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Godzilla (2014)
32 Plays7 months ago
This week on the Everything Actioncast, Zach and Chris return to the start of the Monsterverse to discuss Godzilla for its 10th anniversary.
Directed by Gareth Edwards, Godzilla kicked off the Monsterverse as a pair of giant kaiju called MUTOs emerge and wreak havoc across the globe. Their appearance also draws the attention of Godzilla, who hunts the MUTOs down as they challenge his role as the alpha predator of the Earth. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is Ford Brody, a Navy EOD soldier who is trying to get home to San Fransisco but keeps getting caught in the battle between the giant monsters. Zach and Chris talk about the lifecycle of MUTOs, the dramatically more serious tone compared to the current Monsterverse entries, the early death of Bryan Cranston, the awesome sense of size and scale, and more. You can watch Godzilla on Max.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Everything Action Cast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Everything Action Cast, the official podcast of EverythingAction.com. Hello and welcome to the Everything Action Cast, the podcast for the week of May 13th, 2024. I'm Rijo Zek.
00:00:25
Speaker
And I'm your co-host Chris.
Reflection on the MonsterVerse
00:00:27
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, this week we are heading back to the beginning of the monster verse because Godzilla 2014 debuted 10 years ago this week on, um, actually today we're recording is May 16th, 2014. It like, I don't know about you Chris, but does it feel like 10 years of the monster verse? It feels like it just started. Yeah, it feels like it just took off in 2018.
00:00:54
Speaker
But yeah, the MonsterVerse, outside the MCU, one of the few cinematic universes that sprung up that's still going strong. Godzilla Kong, The New Empire is one of the biggest movies of the year. And I think one of the biggest movies in this whole franchise so far. So they've only gotten stronger, apparently, or people like the more ridiculous tone more.
00:01:24
Speaker
But it's definitely seeing where we are this year with Godzilla and then going back to this one. It's such a tonal shift is so crazy. It's very serious. Just the score is so minimal and ethereal. It's very cinematic. All this cinematography and all this slow buildup to Godzilla.
00:01:55
Speaker
And then guys like songs like, eh, they're going to smash the pure bids. And I got con con gets a, like, like a cyber glove and there's like, you know, hovercrafts and the hollow earth. And you almost think it's like another reboot that happens.
Cinematic Style and Tone in Godzilla 2014
00:02:10
Speaker
You feel, you feel like this is sort of a one off Godzilla movies, which have existed in the past.
00:02:18
Speaker
But if you look at just like the coloring, the soundtrack, and just the seriousness, it is very dramatic. It's not as lighthearted, I guess, with the violence. Yeah, I think probably when Adam Wigard came on with Godzilla versus Kong, it's probably like
00:02:41
Speaker
Because Godzilla King the Monster still has some, it's shifting that way, but that one's still kind of a little bit more serious too. Or it has more serious moments and then Godzilla vs Kong is just full on cartoon nonsense and then Godzilla is calling it even more so. I agree, yeah. There is like, even the posters, you could see whenever it's just black and red, you knew it's a serious movie, but whenever it was
00:03:09
Speaker
you throw neon in there and you just are just like, okay. Yeah, it's all like, I think it crept in with King of the Monsters. And then by the time Godzilla versus Kong, it was just like brightly lit. And even New Empire, I think it's like purple. Like it's a whole, it's like, yeah, it's like, Godzilla gets like his pink upgrade. So he's got like pink scales now. And then it's like, yeah, it's all, yeah, it's all like neon greens and purples and pinks and
00:03:37
Speaker
So it's hard to be dramatic when you look like the backdrop of a cyberpunk movie. But yeah, Godzilla 2014 though, I mean, yeah, there's so many like just like epic, like the scale is so much like more defined, like of just like, you get such a sense of like how gigantic Godzilla is. There's so many shots of just like, you're just like in awe of how big he is.
00:04:05
Speaker
I think it kind of lost that into it. Yeah. Well, apparently, apparently Gareth Edwards was like very inspired by Jaws. So like, it's like, it has that Jaws kind of thing where they kind of like, they're like, tease out the shark, but then you don't see the shark until at the end. So they do a lot like it's a law. Yeah. It for a second movie director at this point in 2014,
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah, he does a great job of teasing Godzilla because you see him in the poster. And I think if you remember the marketing leading up to this, for those who were part of that experience of like the, the maybe year and a half, two year tease of what this movie was going to be.
Critical Reception and Casting
00:04:50
Speaker
It still was coming off of the tail of like Cloverfield of like, Oh,
00:04:56
Speaker
It's it's in the realm of big giant monsters. We haven't done that. Maybe the last movie that was like that was like Pacific Rim, where it was specifically for this or after this, Pacific Rim was way before it was like Pacific Rim was like 20. Oh, the year before. Oh, really? Twenty twenty one specific room. Yeah. OK, so yeah, that was the last thing where that made like robot like giant kaiju fights like Americanize or like, you know, just
00:05:25
Speaker
more Hollywood theatrical. And the weird thing is like that movie like a tone of Pacific Rim is now that's like the tone of the monster verse. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, it was like, it sort of bled back into that because after a while these giant monster movies, the first one has to be kind of impactful where it's like, oh, man, it's so destructive. But after the next round, you're just like, well, it's the building's fault for being in the way of these monsters.
00:05:55
Speaker
And yeah, you have to throw more monsters in, too. Yeah, yeah. Up to the ante. Yeah, now it's just a big slugfest. Yeah. But that's even with this. It's weird because it was really high... This movie is highly regarded. But I think the critic review over the years, it's dropped down. I think it's by today's standard, it's rated lower than the rest.
00:06:23
Speaker
I, well, it's for me, it's like one of those movies where like every time I see it, I like it more. Yeah, I think because the appreciation is it's because it's not a slugfest. Yeah. And I think also, and also you're like, you're, you're, you know, that like Bryan Cranston isn't going to like, he's not the star of the movie. You know, honestly, I think that's another like bait move. I just wasn't ready for how little he's in this. Yeah. Cause the show was all like, cause like we were, and this was like peak Breaking Bad era too. So it's just like,
00:06:53
Speaker
Like, oh man, Brian Krantz is gonna star in this Godzilla movie. And then that was all the trailers. There's all this like Brian Krantz and Godzilla. And then it's like, how long is he at? Like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and then he gets killed? Maybe like 30. 30 is like really him. You actually see more Aaron Taylor Johnson. But yeah, let's talk about the casting. The casting in this movie is great. Like there isn't an annoying character in this. There isn't someone that
00:07:23
Speaker
Like if they're in it, you know, they're in it either. If they're if they are not a main character, you there is like some screen time for like all these big characters if they're they're on screen. Yeah. Well, so they usually definitely don't have a lot to do, but they're played by like a like an Oscar dominated actor or actress like like Sally Hawkins has like almost nothing to do is like, you know, like Kenwai Nabe is like, you know, right hand person. Oh, she cries.
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, well she has to give some exposition I got like she gives like some gentle exposition well, she's also the Monarchs like, you know, like someone who cares about like the impact of nuclear weapons it seemed like
Plot and Character Dynamics in Godzilla 2014
00:08:11
Speaker
Every American military arms was just like, let's just nuke this, but like of the military, even like the Monarch people, which is weird in the long run of where this connects. It just, they sent two specialists from a Monarch group and they're the ones who care about the natural order. And I don't know if they were just the softest people in that group. Cause it seemed like Monarch was way more wicked as the series went on.
00:08:37
Speaker
Yeah. Well, in the show, like the Apple TV plus show, they show like Monarch was at like San Francisco when it was getting attacked, but they weren't doing it. They weren't helping. They were just like filter, like document thing and like, just like walking past people with cameras and like not helping anybody. Yeah. Which is kind of like they just, they're hands off for some degree.
