiju headlining a film I'm not empty quoting this, I'm letting you know that I appreciate you.
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May 11, 2019 03:43
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:It's weird as hell that Godzilla was part of the Marvel universe in the late 1970s, with Thor fighting him, Spiderman photographing him, etc. The design is awful though, and maybe partly why Godzilla is often thought to be green. I was lucky enough to meet Herb Trimpe when I was a kid, I asked him about the Godzilla comics, and he said that the decision-making process came down to wanting to depict him as a very large man in a suit. I'll always be partial to his design!
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May 13, 2019 01:56
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Vince MechMahon posted:Captain Marvel would just fly head first through Godzilla's head and one shot him. Godzilla has a mighty noggin, Captain Marvel would just bounce off. What might work, however, would be Captain Marvel putting Ant Man up Godzilla's butt. Also, just as a fun note, getting struck by Mjolnir was exceptionally painful for Godzilla. 
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May 14, 2019 10:16
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It was definitely a very enjoyable movie, but I'm still not entirely happy about how the kaiju/titans are essentially treated as large, powerful animals mistaken for gods rather than the forces of nature they were depicted as in 2014. How would some of Godzilla's behaviors in the 2014 film (such as him interacting with the Golden Gate bridge and making eye contact with Ford Brody) be explainable if he's little more than a super-large dinosaur? Between that and Monarch being able to readily track his vitals and biometrics, it feels like the "God" was sort of taken out of Godzilla, and I personally dislike that. Also, I saw it in 4DX, which is quite an experience! Just be prepared to get wet.
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Jun 1, 2019 21:07
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Snowglobe of Doom posted:He also had several scenes where he made eye contact with humans in this film, if anything he seemed more sentient than ever. I also felt that the fact that there's an entire sunken civilization that built massive cathedrals in his honor also makes him seem even more godlike than usual. I personally disagree, I feel like the emotions playing across Godzilla's face in his brief connection with Ford aren't matched in any scene in 2019 - with the exception of Serizawa's sacrifice, which was absolutely one of the best scenes in the movie. I don't like the idea that he's just trying to stare people down and/or intimidate them with the threat of him firing an atomic blast. It just makes him seem like a simplistic tyrant more than anything else.
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Jun 1, 2019 21:21
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Stairmaster posted:i'm just bummed out after seeing this I kind of agree with this sentiment. The ending seems to suggest that all Godzilla did was become a more powerful version of King Ghidorah, complete with the potential of him becoming as dangerous toward humanity. I want my loving Showa Godzilla back, dammit!
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Jun 1, 2019 23:01
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Maxwell Lord posted:The credits imply that he and all the kaiju basically start healing the Earth, though. But if he does it while threatening and intimidating humanity, that just means that he's doing it for them to restore his hunting ground or wolves or whatever they were implying with him. I want him to do it out of love for us.
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Jun 1, 2019 23:08
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TowerofOil posted:So having slept on my hype and as much as I enjoyed the movie I really can't argue against the thought that this was a Bad movie and not well made. It's bumming me out and making me think this might be it for big budget American Godzilla movies. Godzilla 1998 didn't end it, this won't either. And heck, even if it does, be happy that it happened at all! I never would have imagined that we'd get these sorts of films when I was a kid, and I'm glad we have. LORD OF BOOTY posted:the implication is more that he's threatening and intimidating the other monsters to keep them out of our poo poo. Godzilla's arc in this movie is going from force-of-nature to protector, with Serizawa's sacrifice being the thing that makes it more than just a personal beef with Ghidorah and makes Godzilla understand that humanity is pretty much depending on him. I really would like to believe this, but the big thing for me is Godzilla's first action when he gets back to the surface is to fire his atomic breath off and immediately sneer at the people watching him. Not Bryan Cranston even specifically warns them that he's doing an intimidation display against them. That's not a protector, that's a mafia boss threatening consequences if you don't pay protection money, or some sort of warlord demanding proper tribute from those he's browbeaten.
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Jun 1, 2019 23:27
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:he thinks it's an intimidation display against them, but then it turns out to be against the other kaiju, who bow to him in supplication. After defeating King Ghidorah later in the movie, the other kaiju absolutely did not bow to Godzilla before that. TowerofOil posted:Yeah I read that sequence as a GODzilla saying I acknowledge the human sacrifice as my faithful but you are still beneath me. It just seems petty and sort of pathetic to me is all. I don't like it!
