Bryan Cranston: Killing Off Joe Brody was a 'Narrative Mistake'

No offense, but I'm not surprised that even Bryan saw that as a mistake.

...I dont get it. How was THAT the mistake? I mean, everyone can have an opinion, but the way i see it, the mistake was that they didnt dig deeper into Ford and Elle`s situation and character. There was so much great potential. Joe Brody`s arc was over when he died. He had nothing left to offer. Ford was the one who truly had something to come back for. He was the one who had to deal with forgiving and losing his father, his family, and oh yeah, giant monsters.

"How was THAT the mistake?"

Because it was Joe that was introduced to audiences as the main character. It was him audiences connected with when he said goodbye to his wife. It was him that was driven and compelled with the more interesting story arc of finding the MUTOs. It was his level of pain that compelled audiences to follow along for the first third of the film. None of that was built up for Ford-- Granted it could've been, but he mostly comes off as apathetic.

"Joe Brody`s arc was over when he died."

But it didn't have to be. So he found out what killed his wife and handed the baton over to Ford-- Except it still didn't look like it affected Ford that much. How interesting would it have been to follow Joe, a character audiences already feel is well established, emotionally, and his quest to help Serizawa stop the MUTO? What if they butted heads and disagreed how to go about it? What would he have done when he heard Ford was still in Hawaii when it was attacked? He wouldn't want to lose his son as well, would he go after him? Would he be forced to stay with Serizawa? Would he even stay with Serizawa to begin with?

All of this are potential character threads that could've been explored and weren't.

Agree with everything above

Well, the fact of Joe Brody being killed wasn't the mistake itself; the true error for me and what Bryan is saying is the fact the character was killed TOO early. Remember the advertisements where Joe Brody was presented with all his grief and sorrow of losing his wife and trying to convince everyone that something terrible was coming. All of us thought he would be a main character in the plot and assumed he would be a tragic hero that will be dead at THE END; but everything in the publicity was very misleading, because Joe as Joe say didn't offer much because was killed in his first encounter with a monster. I think Edwards failed in making the so called emotional connection with the public, because what followed after Joe's dead was a plot of the soldier trying to complete his duty, and for me it was kinda hollow. I think the emotional connection should be after realizing how wrongly judged his father, the young Brody reconciles with him and both work together somehow to aid Serizawa and his staff to track

the mutos. The climax could be a risky situation were Joe sacrifices himself to save the staff and his son, stating he now is in peace and has the chance to reunite with his wife, leaving Ford with the grief of not having more quality time with his father in the aftermath.

"Gman -Because it was Joe that was introduced to audiences as the main character."

100% agree, as soon as he died, I lost interest because as Gman pointed out, he was presented as the main character, apart from Godzilla of course. xx

Hah, I felt the movie was miscast - especially Cranston's role and Aaron Taylor Johnson's. Neither one brought anything to the movie.

should have had the son die, it only would have made it better!