00:08:58
Speaker
Yeah, they're trying to like keep this all like trying to keep all the monsters like like secret and they don't want that they don't want to leak out then obviously they can't stop when I get with Godzilla it shows up. It's like it never it's like being filmed on like the news like you can't stop that anymore. And like Mutuos are like walking through Las Vegas. Which that Vegas scene is so brief, but it's memorable because it just
00:09:27
Speaker
the fact that, like, we found out that they hide a lot of nuclear waste just in the mountains of Nevada. Which is definitely a real thing. Oh, yeah. No, it's like, but not as like crazy, I think, in the sense of like, I mean, I've got a question about what they did with one of the muto bodies, but I don't know. We'll get into that part.
00:09:52
Speaker
Um, but yeah, let's just, uh, let's go through the, the overall plot of the, well, I was just gonna say like, so we're talking like just for casting still, like, so Aaron, Aaron, Tony Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen. The year before they're in age of Ultron. And it's definitely, that's also a weird thing too, where it's just like, Oh, now it's like, then next, next, next year it's like, Oh, they're brother and sister. Yeah. That, that really stood out. A lot of people had like concerns about that.
00:10:19
Speaker
It's like awkward. We saw him like making out last year. Now they're brother and sister, which I guess if it's like if it's ultimates, then that makes sense. But it's. But, you know, I feel like in this, they're on screen chemistry. They help. They halted it because they basically are together for like two scenes. Yes. So a lot of it is just them talking to each other. And if you tell me that they're a brother and sister in this movie, I'd believe it.
00:10:51
Speaker
But yeah, I think they're really leaning into like the Bryan Cranston casting of like, Bryan Cranston's in this for Breaking Bad. He's going to like cook up some meth and fight Godzilla with this. Yeah, I think there was a lot of jokes about that. And I think the thing that gave it away, I think, was he wasn't on the poster. There was no trailers of him and Godzilla in the same shot.
00:11:19
Speaker
So I kind of had a sneaking suspicion. But not in the way that exit him out of this movie. I know Ken Wananabe. He basically was like every Godzilla movie, I think, always requires like an Asian guy to like stare at a screen and then warn people about things. It's like it's just written in the Godzilla contract. I think the only one who doesn't do that
00:11:47
Speaker
Technically, I think is the ninety seven Godzilla movie. Oh, ninety six. Ninety eight. Yeah. He's the only Japanese person in that movie was the fisherman who was just like, you know, well. Bye bye. And this one, they honor what Godzilla was supposed to represent, like the horrors of like devastation. And now he represents like a guard. He's a guardian of like balance.
00:12:18
Speaker
Which is great, because it really was a, you know, you use destructive force, nature's gonna have a way to counter to that. And I think for a monster that basically no one can claim, the US is the one that was just like, we will solve this. It became like almost like a propaganda of just like how,
00:12:48
Speaker
brute force, like American brute force doesn't work all the time. But then it does. I don't know. Like I think Godzilla, the original was like the message has always been anti war or anti like, like nuclear weapons, right? Yeah. But this one, they use nuclear weapons as a fuel source. Like they, there's a lot of things about how they're using nukes as bait.
00:13:12
Speaker
Yeah, like the Mutos, and I guess they're saying Godzilla too, all the titans eat radiation. So I mean, we can actually use these monsters as radiation disposal? I guess, yeah, because it's like the nuclear power plant that Bryan Cranston works at in the beginning of the movie.
00:13:37
Speaker
It's supposed to be like a quarantine zone, but then you go in there, it's like no radiation because they've been like absorbing it for 15 years. So because it's been like filtering it. Yeah. Well, like the one I think the male Muto has been eating it and then like maturing. OK, so I do like the beginning of the movie because you could basically take that beginning and have it not be a Godzilla movie. And it's still as dramatic as Chernobyl. Mm hmm.
00:14:06
Speaker
It's sort of like the horrors of when safety precautions go wrong and the dangers of a nuclear power plant. There's a lot of positives, but the negative is one giant negative of what can happen if it goes down. Yeah, it's very dramatic. And it almost has that crimson-tied part
00:14:30
Speaker
where Bryan Cranston has to make the difficult choice of sealing his wife in the nuclear gas. Well, it takes a knife in because he seals the door and he thinks like, oh, she was like way down the hall. And then as soon as the second the door closes, they start knocking on the door. They should have said, hey, we're like, we're never going to make it. Don't worry. Like, you know, like, hey, but it's like, oh, she was like around the corner. Yeah.
00:14:54
Speaker
Though the scene where the gas is flying towards Bryan Cranston and he has to close the door, he is screaming at it as if the gas has a quick speed. It is sort of like a phantom ghost that is happening. Damn you, radiation!
00:15:14
Speaker
Also, radiation doesn't have color like that. It's a very so I couldn't tell what was happening because, OK, it's like it's like reactive steam for the reactor or something, maybe. But it would be not down that hall. The steam would be like a cloud and it wouldn't travel. I don't know. Maybe there's some real physics to it. But Hollywood styling wise, weird choice is the cloud also had like gradient color.
00:15:44
Speaker
If you're watching that scene again, you'll notice it's like the cloud is sort of like a water tidal wave. But that's not how gas moves. Yeah. And it feels like the whole hallway. It's like rushing at them. To the point where Bryan Cranston could inhale and then scream as he's doing that.
00:16:06
Speaker
It's a sad scene because they're the family that because Brian crisis is the charge of this nuclear reactor He his family's the only like white family in Japan apparently where's like he's like it's like that supervisor guys there, too Yes, I guess there's like an American like supervisor to that's like there, but then everyone else ever notes is a Japanese and then his wife is like whatever Julia, but oh she's like she French I think she's French. Yeah
00:16:36
Speaker
Well, she's fine. She's only in for this one scene and it's heartbreaking because, you know, Young Ford is trying to celebrate a birthday for his dad. And it's like this like you don't know the dread that's happening, but you know, something doesn't just feel right about that day. And I think the HBO miniseries Chernobyl extends that like they definitely were inspired by like, what if we like made this even more heartbreaking?
00:17:06
Speaker
Mm hmm. But well, you know, you know, we'll have to see like, you know, people like skin falling off. It's like the whole like the like the whole facility collapses, then it's like 15 years later.
Mythology and Themes in Godzilla 2014
00:17:21
Speaker
Yeah, they jump ahead, which is fine, because I feel like the devastation and then trying to make that quarantine zone and then having the city go to shit. You know, there's still a lot of like there that
00:17:35
Speaker
I wish they explored, but they want to get to the Godzilla part, not to the how they were able to empty the city, keep it quarantined for 15 years, have that city almost become a video game level of a post-apocalyptic thing. Like it's so crazy how in 15 years, everyone abandoning it. It's so overgrown. Like it looks like it's like a hundred years later, not like 15. Yeah. It also seemed like Japan's not that big. So like, where did everyone go?
00:18:05
Speaker
And Monarch has such influence that they can tell the Japanese government, hey, fly about this area being radioactive, because we have to keep this monster cocoon wrapped up. But here's the insane thing. They didn't go underground. It's not like you can take a satellite image, and you'll see everything kind of vegetating, and that's it. There's a section where the reactor was, and you can look down into it, and there's a cocoon.
00:18:34
Speaker
on a radioactive core and you can see it from the sky because there's no covering or roof. You know what I mean? Like that's where I'm like, wait, what? So yeah, there's a lot of questions about that, but
00:18:48
Speaker
You have to ignore that. You have to ignore the fact that there's just an open sky dome, like not even a dome, just an open sunroof, a hole where this muto sack has been absorbing radiation for 15 years. And then they built a contraption to electrocute it. Okay. Like to, to,
00:19:12
Speaker
do something, but yeah, we'll get into the fact that Bryan Cranston, I think after the 15 years after that, he just went like conspiracy theorists, full tilt conspiracy theorists guy. Yeah, he would have gotten along great with Bryan Tyree Henry later on if he had survived. So yeah, he just couldn't find a job, but he moved back. I think he says like a one line thing where
00:19:40
Speaker
He came back after a few years. I think he tried to live a normal life post reactor thing. And then he sort of lost his mind trying to understand what happened a few years later. And then Aaron Taylor Johnson's character, Ford, went off and became a bomb specialist somehow.