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Jun 1, 2019 23:36
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Gaunab posted:I thought he was saying "gently caress yeah, I'm back!" They didn't, although most of the Kaiju did become more docile once the Orca was used at Fenway Park around the same time. The biggest evidence that it wasn't aimed or successful at the kaiju was that Rodan didn't stand down - Mothra wouldn't have died if Godzilla had been intimidating the other kaiju. That, and he looked directly at the people on the boat immediately afterward, he clearly intended them to take note of it.
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Jun 2, 2019 00:02
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StopHangingDjs posted:Man this poo poo was boring. The humans weren't compelling at all and it felt like they had 70% of the screen time of them spouting exposition and jargon at the audience in the least engaging ways possible. Maybe if as other people said I grew up watching Godzilla then this 70/30 split would be the most adrenaline inducing poo poo ever but as a casual it's not not even a little worth it for what feels like a sliver of cool monster fights. I seriously question if humans absolutely need to be the majority of screen time in these movies? Would this movie and previous Godzillas just loving collapse in on themselves if it was mostly Godzilla doing Godzilla things? As somebody who did grow up with Godzilla and found the split to be exceptionally adrenaline-inducing (The start of the Battle in Boston, where Godzilla advances and clashes with King Ghidorah, was probably the most exciting minute of movie I've ever experienced), I do agree with this. I'm perfectly fine with humans being the majority in kaiju films if their stories are compelling by themselves (the original, Shin Godzilla, 2014, and Skull Islands immediately come to mind), and think that they are absolutely necessary for the kaiju fights to be truly meaningful. To answer your questions, I would say yes to both: Godzilla and humanity compliment one another, having one without the other wouldn't work, at least, in my opinion!
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Jun 2, 2019 20:13
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Snowglobe of Doom posted:But then when they got to the Godzilla sequels and tried to turn the big G into more of a relatable character but how can mere humans possibly relate to a walking metaphor for nuclear armageddon? That's pretty much the feeling that I got from this movie. It seemed like they really went really hard on the animal/pack metaphors for explaining the kaiju and what they do, and... I dunno, I feel like thinking of Godzilla as just a big indestructible reptile wolf thing doesn't encapsulate everything he really is.
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Jun 2, 2019 20:28
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Snowglobe of Doom posted:They pretty much had to do something along those lines in order to be able to keep the 'monsterverse' moving forwards. They did something similar with Kong, in the original '33 film he was a metaphor for unbridled nature/Id (amongst other things) and the dangers that come from trying to 'tame' wild nature by repressing/caging it. They might have had to do something, but I don't think reducing the kaiju to little more than large beasts was a good move to make. It didn't serve Godzilla too well in the Heisei era, and I am a bit saddened to see it make a resurgence.
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Jun 2, 2019 21:09
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:A few pages ago there was a discussion on the Hollywood dilemma of human/kaiju balance and intertwining both in the same action. Look at it this way, at least it wasn't a taxi! 
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Jun 3, 2019 22:25
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Basebf555 posted:On the other hand, maybe eliminating all the other characters except for Whitford and a few others like Watanabe and Hawkins and giving it more of a Cabin in the Woods/Shin Godzilla vibe would've been the better route for an all-out kaiju brawl. I would have preferred that quite a bit more. Preserve the sense of mystery and grandeur a bit more, you know?
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Jun 4, 2019 00:09
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Godzilla and Mothra's relationship was one of the best parts of the movie, hands down.
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Jun 4, 2019 16:32
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Panfilo posted:Lmao this. Left head : Oh goodness, and the severed left head was the post-credit stinger... Whatever comes from it is going to be incredibly and entertainingly dumb!
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Jun 4, 2019 16:42
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s.i.r.e. posted:There hardly is one though? Godzilla doesn't even care when Mothra dies and doesn't brutally murder Rodan at the end for having fought and beaten her up, instead he just accepts him as a bitch in his harem. Godzilla: Pimp of the Monsters They sing to one another when Godzilla's recovering, Mothra dies protecting him, and the noises made and visual design of the nuclear pulses Godzilla fires out at the end are based on Mothra's cry and the patterns on her wings.
