Godzilla (2014)- Thoughts? (Spoilers)

[SilverDragonRed]

Btw can anyone tell me how good as the Japanese in this movie, decent or was the typical american movie style where it might sound ok to someone who doesn't speak the language (like me) but is actually facepalmingly bad if you actually know how to speak the language?

Well, I don't speak Japanese, but the scenes in Japan appeared to use Japanese actors. I can't speak for the main character's father's Japanese, though...

The Japanese in the film was fine. It sounded like it was supposed to.

[LadyTevar]

I am disappointed that the Godzilla fight in Hawaii was cut short and just a splash on the TV. It looked like a really nasty battle.

[Adam Reynolds]

I finally got around to seeing it and something interesting that I was thinking about after watching it earlier today is that it almost has the feel of a superhero movie from the perspective of normal humans with Godzilla in the role of the superhero. Normal humans being unable to do much of anything about either Godzilla or the MUTOs also was an interesting element of this. While most of this was due to the true stupidity of the military in this setting, it was almost fitting for that. The fact that the major fight scenes were often cut short also played into this.

One element I disliked was the fact nuclear power seems to be getting lumped in with nuclear weapons as bad. However it is interesting in that environmental concerns have supplanted the direct affects of nuclear weapons. This is an interesting issue with monster movies in general in that they can easily be modified to play into present fears. 2007's Colverfield played into 9/11 inspired fears of powerlessness and in the same year South Korea's The Host played into fears about environmental issues and American coverups. This movie had something of a mix of all of those.

Another random note is that while the MUTOs were attracted to radiation, it almost seemed they were attracted to Brody as he always seemed in their path.

[SAMAS]

I am disappointed that the Godzilla fight in Hawaii was cut short and just a splash on the TV. It looked like a really nasty battle.

I can kinda see why they did that, though. Unlike Pacific Rim, which had a dozen mecha and kaiju, Godzilla only had the three. If they had shown the battle in Hawaii all the way, most of the San Francisco battle would've been a retread.

[biostem]

Would a 300-something foot tall monster displace enough water that it coming up on the beach would cause that area of the city to flood with several feet of water?

As for the fights - while there were only ever the 3 monsters, they could have worked off of the dynamics of each fight, instead of them just being a "retread" each time - the male vs Godzilla in Hawaii could have been a more dynamic fight, with the male flying around a lot more. The one in CA was more of a stand up fight, when the female was involved, with the male acting more in a support/harassment role, so it would have its own "flavor".

Could the 160-something foot male MUTO realistically be expected to lift that nuclear submarine? How big was it supposed to be?


I know they said it was a Russian or Chinese sub, but a US attack sub is over 350' long, and a ballistic missile one is about 550':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angele ... _submarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio-class_submarine

[Borgholio]

I know they said it was a Russian or Chinese sub, but a US attack sub is over 350' long, and a ballistic missile one is about 550':

Russian Akula class. ~360 feet long, 8 thousand tons. Pretty big to be sure.

[biostem]

I know they said it was a Russian or Chinese sub, but a US attack sub is over 350' long, and a ballistic missile one is about 550':

Russian Akula class. ~360 feet long, 8 thousand tons. Pretty big to be sure.

Dang! And the male MUTO, at about 160', was supposed to have dove under water and lifted this thing onto the island? That's a lot of lifting power, if that's the case.

BTW, how fast do you reckon the male was able to fly?

[Borgholio]

Over 100mph at least. He was able to make it from Hawaii to the mainland within a day it seemed. Godzilla took a few days and he was swimming at about 30 knots.

[LadyTevar]

Over 100mph at least. He was able to make it from Hawaii to the mainland within a day it seemed. Godzilla took a few days and he was swimming at about 30 knots.

Godzilla then put on enough speed that the carrier group couldn't keep up. I'm not sure what the top speed of a carrier group is, so I can't say if that was fast than 30knots or not.

[Borgholio]

A nuclear carrier can push 35 knots...they're very fast if you open up the throttle.

[Tsyroc]

A nuclear carrier can push 35 knots...they're very fast if you open up the throttle.

Officially the top speed is always "33+ knots".

So I was amused that when Godzilla accelerated past 33 knots they made a point in saying that they wouldn't be able to keep up. The USN helped with the movie
so I took that as a bit of a nod to them. Especially after the 1998 Godzilla crapped all over the US military, mostly as payback for taking a pass on being involved in ID4
due to references to Area 51.