00:20:03
Speaker
Yeah, he's he's he's Jeremy Renner from the Hurt Locker. Yeah. Yeah. I got that vibe, too. And then he just like couldn't he wanted to get the I don't know what war they're coming back from, but he was trying to come back to San Francisco to spend time with his family. It must have been it had to been like a fancy in Iraq or something because, you know, that was still going on.
00:20:26
Speaker
And then, yeah, they're supposed to, I don't know if he was done with the war or he just got leave. I think he was done. I think he had finished it. Like he's like two, he did like two tours or whatever and he's done. But then the second he comes back, it's like, Oh, Hey, your dad's got arrested. That's like a 12 to 16 hour flight. So for him to get that notice that Brian Cranks was there for like two days just because he was sneaking into the quarantine zone.
00:20:56
Speaker
Mm hmm. And then I guess Brian Kranz's character was working with a network of people trying to sneak in into the quarantine zone. Yeah, he's like he's like other like conspiracy people or like just like other people that he's friends with that are like feeding him like he like he said like he knows a fisherman that like put up buoys for him because he's like he's listening to like acoustics on these buoys. And that's how he like he's able to like detect like the the basically it's like the mating call, the moutos.
00:21:26
Speaker
Is that is happening or like the, like the, wherever, like the Judo is hatching. Cause it's the same, uh, signal that they detected when the plant got attacked. Yeah. That part was simplified for just like, check out these readings, these EM, like electronic readings. So that's, we know when the Muto was going to do something.
00:21:55
Speaker
Because I guess 15 years prior, the Muto sack moved? Well, they found two in that Uranium mine or whatever. Kind of what Anaba finds, they found the two. And then the one was gone already. And that's the one that went and attacked the nuclear plant and lashed itself there. And then they took the other one too.
00:22:20
Speaker
the nuclear like stockpile. And that's what they thought it was dead. And that just that was been seen there in that stockpile for 15 years not doing anything. Well, but like, did the sack wasn't look like what we see? Like it was just a blob that shuffled off from the cave into the ocean into Japan and then or underground and then
00:22:46
Speaker
that attaches up to the reactor. That's another thing about this movie. A lot of the important detail scenes, fights, or plot things are just off screen or barely visible. Yeah, they probably could have shown a moodo, some sort of larva moodo or something. Because we only see the cocoon when it emerges formed.
00:23:17
Speaker
Was it fully formed and like it had like, but then it like had to like. Like a larva stage. Let's just say that we need to see like a, like a kind of sort of like slug of mudo or something. Like some sort of like pre, pre like fully grown mudo, like. Yeah. We only see them when they're giant or they're like, either they're like eggs, like a sack of eggs or they're giant. There's no middle ground. And it's supposed to believe that 15 years prior us, uh, other stage version.
00:23:47
Speaker
Traveled from the Philippines to Japan and then calls out that problems So that that's my like I would prefer to see it a little bit more Especially when it's a very key plot point in the beginning act after that I you know, it moves on and you kind of don't care anymore, but I Don't know as a someone who's like at least the third time watching this movie again. I was like, oh, that's right They just don't show that
00:24:14
Speaker
What do you think of the Mudo designs? I like it. It definitely takes a lot of nods to a bug Cloverfield design. Yeah, I think this whole era around Cloverfield, all the giant monsters were that big spindly leg bug monsters.
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, but then it is a terrible fighting monster design, but a fun if you had to tell me this was something that lived in the earth and more. I'm thinking like. I forgot the kingdom of the bug, like an actual animal bug kingdom word for like a Latin word for it, but.
00:25:02
Speaker
It's got that design where it looks like it could be water base slash living. It doesn't look alien. It looks something like an animal. Yeah. I think they said it's inspired by Starship Troopers, too, like the arachnids from the Starship Troopers, that you can definitely see that in their design, too. Beak. Beak jaws and sharp feet. I liked it.
00:25:32
Speaker
It's different from the typical Toei rubber suit monster that's upright. This is something that makes sense as a creature that is almost like from the Jurassic error that is now giant size. One part I realized is that these monsters aren't mutated by radiation. These monsters are just monsters.
00:26:02
Speaker
So it's not like, um, I think original Godzilla was, he was like a, like a lizard or a guana that got like horribly mutated. Now this is something that just lived crazy, crazy amount of time ago before humans were the top dominant species. Yeah. I don't, I don't think, I don't think any monsters in like the monster verse or any of the Titans are actually like,
00:26:29
Speaker
like mutated or radiated like they were like something else than mutated it's like they just they've been around for you know yeah millions of years like Godzilla like Godzilla or Godzilla species have been around for like you know yeah since before dinosaurs or other dinosaurs then there's always Kongs and like right so if anything humans are the like devolved versions of whatever monster they came from
00:26:57
Speaker
Like all these animals now, like, you know, it kind of flips the, the, the like creature animal kingdom where instead of like dinosaurs, then came chickens, like dinosaurs are actually the subsect of like a Godzilla monster. And now this Muto is something that, uh, invented crabs, cockroaches, you know, it's its own category because it could fly.
00:27:28
Speaker
The one could fly. Other ones carry its sack on its belly like a bug. I kind of wish they had like a chlorophyll style like
00:27:42
Speaker
like parasites like the little like if they had like the bait like the babies actually hatched and they're like running around just like these like mini moodos okay that probably too much like 98 Godzilla where it's like the Godzilla babies are starting to run around it would have been fine because it gave the military guy something to do but
00:28:01
Speaker
I think for majority of the movie, like the military is useless for like the small arms guys just having a rifle until the last act. I have a problem with those because somehow they were slightly efficient to distract the monsters where I don't know, hours before they just they were not affecting them whatsoever. Like, like the monsters were not bothered by them being hit by bullets. Yeah.
00:28:27
Speaker
but the last act somehow the bullets are affecting the monster and like it's annoying them. It may be because it may be a combination because you're also like shooting rockets at them too a little bit. So it's like one guy went a rocket. Yeah, but like the like M4 M16 rifles like they were bouncing bullets off of like Godzilla and the monsters.
00:28:52
Speaker
Yeah, because when Godzilla is walking through Hawaii, and the SWAT team is shooting him from the roof, and he just walks past them, it's like, oh, there's just little mosquitoes to him. It's not even like, he doesn't even feel this. It's probably just rumbling on him. He's just like, oh, vibrations, if that. But the mutos are just super unaffected. The mutos were basically unstoppable. Yeah. I feel like they're basically armored. Their skin is like,
00:29:23
Speaker
hardened arm, like it's like, because they're insects, it's like exoskeleton or something. OK, so now they're brought up by the fact the meadows are mystery bugs there. They bring a point where Monarch took one of the sacks that they found and they dissected it and then buried the rest of it in Nevada. Yeah. How did it put itself together to cocoon?
00:29:53
Speaker
and leave. And that was the bigger one of the two. Yeah, it was like the female. So what happened in that storage locker? It was just separated chunks and it reformed? I don't know what happened. They said vivisect. It wasn't just, oh, we analyze it. Vivisecting is taking it apart. So how did it fix itself to be a giant version of it?
00:30:21
Speaker
unless they think they cut off like most of it, but then they actually didn't cut it into like, the main section of the, like, female Mudo, which again, I think it's why we need to see like, like, like how they're like, how they are like a larva or something. Yes.
00:30:41
Speaker
I mean, if it's like a nut where like there's layers and then they only cut like the first top because they become. So notice in the first part of the movie, they've been calling the Muto spores. They didn't call like a Muto yet. They just said spores. And I guess they just really got the the top husk. And then they said, yeah, OK, it's dead. And then 15 years later, it's been jesting. And now it it grew into.
