Godzilla vs. Pacific Rim

7 comments

18 comments

This would seem like an obvious matchup. And it's rare that I get to be first for an obvious matchup. Pacific Rim does a few things right. It has an amazing use of color, where Godzilla is very, VERY grey. And PR definitely has a better use of humor, where Godzilla is pretty darn serious. But Godzilla has a better story, and less cringe-worthy dialogue. Indeed, possibly, Pacific Rim is better directed and Godzilla just has a better script and acting. Sorry, Guillermo, I have to side with Gareth Edwards on this one.

In the end, Godzilla did more, with it's dark and ominous tone combined with spectacular action scenes and CGI. The certain reveal during the final fight was completely awesome. The visuals are almost tied between the two films. The acting and directing on Godzilla's part, edge a little further than PR. I'm not leaving Pacific Rim in the dumps though. It's a well made sci-fi extravaganza. I just connected more with Godzilla.

Of course I'm going to go with the giant lizard.

at this moment Godzilla, but i don't think either are going to be frequent rewatch

...Eh? I liked Godzilla, but it took itself a bit too seriously. Ofcourse it had its more comedic moments ("Look mom, dinosaurs!"), but the tone was grim and depressing while the dialogue had some very cheesy lines. Not that Pacific Rim didn't have cheesy lines, but that worked with that film's tone. I guess Pacific Rim is more my kind of movie. Godzilla did become a bit stale after a while, even though it did have very impressive visuals. I'm going Independence Day over War of the Worlds...err...Pacific Rim over Godzilla.

Pacific Rim was pretty empty as far as the characters or story. It was all flash and little else. Not to say Godzilla is particularly innovative in the storytelling as far as rampaging monsters/disaster films go. But it rarely seemed like it was going through the motions, unlike Pacific Rim. And, while the battles in Godzilla were sparse, they had more emotional weight than anything in Pacific Rim. Godzilla is much better.

Both were an enormously fun time at the movies, but its Godzilla by a healthy margin for me.

RIght now...it's Pacific Rim. But it could cange down the road...

I found Pacific Rim more satisfying than Godzilla. Both movies are exhilirating and spectacular, but Godzilla was a little bit disappointing for me. Maybe I'll watch both again and feel differently, but for now Pacific Rim wins this one.

Godzilla destroys Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim did nothing for me. The characters were so bland that I got them confused with one another and the story wasn't great. Godzilla was a pleasant surprise for me. The characters were pretty good, the story was solid, the action and visuals were amazing, and the cinematography was absolutely gorgeous. Its not a great movie, but its a really good one and it certainly beats Pacific Rim.

Pacific Rim had it's highs and lows, and comparing it to "older" Godzilla films like Final Wars, Tokyo SOS, or the Godzilla film of 1998 would be closer and possibly even "victory" for Pacific Rim, it falls before GODZILLA. GODZILLA wins the most in acting, plot, and special effects. Pacific Rim had it's moments, but there are let-downs along the way in story, acting, and seemingly "slow" parts of the film. I was glued to the screen during GODZILLA from start to finish....

Both were pretty meh for me. But if I had to choose................. I guess Godzilla

