So I took a week and a half off. Had some personal stuff going on and things weren't exactly easy but I'm back and ready to recommit to this blog. So what movies are out that I should go see... oh wait that checking account number is looking a bit low... hmmm... I'll stay in and find something to talk about: Heavy Rain just got a PC port, that's kinda a movie. The game's writer and director David Cage clearly has some affection for cinema. Interaction throughout the games he makes is minimized to timed button presses, light adventure game mechanics (not puzzles mechanics), and dialogue options, and he tells his stories using the same tools cinema uses: dialogue, cinematography, music, action etc...
Thursday, June 27, 2019
Friday, June 14, 2019
Franchise Retrospective: SAW
For a while there I was seriously thinking that I'd be able to post reviews every Thursday and essayistic opinion pieces every Tuesday, but here I am Thursday night with nothing really interesting to review. I did indeed watch stuff I have thoughts on but I'm doing this bi-weekly blog thing to write about things I'm interested in and excited about I'll give in to the drudgery of writing about things that don't interest and excite me as soon as someone wants to pay me to do it. Ah well I think I'll do a franchise retrospective... Yeah that can be a recurring feature here that sounds like fun. But where to start? Something long easy to talk about and maybe slightly controversial...OOH Like how the Saw franchise is an intricately plotted crime drama that only gets good after the 3rd movie!
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Dune (2020): A Dilemma
Denis Villeneuve's upcoming adaptation of Frank Herbert's Sci-fi epic Dune holds a lot of promise with a stellar writer/director who claims such acclaimed credits as Arrival (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and Sicario (2015), and a shockingly good cast with FAR too many big names to list here. The movie shows so much promise that Warner Bros. has apparently already ordered a spin off television show based on the Bene Gesserit, an order of women who, through careful breeding and mental conditioning, have developed a supernatural mastery of social and political manipulation to guide humanity. Not knocking this idea at all it sounds like a fantastic series concept with potential to replace the GoT shaped void in many people's lives, but shouldn't Warner Bros. wait and see if Dune (2020) is successful first?
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Tender Loving Care
Unsurprisingly my first love is movies. Like many kids born in the 90’s I grew up watching Indiana Jones, E.T. and Star Wars on VHS over and over, but I also can’t remember a time when I didn’t have access to a PC, and of course PC games. So imagine my surprise and excitement when I learned about the brief fad in PC game development when newly emerging CD technology meant developers could put actual live action video in games. The popular name for this technology and by extension the games that utilize it is FMV or Full Motion Video.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Godzilla vs. Critics
Godzilla (1954), King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster (1964), Invasion of Astro Monster/Monster Zero (1965), Destroy all Monsters (1968), Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973), Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989), Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991), Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), Godzilla 2000 (1999), Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000), Godzilla Mothera and King Ghidorah Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002), Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003), Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), Godzilla (2014), Shin Godzilla (2016)... Ok maybe I've seen a few by now. I did that not only to show off, but to bring some context to the coming essay/review. I am a fan. So expect a fan's perspective. However, I am also a film student and amateur film critic and will endeavor present my opinion in its proper context with my biases. Oh and expect spoilers, but c'mon guys do you really care about plot details?
Alright now that that's out of the way it's clear that I probably have some strong feelings about Godzilla King of the Monsters. The kind of feelings that are difficult to express with anything beyond excited screaming, and animal noises. The kind of feelings that had me singing proudly and loudly to Bear McCreary's EXCELLENT arrangement of Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla, clapping to the beat in the middle of a crowded IMAX theater on a Friday morning. It was an awe inspiring spectacle that NO film I have seen in theaters in 25 years has approached. So naturally its not an easy film to write a review about... I mean what do you talk about? It looked really cool when Godzilla ripped King Ghidorah's head off? I mean yeah it's a true statement but that's not like it communicates the film's qualities. I'm certainly not the only one struggling: a favorite reviewer of mine, Movie Bob of the Escapist, spent a solid 3rd of his review doing just the animalistic screaming I described. Of course it seems other critics have found plenty to talk about judging by its Rotten tomatoes and Metacritic scores of 40% and 49% respectively. Geeze I know Godzilla isn't Citizen Kane but are we really placing this on the same level as The Angry Birds Movie, and The Meg? Sure many critics have a bias against spectacle focused sci-fi action films but tell that to Avatar and Gravity. Anyway, enough ranting I want to actually accomplish something with this piece. I obviously really enjoyed Godzilla King of the Monsters, and I spent A TON of time and money on film studies classes so I really ought to be able to articulate why and in doing so I think I can isolate the qualities of Godzilla King of the Monsters that mainstream critics seem unwilling or incapable of seeing.