00:31:10
Speaker
Probably the biggest of that species, you know, one of the biggest and it's been roaming through Vegas. Well, it's like, you know, it's, it's weird too. Cause like they call that, you know, these, these monsters are moodos, but that that's like an abbreviation for like, it's like massive, unidentified terrestrial organism. So don't actually have like, I guess, I'm sure probably there's like some sort of like name for them now. They like, you know, cause it's not like, you know, it's not Rodan or Ghidra or Mothra. It's like Muto, but it's like,
00:31:39
Speaker
It's like calling every, it's like, it's like, it's like a, it's like a UFO. So it's like, yeah, yeah. And they didn't recant that. It's been 10 years and they guys never fixed that. Let's say, yeah, maybe, maybe, uh, the Monarch TV show. No, I don't think they did. Cause like, yeah. Cause all the monsters now have like, you know, they have like, they have like actual like, you know, weird kaiju names. Yeah. This one doesn't have a kaiju name. It just has like a codename.
00:32:11
Speaker
I don't know. I'm thinking, uh, if you're following the naming conventions of all these monsters, what do you think they would call this? I mean, probably like some sort of like, it's gotta be like some, like an insect name, kind of like, like a wreck, like a rachnoid or something, or pretty good. I was gonna say crabbo or something. But technically only the female is more of a crab. The male is more of a,
00:32:40
Speaker
He has wings. It's like wings. Yeah. So there's got to be like an avian theme to it. I've ever seen the the bus of the female Muto. So like a statue. Yeah, there's like a one. There's, you know, like a certain scale that they have it roaring. It still looks pretty cool. Like if. You know, outside of the Godzilla realm.
00:33:10
Speaker
If you made a movie with that monster, like the Cloverfield monster, I think it looks better than the Cloverfield monster. Uh, yeah. It makes more sense for a undersea monster slash like earth, like terrain in monster. That makes more sense than an alien. I like, I like the meat, female mules design a lot more. Uh, but.
00:33:37
Speaker
The movie really, you know, the first hour of this two and a half hour movie is dedicated to the slow burn of the humans reacting to just shit they can't control and then falling into like the order of nature. There are things that are just going to fuck up modern technology. Yeah, like because because the windows have they can do like EMP blasts.
00:34:08
Speaker
Convenient plot point, because I feel like if it went to any, if it went to other federal countries that didn't have like electricity, the way America does and reliance on machinery, it wouldn't be as a structure to the small cities. It's almost like the Hebrews of all these places in America that the mutual walks through that shuts down these towns and traffic and airplanes.
00:34:37
Speaker
Yeah, there's a bunch of cool shots like when they're trying to fight them on the fire dress and they just do the EMP and all the chests start falling out of the sky. That wouldn't happen with a crop duster. Like a Red Baron type plane. Oh, man. Yeah, they should. Well, because they pull out the train because that doesn't have any electronics on it. Yeah, they definitely should. They need to pull out more. Remember Battleship, the movie? They had to use the actual battleship because they didn't have any electronics.
00:35:06
Speaker
Yep. And it wasn't nuclear powered. It was all like coal power. Yeah. As stupid as that movie was for that, I still liked how they incorporated it, incorporate like old technology that is like efficient. But that's a ripoff of Pacific Rim because Pacific Rim did it first.
00:35:28
Speaker
And then they retrofit the nuclear bomb with a clockwork mechanical timer instead of an electronic one. I don't know if that's real. It looks scary just because it just looks like a bunch of blender parts. Yeah, it looks so complicated. Well, it's gears. If you wind it up and you let it go, which I understand.
00:35:51
Speaker
In terms of how many gears it needed to wind up, I feel like it was unnecessary. You didn't need like big gear turns small gear, small gear turns big gear again. Like it was almost as if you're seeing a clock tower part. And it's not like it's winding up a dial. It's like half those gears, all that did was just like turn the clock timer. But you don't need a timer.
00:36:18
Speaker
If you just don't plan to stop the bomb, you know, like the new bomb didn't need this elaborate. Your box, but I, yeah, it was like very cinematic. It's like, Oh wow. Really?
00:36:30
Speaker
Now we have a literal tipping clock that we have to stop. They basically built a cinematic clock thing. And they're like, oh, once we wind it up, it's really hard to stop. And it's like, how did you just jam the gears, right? Which Aaron Troward-Johnson is also like, he's able to install that. First, he's apparently familiar with nuclear bombs, even though he was probably disabling
00:36:57
Speaker
mines and stuff in the Middle East. Improv bombs. Yeah, IEDs. And he's like, oh, a nuke. That's fine. And then he's able to take out the electronics of this nuke and put this complicated clockwork timing mechanism into it. Wasn't that complicated? Because I feel like all they did was swap out the face plate. They took out a box and put another box in. That's how nukes work. You just take a box out and you just change the- He did that on a moving train.
00:37:27
Speaker
I feel like there was no urgency to do that while I was moving that late. He could have done it before the train took off.
00:37:34
Speaker
But then the whole thing is just screwed up later because the panel gets locked up, it gets smashed, and it's just like, oh man, we can't get this panel off. It's too tight. But I feel like because it's exposed gears, just jam the gears, then it can't turn. Then it can't lock into place, right? I guess they couldn't get to the gears because the panel was smashed down, and they didn't have time to pry the panel open.
00:38:03
Speaker
I guess. I mean, yeah, they say one, but it's like, oh, it's going to take us like a while to like practice, like panel open. It's like we don't have time. So and wait, but the problem is they had time to like lift it up as a six man squad and drag it across the city. Yeah. Don't don't put it on any sort of, yeah, like a sled or like they're going to like all like heave it to see if this go as if it's like a giant Christmas tree. Yeah. But we'll get into that part.
00:38:33
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to go back to like the like the sequence in Hawaii, which is like incredible. Yes. Let's get into that. Which that's like the finally like the reveal of Godzilla and like the all the support. Well, it's like the first it's this whole build up where first it's like you see that his just swimming up to the island causes a tsunami. Like just the sheer size of him like causes like a tsunami to happen.
00:39:00
Speaker
And then, yeah, they start teasing out, like you see his foot, you see like it, like a little bit of his chest, you see his tail. And then I do like that. I think in the theater, that was cool. Cause the sound and just waiting, cause there's like certain moments with them. You just cuts off and you just hear like ambient sounds. Yeah. And I think that was really nice. Not the same as effective watching it, like on like a pure screen, like I did for some parts of this movie.
00:39:28
Speaker
Uh, but the, the like anticipation because you really see the Muto, you really know that that, um, Godzilla exists because there's been like black and white photos of it when they try to bomb it back on the forties. Uh, and I think, like you said, with the, with Garrett Edwards inspired by Jaws, it's the slow burn of showing you the.
00:39:57
Speaker
the feature monster is Godzilla. This one is not a, not a villain. You know, some Godzilla movies, he's the villain or he's sort of like a, uh, destructive force. This one or like chaotic neutral, this one, he, I feel like is like chaotic good. Yeah. He's like, he's like an anti-hero kind of a little bit. Cause like, he's like, he's also, he's, he's causing massive destruction as well. But then he's like, but he's, you know, stopping these other monsters from like pop, like,
00:40:36
Speaker
But I don't get in this his role I think he just wanted to prove like he just wanted to kill whatever was the biggest threat
00:40:45
Speaker
And he's been doing that for decades. Yeah, they get the later ones too. He's the alpha of all the titans. So if a titan is threatening the earth or whatever, he comes up and destroys them. But aren't they threatening the earth? It's not like it killed his cell service. You know what I mean? Godzilla was perfectly fine in wherever part of the world he was.
00:41:10
Speaker
but the Mutos popped up in Japan and then San Francisco. I think, I think it's more like, it's like, uh, they, like, they can, the monsters really got into this where it's like, any sort of like a challenge to him, like he like rises up and like it takes them, takes them on to like assert his dominance. Cause he's the, he's the alpha predator. And that's why he'll wander. He'll wander everywhere around the world. If he senses like a bigger threat. Yeah. That's why they're like, hide Kong.
00:41:38
Speaker
in the Godzilla vs Kong.