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Jun 4, 2019 17:28
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s.i.r.e. posted:That's pretty one sided, Mothra's just serving her alpha. I don't recall them singing to each other though, is that when he's under the sea or during the final battle? I'm sure Godzilla will make up for it by protecting the next Mothra as best he can/ But I do agree with you, that it does support the unfortunate reading I had of Godzilla acting in a very self-centered, spiteful, and greedy manner throughout most of the film. And it happened when they thought Godzilla had died from the Oxygen Destroyer, when she comes down, hovers over the water, and starts glowing to show them where to go. Basically, Mothra is best!
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Jun 4, 2019 18:15
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s.i.r.e. posted:I didn't like how Godzilla was dickish in that regard in the film, in both films there's scenes where he's laying down exhausted and there's someone close by for him to look at and there's a gentleness to his eyes, but it makes him feel more caring towards humans than to Mothra. I'm not sure why Godzilla would even give a poo poo about people. It's that he does which makes him special in the 2014 film, at least, in my opinion. He has no reason to care for humans. We're much smaller than him. We're much weaker than him. Most of our time is spent attacking him or trying to prevent him from restoring balance to the world. And yet, in 2014, he seems to very much care for us. His size is inarguable (his first landing creates a devastating tsunami, for example), but he refuses to fight back against the military forces attacking him on the Golden Gate bridge, looks specifically at Ford, and, in the very end, returns home without killing anybody or causing any further damage. I missed that Godzilla. I couldn't feel the same emotional connection to a Godzilla who threatens, intimidates, and sneers at humans even as they sacrifice themselves to help him. We shouldn't need to be protected by gods or kings who are so petty and small.
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Jun 4, 2019 18:45
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s.i.r.e. posted:I agree completely, he was a gentle giant even if he killed things accidently because how careful can Godzilla be at his size? He killed plenty of people with that tsunami. But him being so detached from Mothra felt weird. The only thing on his scale that helps him out and isn't trying to kill him and he seems pretty drat indifferent towards her? I mean, even in Skull Island Kong was the protector of the island and helped out that ox thing and it gave him a nice depth. I completely agree, and I wish it had been different and spelled out a little more clearly. At the very least, Mothra dying should have been enough to instantly push him over the edge, like Rodan's sacrifice in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.
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Jun 4, 2019 19:28
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Roland Jones posted:It did. Immediately after it happened, Godzilla let out a sad cry. Then the next time we saw him (besides when Ghidorah was still strangling him due to how weak he was then, since, you know, her whole sacrifice and Emma running off with the ORCA were both to buy him enough time to recover), he was in his burning form and looking pissed. What you said there is literally what happened. But it didn't, because of, as you noted, Ghidorah strangling him. That event occurring indicates that there was a temporal period between her sacrifice and him going into his burning form. It seems like it's erroneous to handwave that part away, because it indicates that what I said there did not happen. What seems more likely than him recovering in that thirty second period or so was that he finally went into meltdown, which the main human characters were discussing happening as the Battle in Boston got underway. "He's going to go critical in 12 minutes!" It seems to indicate that Mothra just bought him time, not that her sacrifice directly inspired him to attain it.
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Jun 4, 2019 21:07
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Roland Jones posted:Okay, so you mean you wanted the events to happen instantly after each other, and because the big, injured lizard was not up on his feet again in seconds, you can ignore all the events before and after it. Still, I mean, his nuclear blasts literally had Mothra's wing pattern and her roar when they happened, which I think makes it pretty clear that her sacrifice mattered more than just buying time. And you're still ignoring that he did in fact react to it immediately after it happened. I think that's the difference between our perspectives - Godzilla isn't just a big lizard, injured or otherwise, he's something more than that. To describe him as such does fit more in line with the film's depiction of him as an animal who happens to have radioactive properties or whatever, which I'm also not entirely fond of. And I did indeed note those things in a previous post! Dammerung posted:They sing to one another when Godzilla's recovering, Mothra dies protecting him, and the noises made and visual design of the nuclear pulses Godzilla fires out at the end are based on Mothra's cry and the patterns on her wings. I'm not saying that it wasn't meaningful to him when it happened, just that it seems more... err, incidental over the course of the battle, considering that he was going to melt down anyway? I'm not ignoring any of the events that occurred, I'm just saying that I'm not entirely happy with how they were depicted. I demand perfection from my kaiju movie, dangit!
