Godzilla's screentime in the G series

[ScootaVaran]

Godzilla's visible in Kong for 9:24 (including depictions on newspapers/magazines), and in The Thing for 15:53.

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He's in Kong for only nine minutes? Doesn't the fight scene alone last about that amount of time?

Action sequences feel longer to the viewer for some reason. There's a scientific explanation behind it, but I don't remember what it is. I think it has something to do with that excitement feels long to us.

Add in the fact that they would often cut from the fight to show other things going on (people reacting, ect..) That usually adds to the length of the fight scene.

[Space Hunter M]

Godzilla is on screen in Godzilla's Revenge for 9:32 (including shots of Ichiro's Marusan toy).

[Space Hunter M]

Are- are you watching through the movies right now?

I just have above average technical skills for this crowd.

[Missingno.]

You see, the difference between this and Godzilla 2014 (in addition to the ratio between Godzilla's screen time and the total runtime of the movie) is that Godzilla 1954 is actually about Godzilla. Even when he's not on screen, his presence is felt and talked about by characters who are actually interesting.

I felt the same way when I was watching the Japanese cut of KKvG. There is more screentime with Kong than Godzilla, though this could be due to the fact that Kong was apparently as popular (if not more) as Godzilla. This is one of the reasons why Kong won in the end, that and Toho knew it was too predictable for them to make their Japanese monster win against the American monster

[Space Hunter M]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k4a5G4SoW1r70a5APJQ

[MDK]

And please don't give me Aliens and Jaws comparisons...

Hate to break it to you, but in the context of this discussion I'd say that's a necessity.

The movies are nothing alike though. Jaws and Alien doesn't cut to a different scene when the showing the monster in whole clearly and they have great characters to hold you over, unlike Godzilla 2014.

[ScootaVaran]

And please don't give me Aliens and Jaws comparisons...

Hate to break it to you, but in the context of this discussion I'd say that's a necessity.

The movies are nothing alike though. Jaws and Alien doesn't cut to a different scene when the showing the monster in whole clearly and they have great characters to hold you over, unlike Godzilla 2014.

I've haven't seen Jaws in a few years but i do know that Aliens did in fact have a few cut away scenes. Does that make them comparable? I don't a fuck anymore.

[godzilla98rules]

Dang this topic got heated quickly, but whatever.

As I said, I'm working on a list of Godzilla's run-time in all 30 films. It's not finished yet, but this is what I have so far:

Godzilla 1954: 9m 54s
King Kong vs Godzilla: 10m 9s
Mothra vs Godzilla: 15m 53s
Destroy All Monsters: 13m 26s
All Monsters Attack!: 9m 32s
Terror of Mechagodzilla: 8m 12s

I still have got a lot more to go before I'm finished...........

EDIT: I updated the list with the times given by other members here. Thank you for helping out!

[LegendZilla]

And please don't give me Aliens and Jaws comparisons...

Hate to break it to you, but in the context of this discussion I'd say that's a necessity.

The movies are nothing alike though. Jaws and Alien doesn't cut to a different scene when the showing the monster in whole clearly and they have great characters to hold you over, unlike Godzilla 2014.

That's just the problem. Edwards tried to hard to have his movie follow the footsteps of both Alien and Jaws by teasing the supposed star monster. Sadly the fact he did just the opposite with the Mutos discredits that notion.

I'd say that our complaints that there was no other monster to fight in 1998 took its toll.

[Legion1979]

That's just the problem. Edwards tried to hard to have his movies follow the footsteps of both Alien and Jaws by teasing the supposed star monster.

Which is unbelievably stupid.

What's scary about Alien and Jaws is that these monsters are lurking where you can't see them (either in a spaceship in outer space or under water) ready to jump out and violently kill you. That's why those movies work. They both play on the fear on the unknown, and if you saw too much of these creatures the movies wouldn't work nearly as well. Godzilla doesn't need to be hidden from the audience. After 60 years we know what he looks like and what he's all about. We WANT to see scenes of destruction and monster battles. That's why most people go to Godzilla movies. I think way too many people jump on the "Well, Jaws and Aliens did it" bandwagon to defend the poor choices Edwards made.

[Missingno.]

That's just the problem. Edwards tried to hard to have his movies follow the footsteps of both Alien and Jaws by teasing the supposed star monster.

Which is unbelievably stupid.