Roles of Godzilla and Kong in the MonsterVerse
00:41:40
Speaker
If you do Kong's route, he's gonna fucking fight Kong and kill him. We'll get into the bigger universe. How the hell did Godzilla not just go to Skull Island? Why hasn't he just rolled up to there, check if the newest monster is there, and just bite it? I think maybe at this point, Monarch already had the covering over the island set up.
00:42:10
Speaker
They've been hiding their own. I get high sky, but not like that's a look in the sense of shit from like the ground vibrations and yields and Godzilla would have his own like. Electronic field like he's a bigger being, so it's got like his own like center of mass and stuff.
00:42:28
Speaker
Yeah, I don't that that that that that was that explanation. Godzilla's calling is that they were like Mark had that facility built around the island. And then like you basically to hide him hiding hiding Kong from Godzilla. Right. So in realistic terms, in order to hide him, you have to send him off world. He would be in his own space station. That's how you keep him from Godzilla. Not like, all right, we put him in a fake dome. It's like, wait, that's still on Earth. You know, Godzilla is going to sense that. What that's like in the Godzilla X-Con that they're balanced now is like,
00:42:58
Speaker
Godzilla rules the upper world and then Kong rules the lower world. The howler world. Which, again, when Godzilla, does he go to the howler or sometimes the fight wherever's down there? No, I think as long as stuff stays down to the howler, if the Godzilla doesn't care, like if something comes up to the howler, then Godzilla cares. Gotcha. If you told me that
00:43:25
Speaker
Other monsters exist besides the Mutus and Godzilla during this time that we're documented. It just it seems like only four people in the world knew about this. Yeah. Well, this is definitely like the first time publicly that people have seen like, like everyone, everyone knows like monsters exist now in this universe because they can hide it up because marksman hiding it for the like however many years they've been active. But when like, you know, when
00:43:53
Speaker
A giant like two giant monsters are fighting at like the Honolulu airport. You can't hide that. Sure you can. Be like, this is just deep fakes. Well, I do like they try to hide like the mudo like escape in the monarch facility as like, oh, that was an earthquake. A 6.3 earthquake. Not the one in Nevada, right?
00:44:16
Speaker
No, like the like when like where Brian Cranston gets killed, like that, like when they like escapes from like the like ruins of the Japanese nuclear plant. There's like a story, a new story of like a six point three earthquake rocks Japan. Oh. So that's like the monarch like monarch like cover story is like, oh, it was an earthquake. So Brian Cranston's exit during this movie is I thought it was like another scene. I didn't think it would be that.
00:44:45
Speaker
I felt like a building fell on him. I didn't think it was like the bridge he was on was gonna fall over. Yeah, which the first time he watched you, you think like, oh, he died. Like he fell into that like pit and like metal fell on him and he's dead. But then they pull him out and he's still alive and he dies in the helicopter. He dies like hours later. Yeah. It's weird like just dragging out his death.
00:45:11
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like, okay, bring him on the helicopter. It's like, no, no, no. He needs to go to a hospital. Don't get a helicopter. Right. I was like, like, like, like the military guys. Like, what do you need? Like, he's like, I need those two. No, that guy needs urging. It needs a hospital. Don't just take them. Yeah. It's like, all right. Well, give him four band-aids and let him, let me. He's got like, he's got like spinal damage. He's got internal bleeding. Like he needs a hospital right now. He's be stable. It's like, no, no, no. Let's give him a band-aid.
00:45:42
Speaker
Yeah, I thought he died instantly. I didn't think it would be this helicopter ride to like another area and then him passing away during that. Yeah, just sealing the body bag is like the final like knife in the back. It's like he exited this franchise before he knew there'd be like four more movies. But another thing about this series of movies is almost all of the human characters don't return.
00:46:09
Speaker
Yeah, the only people from this one that come back for King of the Monsters is Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, and David Strayford. But even then, it's like it keeps getting less and less. Yeah, well, Sally Hawkins is in King of the Monsters for like 10 minutes, and she gets stepped up by Geetra, and that's it. And then Ken Watanabe. Somebody sacrifices himself. Yeah. And then David Strayford just survives, but he doesn't come back for any of the Godzilla versus Kong or
00:46:45
Speaker
There's a weird like, people are in them for two and they kind of trade off. It's like, you know, like, what's his face from Friday Night Lights was in like two of them and then he wasn't in Godzilla X-Cog.
00:46:58
Speaker
He wasn't? No, because he's fine with his daughter just joining Kong. Well, Millie Bobby Brown wasn't in Godzilla X Kong either. Well, she wasn't. I didn't know that. No, Brian Taylor is the only point from like Godzilla versus, Rebecca Hall and Brian Taylor are the only two from like Godzilla versus Kong. They come for Godzilla X Kong.
00:47:16
Speaker
Why him? Because because they like they like he has like like ideas about the how earth that I need him to like or like he's like knows about some signal that's coming out of the how earth that they need to investigate. Wasn't he a janitor? I don't I think was he a janitor just it's like a cover so you could like infiltrate like whatever like cyber acts whether he was kind of forgot it's been a wise all it could deliver as a calm but yeah.
00:47:47
Speaker
I got to see you soon. Yeah, I watched I watched Godzilla vs. Co. again right before Godzilla X Co. just like refresh myself. Yeah, for me, watch his whole like five movie series, like the monster verse. You know, like it's crazy to think five movies in the cinematic universe and a TV show and a TV show. And this is the one that starts it where it's very grounded.
00:48:15
Speaker
and no one knows what's going on. It just seems like it's building. Everything that's being established here is going to have greater effects. But then they reveal that should happen before this. How? How is there way more story before this?
00:48:33
Speaker
But yeah, like we've been saying, this one has so much self-control and patience. And you'll never get scenes like the Halo Jump, I don't think, again, in this franchise where it's like this super... I think one of the first trailers was the Halo Jump. Yeah. That sequence is incredible.
00:48:53
Speaker
just the way it looks like that the whole thing could be like a like it's like a renaissance painting or something it's just like the and this the music that's like there's such that like crazy eerie music that's playing so which i think is from apparently it's from like 2001 a space odyssey how is it it's like one of the classical pieces that they use in that movie but it's like when like the monolith is like being shown for first time so that that scene i think i remember it looking really cool but in retrospect
Visual Techniques and Storytelling
00:49:23
Speaker
This movie has a current theme of shots. Do you want to know what that is? Like red, red smoke. That's red. That's a color thing. But this movie has a habit of everything disappearing or appearing in a cloud of dust or shadows. Yes. That I wrote how many times this happens. Like I started keeping track.
00:49:52
Speaker
Like every, okay, this movie has people trains, monsters, people in parachutes, like just popping up from a gas cloud or a moving shadow, you know, or like a fog. Yeah, there's a lot of fog, there's like clouds, there's like dust, there's like all kinds of like, yeah, different like smoke. People, yeah, smoke, like particles, like people just,
00:50:21
Speaker
appear. And it's like a convenient plot things like you want to make it more suspenseful, wait a beat, and then have something appear out of like the void.
00:50:33
Speaker
Um, I think planes do that. I'll say the most memorable one is probably like, when like, uh, like Ford like sees Godzilla and they have like that kind of like, like eye to eye moment. And then like, that's the opposite. And that's the only thing, um, that and Brian Cranston, Brian Cranston and Godzilla have the same effect where it's like, they look at each other and then like one of them disappears.
00:50:55
Speaker
So yeah, it's like a theme I've noticed. This movie is all about like staring and sensing something coming, like impendingness or like a pending doom and it comes up. I think by the time the scene where the train's on fire, like a ghost train, and this is where the Americans have now loaded up a Greyhound with nukes and
00:51:25
Speaker
I guess it's gas, like, coal powered? The best part of that whole scene is that they just fly, they just, like, bring a helicopter and just fly the nuclear, like, nuking the helicopter afterwards, and it's like, oh, we've actually done this from the beginning. Yeah, like, just avoid the five mile radius of- Which, which, which is hilarious, because they, that comes back, like, same thing comes back in, like, Godzilla versus Kong, where, like, they're, like, transporting Kong on a ship, and then, like, the Godzilla attacks them, and then, like, they're like, oh, let's just fly the Kong in the helicopters.
