Which Godzilla movie is better

[AgentRedgrave]

I figured instead of fighting over DMC, we could fight over something else lol...no but really no fighting.

Which American made Godzilla movie do you think is better

The 1998 Tristar movie, directed by Roland Emmerich

or the 2014 Legendary movie, directed by Gareth Edwards

First of all, let's look at the plot.
Now both of these movies have very simple plots, and unlike the majority of the Godzilla movies they place more focus on the humans, something they both got some criticism for.
But personally I prefer the plot of the 2014 movie. For one very big reason, the human drama in the 2014 film was actually relevant in the events. Hear me out, in the 1998 movie you had a love story shoved in, and the whole "I wanna be a reporter" sup-plot. The 2014 film's drama all had to do with the monsters, the monsters killed the main character's parents, and he's trying to get back home to his wife and son who are right where the monsters are about to collide.​

Next, the lead actor

Matthew Broderick as Dr. Nik Tatopoulos

vs

Aaron Johnson as Lt. Ford Brody

Yeah the first tried a scientist, while the second one went with the other extreme, a soldier.
Well honestly neither one of them was that great of a main character.
But I'm gonna be blunt, I'm giving this one to Aaron Johnson because
A) You get over Brian Cranston not being the lead, he's not that bad
B)Every time Broderick spoke in the 98 I cringed, he's acting was so terrible and so annyoing

Now the lead actress

Maria Pitillo as Audrey Timmonds

vs

Elizabeth Olson as Elle Brody

This one was actually a little tougher
On one hand, Maria had a bit more to do with the plot.
But on the other hand, her plot points were some of the flaws of the movie (Read what I said about the 98 movies's plot)
Whereas Elizabeth is really only there as a pov character for the most part, so we can watch people react to giant monsters (pretty much the same for all the human characters in the '14 movie)
and for the most part, she does a fine job.
So I'm giving it to Olson

Now supporting cast

This actually leads to the ONLY character in the 1998 movie I like
Jean Reno as Philippe Roaché

I really liked this guy, everyone else felt like forced comedy relief.
Not much to say, I just thought he was a cool character

That being said the 2014 films supporting cast wasn't stupid, and they actually had two characters I really liked, even more then any other cast member in either movie

Brian Cranston as Joe Brody

Not much to say, other then it was a great performance.
This is coming from a guy who's never seen a single episode of Breaking Bad
He just really gave it his all, and I can see why people were disappointed we didn't get more of him

And my second favorite human character in any Godzilla film (My number 1 being the character from the original film)

Ken Wantanabe as Dr.Serizawa

I found his character the most interesting, in the 2014 film.
The fact he's been studying these monsters, presumably for years
and he had, imo, the best lines in the whole movie
"We call him *dramatic pause* Gojira"
"The arrogance of man is thinking nature is in their control, and not the other way around."
"Let them fight"
He also kinda reminded me of the Paleontologist from the original film.
While everyone else wanted to kill Godzilla, he could only think about how it was an important discorvery
and killing him would be a waste.

Now, I saved the best for last

The monsters

Zilla

and...his babies

Vs

Godzilla

and the MUTOs

Well I said best, but it's really a no brainier. I mean come on
1 giant monster and it's raptor sized babies vs 3 giant monsters.
Not to mention while both tried in their own ways to be a bit more realistic.
I think the 2014 film did a better job of balancing it's kaiju as animals, but also forces of nature.
Also to the people who argue screen time.
They gave Godzilla 8 minutes in a 2 hour film
vs Zilla who had 10 minutes in a movie that's a half hour longer
Plus the 2014 film had 2 more giant monsters, not baby raptors ripping off the 3rd act of Jurassic Park.
That and the 2014 films monsters are just bigger and more powerful
Zilla's like 196 ft, and was killed by missiles, has power breath
The male MUTO, the smallest monster in the 2014 movie, is around 200 ft, and has an EMP ability and can fly
The female, while it can't fly, has the same EMP ability and is even bigger between 250-300 ft
And Godzilla is 355 ft, can survive a nuke and has atomic breath (as you can see in my sig)

So yes, in my opinion the 2014 is better in every regard.
If it came off as, I was making fun of the 1998 movie.
That's possible as I, like most Godzilla fans, hate the movie
While the 2014 felt like it had a lot of respect for the original movie (The 1954 Godzilla in Japanese is also one of the my top 5 favorite movies)
But I know the 2014 film did get it's fair share of criticism from many
and I've even heard some say the 1998 remake is better.
So what do you guys think?
​

 

[The Good Gentleman]

Why is this even a question? :|

 

[REAPER 3142]

Godzilla 2014 hands down. The 98 movie is a decent monster flick, but an awful Godzilla movie. Can't wait for Godzilla 2014 sequel.

 

[AgentRedgrave]

Why is this even a question? :|

Cause what I said at the end

 

[King-Sess]

To be completely honest, I actually somewhat enjoyed the 1998 movie because I don't think of it as a Godzilla movie, 'cause it's not.

Now, that said, I acknowledge that it was pretty bad even if considered as it's own film. Mostly why I like it is because I'm nostalgic towards it and because I've sorta always like Zilla to a degree, though not nearly as much as Godzilla himself, obviously.