What's scary about Alien and Jaws is that these monsters are lurking where you can't see them (either in a spaceship in outer space or under water) ready to jump out and violently kill you. That's why those movies work. They both play on the fear on the unknown, and if you saw too much of these creatures the movies wouldn't work nearly as well. Godzilla doesn't need to be hidden from the audience. After 60 years we know what he looks like and what he's all about. We WANT to see scenes of destruction and monster battles. That's why most people go to Godzilla movies. I think way too many people jump on the "Well, Jaws and Aliens did it" bandwagon to defend the poor choices Edwards made.

Now I'm not jumping on that bandwagon as you've stated because I completely agree with you on that, but a prime example of a Godzilla movie that has done this is the original. They made Godzilla in that movie attack off screen by sinking ships (more than the two we saw) but mounted up that suspense making you want to see the monster. And when you finally see him finish his destruction, it leaves you satisfied because they properly built up the atmosphere, even though his screen time is apparently 9 minutes (though I read that it is 13 in his final attack, and 15 if you count the first and note that I'm going by the Japanese cut). That's what this movie does, play on fear of the unknown, and you don't see too much of Godzilla in this movie.

[DrBreakfastMachine]

I think Godzilla had a good amount of screentime in the new film. The thing is that Edwards understands how to use a good thing sparingly in order to increase the effect when it is onscreen. Comparisons to Jaws or Alien may not be entirely apt, but I think Jurassic Park is a good example of the same thing. The "stars" of the movie, the T. rex and the velociraptors are actually barely in the movie, but you remember their scenes more than anything else. The rest of the movie is carried by the other dinosaurs and the humans. Now Godzilla's human plot isn't nearly as well-done as a JP's, which is the actual problem- NOT that Godzilla isn't in it enough. If the humans were more interesting Godzilla's brief appearances wouldn't seem so brief but if Godzilla was in the movie for longer it wouldn't actually make the movie any better. It's a matter of quality being off and not the quantity being wrong.

That said, I think we need to all step back and remember something nobody seems to mention regarding this film: when Godzilla shares a movie with other monsters, the main plot is usually about them and not Godzilla himself. GtTHM and IoAM are both all about Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster is more about Ebirah, Son of Godzilla is more about Minilla, Godzilla vs. Hedorah is about Hedorah, Godzilla vs. Gigan is about Gigan and Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. Megalon is about Jet Jaguar, Godzilla vs. MG is about King Caesar and MG, Terror of MG is about Titanosaurus and MG, and so on. Godzilla may save the day in the end but he's rarely in focus more than the other new monsters, or in this case, the MUTOs, and as far as monster plots go, the MUTOs were actually very well-done in my opinion.

[Space Hunter M]

IoAM

It's about the Planet X people yo. The monsters are just pawns.

[Legion1979]

That's just the problem. Edwards tried to hard to have his movies follow the footsteps of both Alien and Jaws by teasing the supposed star monster.

Which is unbelievably stupid.

What's scary about Alien and Jaws is that these monsters are lurking where you can't see them (either in a spaceship in outer space or under water) ready to jump out and violently kill you. That's why those movies work. They both play on the fear on the unknown, and if you saw too much of these creatures the movies wouldn't work nearly as well. Godzilla doesn't need to be hidden from the audience. After 60 years we know what he looks like and what he's all about. We WANT to see scenes of destruction and monster battles. That's why most people go to Godzilla movies. I think way too many people jump on the "Well, Jaws and Aliens did it" bandwagon to defend the poor choices Edwards made.

Now I'm not jumping on that bandwagon as you've stated because I completely agree with you on that, but a prime example of a Godzilla movie that has done this is the original. They made Godzilla in that movie attack off screen by sinking ships (more than the two we saw) but mounted up that suspense making you want to see the monster. And when you finally see him finish his destruction, it leaves you satisfied because they properly built up the atmosphere, even though his screen time is apparently 9 minutes (though I read that it is 13 in his final attack, and 15 if you count the first and note that I'm going by the Japanese cut). That's what this movie does, play on fear of the unknown, and you don't see too much of Godzilla in this movie.

The difference is...that was 1954, THIS is 60 years and almost 30 movies later.

[DrBreakfastMachine]

I'm surprised he has so much screen time in Destroy All Monsters since he has to share the movie with 10 other monsters. Then again there are several group scenes.