Godzilla didn't get to where he is today by simply beating up on a bunch of other giant beasties. Otherwise, we'd all be talking about Gamera, and The Gargantuas as well as our friend Goji. As is well understood and documented, the original 1954 japanese film from which Godzilla sprung used Godzilla as a metaphor for the dangers of nuclear weaponry. I'm pretty sure I don't need to get into that. What may be less well known is that while the importance of Godzilla as metaphor waned as the series progressed it never fully went away. Notably Godzilla, Mothera, and King Ghidorah Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (GMK) updated Godzilla to be the souls of those killed on both sides of the Pacific conflicts of WWII returning to take revenge on Japan for the atrocities THEY committed, and Shin Godzilla used Godzilla as a metaphor for the dangers of nuclear energy in a country with an inefficient government that relies on larger international powers fix stuff for them. King of the Monsters carries on this legacy only somewhat less gracefully. Here Godzilla and the other titans are rising as a sort of natural defense against the damage humanity as a whole is doing to the planet. We are screwing with the natural order, and Godzilla and the other titans are naturally returning the planet to a more balanced state (as all things should be). King of the Monsters supports a thematic core that we need to coexist with the monsters (planet/our environment) lest they rise up and destroy us with nuclear energy beams (natural disasters/adverse weather). Godzilla King of the Monsters uses its narrative of people using technology to work with the world to heal itself from the attack of an invasive species to suggest that we need to do the same and utilize technology to work to drive out and reverse the damage that we ourselves cause. In a late movie twist Godzilla King of the Monsters suggests that we are in our own way apex predator titans. I think this detail is often overlooked as a bit of handwavy plot BS to keep things moving towards the monster fight, but it is there to suggest that we do have the power to change the world on the level of the titans and we need to work to overcome our own destructive tendencies. Sure the metaphor isn't perfect, and isn't the reason anyone would go see Godzilla King of the Monsters, but it is not a completely brainless movie.
Ok I'm going to push aside the plot analysis for a moment here to get to the fun stuff. The whole reason anyone would go see this movie. The spectacle. I'm going to reinvoke the movie Gravity here to make a point. Gravity was a movie that honestly had less going on thematically, and narratively than Godzilla King of the Monsters. You had Sandra Bullock (whose character name I don't care to look up) trying to get back to earth after an accident with the space station she was working on. There is little to no narrative, admittedly a well executed character arc supporting a "triumph of the human spirit" theme but nothing we hadn't seen before, and a HELL of a ton of spectacle. It is for this spectacle that Gravity got heaps of praise. Here have some quotes to prove my point:
"Gravity is not a film of ideas, like Kubrick's techno-mystical 2001, but it's an overwhelming physical experience..." (Sandra Hall)
"This won't be the film many were expecting but as pure spectacle cinema, Gravity is breathtaking." (Craig Williams)
"Gravity is less a feature film than cinema as experience: a new frontier in filmmaking that will appeal to studios trying to attract people to movie theaters." (Sonny Bunch)
So at least a few critics seem to think that spectacle can carry a film if that spectacle is spectacular enough. I trust that you will believe me if I say that Godzilla King of the Monsters greatest strength is its spectacle. The titans are all truly massive and the environment within which they fight is torn to shreds and reformed by their struggle. These massive creatures fight like massive creatures grappling, roaring, ripping and tearing their way through each other and any people, structures or natural land features unfortunate enough to get in their way. There have NEVER been giant monster fights depicted with as much scale and fidelity. Not in that they are realistic, far from it this is Godzilla, but the CGI and motion capture on display in the film is jaw-droppingly amazing. And that's not even paying any lip service to the cinematography. King of the Monsters is FULL of poster worthy shots that communicate the epic stakes and scale of the action. We are constantly reminded these aren't merely giant monsters in a scrape for dominance THESE ARE GODS, the very avatars of the planet, both deadly and majestic engaged in a war for balance. Also supported by Bear McCreary's UNBELIEVABLY epic score. Critics recognize the spectacle is present but find it overwhelming and lifeless, not seeing how it connects to the underlying environmentalist theme.