00:51:54
Speaker
to like start you don't need to fucking try to use new transportation methods as if it's trying to like be cost efficient well I guess I guess because the train wouldn't be affected by EMPs but then yeah this this flight didn't a helicopter after anyway so it's like or dive in that just as long as you take like a halo plane like something that could handle the atmospheric difference
00:52:20
Speaker
the halo jump is also like higher than the the muto so that's why they have to do the halo jump down yeah couldn't they just load a bunch of nukes on like five different planes then do that well i guess their original plan was to put the nuke on a boat and like send it offshore and then they would like lure them all and like then well that was the end that was like well they had to travel through i guess
00:52:46
Speaker
I don't know where he landed. Cause okay. There's a part where Johnson flies, flies from Japan, Hawaii, San Francisco. And I guess they landed in like Colorado or someplace. And then they have to take the train into San Francisco and they have to pass like a mountain pass, which I think is like Seattle. Well, he ends up in, yeah, it's like loan. Like it comes up on the screen. It's like lone pine, California, low pine, uh,
00:53:17
Speaker
I think it's still California. I think it's like Southern more either like Northern California or Southern California. And they have like go like I think the like the train to get the train to San Francisco. OK. Because the only way he gets into San Francisco then is the halo jump. Well, they pick up like he's the only survivor when they like it, like it washes them like all the wreckage like washes up on the river because there's an awesome shot like all like the tank, like flaming tanks and everything like washing down the river.
00:53:44
Speaker
And then like Ford falls into the river and then with the train, if the train falls on the, off the bridge and then like he gets picked up by the helicopter covering the nuke. Yeah, but he's not the only, okay. I think he's the only EOD like person on that train. Cause I feel like there's only just one. It was him. Yeah. I think he's like the only survivor of that train. Cause there were other people that weren't part of that train that got off. Like the two guys that were looking at the water.
00:54:13
Speaker
the guys who discovered the flaming. Oh yeah. They weren't on the train. They were far away from the action. So how do they, where do they go? Well yeah. Chopper comes in like rescues forward. So I'm assuming maybe they picked them up too or something, but, and then it flies to Oakley because Oakley needs like the command center for, for the San Francisco mission.
00:54:38
Speaker
And then they wanted to send the nuke on a boat and have it on shore. But then the male Muto flies in, grabs it, and brings it to the middle of San Francisco.
Nuclear Themes and Military Tactics
00:54:46
Speaker
And then it's like, oh, we're fucked now. Yeah, because they didn't think, OK, we didn't think it would do that. And so that's why it has to do the halo jump. Because now we have a nuclear bomb set for an hour and a half to detonate. And we have to wait. It's in the middle of San Francisco now. And this is the nest that the monsters are making.
00:55:03
Speaker
I mean, that's the hubris of the nuclear weapons. That was the, I guess, the allegories that Americans' reliance on it can bite them back in the butt.
00:55:12
Speaker
Yeah. And like the one guy is like, Oh man, like this new, this new could definitely kill him this time because like the one they used in the 1950s was like a firecracker where this one it's like, it's kill it's giga tons that kill it tons. Oh yeah. But it's gonna, it's gonna cause like a fallout in America. It's like on our shores. Um, cause you know, it's not really the explosion that kills a lot of things. It's the like winds that pick it up and then pass the radiation. Yeah.
00:55:37
Speaker
And if it's on like our land, it's like gonna blow from the West into mid America and just devastate everything it touches between them. Well, I think, I think they specifically say that they expect like the force of the explosion to kill all the monsters because they know the list of authority radiation, but like the force is like the kinetic force of the explosion. They will kill them. Then my question is why I just put a little bit of radiation just to draw them in and then a shitload of explosives.
00:56:08
Speaker
Unless it's not strong, there's nothing strong enough that like a nuclear explosion I know is way more devastating than regular bombs, but... Well I think it gets a little key to the monsters, they bring back the oxygen destroyer. That makes more sense, but I guess they invented that years later. But Monarch, in all its infinite wisdom,
00:56:31
Speaker
Cause they seem cocky. It seemed like they nuked with those firecrackers that other, the same Godzilla, not knowing it's the same or whatever, right?
00:56:43
Speaker
Well, yeah, they do like it's like it's like the nuclear test in like Bikini Atoll is actually a cover to like try to kill Godzilla. And the modern TV show actually shows like Godzilla. He like he like comes out of the beach and like he's like standing right in front of the nuclear bomb and that atomic bomb they blow it in his face. And then I think then he like disappears or like, oh, we killed him. And then he actually was like, he's actually fine. And like it shows up like later on a couple of years later. But they make a note of that. Oh, that didn't work.
00:57:12
Speaker
Well, the military was like, oh, we killed him. We got him. He's gone. Look at that. I think in the flash of the bomb, Godzilla escaped. I see. And they kind of was underground for a while. And then later on, a couple years later, it was like, they come up with some way to call him. Basically, it's like a monster call on Monarch. And then they call Godzilla.
00:57:39
Speaker
But you see what I mean? It's world building, but because it's the same monster, it just seems like they, did they forget that? Are they supposed to say that maybe in this movie, Monarch was the one responsible for calling Godzilla to Japan to fight, like start fighting the Mutos? Because I can see that. I know they're trying to add a lot of
00:58:05
Speaker
Subplot or fill in any kind of plot gaps, but this one doesn't really have plot gaps. It just has like weird decisions Again like I said, why couldn't they just fly the bomb in another direction? It would take longer, but it'll get there safer Why didn't Aaron Taylor Johnson Fucking just go back to San Francisco
00:58:33
Speaker
Takes him a long time, he gets distracted very easily. Yeah, because he's supposed to take a flight from Honolulu, and obviously that doesn't happen, because all the planes blow up on those feet. And then he joins the military crew leaving Honolulu, and then
00:58:54
Speaker
He's like, we'll have to get home. And he's like, hey, that train with nuclear bombs going to San Francisco. He doesn't have to prove anything. It's a lot of like, oh, I'm just special. OK, I believe you. There's no paperwork. There's no background checks. He just sort of gets away with a lot of things. Yeah. I think it's also like he wants revenge for his dad because the Mutos killed him. I mean, Mutos also killed his mom. Yeah. So these Mutos have a purpose. Yeah, he's got like a grudge against them.
00:59:27
Speaker
Okay, speaking of Mutos, what do you think about the scene where he blows up the egg sack and the mama, you know, just like he's like pissed. Yeah. I like that scene. Yeah, that's it. Like any time in any kind of monster movie that you destroy.
00:59:47
Speaker
I mean, even Godzilla 98 did that, where you destroyed the children. The parents instantly know who does it. It's not like it picks the wrong target. It's not like it blames someone else. Somehow, whoever did it is always nearby. And it just goes, oh, I'm going to kill it. It's you. You did this.
01:00:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a trope. I feel like whenever they kill something that's important to the villain, the villain's going to find out within a moment. I don't think I've seen a movie where that's the opposite, where the hero destroys the villain's sacred and almost offspring, a very close goal for the villain. And then the monster's just going, who did this?
01:00:46
Speaker
I've never seen that. Well, maybe like Ford like he screws up because like he like it just himself horribly that explosion to like, yes, like he's like limping his way down. It's like the like wharf to get the boat. He didn't know that the gas tanker was going to lift him up in the air and to basically injure status. Yeah.
01:01:11
Speaker
I mean, by the end of this movie, he's pretty messed up. I mean, he recovers pretty well the next scene at the end, but in terms of, yeah, he's got just horrible injuries, but he's able to send a boat into the sea. I think he was like, OK, he could die a hero, but he doesn't. I feel like the movie could end with him dying, too, and it still would have been good, but him living is also good.
01:01:44
Speaker
It's not a noble sacrifice. Even though he's like not like he and his family don't come back for any of the future movies. I'm fine with that. Like as much, you know, because I want to see that family dynamic now that they're together. Almost every one of them had like a little mini adventure. The sun on the bus on the boat. That bus driver like man, he just was like, I am not dying here.