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Jun 4, 2019 21:20
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Roland Jones posted:No, I'm not trying to say that he's "just a big lizard", and the movie doesn't treat him that way either for that matter; what I mean is that he is literally too big to do what you want. This universe pretends to be somewhat realistic, relative to the Toho "Godzilla slides across the landscape on his tail" stuff at least, so after everything that occurred, he literally could not immediately react the way you wanted. He's big, lumbering, slow, and was royally hosed up after what Ghidorah did to him, so of course it took him a bit to get up and destroy Ghidorah for killing Mothra. The best I can see for what you described, with the events directly following one another, would be something like cutting out Emma's sacrifice, so that after Mothra dies and charges Godzilla up, when Ghidorah is moving in to grab him or starts strangling him he immediately unleashes a nuclear pulse and blasts the dragon away, forcing him back long enough for Godzilla to get to his feet and get revenge. Which, on the one hand, in the hypothetical reworked movie where the human plots were better and we didn't need the above thing, could have worked, but on the other hand the reveal of burning Godzilla where his mere presence is melting the buildings around him was pretty cool, so. Yeah, that suggestion is pretty much what I had in mind - or maybe just shuffling Emma's sacrifice, so Mothra spends that time getting over to Godzilla and trying to heal him. Give them a longer moment together, you know? And I do agree, that shot would be a difficult thing to sacrifice!
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Jun 4, 2019 23:03
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Roland Jones posted:Makes sense. And yeah, I do wish we had seen them interact more, and had more Mothra in general. Though, tangent, I do like that, before Rodan comes in and blindsides Mothra, Godzilla has Ghidorah down and seems to be giving her the kill shot on the dragon. Those two would have easily taken down Ghidorah if he hadn't gotten his own assist. For sure! Ghidorah really got lucky so many times throughout the movie. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the first time Godzilla and (maybe another) Mothra pummeled him over the course of their long history together.
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Jun 5, 2019 00:01
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:And that’s where you need to look at characterization. There was Ghidorah's high-speed regeneration and immunity to the Oxygen Destroyer, right? At the very least, those traits set him apart from the other MUTO/Titans/Kaiju. And I'm not sure if I'm perfectly remembering that scene, but I think she was just discussing the pertinent meanings and understanding of what dragons were among various cultures and their significance. In that sense, William Blake's art wouldn't be an example of eyewitness testimony, but, at best, the latest chain in a centuries-long game of telephone, with Ghidorah's appearance during humanity's early days making him the progenitor of historic and modern-day dragon-related mythology.
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Jun 13, 2019 02:02
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding this film. Like you’ll see people claiming it’s a modern-day Showa film because those are ‘the campy ones’. I kinda got Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris vibes with the opening scene depicting Godzilla as the destroyer of families within a flashback. It and GMK getting referenced are great in my book, I love Kaneko's Kaiju movies! ungulateman posted:He's got a good point: Ghidorah being from space is something explained entirely in dialogue. I'm still mad that they nixed Ghidorah whispering to the researchers from the ice and enticing them to betray one another/humanity. I still think that would have been extremely cool.
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Jun 13, 2019 02:50
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:Because, in a straightforward way, you don’t actually enjoy the movie. You didn’t follow the story (and I don’t blame you), so was it worth the time? I think that's a strange way to start your argument and an exceptionally unfair conclusion to reach from SquidTentacle's post, but I will say that it is applicable to my experience watching the movie. I wish more time and care had been spent on fleshing out the human characters and making their experiences, if not relatable, at least interesting and engaging. White Dad did come off to me like a magically empowered white protagonist in the movie (He knows more than those egg-head scientists! He's got the real scoop on Kaiju/Titan behavior from his actual job! He's not afraid to speak his mind!), and it was frankly exhausting. Having this different presentation and perception of him as a man trying to redeem himself rather than somebody who knows he's got it all right definitely would have been a lot more enjoyable, at least, to me. McSpanky posted:I loved this film for its highs but it really annoyed me when it took Hollywood Action Script shortcuts like this. I mean, we all saw what happened during Katrina and this film's own flashback to San Francisco, are you telling me Boston was evacuated in a calm and orderly fashion to complete emptiness by the time Ghidorah got there? Absolutely this! I want to see a world changed and transformed by the Kaiju/Titans. What we got felt like the standard Marvel fare of having fights in magically abandoned cities (Rodan's appearance serving as a notable and appreciated exception), but extended to an entire world. Can you imagine the political upheaval that Godzilla's existence alone might cause (especially if he were tied to climate change in some notable way), let alone over a dozen more creatures like him on an International scale? A national scale? Heck, locally in flyover country in the United States? The world in King of the Monsters just felt kind of lifeless.