Godzilla King of the Monsters's plot and characters are undoubtedly it's weakest aspect, but there is still a lot of good here. Many critics are quick to point out that the actual human characters don't really do anything and spend the movie sitting around and talking. I am just as quick to point out that if that's true there is NO WAY we saw the same movie. The movie I saw had Emma Russell (Very Farmiga) waking up Ghidorah with the Titan communication device, the Orca, after a staged kidnapping during an assault on a Monarch facility, and Monarch air-men leading Rodan to Ghidorah to minimize damage to an evacuating city. It also had Dr. Sarizawa sacrificing himself to heal Godzilla with a nuclear blast, cleverly mirroring The Dr. Sarizawa of the original film. The entire climax of the film happens because Emma Russell's daughter, Madison (Millie Bobby Brown), steals the Orca and takes it to Boston to stop the monster rampages that are happening across the world. I don't know about you but that sounds to me like people doing stuff. One place where I do agree with many critics is that none of the characters are really memorable and few have an arc or change at all. The ones we get, however, that do change are competent in execution. Mark Russell (Kyle Candler) and Emma Russell both have their own unhealthy ways of dealing with the loss of their son in the events of the 2014 movie, and throughout the movie learn that they need to put that aside and focus on their daughter Madison. Its a bit trite and cliche but its still there and competently executed. Critics also overlook the monsters themselves. Godzilla King of the Monsters goes above and beyond to actually provide Godzilla, Mothera, Rodan and King Ghidorah with identifiable personalities. Mothera is a majestic and selfless protector. She is never shown to aggress without provocation and lays down her life to protect Godzilla. The movie even goes on to suggest that the Mothera and Godzilla have some kind of deeper relationship adding further dimension to these "Monsters". Rodan is the weakest of the monsters and shows it by literally bowing to whomever is in charge at the time. He's a wormy henchman sidekick type who wants only to side with the winner. Ghidorah is a crazed destroyer. His 3 heads are often at odds with each other snapping at each other and appearing to disagree. His goal is unchallenged domination he intends to wipe out any potential opposition to his dominance which includes humans. And of course we have Godzilla. He is a proud war hardened badass. Earth is his home and he'll be damned before he lets anyone else make a mess of it. In keeping with the weird relationship Godzilla has with Mothera he is shown to have a bit of a soft spot calling out to Mothera when he is recovering in his undersea hideout. This is all communicated without dialogue. EXCLUSIVELY through the monster's actions and attitudes and is refreshing to see in an American made monster movie. Perhaps when critics were looking for humanity they were looking in the wrong place.
It really is no secret that critics come into these movies with a bias against "low art" like Godzilla, but "low art" is an arbitrary and elitist distinction that has no baring on a films quality. Is Godzilla King of the Monsters a classic that will be loved for generations to come ABSOLUTELY just like Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, and Destroy All Monsters. Lets never forget that quality is subjective but sometimes people are just looking in the wrong places for the wrong things, or only see what they expect to see. Whether you enjoy it or not Godzilla: King of the Monsters was EVERYTHING a Godzilla movie should be and it almost made this Goji fan cry to finally see his favorite nuclear powered dinosaur given the big budget American film that finally shows off his finest qualities.