I had low expectations for Pacific Rim which were exceeded, while I had high expectations for Godzilla which were far from met. Godzilla had a few great moments (skydiving, final fight + end scene etc) which punctuated an overlong, poorly-paced, poorly acted, terribly written ("they eat radiation" anyone?) film which only showed mere hints of Gareth Edwards' ability which he demonstrated so well in Monsters. Seriously, aside from Bryan Cranston, it defies all belief how anyone could call the acting in this film "good". All the actors were either underused (Juliette Binnoche, Cranston), miscast (Sally Hawkins) or just so horribly written (Hawkins, Ken Watanabe) or badly acted (the insufferable Aaron Taylor-Johnson). It's actually even more depressing considering that most, if not all of the above have a considerable palette of acting credits and awards to their name. The plot isn't a plot, it's a series of fire-and-forget set pieces which the characters happen to get involved with in the most contrived of ways (particularly ATJ), and nothing flows particularly well. As for the monsters, I am aware that a lot of people have complained that the Big G isn't in it enough, and instead we get have to put up with the Cloverfield/Starship Trooper creations that are nowhere near as impressive or interesting to look at. Now to be fair, I understand what Edwards was going for in showing as little of Godzilla until later on in the film, but the problems with this are that a) you cannot build up to the "money-shot/sequence" and then cut away to something completely unrelated (as happened twice in this film), and b) if you are going to cut away, for fuck's sake cut away to something INTERESTING!!! So yeah, like I said, it had it's moments, and was designed very well and featured a refreshingly different musical score from Alexandre Desplat (by "refreshingly different", I mean something not composed by Hans Zimmer or one of his contemporaries, which despite the fact that I enjoy them, are nevertheless so commonplace in bombastic blockbusters to the point of tedium) but compared to the film I was hoping for, it was a massive disappointment. Pacific Rim was arguably less complex and a lot more cheesy, but it worked A LOT better in the context of what it was. The film felt much more complete; the fight scenes were well composed and the creative variety in the design of the Jaegers and Kaijus was much more apparent that the MUTOs in Godzilla. I agree that the characters range from "typical blockbuster" bland to "typical Guillermo del Toro" goofy, but unlike Godzilla, the film doesn't rely on them as much as it does on the monster mash in order to hold up the emotional core of the film. I can't really defend the blatant use of Deus ex Machina, except to say that it didn't bother me on first viewing. So yeah, maybe not as far-reaching as Godzilla in its efforts as a film, but Pacific Rim kept things relatively simple and never took its eye of what it wanted to be, and for that reason, it works better for what it is than Godzilla.

Pacific Rim by a mile. I enjoyed parts of Godzilla. The sense of scale was great and some of Edwards' shots are simply stunning, but was amazed at how little characterization we got considering the amount of time they spent with the humans. Besides Cranston it felt like nobody had any personality or purpose outside the plot. Pacific Rim may be full of cheesy dialogue, but the characters had some personality. Godzilla was full of generic soldiers and scientists who could be swapped out for the generic soldiers and scientists in any disaster movie and there wouldn't be a difference. Note to any potential screenwriters out there: giving your protagonist a wife and kid is not a substitute for a personality. I've heard a lot of people bash Taylor-Johnson, but I don't see anyone doing anything with those bland lines. And poor Ken Watanabe... He is such a great actor and they gave him one scene that wasn't pure exposition. I honestly don't know how people are saying they got confused who the characters were in Pacific Rim. Charlie Day's manic scientist who had fun with exposition instead slogging through it? Ron Perlman's flamboyant black market dealer? Idris Elba owning some amazingly cheesy lines about cancelling the apocalypse? The Australian father and son (and their hilarious bulldog) who butted heads outside the machine, but worked well in it? Rinko Kikuchi playing a badass woman who was pretty, but not oversexualized? Even Charlie Hunnam had more personality than half the Godzilla cast. In the end the other big thing for me is that Pacific Rim was fun and Godzilla was merely interesting. I enjoyed watching Godzilla and it kept me interested, but couldn't see myself rewatching anything except the final fight scene or remembering any of the character's names beyond today. I could rewatch Pacific Rim several times for a number of fight scenes and for the interaction of some fun characters.

Wow two sci-fi monster films, I give it to the giant lizard.

Points to are_doubleyou and, especially, smatticus for the most epic comments I have ever read on Flickchart.

Let's just all make / use Letterboxd accounts. Flickchart is not the place for long comments *COUGH* Redesign? *COUGH*. Y'all better start following me on there [/end plug].

"Pacific Rim" for better visuals, action, and NOT constantly teasing action then cutting away.

Pacific Rim is more dumb and a little more fun, but Godzilla is a better movie.

