who has seen Monsters?

I've seen it. It was...decent. I wish we could have seen the creatures more. But I have no doubts Godzilla 2014 will be WAY more than...decent. Also what does "gleen" mean?

I've seen Monsters, and I thought it was ok. I mean, I was VERY impressed about the quality of the film given the knowledge of its budget. But I mainly only watched AFTER hearing about Godzilla, so it's not like I went out of my way to see it. And it wasn't so good that I would recommend the film to my friends or buy it on DVD or anything. I like what the movie says about Edwards as a director of monster movies, and overall am glad he was selected to handle Godzillla; but the movie is just ok. 

As far as what Monsters says about the tone or plot 2014, I think everything Monstes says was already confirmed for me in the trailer and interviews, so Monsters didn't contribute anything new to my understanding. But it does add additional affirmation to the same things we have been hearing, which is a good thing.

Monsters definitely suggests a bleak tone, a lot of political commentary/allegory, and a strong character focus. Monsters also reveals Gareth Edward's preferences for plots where monsters ALREADY exist, and how people react to them, rather than a film where the monsters are getting introduced for the first time, which is part of where the 1954 scenes will probably tie in. 

As far as the look of the Muto's, I'm not sure if Monsters can or should be used as a reliable guide. Edwards was heavily limited by his budget. He had to be thinking about money when doing creature design, and had to deliberately create 'cheap' monsters that would be cost effective to render. Plus he did the creature designs himself.

This movie, Edwards doesn't have to let the budget limit the monster design, and he's got a team of designers and stuff working for him so he probably will not have as much hands on influence for the design. So I don't think the Muto's will look anything like what we saw in Monsters. If there are any similarities it will probably be more of a coincidence than anything else. 

That's my take in a nutshell. Basically Monsters reconfirms and adds additional evidence to most of the things we already know. 

I just ordered my copy so I'll probably be watching it within the next two weeks. I'm so excited for this movie too! :)

I have. And i love IT. One of my favourites. I actually think that just when i saw it, it kicked Cloverfield, WOTD(05) and Batman (89) out of the way. Monsters just felt nice.

It wasnt spectacularily overblown, and didnt focus on saving the world, it focused on living it. There are people in this world that lives like the people did in Monsters. They just have to deal with it.

And i know Godzilla will be different from that, and im fine with that, but im glad Monsters was different. It knew it didnt need to be a blockbuster, it just chose to become what it needed to be; A movie that shows a true world horror.

Wait, thats also what Godzilla is about. I just contradicted myself. D*** it. Its just that Godzilla has a real-world disaster thats more destructive, so in the end Godzilla and Monsters is most-likely gonna be simmiliar in that way.

i saw monsters, and liked it. appearantly the reason that it didn't show the monsters all that much is because gareth ended up rushing to make them at the end.  with this movie however, he has a lot of people backing him, and tons of rescourses, so  i wouldn't worry to much about that. and i think ZILLAHATER is on to something. Godzilla probably will have a similar feel to monsters, but on a much much larger scale. also better acting, effects, music, etc.

Years ago, I had been following the production of Monsters and saw it long before Edwards was even considered for the director of Godzilla.

What drew me to following the movie and actively seeking it out was Edwards passion for the genre and his ability to make his own entry work on a minimal budget and staff. Edwards wrote, directed, shot and did the special effects for the film while also finding the time to include his own production design. The on-set crew was much more than 7-10 people, including the cast, and much of it was shot without any lighting.

Technically, it's a miracle of an achievment. The fact that Edwards was able to pull off a movie like this with hardly any help and a budget of only half a million is very, very impressive.

Storywise, it's slow and ponderous, but it still works in its own way. At the core it's a love story between two broken people. They just happen to be wandering around in a world where giant monsters exist.

It's best not going into this movie expecting a full-on monster bash. It's about these two main characters surviving and carving out the inconsistancies in their lives. There are no military battles or monster fights. Everything is insinuated and the action happens off-screen.

It's not perfect, but it's not an objectable character film. I enjoy re-watching it.

I was expecting just monsters in this movie - which there is but not a lot - but after giving it a second watch, I actually began to like this story with these two characters, instead of waiting for the actual monsters. Then you can see how some people thought it was very very good.

Also if anyone who hasnt seen it yet, I recommend you watch the special features. After watching them it gave me a whole better look at this movie, the way it was filmed was like... taking advantage of every surrounding, which was good I thought. Some of the people who you see the characters talk to where locals who volunteered to be in the movie, and Gareth even said that a lot of the people they crossed were all positive about it. I dont know about you but this made me like the movie a lot more.

Pretty much everything has been established about this movie now. I imagine Gareth will do just as well with the characters in Godzilla than in Monsters.

I think Monsters can give us some clues on how the mutos may look and behave. It will be interesting to see how Edwards handles the movement of Godzilla, who will obviously have some constraints since there's only so much latitude Edwards has with that character design, and the mutos, who can be designed from scratch.

I absolutely love Monsters! :) I had heard of it before Gareth was announced as the director of Godzilla, but when the announcement was made, I looked into the film a little more.  I found nothing but mixed opinions and reviews, which made me nervous for Godzilla.  It took me more than three years, but I finally sat down to watch Monsters a few months ago, not expecting anything amazing or really special.  Boy, was I wrong.  The movie had an effect on me that most movies made these days haven't... it had a sense of wonder.  Watching it put me in the mind of Spielberg's early films, particularly Close Encounters of the Third Kind, one of my all time favorite movies.  Monsters' restraint with the creatures was to the fim's advantage, and I never found myself frusterated at the lack of monster footage.  In fact, we see far more of them than I thought we would, and the scenes with them are always special in some way.  Without spoiling anything, the last scene with the creatures nearly brought me to tears.  It was a profound moment of beauty, beyond human comprehension.  It was that moment that fully put my mind at ease about the selection of Gareth Edwards for the new Godzilla film.  Later learning the cercumstances under which the film was made only furthered my respect for it and Gareth, and the potential for Godzilla became overwhelmingly apparent.  The film is not for everyone, but it conected with me in an amazing way.  Gareth Edwards could very well emerge as the next visionary filmmaker and story teller of this generation, and his impact on Godzilla's history could only be the begining.  

I was pretty shocked when he was announced as the director, but also very happy.

I agree with your sentiments about Monsters. It really felt more like a road movie but with alien monsters in it.

I'm expecting there to be some real emotional consequences from the rampages in G2014.

Loved it and thought he should do Godzilla before he was announced. He makes believable/likeable characters amidst monster mayhem. Thats what we need, not a comic book movie with non stop actions with people I could care less about.

i found it ok, not my kind of movie however i did find that both the acting and the special effects were good for a limited budget, the limited buget makes you appreciate the movie more really, and if 1 man can make a movie that is better than some movies that a 5x more than monsters then gareth edwards is the right director for godzilla, plus he's a fan of Gojira, something that emmerich was not (he hated it apprently)