3D Blu-ray Review Godzilla (2014): THE HTF 3D ADDICT REVIEW (1 Viewer)

[ABaglivi]

Watched G in 3D last night. It looked and sounded terrific. Detail was not obscured in the night scenes.

 

[haineshisway]

While I know it's not a perfect metric, Rotten Tomatoes shows it at 73% - so SOMEONE out there must have liked it. For comparison, Godzilla in Name Only got 25%, Vs Hedorah is at 64%, Final Wars is at 40%, vs Mechagodzilla is at 67%, vs Mothra is at 67%, and Son at a baffling 63%. So far the only classic G flicks that beat it are Mothra vs Godzilla (90%) and Gojira at 83%.

As a scorecard, that's not too bad - especially if you look at some of the terrible numbers 2014 had generated.

If it didn't work for you, then it didn't work for you and nothing I say will change your mind - that's fine. However people being dissatisfied with the flick are clearly in the minority (especially amongst Giant Monster fans).

Oh, so Rotten Tomatoes is how we judge movies today? That, of course, is horse manure of the highest order. What does "lifelong" fan mean anyway? You could be fifteen and be a lifelong fan but that's kind of meaningless. I saw the very first Godzilla film (in the Raymond Burr version) when it was released here in LA. And I've seen every single Godzilla film since, which, I suppose, makes ME a lifelong Godzilla fan. After reading several reports about how this was a respectful and brilliant homage to Toho I had high hopes. And its aim does seem to be to be an homage to the Toho series of films from the 80s and 90s. But while that SEEMS to be its aim, it's just not a very good movie, I'm afraid, at least from where I sit. And no, your continual offensive comments that anyone who doesn't like this is simply a person who wants two hours of Godzilla wrecking stuff, is not accurate in terms of this particular viewer. No, here's the shocker - I just want a good movie, with a coherent plot, decent acting (the lead in this film is HORRIBLE), and you know, maybe a character or two to care about. Glad you liked it, but you don't need to keep telling people who don't how wonderful it is. And really, Rotten Tomatoes as an arbiter of what's good? C'mon.

 

[John Sparks]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion...but, I really liked it!!! Can't wait to have it in my sci-fi/horror collection. Now, since when has Hollywood made a sci-fi/horror movie that has everything that you want...namely...a beginning, a middle and an end?

I was the fire safety officer on the American Godzilla when it was filming in downtown L.A. and it's still one of my favorite monster movies...until this new one!

They're not going to make what you want, so, you have got to accept what they give you...unless you have the $200 million to make what you want!!!

 

[Citizen87645]

So...everything is good and there are no standards to meet? I'm not trying to be snarky. That just seems like the logical outcome of that line of thinking.

They're not going to make what you want, so, you have got to accept what they give you...unless you have the $200 million to make what you want!!!

 

[bujaki]

To John Sparks,
I had to chuckle at your last name and your occupation at the time, as described in your post:
[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:'Merriweather Sans', sans-serif;background-color:rgb(242,242,242);]I was the fire safety officer on the American Godzilla when it was filming in downtown L.A.[/color]

 

[ROclockCK]

Godzilla 2014 was a very strange mixed bag for me. BTW, I just finished watching it for the first time in 2D, so no idea how it played on the big screen in 3D.

Pluses:

[*]Unexpected poetry in its direction and rendering, resulting in shot after shot of frame-able compositions. Guess somebody forgot to tell Gareth Edwards that he wasn't making the '2001 of City-trashing Monster Movies', or if they did, I'm glad he ignored it...his vaulting directorial ambition at least kept me interested throughout.
[*]A rich and evocative score by Alexandre Desplat...which I consider anything but "pedestrian"...one of the best neo-classicist scores of the year, with again,

Spoiler

a tip to Kubrick via use of Ligeti during the air drop. As fundamentally silly as that was in this context, it was also gorgeously arranged against Edwards' spectacular CGI backdrop

.
[/list]
Minuses:

[*]Some of the performances. Specifically, I never bought Bryan Cranston as obsessive dad...not helped at all by the s-l-o-w-e-s-t 'containment breach' in movie history. And I was so shocked by the mere presence of Juliet Binoche in something like this that