And, tbh, the cartoon series for Zilla was a lot better than the actual movie since Zilla Jr. was more like the actual Godzilla in most regards, including abilities and such, and because of the numerous monsters he faced, many of them inspired by Godzilla monsters and other already-existing kaiju.

Anyways, to get back on topic, I don't think you can even compare these two movies.

Even though I said I like the the 1998 movie, it's mostly a guilty pleasure fueled by childhood nostalgia.

2014 on the other hand, was actually really fun to watch and extremely enjoyable for me.
In fact, I'd actually say it's one of my favorite Godzilla films.

That said, however, the movie does have plenty of flaws, but overall I feel like it's an actual Godzilla movie unlike the 1998 film, which was trying to hard to be like Jurassic Park.

I get the fact that people were upset that Brian Cranston's character died early on, the human characters aren't exactly the best and most interesting out there, and that that Godzilla has less screen-time than the MUTOs, which does kinda make Godzilla seem like a guest character in his own movie, but the movie overall did so much better than the 1998 film that the two aren't even comparable.

Also, though Godzilla has less screen-time, do I need to point out that every scene he shows up in is epic as ****?

When the soldiers fire flares at him and you see how big he is, as well as the scene when he arrives at the airport, it sent chills down my spine.

And then the part where the female MUTO is about to attack Ford, but you suddenly see a blue light and Godzilla shows up out of the darkness, puffs up his chest, and then breathes his atomic breath for the first time in the film.
Now that was ****ing great.

Then the part where he basically fly swats the male MUTO.

And then finally the part, which is in your signature, where he grabs the female MUTO's head and pries her mouth open (which reminded me of some older films) and then breathes his atomic breathe down her throat, decapitating her and then throwing her head into the ocean.

I mean, granted he has much less screen-time than he should, but they certainly knew what they were doing with what screen-time they had for him.

Sorry for rambling on like that, gotta a little carried away with my fanboyness, heh...

 

[AgentRedgrave]

And, tbh, the cartoon series for Zilla was a lot better than the actual movie since Zilla Jr. was more like the actual Godzilla in most regards, including abilities and such, and because of the numerous monsters he faced, many of them inspired by Godzilla monsters and other already-existing kaiju.

I LOVED that animated series, along with Digimon, the original Power Rangers, and the Batman and X-Men series it was my childhood

 

[Angel]

They were both disappointing to me because the emphasis was not on these huge monsters. I felt thoroughly misled by trailers for both films and there was a bit in the 2014 film where it cut to the next scene really abruptly and left you thinking you have brought a dodgy copy by mistake because it set up the stage for a massive monster v monster showdown and then...didn't.

2014 slightly better but still not what I wanted it to be.

 

[AgentRedgrave]

They were both disappointing to me because the emphasis was not on these huge monsters. I felt thoroughly misled by trailers for both films and there was a bit in the 2014 film where it cut to the next scene really abruptly and left you thinking you have brought a dodgy copy by mistake because it set up the stage for a massive monster v monster showdown and then...didn't.

2014 slightly better but still not what I wanted it to be.

See for me, showing restraint with the monsters had the benefit of making every second of screen time more worth while.
It's like when I watch Pacific Rim, I'm seeing 250 ft robots fight 300 plus ft monsters, but there's so much in that movie that while the fights are still awesome, it losses the sheer sense of awe that comes from just seeing a giant robot, whereas in Godzilla, that sense of awe was always there, and there wasn't a single shot of Godzilla himself that was just 'meh'.
Because they used suspense and build up, I was more excited off the first atomic breath scene, then all of the action in Pacific Rim put together (I was grinning like a fool, and kept looking back at my two buddies who came with me like "Are you seeing this?")

 

[Chancey289]

They were both disappointing to me because the emphasis was not on these huge monsters. I felt thoroughly misled by trailers for both films and there was a bit in the 2014 film where it cut to the next scene really abruptly and left you thinking you have brought a dodgy copy by mistake because it set up the stage for a massive monster v monster showdown and then...didn't.

2014 slightly better but still not what I wanted it to be.

That's just how Godzilla movies are basically. There's always an emphasis on the human characters and Godzilla himself doesn't clog up screen time. I like to describe it as a roller coaster, you wait in line for a few minutes of fun and it's worth it. The kaiju battles were the kaiju battles of dreams and as a Godzilla fan, I could appreciate it for what the movie was. Now the sequel, is supposed to be a Destroy All Monsters type sequel so we can expect more fighting there. Rodan, Mothra, and Ghidorah have been confirmed.

As for the topic, this isn't even a question. 2014 version duh.

 

[AgentRedgrave]

That's just how Godzilla movies are basically. There's always an emphasis on the human characters and Godzilla himself doesn't clog up screen time. I like to describe it as a roller coaster, you wait in line for a few minutes of fun and it's worth it. The kaiju battles were the kaiju battles of dreams and as a Godzilla fan, I could appreciate it for what the movie was. Now the sequel, is supposed to be a Destroy All Monsters type sequel so we can expect more fighting there. Rodan, Mothra, and Ghidorah have been confirmed.

As for the topic, this isn't even a question. 2014 version duh.

That actually sums it up pretty well, also I'm really freakin excited for Ghidorah. He's always (except for GMK) much bigger then Godzilla, and if it's with the same sense of scale this movie had, it's gonna be incredible