Interestingly, the USN and Air Force were okay with this Godzilla movie but the USMC took a pass on being involved. It makes we wonder about earlier drafts of the script, whether
Brody was originally a Marine instead of Navy?

[Borgholio]

Officially the top speed is always "33+ knots".

"Officially" of course. But Enterprise was said to have been able outrun her fucking escorts...which takes a bit more than 33 knots.

[iborg]

Anyone else thought back to 2001, a space odyssey, when the paras dropped over San Francisco ? The music, I mean. Like the one in 2001 whenever there was a scene featuring the Monolith.

[LadyTevar]

So Godzilla can go at least 35knots, possibly 40-50?

[Tsyroc]

I read the novelization today.

On the Godzilla front the main differences are:
Spoiler

Godzilla takes a shot at the male MUTO with his breath weapon in Honolulu but misses.

The book describes Godzilla taking some damage from the Navy blockade of San Francisco Bay but more from F-35s shooting (bullets, missiles etc..) him while he is near Alcatraz. The arrival of the male MUTO and its electromagnetic field is what takes out the planes, although there is one scene where it takes one plane out directly. The planes stay completely out of Godzilla's reach the entire time, just picking away at him.

The MUTOs and Godzilla do a lot of damage to each other. Godzilla's breath weapon burns and cracks the hide of the female and he nearly takes her out at that point except for the male interfering.

The male MUTO is able to use his EMP to short circuit Godzilla's breath weapon. Apparently it is something that Godzilla ignites electrically in the back of his throat. The EMP effect stays around for awhile. Godzilla is essentially choking on whatever he ignites while the two MUTOs are really taking it to him. Godzilla and the female are bleeding a lot at this point and showing a lot of damage.

note: In the Art of Destruction book they talk about basing Godzilla's breath weapon on some sort of lightning effect but changed it to a more classic look. I'm wonder if the book is reflecting the original idea while the final decision was in flux or if this is still how Godzilla's breath weapon is supposed to work? With the way the glowing spine effect started at his tail and worked it's way up it seems to me that him drawing on his energy reserves seems to fit better with what was in the movie but I think they could get away with tweaking it either way and it would work out okay in the sequel.

When the female leaves the fight because of Brody torching the nest Godzilla still suckers the male into attacking him except in the book he bites, shreds and rips off a big chunk of one of the male's wings before slamming him into a building with his whole body. The building collapses on both of them, but mostly on the male. The tail gag was used on the female (non-fatal) earlier and Godzilla seems a bit more prone to using his tail in fighting given the description.

Godzilla doesn't bite the female at the end he just blows her head clean off and into the bay. He eventually collapses on to her corpses squeezing MUTO juice all over the remnants of the wharf / pier. He never appears to stop breathing so no one thinks he's dead. They do wonder if he's dieing though.

The film version of Godzilla seems more durable than the novelization version but the version in the novelization heals very fast. Wounds that he took at the Golden Gate Bride and Alcatraz get reopened during the fight with the MUTOs but they had closed and stopped bleeding in that short amount of time.

The rest of the stuff.

I think there is a lot in there that explain Ford Brody's character a bit more than the film does. I've read some complaints about him being wooden etc... and I think it likely that some of his character stuff was trimmed a bit. Personally I think it's fine how it is and that people who think he was too wooden don't know many people who have highly stressful jobs that require them to focus and not get all wired and spazzy. The book goes more specifically into the awkwardness he feels after being away from his young son and wife for 14 months. I thought that came through in the movie pretty well as is. The family scene in SF was probably trimmed a bit as well.

The team Ford is with in SF realize that he's behind the nest getting taken out and it helps them for a time by distracting the female. The smaller group of soldiers who fire on the female MUTO from the dock know that Ford is on his way to the boat and are trying to buy him time since he's the last one who has a shot at stopping the detonation.

There were a few more things with the kid that I'm glad they cut out. Sam briefly gets lost from his mother before getting put on the bus. There's also a bit where Ford finds him in the evacuation center before being recalled to join the group that Halo jumps into the city. I don't mind that scene so much except that it really puts a major time squeeze on the military getting everything together in time to defeat the nuke. There is an amusing bit that both Sam and young Ford both think. "The dinosaur always beats the army men". Sam notes that Godzilla is not only a dinosaur but he's a really big dinosaur.

One of the sailors in the SF Bay blockade notes that Godzilla isn't just a dinosaur he's a dragon, based solely on his appearance.