01:02:11
Speaker
It's like, fuck these kids. I'm getting myself out of here. And there's just an act of war going on in front of him. And he's the only car in that traffic that decides to fucking floor it for a while. And he stops and goes and stops and goes. It's very wild because the military understands, but they're just like, hey, stop that, but whatever.
Final Battle and Godzilla's Victory
01:02:33
Speaker
And then he makes it across that bridge. And there's a whole stampede of cars that do that.
01:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, and then there's just the whole like one of the like inciting incidents for like the monarch TV show is that there's another bus on that bridge with like a Like when they make characters like it has someone like on that bus that they care about and then the like the the bus that that bus falls off the bridge and like when you guys a little walks through it's like like like to to like two cars back a couple hours back from like that that like the bus that like
01:03:03
Speaker
Uh, their son is on like that that bus fell like like Anna's uh, so I from like uh show games like watching a bus fall off the bridge Does it recreate it like yeah it's it's it's it's like it's like walking it basically walks through like the golden gate bridge and like destroys it and then like all these cars are like falling off the like the edge like the
01:03:32
Speaker
edge that you created. It's like, I get it. The American army panic and just start launching missiles at the bridge. And that's what made Godzilla just kind of wander. But I don't think Godzilla was going to duck under that bridge. No. That's another thing too. Like Godzilla in this one, he's more lumbering and he's not graceful, which is like for a lot of his screen time until the end, he's actually more agile.
01:04:00
Speaker
Yeah, this is like a brawler Godzilla. He's like a big burly brawler dude. I remember the internet was complaining how thick he was. He was a slim neck Godzilla. This is like a very thicker, almost way more animalistic Godzilla that I'm fine with. I like my variations.
01:04:23
Speaker
And he and you know now now he's run around like he doesn't weigh anything so it's like he's he's agile now like he's way more agile he's running around high five like King Kong so it's like it's fine and I think I think in the Godzilla versus Khan he's got way more facial expressions yes and in this one he's got like three it's either him like whatever face him hurt and then him roaring and yeah I think like
01:04:54
Speaker
in Godzilla versus Kahn. I think he like snarls like he's got like an evil grin. Yeah. Especially when he gives King Kong a heart attack. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. He goes much more animated as the franchise goes on.
01:05:16
Speaker
Although I don't I don't think I don't think they've ever topped like the two like the two roars in this movie like the like the first one at the airport when you first like we finally see like his full like reveal of his like all of Godzilla and he does that the first roar and then the one in Chinatown. Yeah. Where it's like it's like it's like 30 seconds of just like him straight roaring. And then like the debris flying around. Yeah, I do like that. Like it's a very cinematic. And if you have the right setup,
01:05:44
Speaker
meeting either like a really great home sound system or a movie theater. It's good because no one talks during that. Everyone was quiet when I saw that in theaters. Well, I remember I remember when I saw it in theaters, like the first one where you hear like when you hear before you see me here for the first time, everyone was like, oh, my God, yeah, you know, more lively crowd. I had a more like.
01:06:06
Speaker
Yeah. Librarian experience, I remember. And also like when he, when they reveal like his like, like, like a fire breath for his time, that is also like, people like went nuts for that too. I do like the lineup. I like in that, this version, it's like it starts at the bottom and the light glow and, and then it reveals it. So I think like, I don't know the original, it makes sense. Like a long buildup.
01:06:32
Speaker
Well, they hold they hold off on it for like it's like the last 20 minutes is when you find like when you find like see him like uses fire breath because there's there's a possibility up to this point where it's like maybe the schedule doesn't have fire breath like the 98 Godzilla. I'm just screaming and that's how like shit just explodes around. But yeah, as soon as you see it, like the first time you see it like the blue lights come on, you're just like, oh, man, it's it's on now. Yeah, it's pretty cool, especially when like it's a constant stream and you can walk and do it.
01:07:02
Speaker
Yeah. And then obviously, the best scene this entire movie and maybe the entire monster verse is when Godzilla kills the female Muto by like vomiting fire breath on his throat. That's another thing. So this one, he knows a little bit of combat, where he realizes the weak point is the middle of the monster's mouth. It's not like he just uses the same tactics, smashing stuff and see what happens because even
01:07:29
Speaker
Even the previous Godzilla movies, the Toho movies, he never opens for the joints or anything. It's always been just pushing them around and then beating them into submission. But this one, it's very brutal. He forces the villain's mouth open and then... Rips your mouth open and shit, just like fire breeze down the throat until they had to get rips off. Yeah, you've never seen that before.
01:07:57
Speaker
I like it. I like that it's a victory for him, but I also feel like it's just plot armor because he sneaks up on that Muto. I don't know how he frees himself from the debris quietly, waits for that Muto to stop moving, and then puts it in a chokehold.
01:08:16
Speaker
Well, he like, he like bites her neck and like ganks her back up and then like rips, then rips her like mouth open. But he sneaks up on it. Cause like, it's just sort of like, I'm, you think the mute was going to attack and then it holds. And then you realize from the shadows that Godzilla is latched on.
01:08:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's a lot of like the camera does the work to to show you it's not like I don't think Aaron Taylor Johnson saw that either. He just sort of like had to like move his head and then realize, oh, there's more like around the corner is Godzilla, like putting its weight on this, you know, but I enjoyed it. Like it's very cool. I think it ends very well with that. And I think I already mentioned
01:09:07
Speaker
If the bomb exploded with Aaron Taylor afford on it, I would have been fine. Him getting rescued is fine too, but I don't know how fast that chopper got dispatched. Like they just got power back. They're like, all right, we got to send. We know exactly where the boat is now. So it's a little too plot convenient for him to get rescued so quickly. I would have liked it too. If it was vague, if he got off on the boat.
01:09:36
Speaker
until the end where he shows up like at the stadium, just wanders there and she's like, oh, you made it, you know, like not just like, like that, that they, there's no suspense for that. I would have liked one more suspenseful scene where the boat just sort of travels and explodes. You don't know if he got off yet. And then when the kid and the, the,
01:10:00
Speaker
Uh, Elizabeth Winston reunite, Elizabeth Olsen reunite. Yeah. Then it's like, where's daddy? Then he's just there.
Speculation and Future of the MonsterVerse
01:10:10
Speaker
He does the dark knight thing. He just nods and leaves. He's just like, I'm going off to fight the next monster. I've joined Monarch. Oh, that's when, um, that's when, uh, Loki shows up.
01:10:29
Speaker
And he just sort of like gives him a patch and goes, welcome to the team. And that's how you fix it. That's how you retrofit this movie to make sense with the rest of the movies. Yeah, I mean, I feel like Ken Watanabe should have been like the Nick Fury of this world and just like recruiting people for Monarch. Well, his thing was he just wants nature to balance itself. He really does cryptic nature talks to these military guys who don't get it until the end about how
01:10:59
Speaker
You can't really fight nature. You have to sort of embrace it. You have to let them fight. Yeah. I mean, he says something where it's like a man's hubris is thinking you can control nature. And then let them fight speech. Really great. But it just seems like that's unproven. He's just like, wait, you're a man of science. The point of scientists is to study nature and study how things work and bend it to your will. And he's just like, nah, I'm a hippie, actually.
01:11:28
Speaker
It's all about the natural order, man. In fact, I feel like nuclear power is great. That's what happens later on in the movies. He sacraments himself to give Godzilla a nuclear energy drink. I'm like, wait, he's pro-nuclear power?
01:11:56
Speaker
He's like, drink up my friends. You and I are one. But yeah, this is still good. This made like triple its budget back.
01:12:14
Speaker
And definitely, definitely impressive. Like one of the most impressive like jumps from like making a movie that has like basically no budget to like a huge blockbuster for Gareth Edwards. Cause I'm pretty sure he made like, is it, wasn't the whole thing like he made monsters on like his like Mac book, like he made like the visual effects on like his Mac book or something. Yeah. It's like a very low budget movie. I've ever seen that movie, but I wonder if it's worth revisiting. It was, yeah, it's good.