Alright now that that's out of the way it's clear that I probably have some strong feelings about Godzilla King of the Monsters. The kind of feelings that are difficult to express with anything beyond excited screaming, and animal noises. The kind of feelings that had me singing proudly and loudly to Bear McCreary's EXCELLENT arrangement of Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla, clapping to the beat in the middle of a crowded IMAX theater on a Friday morning. It was an awe inspiring spectacle that NO film I have seen in theaters in 25 years has approached. So naturally its not an easy film to write a review about... I mean what do you talk about? It looked really cool when Godzilla ripped King Ghidorah's head off? I mean yeah it's a true statement but that's not like it communicates the film's qualities. I'm certainly not the only one struggling: a favorite reviewer of mine, Movie Bob of the Escapist, spent a solid 3rd of his review doing just the animalistic screaming I described. Of course it seems other critics have found plenty to talk about judging by its Rotten tomatoes and Metacritic scores of 40% and 49% respectively. Geeze I know Godzilla isn't Citizen Kane but are we really placing this on the same level as The Angry Birds Movie, and The Meg? Sure many critics have a bias against spectacle focused sci-fi action films but tell that to Avatar and Gravity. Anyway, enough ranting I want to actually accomplish something with this piece. I obviously really enjoyed Godzilla King of the Monsters, and I spent A TON of time and money on film studies classes so I really ought to be able to articulate why and in doing so I think I can isolate the qualities of Godzilla King of the Monsters that mainstream critics seem unwilling or incapable of seeing.
Godzilla didn't get to where he is today by simply beating up on a bunch of other giant beasties. Otherwise, we'd all be talking about Gamera, and The Gargantuas as well as our friend Goji. As is well understood and documented, the original 1954 japanese film from which Godzilla sprung used Godzilla as a metaphor for the dangers of nuclear weaponry. I'm pretty sure I don't need to get into that. What may be less well known is that while the importance of Godzilla as metaphor waned as the series progressed it never fully went away. Notably Godzilla, Mothera, and King Ghidorah Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (GMK) updated Godzilla to be the souls of those killed on both sides of the Pacific conflicts of WWII returning to take revenge on Japan for the atrocities THEY committed, and Shin Godzilla used Godzilla as a metaphor for the dangers of nuclear energy in a country with an inefficient government that relies on larger international powers fix stuff for them. King of the Monsters carries on this legacy only somewhat less gracefully. Here Godzilla and the other titans are rising as a sort of natural defense against the damage humanity as a whole is doing to the planet. We are screwing with the natural order, and Godzilla and the other titans are naturally returning the planet to a more balanced state (as all things should be). King of the Monsters supports a thematic core that we need to coexist with the monsters (planet/our environment) lest they rise up and destroy us with nuclear energy beams (natural disasters/adverse weather). Godzilla King of the Monsters uses its narrative of people using technology to work with the world to heal itself from the attack of an invasive species to suggest that we need to do the same and utilize technology to work to drive out and reverse the damage that we ourselves cause. In a late movie twist Godzilla King of the Monsters suggests that we are in our own way apex predator titans. I think this detail is often overlooked as a bit of handwavy plot BS to keep things moving towards the monster fight, but it is there to suggest that we do have the power to change the world on the level of the titans and we need to work to overcome our own destructive tendencies. Sure the metaphor isn't perfect, and isn't the reason anyone would go see Godzilla King of the Monsters, but it is not a completely brainless movie.
Ok I'm going to push aside the plot analysis for a moment here to get to the fun stuff. The whole reason anyone would go see this movie. The spectacle. I'm going to reinvoke the movie Gravity here to make a point. Gravity was a movie that honestly had less going on thematically, and narratively than Godzilla King of the Monsters. You had Sandra Bullock (whose character name I don't care to look up) trying to get back to earth after an accident with the space station she was working on. There is little to no narrative, admittedly a well executed character arc supporting a "triumph of the human spirit" theme but nothing we hadn't seen before, and a HELL of a ton of spectacle. It is for this spectacle that Gravity got heaps of praise. Here have some quotes to prove my point:
"Gravity is not a film of ideas, like Kubrick's techno-mystical 2001, but it's an overwhelming physical experience..." (Sandra Hall)
"This won't be the film many were expecting but as pure spectacle cinema, Gravity is breathtaking." (Craig Williams)
"Gravity is less a feature film than cinema as experience: a new frontier in filmmaking that will appeal to studios trying to attract people to movie theaters." (Sonny Bunch)
So at least a few critics seem to think that spectacle can carry a film if that spectacle is spectacular enough. I trust that you will believe me if I say that Godzilla King of the Monsters greatest strength is its spectacle. The titans are all truly massive and the environment within which they fight is torn to shreds and reformed by their struggle. These massive creatures fight like massive creatures grappling, roaring, ripping and tearing their way through each other and any people, structures or natural land features unfortunate enough to get in their way. There have NEVER been giant monster fights depicted with as much scale and fidelity. Not in that they are realistic, far from it this is Godzilla, but the CGI and motion capture on display in the film is jaw-droppingly amazing. And that's not even paying any lip service to the cinematography. King of the Monsters is FULL of poster worthy shots that communicate the epic stakes and scale of the action. We are constantly reminded these aren't merely giant monsters in a scrape for dominance THESE ARE GODS, the very avatars of the planet, both deadly and majestic engaged in a war for balance. Also supported by Bear McCreary's UNBELIEVABLY epic score. Critics recognize the spectacle is present but find it overwhelming and lifeless, not seeing how it connects to the underlying environmentalist theme.