Spoiler

I could never see her 'character'. It would be like Meryl Streep trying to disappear into character and blend with all the unknowns in Starship Troopers. Certainly admire the spirit, but just no way

.
[*]Too much plotting-by-convenience in the writing, such as

Spoiler

none of the scientists bothering to retrieve and analyze the data on dad's discs which sat there in plain view where he left them 15 years earlier

??
[*]And the biggie:

Spoiler

these towering, steel-devouring MUTOs which bafflingly carry their [sic] eggs in big, jiggly, extremely vulnerable bio sacs. WTF

???
[/list]
On balance, a profoundly silly, yet still very enjoyable entertainment. Few tentpole blockbusters even take such ambitious creative leaps anymore...and this one flirted with folly so often I had to acknowledge that much at least, and forgive in measure.

 

[FrancisP]

This. Of all the dumb arguments leveled against this movie, the "there isn't enough Godzilla" one is probably the dumbest, or at least the one that most misunderstands what Edwards was going for here. He made a true throwback to the Toho films, complete with 1) dumb human story that takes up WAY too much screen time, 2) great big monster battles and 3) sparing but incredibly effective use of the Big G. I didn't think the film itself was perfect, but I enjoyed it immensely, and Watanabe's delivery of "Let them fight" got a huge, knowing belly laugh out of me. This is everything a Godzilla tribute film should be.

It was not a throwback to the Toho films. The Toho films had a distinct pattern to them. There were 2-3 monster battles during the Toho movies. For example, Godziila 2000 had Godzilla appearing before the opening title credits. It consisted of around 12 minutes of Godzilla attacking Tokyo. The next sequence was a 9 minute block which started
with the military trying to stop Godzilla and ended with the spaceship and Godzilla fighting. The last block was the climax.

The problem with Godzilla is the constant cutaways. The battle between the male Muto and Godzilla gets cut down to 30 seconds on a simulated broadcast. Then you see the military trying to stop the female Muto in little bits of a simulated broadcast in the background.

 

[Tony J Case]

I wound up watching the 2D version last night. Now, story considerations aside - did the mastering seem REALLY dark to you guys? A couple of times, I found myself going "Geeze, I don't remember it being THIS dark in the theater?" For some reason the disc is super dark and the colors are muted. It doesn't look very good at all, with parts near pitch black.

Is it just my eyes going or was this a messed up transfer?

 

[DavidJ]

I haven't watched it yet. We were sitting down to watch it this evening when my wife remembered she was supposed to pick up a friend at the airport. Oops! But, I do remember it being quite dark and muted in the theater too.

 

[marshman1138]

I have issues with this movie but am a G fan so.... The 3D version is the worst 3D presentation I have seen to this point. Yes, I do have a high end Panasonic plasma but Pacific Rim was dark and it looked fine. G is VERY dark. Have not watched the 2D version yet so will reserve final judgement until I do. I will say that there was not enough of the Big Guy to justify naming the movie after him. Maybe "Chasing the MUTO" with special guest star Godzilla would have been better.

 

[dpippel]

I wound up watching the 2D version last night. Now, story considerations aside - did the mastering seem REALLY dark to you guys? A couple of times, I found myself going "Geeze, I don't remember it being THIS dark in the theater?" For some reason the disc is super dark and the colors are muted. It doesn't look very good at all, with parts near pitch black.

Is it just my eyes going or was this a messed up transfer?

On my calibrated Panny plasma and Oppo BDP-103, I thought it was very dark as well and not how I remembered it looking theatrically. Interestingly, the footage shown in the supplements looks perfect. Something's not right. IMO there's a problem with this transfer.

 

[Tony J Case]

Missed this the first time around:

Oh, so Rotten Tomatoes is how we judge movies today?

Hence the "I know it's not a perfect metric" part of my statment.

What does "lifelong" fan mean anyway? You could be fifteen and be a lifelong fan but that's kind of meaningless.

Allow me to direct you to the posts where I mention that I've been watching when they ran these things on the local UHF stations on Sci-Fi Theater. No, it's not a specific date - but a bit of logical thinking will lead you to the conclusion that "It was a really damn long time ago" when I was watching Godzilla ficks. In my case Lifelong Fan means 1975.

