Your Initial Reaction Thread

Hey, happy to know it made another fan happy....I wanna watch it again, but I gotta save money unfortunately:(

Every moment that Godzilla was there, it just brought a damn good feeling for me

Akio,

This actually isn't a bad idea. There seems to be plenty of people who want to spit their kneejerk reactions out on this forum and are just making their own threads as a result. Thus I'm going to sticky your thread and rename to reduce some clutter.

In the meantime, for everyone else, if you want to write a full review, please do it here here:

http://www.scified.com/movie/godzilla-2014

Not on the forums. Thanks.

I saw the Movie today, in fact i did come now home from the cinema, sorry about my englisch i am from germany.

If you dont want to get spoiled dont read please.

My Reaction:

To be honest, i am dissapointed, dont get me wrong, the Movie was OK but how long is the Movie? 120 min? You can see Godzilla for only 15 minutes MAX in the whole Movie! I mean, the Movies name is Godzilla, and if you go inj a movie that is called Godzilla you want to see GODZILLA, the Human drama was in every Godzilla movie there but there was much Godzilla Action.

In this movie, you wait 1 hour for Godzilla to apear, he apear to battle the MUTO, we see him now for like 10 Seconds, he scream BAM we go back to the humans, we can now see how Godzilla is fighting from the television a kid is watching, only for 5 sec?

Then after much human "drama" in San Francisco where the MUTO apears we see Godzilla standig up, the Muto is Attacking Godzilla we se like 10 seconds of the Fight and back to humans...i was thinking realy? SHOW THE FIGHT ALLREADY!

They did show the final fight between Godzilla and the two MUTOs but only in the end of the Movie, the fight was amazing no question, but lastet only 10 minutes? maybe not even 10 i am not kiding!!!

The moment Godzilla fired the Nuclear Beam was realy Epic! Not to forget the Tail attack!

Facit:

Too much Human "drama" it was feeling realy forced!

Too little Godzilla action! Dissapointed.

MUTOS were realy scary! Awesome!

Prepare your eyes for Eyegasm with the Efects! Realy a 3D must see!

In the theater now waiting for it to start in AZ. IMAX looks like it might have sold out as tix weren't available for 7p.  Watching non 3d.  Theater is about 50% full with 15min to go.

i agree the human drama was a little much. enjoyed the film greatly either way. whenever we got godzilla action it was amazing even when his ass was being kicked. my god the build up to his atomic breath was spectacular although the breath itself was a bit weak. his tail however is incredibly powerful. in short the movie could do better with more godzilla action but was a good movie nonetheless 

Just saw the movie last night. I walked away feeling really good about what I saw. Honestly, approximating about 15 mins screen time for G sounds pretty ridiculous. He definintely has more screen time than some of his other appearances and I was relieved to see that the lack of monster action complaint is somewhat embellished. The same goes for the criticism of Aaron Johnson. He isn't the most compelling lead in cinema, but he wasn't nearly as bad as critics led me to believe. The big disappointment for me was Bryan Cranston's Joe Brody. He hooked me from word go and his exit was far to premature.

It may not be my favorite Godzilla movie, but then again, I wasn't expecting it to be. But I had a big smile on my face when it ended and that is ultimately the measure of a greart movie for me. I'll be seeing it again (probably more than once) this weekend and I'll make a more comprehensive review, but kudos to Edwards and Legendary Pictures for making a proper Godzilla movie.

First off, as a life-long Godzilla fan I want to say this movie was great.  I give it 4 out of 5 stars, with some slight problems (I will address them later).

I do, however, want to start out with some positives and what I loved about the movie.

1. The king, Godzilla.  His design was flawless... his atomic breath was perfect... and his demeanor was actually Godzilla (not like the 1998 American Godzilla, thank god we can finally put that to bed).  Like many, I agree he could have had some more screen-time, but what we got was adequate. 

2. The MUTOs.  Their design was awesome, and the movie actually revolvs around them more than it does Godzilla.  This is okay though - because we needed something new.  Everyone knows Godzilla, the roar, the atmoic breath, etc...  Without the MUTOs this is the same-old same-old, and that wouldn't have been interesting.  Their feeding on radioactivity drove the plot, and their back-story was more than acceptable.  All in all, I loved them, and they were a great and formidable opponent for Godzilla.

3. Gareth Edwards.  Kudos on getting it right.  Thank you for not using so much CGI it becomes a cartoon (see Pacific Rim).  Thank you for choosing Alexander Desplat, his score was breathtaking.  And thank you for the character and plot development.  Sure this isn't the Godfather series but the storytelling here is enough for a Godzilla movie.

Now for some of my issues:

1.  Cranston.  Cranston should have been the lead!   The death of his wife drove the first part of the movie, and his investigation into these extraordinary happenings are our reason for the story.  His departure 1/3 of the way into the movie leaves the movie lacking after that part, as Taylor-Johnson can't give the viewer the same attachment Cranston can.  I am not saying Taylor-Johnson was as flat as some reviews, but he isn't as interesting as Cranston's character (nor is he as good of an actor).  On another note, Watanabe and Binoche were great, and I loved their characters.

2. Maybe I am wrong about this, but the whole Strathaim quote ("Gentlemen you are being sent in via a halo jump...") was cut from the movie?!  This was the highlight of like all the trailers!  Why - that would have been great!

3. The Ligeti music for the halo jump.  Great for the trailer, seemed out of place for the movie.  Do something original Gareth - Stanley Kubrick you are not!

4. Pay respect!  I was reaaaalllyy hoping for something more to pay tribute to the original Godzilla movies other than a few Easter eggs.  I know this was probably wishful thinking, but I had my fingers crossed for the original Godzilla theme music during the credits with some footage of the original movie (like Giant Monsters All Out Attack).

All in all, a great movie, can't wait to see it again!