Godzilla King of the Monsters's plot and characters are undoubtedly it's weakest aspect, but there is still a lot of good here. Many critics are quick to point out that the actual human characters don't really do anything and spend the movie sitting around and talking. I am just as quick to point out that if that's true there is NO WAY we saw the same movie. The movie I saw had Emma Russell (Very Farmiga) waking up Ghidorah with the Titan communication device, the Orca, after a staged kidnapping during an assault on a Monarch facility, and Monarch air-men leading Rodan to Ghidorah to minimize damage to an evacuating city. It also had Dr. Sarizawa sacrificing himself to heal Godzilla with a nuclear blast, cleverly mirroring The Dr. Sarizawa of the original film. The entire climax of the film happens because Emma Russell's daughter, Madison (Millie Bobby Brown), steals the Orca and takes it to Boston to stop the monster rampages that are happening across the world. I don't know about you but that sounds to me like people doing stuff. One place where I do agree with many critics is that none of the characters are really memorable and few have an arc or change at all. The ones we get, however, that do change are competent in execution. Mark Russell (Kyle Candler) and Emma Russell both have their own unhealthy ways of dealing with the loss of their son in the events of the 2014 movie, and throughout the movie learn that they need to put that aside and focus on their daughter Madison. Its a bit trite and cliche but its still there and competently executed. Critics also overlook the monsters themselves. Godzilla King of the Monsters goes above and beyond to actually provide Godzilla, Mothera, Rodan and King Ghidorah with identifiable personalities. Mothera is a majestic and selfless protector. She is never shown to aggress without provocation and lays down her life to protect Godzilla. The movie even goes on to suggest that the Mothera and Godzilla have some kind of deeper relationship adding further dimension to these "Monsters". Rodan is the weakest of the monsters and shows it by literally bowing to whomever is in charge at the time. He's a wormy henchman sidekick type who wants only to side with the winner. Ghidorah is a crazed destroyer. His 3 heads are often at odds with each other snapping at each other and appearing to disagree. His goal is unchallenged domination he intends to wipe out any potential opposition to his dominance which includes humans. And of course we have Godzilla. He is a proud war hardened badass. Earth is his home and he'll be damned before he lets anyone else make a mess of it. In keeping with the weird relationship Godzilla has with Mothera he is shown to have a bit of a soft spot calling out to Mothera when he is recovering in his undersea hideout. This is all communicated without dialogue. EXCLUSIVELY through the monster's actions and attitudes and is refreshing to see in an American made monster movie. Perhaps when critics were looking for humanity they were looking in the wrong place.
It really is no secret that critics come into these movies with a bias against "low art" like Godzilla, but "low art" is an arbitrary and elitist distinction that has no baring on a films quality. Is Godzilla King of the Monsters a classic that will be loved for generations to come ABSOLUTELY just like Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, and Destroy All Monsters. Lets never forget that quality is subjective but sometimes people are just looking in the wrong places for the wrong things, or only see what they expect to see. Whether you enjoy it or not Godzilla: King of the Monsters was EVERYTHING a Godzilla movie should be and it almost made this Goji fan cry to finally see his favorite nuclear powered dinosaur given the big budget American film that finally shows off his finest qualities.
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