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Jun 16, 2019 14:42
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Burkion posted:yes but he wasn't talking to you I know, and I am sorry for inserting myself into their conversation like that. It just felt good to be able to express it, that I was, in many ways, kinda disappointed by the movie. What made it all the worse is that when the movie landed home for me (The Rodan chase, everything with Mothra, Serizawa saying goodbye, the Battle in Boston) it really made a significant impact. I don't think it's wrong to like those parts, and the movie in general, and still not want to engage with the flawed aspects of it. I think concluding that such a mentality is indicative of ultimately not liking the film, in opposition to what the person you're talking to says, is really unfair to them. At the end of the day, I think movies are meant to be entertaining and resonate with people, and I think it's great that Godzilla: King of the Monsters has succeeded at that, even if it didn't entirely work for me! Burkion posted:Preaching at you, whatever you want to call it. Don't give SMG more credit than he deserves. Admittedly, I do enjoy reading some of SMG's posts as a way of getting a very different perspective on how they feel about films, but I do completely agree with what you're saying. It's impossible to claim an objective reading of a subjective subject like a person's enjoyment of a film, and I cannot agree with what appear to be attempts on their part to do so. I'm also really glad that you got something positive from my post! I know I can get kinda passionate (who am I kidding, heated) when it comes to talking about the big guy and his movies, and I apologize to you and anybody else if anything I said detracted from your enjoyment of the movie or made you feel bad for enjoying it. I definitely need to work on my tone and how I express myself in general. And heck yes to your final point! I want to see that, and I want to see how they're gonna justify and film the battle between them. I think it's going to be extremely exciting, at the very least! Arcsquad12 posted:Pacific Rim remains the best western Kaiju movie. The credits sequence in Kotm is great for seeing ways in which the world changed. Pacific Rim covers all that in the first three minutes and then continues to show how Kaiju have affected the world for the rest of the runtime. You have toxic spillovers from their blood, you have doomsday cults, massive building projects, black market Kaiju parts trading, and giant combat robots. I loved the opening of Pacific Rim: Uprising, wherein we saw an underclass literally living within and rising from the remains of the kaiju. Shame about the rest of the movie, but those first 5-10 minutes were amazing.
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Jun 16, 2019 18:45
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:But we can examine those specific examples, and they aren’t separable from the ‘flaws’. Of course! Even taken at the most basic level, they at the very least do objectively occur in the same movie. My enjoyment of them was the only real subjective part, I apologize for being unclear about that. SuperMechagodzilla posted:For example, the Rodan chase occurs immediately after Millie B declares mom a monster for deferring to Charles Dance on the topic of prioritizing the fate of the Earth over individual civilian lives. I believe they were also talking about the shelters at this point, so it wasn't as binary a choice as Charles Dance made it out to be: hypothetically speaking, delaying Rodan's awakening by a longer duration of time would have enabled more people to reach safety. I think that's where Millie B's consternation stemmed from, namely that it was fine if some people died in the process as long as she didn't have to see it or could save as many people as she could. It very much seemed like a faux-progressive perspective on foreign policies, wherein it's fine if it happens, so long as we don't have to see it! SuperMechagodzilla posted:Then, in the chase scene, the SHIELD guys in the Helicarrier pretty much use the Mexican civilians as bait to trick Rodan into fighting Ghidorah - i.e. convincing Millie B to betray the ‘ecoterrorists.’ The Mexicans are pawns in the greater conflict between terrorists and counter-terrorists - hence why they disappear and are immediately forgotten. Where did they go? Hmm - I'm going to have to watch the movie again at some point, but it looked to me as if they were desperately trying to use the Argo to bait Rodan into fighting Ghidorah. The lives of the Mexican civilians are, unfortunately, lost in the process. Mass loss of human life and cataclysmic destruction reminded me of Godzilla's introduction in Godzilla 2014, wherein the scope of the Kaiju and their actions are so great that humanity simply doesn't have a chance at any sort of survival in their wake. In this sense, then, I'd say that the Mexican civilians aren't even pawns, but little more than collateral damage in the wake of titans. SuperMechagodzilla posted:The film of course does not present things in such kynical terms - the heroes are ‘just saving lives’ - but there’s obviously nothing neutral/apolitical about this ‘just saving lives.’ It’s all done in the name of ‘The Natural Order’ where White Dad is king and there’s a massively over-funded government agency run by crackpots and engaged in black ops. (Who gave the monster hunters authority to use deadly force on humans and conduct military operations in Mexico?) Godzilla 2014 has this same undercurrent, wherein the preservation of the natural order (even at the loss of thousands of lives) is prioritized above all else. What changed, however, is how the kaiju are depicted in the film itself, especially in conjunction with the glowing depiction of Monarch as an almost magically empowered organization in comparison to what it was in Godzilla 2014 and Skull Island. Discussing the possibility of killing titans/kaiju like Godzilla becomes a matter of moral necessity, rather than the ridiculous impossibility it was back in 2014. Anything that comes out of the Castle Bravo test with little more than a tan and a sunny disposition isn't plausibly killable by any stretch of the imagination unless we bring magical technology into the equation. It seems to come down to the creation of a more secular world/destruction of faith, if that makes sense? Considering the increasingly God(zilla)less world the characters live in (wherein Godzilla is the unsurpassable and incomprehensible incarnation of Leviathan or what have you), we have an increased focus on a more militarized and kinda fascistic Monarch. What authority could they answer to when it comes to using deadly force on humans and conducting military operations wherever they like? Certainly not the United States government, as emphasized in the Senate hearing. They have essentially usurped the closest thing to divinity in the Monsterverse, it's their world now. SuperMechagodzilla posted:Likewise, Serizawa’s supercharging Of Godzilla occurs immediately after he gives White Dad the “fortune cookie” pep talk. Then we get the dual loaded images of the submarine bursting out of the water, and the invigorated Godzilla shooting his laser straight up into the air as a display of pure power. After that, White Dad is really hyped about using Godzilla to attack Ghidorah, like nobody else thought of just shooting Ghidorah with rockets before. I think it goes back in line with Godzilla's dethroning as a divine figure and Monarch's elevation. It's not just that Godzilla's showing off his atomic breath, he's doing it in an attempt to threaten and intimidate the people on the ship. In that sense, White Dad's characterization struggling to prove himself would, of course, emphasize with Godzilla and his own need to prove that he's the Alpha Predator or however he's characterized now. SuperMechagodzilla posted:So, like, what’s the relation between Serizawa and White Dad that made him feel compelled to die for him, becoming one with Godzilla’s spirit and leading Dad to victory? This is where we needed more context about what MONARCH actually does, and what Serizawa’s role is - because it could be argued that he’s dying for MONARCH, but what makes these idiots worth dying for? The relationship between White Dad and Godzilla doesn't seem as strong as that of Bryan Cranston and Godzilla. I think it's less that Serizawa wanted to die for Monarch/White Dad and more that he wanted to become one with Godzilla's spirit. In other words, he's kinda like Charles Dance, but instead of sacrificing everybody else for what he believes will create a better world, he sacrifices himself. Why then does Godzilla, empowered by Serizawa's spirit/sacrifice, feel the need to intimidate his fellow coworkers and friends? Maybe he just didn't like them very much, it's certainly strange! SuperMechagodzilla posted:Ghidorah is declared “an invasive species”, of course, but the very concept of “invasive species” is highly controversial - and even that term is used somewhat incorrectly; Ghidorah doesn’t reproduce - doesn’t spread and drive other species out of their ecological niche - and he doesn’t even appear to be harming the environment. He causes wind storms, as Rodan does. We get exposition that he’s terraforming the Earth, but that’s never really illustrated. If we look at Godzilla as the Alpha Predator/keeper of the natural order as in 2014, it makes sense. Godzilla's supposed to be the one who runs and maintains things, by usurping him, Ghidorah is acting as a very monstrous invasive species indeed. Yet again, this all gets bungled (at least in my view) by Godzilla's presentation as something that's already been removed from the presence of divine through scientific study (White Dad determining that he acts like a wolf would, observing his "hunting" patterns) and his vulnerability (surprise Oxygen Destroyer!). Of course, I'm also not fond of the Heisei era for the same reason, so that just might be my bias showing! SuperMechagodzilla posted:There’s vastly more emphasis on Ghidorah - i.e. Charles Dance, who is certainly not an “invasive species” - being a bad dad. He was a father?
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Jun 17, 2019 13:12
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