[IGH] at the Movies: Godzilla

By BatHobbit

CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS! 

DO NOT READ UNTIL AFTER VIEWING THE MOVIE. THEN COME BACK TO DISCUSS.

You know what was a great Godzilla movie?

Pacific Rim.

You know what wasn't a great Godzilla movie?

Godzilla.

No, I'm not referring to the 1998 film, though that one was pretty awful. I'm talking about the 2014 film that all the ads portray as a "serious take" on the King of Monsters.

If you've seen the trailers and the television ads, you've gotten a sense that the new Godzilla movie is a disaster film, with the titular beast as the force of nature sending the human character scattering to recover. Footage of decimated cities and ravaged tropical landscapes is intercut with Bryan Cranston shouting that it's not a natural disaster and that the public is being lied to. It looks like a pretty gripping epic, but it's not the movie that you'll see if you head to the theater.

[IGH] At The Movies: Kick-Ass 2

By BatHobbit, our newest contributor!

The original Kick-Ass was the antithesis of the modern Super-Hero formula. The hero had no skills, no genius intellect, no fortune, no training and no special powers. He was an average geeky teenager who decided there was no reason for people not to be real super heroes. The movie poked fun at hero tropes, while never mocking heroes as a whole and, in fact, celebrating super heroes in a way most super-films don’t. If Kick-Ass was the irreverent response to Batman Begins, Kick-Ass 2 is a direct retort to The Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises– sharing their exploration of hero retirement, escalation, mourning and repercussions.

Just a heads up, minor spoilers after the break.