That said, I think we need to all step back and remember something nobody seems to mention regarding this film: when Godzilla shares a movie with other monsters, the main plot is usually about them and not Godzilla himself. GtTHM and IoAM are both all about Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster is more about Ebirah, Son of Godzilla is more about Minilla, Godzilla vs. Hedorah is about Hedorah, Godzilla vs. Gigan is about Gigan and Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. Megalon is about Jet Jaguar, Godzilla vs. MG is about King Caesar and MG, Terror of MG is about Titanosaurus and MG, and so on. Godzilla may save the day in the end but he's rarely in focus more than the other new monsters, or in this case, the MUTOs, and as far as monster plots go, the MUTOs were actually very well-done in my opinion.

That's a problem for a reboot. The reboot should be about him with enemy monsters to fight, and then the sequel about the enemy monsters. Godzilla's origin just feels like it was randomly brought up. "blah blah Muto, oh by the way there's this other monster we nuked back in 1954 who may or may not be dead and I don't have any proof or evidence that he is gonna show up and kill the Muto, LOL".


I really don't think the screen time is the problem, it's how it and the origin was used poorly that is.

There's not a whole lot to elaborate on though. He's a big prehistoric monster that exhales radiation. His origin merited about as much of an explanation in the 1954 film. The only time a film has ever gotten a lot of mileage out of Godzilla's history is Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, and that's because they made it mind-breakingly complicated via time travel.

[20th Century Boy]

Are you guys sure Godzilla had 13 minutes of screentime in Destroy All Monsters? Are you counting just Godzilla scenes or other monster scenes?

And more importantly, are you guys counting quick shots that occur in between Godzilla's appearances? (e.g. A shot of a monster without Godzilla in it during a Godzilla battle.)

[DrBreakfastMachine]

*Facepalms*

You're not getting what I;m saying. He's origin was handled in a very awkward way. They just dropped it randomly on Ford for no reason when talking about the Muto, when they have no proof that he will show up to fight the Muto or that he is even still alive after 1954.

I think you misunderstood that scene. What I took away from it is that they've been tracking and studying Godzilla off-and-on since 1954, and they just happen to not know where he is at the moment. Serizawa needed to explain to Ford what Monarch was and why they've been operating in secret for 60 years, since he deserved an explanation for what was going on. Discussing what Godzilla is and hypothesizing that he might be the answer to killing the MUTOs (I believe the term for Serizawa would be "genre savvy") was totally relevant.

[Space Hunter M]

Godzilla is visible in The Return of Godzilla for 19:28, including any photographic depictions. Additionally, there are 23 seconds of material exclusive to 1985 (one unused shot of Godzilla, Major McDonough looking at the photograph, and stock footage from Godzilla, King of the Monsters). It's interesting how the film editorially tries to fit as much of Godzilla into the film as possible (shots on monitors, TVs, etc).

[godzilla98rules]

Are you guys sure Godzilla had 13 minutes of screentime in Destroy All Monsters? Are you counting just Godzilla scenes or other monster scenes?

And more importantly, are you guys counting quick shots that occur in between Godzilla's appearances? (e.g. A shot of a monster without Godzilla in it during a Godzilla battle.)

I'm counting every physical appearance (including brief shots) where Godzilla is in front of the camera. I came up with around 13 minutes with Destroy All Monsters.

EDIT:

I just did a video of Godzilla scenes from Destroy All Monsters. It seems that I was way off......

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26e74 ... shortfilms

His total time is actually 8 minutes and 19 seconds.

The problem I seem to be having is called "Compounding Error." Unless I find a better way to accurately time these scenes, then I'll have no choice but to give all of them the video treatment...........

[kamilleblu]

Gojira| Running Time: 96 min
Godzilla: King of the Monsters|Running Time: 80 min
Godzilla (2014)| Running Time: 123 min

That extra half an hour makes all the difference in the world when:

You don't have engaging characters to keep the film alive when monsters aren't around. Godzilla films aren't known for having the greatest cast of characters, however, most of the time they're usually pretty fun to watch. Sadly, G14 takes itself way too seriously.

Godzilla isn't the main focus and completely lacks presence when he isn't on screen. He appears suddenly (literally) and disappears just as suddenly. Edwards and friends don't seem to have understood what made Jaws and similar films work. Simply not having the monster there isn't how you do it.