Comments on: Requiem for a Terrifying Force of Nature

By: Alrenous

Alrenous — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 18:55:17 +0000

The arbitrary invincibility doesn’t bother me. Just make up some technobabble and run with it. The arbitrary inconsistency does. At first the kaiju can take any bombardment without so much as a scratch. Later, when the protagonists are beaten half to death and should be almost incapable of attacking, they apparently turn on the ‘lightsaber’ setting on their weapons.

By: Toddy Cat

Toddy Cat — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 15:11:58 +0000

I think I’ll pass, and watch some old Japanese Kaiju movies from the 1950′s and 1960′s instead. Say what you will, they were at least made by people who had actually seen cities incinerated, and knew how people actually reacted in such situations. For all the crummy special effects and guys in rubber monster suits, they were actually more believable than the special effects fests of today.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 04:36:29 +0000

Also, is anyone else as annoyed as me at the arbitrary invincibility of many movie baddies? Kaiju are hardly alone in this, they’re just the worst offenders.

I know its supposed to be a metaphor for the powerlessness of man against the greater forces of the material Universe, but I know at some point Godzilla is going to soak up an amount of destructive energy (probably courtesy of the USAF or USN) that should reduce any material entity to bits of sizzling shrapnel and it’s going to really hurt my suspension of disbelief.

Assuming the movie turns out to be worth watching in the first place.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 00:39:41 +0000

Faze: it will differ from Pacific Rim in having an unfortunate lack of giant robots punching the kaiju. Toddy Cat: no one actually said that, but per Isegoria's use of the (satirical) phrase as an illustration of anviliciousness, they might have well dubbed it over practically every line of dialogue in the script.

By: Faze

Faze — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 23:25:21 +0000

How will this be different from Pacific Rim? I mean, in general creature texture and building demolishment?

By: Toddy Cat

Toddy Cat — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 22:59:49 +0000

“Together, they’ll learn: Military = BAD. Trees = GOOD.”

I never saw this movie — did someone honestly speak this line in a non-ironic manner? Really? If so, thank God I missed it — I honestly might have dropped dead or something.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 22:49:41 +0000

I hadn't heard anvilicious before:

"Together, they'll learn: Military = BAD. Trees = GOOD." — Honest Trailers, Avatar
A portmanteau of anvil and delicious (or possibly vicious), anvilicious describes a writer's and/or director's use of an artistic element, be it line of dialogue, visual motif, or plot point, to so obviously or unsubtly convey a particular message that they may as well etch it onto an anvil and drop it on your head. Frequently, the element becomes anvilicious through unnecessary repetition, but true masters can achieve anviliciousness with a single stroke.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 22:28:11 +0000

Could be good, could be painfully anvilicious. Given the proclivities of Hollywood, I’m leaning towards the latter. Thinking the remake of “Day the Earth Stood Still” will (sadly) prove the prototype for this adaptation.