The Most Important Movie for the Summer of 2014 – By Michael Cerda
October 6, 2014 6:16 pm | Leave your thoughts
The summer movie season has ended. Now we wait in eager anticipation for 2015 and the slew of movies that will be bombarding our senses with euphoric delight. Looking back at the summer movies of 2014, there were many that met and exceeded expectations. Not just for movie enthusiasts, but for studios as well. While others fell flat, and questioned the direction of the franchise. There was one movie that was probably the most important movie made this summer. A movie that had an entire genre on it’s back. If this movie did not get the box office draw, it could have potentially killed the genre. The movie is Godzilla.
As a child I grew up watching the TOHO Godzilla films. Giddy as a school child watching Godzilla battling his Kaiju foes; King Ghidorah, Mecha Godzilla, Gigan, Hedorah, the list just goes on. In 1998 I was excited to see an American version of Godzilla, grabbing my ticket on opening night to see what we, the US film industry could do for the franchise. I was extremely disappointed in the Roland Emmerich, Joel Schumacher esque, franchise killing, giant iguana movie.
Move forward to 2012 when I came across a synopsis of movie called Pacific Rim. All it said was giant robots fighting giant monsters. My inner child was screaming with delight. In 2013 I took my nine year old daughter to watch Pacific Rim in IMax. One of the best movie experiences of my life. We both left the theater with huge smiles on our faces. I was disappointed that the movie didn’t generate enough buzz to garner a better box office draw, but after leaving Pacific Rim, I was extremely excited about Godzilla for the next year.
Leading up to the opening of Godzilla I was so excited to see my favorite movie character on the big screen again. I was reading reviews which were extremely positive. This drove my anticipation even higher. I took my now ten year old daughter to the movie as we sat, we were both grinning like loons. Now, I will say that the movie wasn’t perfect, but seeing the King of Monsters on the screen was exhilarating and gave me goosebumps. My daughter left the movie theater stating that was one of the best movies she ever saw. I asked her which movie she felt was better, Pacific Rim or Godzilla, and without hesitation said, “Godzilla. He was awesome!” That was when I realized that my little girl was having that same feeling that I had when I would watched Godzilla on TV. That same enthusiasm as I had as a kid and it made me happy as a father.
Movies should in some way should provoke some type of emotion from us. Whether it’s to laugh, cry or stare at the pure awesome we are witnessing in front of us. I was pleased that Godzilla opened at number one and took in 93 million at the box office. That’s almost the entire domestic box office for Pacific Rim in 2013. Now as we wind down and have a look back at the summer movies, I wonder why is there such negative reactions to Godzilla. I came to realize that most of the outcry hadn’t been from the general audience, but from the die hard fans of the franchise. The problem is that studios are not pandering to the fanboys, but trying to create a movie experience for all people to enjoy. You can’t have a Godzilla movie in this day and age without a good story and equally competent actors driving the story forward. Just as you can’t have a successful movie unless you can bring the general audience into the theaters. You bring the general audience in by having a movie that is fun and engaging to watch. If the audience wanted two hours of non-stop kaiju face punching action, Pacific Rim would have done much better domestically.
This is the reason why Godzilla is the most important movie this summer. This one movie was carrying an entire genre on it’s back. If Godzilla flopped, you would not have seen another kaiju movie for a very long time. This movie had done what King Kong or Pacific Rim couldn’t do and that was bring audiences into the theaters. Out of the three movies Godzilla had the highest return to production costs, and because of the success of The King of Monsters we have three sequels. Love the movie. Hate the movie. One thing you should agree with, is that Godzilla’s success has allowed for us to enjoy three new kaiju movies in the coming years and for that I will be forever grateful to one of my favorite childhood characters.
written by Michael Cerda
*All Box office numbers were taken from Box Office Mojo.
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Tags: godzilla, Godzilla 2014, Michael Cerda, pop culture leftovers
Categorised in: Movie Reviews
This post was written by Leftover Brian
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