01:12:41
Speaker
It's like a very interesting movie. Well, it's like there's like a quarantine zone and it, but it's like an alien invasion. And so it's like the aliens have like changed like the environment and these like, but like journalists go under it's like, like, um, they're trying to get to like, they have to get to like the, uh, effective zone, but that back to us because it's like in Mexico. And then what I'm understanding is Gareth Edward loves quarantine zones.
01:13:10
Speaker
Mm hmm. Almost all his movies involve a quarantine or like some restrictive area. And then obviously he made Rogue One and The Creator last year. A very restrictive planet. Mm hmm. And then even the maker, right? The creator. The creator. Restrictive thing. Like a like a outlander zone.
01:13:40
Speaker
Yeah, restricting like androids from existing. So he's got a theme. So if you want like a movie, if you ever there's a movie that needs a director that knows about oppressive states and limitations to people's rights, he's the director. And also like a sense of scale too, because like Rogue One had like, you know, the AT-ATs were like,
01:14:09
Speaker
got like basically kaiju in that movie and stuff so yeah it definitely had a different presentation compared to the video game sense of the AT-ATs or even in First Sharks back because it just seemed like they were just walking tanks not these behemoths that you know are impossible to take down yeah he did a good job like oh you're like you're like you're
01:14:33
Speaker
you on the ground looking up at this like yeah giant walking like military machine just be like how do I fight this thing even though in all of the star wars thing they could have just made those feet hover probably yeah they didn't need to make it slowly crawl and have a very weird design it's not like it's a
01:15:00
Speaker
vehicle where it's only green and snow like they drop that any terrain that they just anyone this needs an 8080 mm-hmm it needs joints and legs that you can trip but yeah I'm surprised no one in this movie try to do the same thing like like a airplane with a rope try to trip Godzilla we it we had a gun that shoots a giant rope
01:15:29
Speaker
Or like, what was that, Ballista? Whatever the thing with a rope that you can twirl in the air. Oh, a Bolo? Bolo, yeah. I mean, they sell like, the police have like those like, you know, they have like Bolos they can shoot out from like, it's like a Taser, but it's like a Bolo. Really? Yeah. Where the hell did I have never seen that? When they can shoot for like a ship, like a ship size like Bolo.
01:15:54
Speaker
I feel like they could have done it. But no one nets these animals. They're just like, I don't know. I guess certain weapons they can't use because it's got computer chips. But if you have a giant, giant rope, it's a weight. And then it's just like in three movies from now, they have giant robots. There's hovercrafts. There's lasers. There's just a coastal gun in all of the photos.
01:16:23
Speaker
like technology like leap is like insane in this franchise there's a catapult they just reinvent the catapult i guess it i guess just that that one company like the company that made like mecha godzilla is like just the one that like spread all this technology or i guess well they had advancement because what uh what's his face is rodan's head or geetra's head i think geetra yeah but yeah like
01:16:49
Speaker
Yeah, like I don't want to talk about how stupid it was when they decided to put like a brain, like a human controller. It looks like a human, it's like a Titan body. So weird. But yeah, in this movie, the fact that this laid the groundwork for the monster universe is still an amazing accomplishment just because no one knew, even they didn't know where this would go.
01:17:15
Speaker
I mean, yeah, this is like the first American Godzilla since 98. It's just like, that was, you know, nostalgia wise, I think we both like have fondness for that movie, but like that it was not critically received. Well, we'll see. Toho was also like not obviously not happy with us. But then this weekend, they're like, Oh, hey, yeah, you guys, you guys did it. Like here's, here's a Ghidra. Here's Rodan. Here's Mozzarella. Here's everybody. I do like that Japan did not put all its baskets in this.
01:17:44
Speaker
It also did its own Godzilla movies during this. And for this, it's not too many movies that do that. It's not like Marvel Studios does these mainstream Marvel movies. And then on the side, it makes another Marvel movie that is same characters, but like a non-connected universe. Yeah, like Legendary had proved themselves that like, hey, you didn't fuck up Godzilla. Now you can use all the Godzilla stuff.
01:18:12
Speaker
free reign. But like, Toho is just randomly, hey, let's make a Godzilla that takes place in 2014. Let's make a Godzilla movie that takes place in the 40s. Let's make a Godzilla movie cartoon that
01:18:30
Speaker
is a cyberpunk thing. Like ever since I threw this on my Netflix it just kept recommending me other Godzilla things that also during this time Godzilla came out and it's just like other projects that Godzilla was in. I think the year after this was Shin Godzilla? Well I think Shin Godzilla was a couple years afterwards because it's like I think it had been a while since like Toho had made like a Godzilla movie and then they're like this one came out and it was good and you're like
01:18:58
Speaker
Oh, we should probably make Godzilla movies again. And shooting Godzilla has nothing to do with Godzilla minus one. It's just like a reboot of this romanticized era of like simple Godzilla thing. And they did those like those three like anime like Netflix movies. That's what I'm talking about. And they're all just like one off Godzilla stories.
01:19:28
Speaker
I don't know. I think America needs his own monster. King Kong is kind of our monster. Because it was created like RKO, like Hollywood, made Godzilla King Kong. No, that was like the first Godzilla versus Kong King Kong movie. It was like East versus West, like Kong is America's monster and Godzilla is our monster, Japan's monster.
01:19:57
Speaker
I think you're right but even though but the problem is that like King Kong keeps coming from Skull Island which is not from here it's always like a monster we've either imported or we um sort of just militarized the American militarized yeah he's not a monster that we basically get from some sort of repercussion. Gujira is supposed to be like a repercussion from nuclear
01:20:25
Speaker
fallout or you know like from from that in the original sense and that's why in this movie he's not he's just a he's just a old prehistoric monster but yeah Godzilla still a good movie so holds up let's just see in another decade if that even holds up even more
01:20:52
Speaker
Yeah. And hopefully the master version can just be fun. I mean, that's the Lex Kong. It was very stupid, but it was also very fun. So, um, and you know, we're like monarch is getting season two. There's multiple, there's going to be other apple TV plus shows apparently that are, I don't know if they're spin ups of monarch, but they're gonna be like other like character or like side things in the master verse. So.
01:21:15
Speaker
It's definitely not done. It's like, it's going full steam ahead for the box of hers. If we're lucky, they will revitalize the Kong ride in Universal Studios to be something, to be like this King Kong. Like a Godzilla versus Kong ride or something? Maybe. Well, I think there's like, I always adventure has like a call, like it's more like pure Jackson's talk. Yeah.
01:21:45
Speaker
That ride is like nine years old. I think there's like a Japanese part that has like a, like a big, like Godzilla, like, uh, kind of like, it's like a screen, like a big, like 3d screen ride. Yeah. It's like a Godzilla encounter, but they also have like a thing there, like a statue you could go see. But America looks like we don't have that anymore.
01:22:13
Speaker
But yeah, I think they'll do it for this week's show. Ahead of our site, we've got all of our usual stuff out there. We got news, reviews, trailers, tons of trailers we got. I think it was up front and in the Cannes film festival. So we got tons of shows up on the site. We got tons of news on the Facebook page. I got a review of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. If you want some more, speaking of King Kong and that kind of giant apes, if you want to read my thoughts about the newest Planet of the Apes movie, it's up there.
01:22:43
Speaker
and come back soon to the site. We're gonna have our commentary for this month, which is gonna be Terminator Salvation, which is also celebrating anniversary. So we'll be re-watching that and you can watch that along with us and all the other usual features and news and all that stuff is on the site. So head over to check all that stuff out. And yeah, so for Chris, I am Zach and we will see you next week. For more from Everything Action, head to www.everythingaction.com.
01:23:12
Speaker
You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.com slash everything.action and follow us on X at Evieaction. We're also on Instagram and threads at everything.action. Find more episodes of the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast epic choice and be sure to rate and subscribe.