Godzilla
Harvey Sandstrom
Harvey Sandstrom
cd0

The mayor is really upset that they're going to have to close the beaches in the middle of summer. Won't you think of his reelection?

Ben Zanin
Ben Zanin
gnomon

Oh right, we're supposed to know that these characters are French and villainous because they are smoking terrible cigarettes and expressing disdain about American pastries

ha ha ha hilarious

moar giant lizard plz

Floaty Birb
Floaty Birb
floatybirb

Anyway, at this point the premise of the movie is set up, a giant dinosaur is attacking Manhattan because it likes islands I guess and it traveled around the world to Manhattan because manhattan is the most island-like of islands I guess.

Anyway, we're evacuating Manhattan now, which sounds very hard. This has caused Mayor Not-Mamdani to start eating candy which he isn't supposed to do because he's on a pre-election diet.

Andy L.
Andy L.
apLundell@timeloop.cafe

#monsterdon I feel like they're doing "Action comedy" exactly backwards. The scenes that need jokes are played completely straight, but the scenes that should be serious are a series of irritating "funny" characters.

Bluedepth

Of course no monster would destroy Jersey. It’s... JERSEY. Even a monster has *STANDARDS*

Harvey Sandstrom
Harvey Sandstrom
cd0

The government of the State of New York wishes to remind viewers not to eat anything that comes out of the east river. Ever.

SnoopJ
SnoopJ
SnoopJ@hachyderm.io

This effect is also cool, with all the cars bumping in unison. I imagine each car has a little bumper underneath it, but I wonder how they directed the extras to synchronize that.

#Monsterdon

Floaty Birb
Floaty Birb
floatybirb

In an army airplane conference, we learn about our recent toy boat destruction. The girl scientist says the culprit is a "Thereopoda Allosaurus" which is probably not the right scientific name of an Allosaurus, even if it was a theropod. Then the boy scientist explains that the radiation has made it big, like the worms he was studying. Then he says that it is "The First of a New Species!" allowing this movie to have sequels if it made more money.

Neville Park
Neville Park
nev@status.nevillepark.ca

Some snippets from Roger Ebert's review:

Going to see β€œGodzilla” at the Palais of the Cannes Film Festival is like attending a satanic ritual in St. Peter’s Basilica.

One must carefully repress intelligent thought while watching such a film.

Oh, and then there are New York’s Mayor Ebert (gamely played by Michael Lerner) and his adviser, Gene (Lorry Goldman). The mayor of course makes every possible wrong decision (he is against evacuating Manhattan, etc.), and the adviser eventually gives thumbs-down to his reelection campaign. These characters are a reaction by Emmerich and Devlin to negative Siskel and Ebert reviews of their earlier movies (β€œStargate,” β€œIndependence Dayβ€œ), but they let us off lightly; I fully expected to be squished like a bug by Godzilla. Now that I’ve inspired a character in a Godzilla movie, all I really still desire is for several Ingmar Bergman characters to sit in a circle and read my reviews to one another in hushed tones.

And here's the Siskel & Ebert video if you want some more.

#Monsterdon

Ben Zanin
Ben Zanin
gnomon

"What about the radiation? The radiation isn't an anomaly, it's the clue."

(That's... that's what clues usually are. Just for the record.)

Floaty Birb
Floaty Birb
floatybirb

The next sometime, some fishing boats are floating around at night, then a Godzilla attacks them and knocks them over. While this interlude seems pointless so far, it adds more boats to the movie, so I am forced to regard it approvingly.

Ben Zanin
Ben Zanin
gnomon

...her curly hair is just implausibly bouncy for the amount of rain through which she supposedly walked to get into that office.

Floaty Birb
Floaty Birb
floatybirb

Next we see some Russians interviewing an old Japanese guy in a low budget hospital and the dude asks him what he says and he answers "Gojira!" an answer that doesn't make sense unless the reality of Godzilla (1998) also includes the existing Gojira movies.

Bluedepth

It was a footprint. He's slow, but Matthew is adorable so we won't beg for him to die, just yet.

Floaty Birb
Floaty Birb
floatybirb

Anyway a helicopter lands and some Russian soldiers run past the wormy guy. A US state department dude tells the scientist that his work is over because the government needs him for um... something.

Floaty Birb
Floaty Birb
floatybirb

Seeing as its 6 minutes in and we already got one godzilla attack, at least this movie is fucking around too much so far.

Floaty Birb
Floaty Birb
floatybirb

So next we got a Japanese freighter or oil tanker or something going through a storm. And then its freighter sonar detects a Large Ominous Object approaching and everything shakes. We get to see the crew run around and panic, fun times!

Then a giant claw breaks through the side of the freighter and a tail knocks it over.

Floaty Birb
Floaty Birb
floatybirb

This movie kicks off with a fake old timey film strip of nuclear tests that are attentively watched by an audience of (normal-sized) lizards.

If I was a nuclear tester I would love it if my bomb tests had an adoring audience of small reptiles.

Ben Zanin
Ben Zanin
gnomon

14

13

12

11

10

...

(we all know that French countdowns are the most sinister of countdowns, of course)

Sam Levine
Sam Levine
SRLevine@neuromatch.social

Not sure if I'll be able to pay enough enough attention without having to juggle multiple devices and/or moving windows around to post. Might be too boring for me. Also I've hit the very last climax of the book I'm reading...

#Monsterdon

klu9
klu9
klu9@eggplant.place

finished watching Godzilla πŸŒ•πŸŒ—πŸŒ‘πŸŒ‘πŸŒ‘
Long, limp facsimile of a Godzilla movie ripping off also Jurassic Park, Aliens etc while including as much corporate promotion as possible. Broderick, in particular, underwhelms.

Godzilla 98 is the Woodstock '99 of monster movies.

Watched in #Monsterdon watch party on Mastodon.

#NeoDB

Andy L.
Andy L.
apLundell@timeloop.cafe

#monsterdon And of course, the premise is still completely stupid.

I don't mean that a 100ft tall monster could exist. I can believe that.

I mean that a 100ft tall monster could sneak into Madison Square Garden through the sewers.