And no, your continual offensive comments that anyone who doesn't like this is simply a person who wants two hours of Godzilla wrecking stuff, is not accurate in terms of this particular viewer.

One of the common complaints, much like this review at the top of this thread, is that Godzilla has nothing but a cameo. Looking at the track record of the films like vs Hedora and Final Wars (where Godzilla has just about as much screen time as he does here), this is clearly the series norm. If people wanted to see Pacific Rim, where giant things smash into giant things for hours on end, this may not be the franchise for them.

(the lead in this film is HORRIBLE)

Where some folks see bland underacting, I see emotional maturity and subtlety. While Ford may not believe his father’s conspiracy theory ramblings, he doesn’t drag his heels or passive-aggressively sabotage the trip back to their irradiated home. Instead he realizes that his father’s paranoia is born from a place of deep emotional hurting – and if going back into the quarantine zone will help ease that pain, then they’ll go back together.

Or the soldiers disarming the bomb. In a standard action flick, there would have been all kinds of bravado and machismo at their inability to open the bomb’s casing. Here, as soon as it becomes clear that Plan A wont work, they transition immediately to Plan B: get the bomb as far away from San Francisco as possible. We're free of whining and posturing and machismo - all the main characters communicated nothing but sincerity in their interactions.

Like I said upthread, if it doesn't work for you, then it doesn't work. However to dismiss the film like the original post did, "Even the fans are disappointed!" is simply not the case. A simple glance at any Godzilla forum or /Godzilla over on reddit makes that abundantly clear. THAT is what I'm taking issue with.

 

[Tony J Case]

Getting back, by the way, to the technical side:

Is it just my eyes going or was this a messed up transfer?

Apparently there are folks who are less than happy with the brightness levels. Toho Kingdom is the one that sticks out, where they say "Yeah, it's too damn dark". So no, I'm not going blind.

 

[RolandL]

Getting back, by the way, to the technical side:


Apparently there are folks who are less than happy with the brightness levels. Toho Kingdom is the one that sticks out, where they say "Yeah, it's too damn dark". So no, I'm not going blind.

First time I have read a review where the 3D version is brighter and better than the 2D version.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I'm skeptical of that Toho review.

Anyone seen Alien Vs Predator: Requiem, they graded it to look dark and murky, i bet you that's what we have with Godzilla.

 

[dpippel]

Watch the movie footage included in the extras. THAT is how it looked in the theater.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Watch the movie footage included in the extras. THAT is how it looked in the theater.

So are you saying this is another studio mess up, will it be fixed in time for the November UK release date, i can't watch the extra content unless i get the disc and i'm now unsure about getting the disc, it's a film i wanted to buy but only in 2D.

I thought the director or cinematographer would approve the blu ray, is it possible they want it like this for the home market, is everyone who thought it too dark viewing with calibrated displays, what is their gamma set at, just wondering.

 

[dpippel]

If the display is ISF calibrated then the gamma is set correctly. I'm not denying that Godzilla is a dark film in many instances, intentionally so, but what I'm seeing on the 2D Blu is noticeably darker than I remember the film looking when theatrically projected. This includes most of the monster fight sequences, and those same sequences look correct in the supplements about the films SFX.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

So are you saying this is another studio mess up, will it be fixed in time for the November UK release date, i can't watch the extra content unless i get the disc and i'm now unsure about getting the disc, it's a film i wanted to buy but only in 2D.I thought the director or cinematographer would approve the blu ray, is it possible they want it like this for the home market, is everyone who thought it too dark viewing with calibrated displays, what is their gamma set at, just wondering.

I took a look at the 2D version last night and it was darker than i recalled the IMAX 3D being. My set is professionals calibrated.

 

[FoxyMulder]

If the display is ISF calibrated then the gamma is set correctly. I'm not denying that Godzilla is a dark film in many instances, intentionally so, but what I'm seeing on the 2D Blu is noticeably darker than I remember the film looking when theatrically projected. This includes most of the monster fight sequences, and those same sequences look correct in the supplements about the films SFX.

So someone messed up.............again.

What the hell happened to quality control on blu ray, no one checked it out before putting it onto the marketplace.

I took a look at the 2D version last night and it was darker than i recalled the IMAX 3D being. My set is professionals calibrated.