The USS Saratoga is specifically called a Nimitz Class carrier. Doesn't really fit with a hull number of CVN-88 (not stated in the book but shown in the movie) but I guess it's acceptable. There are a couple of other ship names that I'm not up to date enough on the current classes to know whether they are correct or not. There were supposed to be Littoral Combat Ships in the blockade but if they were depicted that way in the movie it didn't stand out to me.

The locomotive they use to pull the train with the nukes is supposed to be a rather old diesel, supposedly to help against the EMP. Even so they have to change fuses to get it going again at one point because they are too close to one of the MUTOs.

Until he reappears it is presumed that the nuclear "tests" of the 50s destroyed Godzilla since he hasn't been seen since. Of course, it's noted that they never found a corpse.

The nuke they are trying to use on Godzilla and the MUTOs is stated as having a 300 kiloton yield. Also, 300,000 tons of TNT.

The submarine is called a Russian Borei class and is given the name Alexander Nevsky.

[Tsyroc]

So Godzilla can go at least 35knots, possibly 40-50?

In Godzilla 1985 he was stated as doing 40 knots and accelerating when he attacked the Russian submarine.


If they really want to play real world accurate on Godzilla seriously outpacing the battle group by a lot I think 50 knots wouldn't be ridiculous. I can't recall how far
ahead of the carrier group he got though. I think it's safe to say that he's faster than water going craft that aren't primarily built for speed.

[TimothyC]

"Officially" of course. But Enterprise was said to have been able outrun her fucking escorts...which takes a bit more than 33 knots.

Mostly this is because she could go to full power almost instantly and then keep it there. Even when the escorts could catch up, they didn't have a huge margin on the CVNs so it would take a while. [Source]

[Tsyroc]

"Officially" of course. But Enterprise was said to have been able outrun her fucking escorts...which takes a bit more than 33 knots.

Mostly this is because she could go to full power almost instantly and then keep it there. Even when the escorts could catch up, they didn't have a huge margin on the CVNs so it would take a while. [Source]

Enterprise was always a fast ship but from what I was told in the USN she had different screws in the the early days that allowed her a higher top speed than what is currently the norm but she couldn't accelerate or stop as quickly.

[SilverDragonRed]

The USS Saratoga is specifically called a Nimitz Class carrier. Doesn't really fit with a hull number of CVN-88 (not stated in the book but shown in the movie) but I guess it's acceptable. There are a couple of other ship names that I'm not up to date enough on the current classes to know whether they are correct or not. There were supposed to be Littoral Combat Ships in the blockade but if they were depicted that way in the movie it didn't stand out to me.

There weren't any LCSs in the bay; just a bunch of Arleigh-Burke class destroyers. Specifically, I was pissed to see both the John S. McCain and Fitzgerald in another damned movie.

So Godzilla can go at least 35knots, possibly 40-50?

50 knots is still too slow if you're wanting to outrun the ships shown in the carrier taskforce, but should be enough against a frigate.

[NecronLord]

You don't have to outrun the fastest ship in a fleet, just the slowest. At no point did they say they'd dispersed the ships to chase Godzilla, nor would that be wholly wise as they still got to have the engagement where they wanted it anyway.

[AniThyng]

I can't think of any usn surface combatants that can sustain 50 knots...

[SilverDragonRed]

You don't have to outrun the fastest ship in a fleet, just the slowest. At no point did they say they'd dispersed the ships to chase Godzilla, nor would that be wholly wise as they still got to have the engagement where they wanted it anyway.

I was talking about the slowest ships in the group. There were no frigates with that carrier, so they aren't bogged all that much.

I can't think of any usn surface combatants that can sustain 50 knots...

The Arleigh-Burke class destroyers would beg to differ about that.

[AniThyng]

Give someone enough rope...seriously, you sure you don't have km/h and knots confused? No way Burkes are sustaining 50 knots at sea.

[SilverDragonRed]

I know what I'm talking about. There aren't many situations where you need to go that fast (most of ones that call for it involve Uncle Kim doing something stupid in North Korea); but when they absolutely need to, a Burke can sustain 50+ knot speeds for a couple of days.

[Borgholio]

I know what I'm talking about. There aren't many situations where you need to go that fast (most of ones that call for it involve Uncle Kim doing something stupid in North Korea); but when they absolutely need to, a Burke can sustain 50+ knot speeds for a couple of days.

I'd like to see the specs on that please. The only surface combatants who could exceed 50 knots were the old Pegasus class hydrofoils from the 80's. The new LCS can get *close* to 50 knots but that's about it. The Burke class can't get much past the mid 30's.