I thought Godzilla was awesome! Pacific Rim was a little disappointing to me.

Pacific Rim

Godzilla was too dull and boring. Focusing way too much fucking "MUTOS" at hand what actually came to see. Which is a giant lizard rampaging cities. People always say well in the original one from the 50's that didn't that much either. But it was a 90 minute movie and showed within a good amount of time throughout its duration. The reboot is a 2hr movie and he doesn't appear until 55 mins into the movie. And then we have literally an hr before the credits roll and only 11 in 1/2 minutes of actual Godzilla screen time. Don't get me started on the crappy bridge scene. I love the original because it had for a good amount time within its 90 min runtime. They didn't show him a lot but it was a perfect amount within 90 mins. This was a 2hr long fucking movie that had him 11 mins and spent its runtime with fucking MUTOS I didn't give a fuck about was just waiting for some Godzilla action. Not mention Bryan Cranston was only in the first 35 mins of the movie and then he dies before we even see Godzilla. I mean they made seem like the main character in the trailers. And the opening credits roll and it says and Bryan Cranston I was like okay he might die, which is fine and all but not when its in the first half hour of the movie. He died in a real shitty way too. My vote goes to Pacific Rim.

Godzilla was too dull and boring. Focusing way too much fucking "MUTOS" at hand what actually came to see. Which is a giant lizard rampaging cities. People always say well in the original one from the 50's that didn't that much either. But it was a 90 minute movie and showed within a good amount of time throughout its duration. The reboot is a 2hr movie and he doesn't appear until 55 mins into the movie. And then we have literally an hr before the credits roll and only 11 in 1/2 minutes of actual Godzilla screen time. Don't get me started on the crappy bridge scene. I love the original because it had for a good amount time within its 90 min runtime. They didn't show him a lot but it was a perfect amount within 90 mins. This was a 2hr long fucking movie that had him 11 mins and spent its runtime with fucking MUTOS I didn't give a fuck about was just waiting for some Godzilla action. Not mention Bryan Cranston was only in the first 35 mins of the movie and then he dies before we even see Godzilla. I mean they made seem like the main character in the trailers. And the opening credits roll and it says and Bryan Cranston I was like okay he might die, which is fine and all but not when its in the first half hour of the movie. He died in a real shitty way too. My vote goes to Pacific Rim.

Godzilla was too dull and boring. Focusing way too much fucking "MUTOS" at hand what actually came to see. Which is a giant lizard rampaging cities. People always say well in the original one from the 50's that didn't that much either. But it was a 90 minute movie and showed within a good amount of time throughout its duration. The reboot is a 2hr movie and he doesn't appear until 55 mins into the movie. And then we have literally an hr before the credits roll and only 11 in 1/2 minutes of actual Godzilla screen time. Don't get me started on the crappy bridge scene. I love the original because it had for a good amount time within its 90 min runtime. They didn't show him a lot but it was a perfect amount within 90 mins. This was a 2hr long fucking movie that had him 11 mins and spent its runtime with fucking MUTOS I didn't give a fuck about was just waiting for some Godzilla action. Not mention Bryan Cranston was only in the first 35 mins of the movie and then he dies before we even see Godzilla. I mean they made seem like the main character in the trailers. And the opening credits roll and it says and Bryan Cranston I was like okay he might die, which is fine and all but not when its in the first half hour of the movie. He died in a real shitty way too. My vote goes to Pacific Rim.

By the way I saw it with my friend and my dad IMAX. I was so excited until the 1 hr 20 minute mark and I was like wait where's Godzilla we've seen like twice already and the MUTOS five times.

It's been too long since I saw 2014's Godzilla, but I remember being disappointed that the build-up didn't really pay off for me with the bigger action set pieces. I don't mind gradually showing Godzilla as the movie progresses, but at least make the climax less dark! Pacific Rim wins this round (however, the OG Gojira tops them both).