Godzilla (2014)

[major_clanger]

Meh.

This film really didn't grab me. Pacific Rim didn't take itself at all seriously, and had a huge sense of fun despite what was actually a very dark scenario. Godzilla is ponderously serious - or rather it tries to have a air of ponderous seriousness, without actually getting any gravitas or serious emotional investment out of its cast, despite having far more supposed human melodrama on screen than actual monster action.

There are some impressive scenes, although they tend not to be ones with the titular monster. The high-altitude parachute drop through a beautifully-rendered stormy sunset cloudscape, accompanied by the Ligati Ligeti chorus from 2001, is amazing, but in hindsight feels as if it was ripped from a much better movie (Monster Apocalypse Now?)

The A-list stars are wasted. Juliette Binoche in a monster movie? Only for the first ten minutes. Well, Bryan Cranston then? Doesn't survive to the second reel. For most of the film we get Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who plays Generic Military Hero (variant: 'serious self-sacrificing young officer') so well that for many of the action scenes I lost track of him among the other members of his squad. Only Ken Wanatabe as the Japanese monster expert does much to lift the second half of the film, and he is criminally under-used (although not to the extent that Sally Hawkins is as his assistant.)

Frankly, I'd like an immediate re-release of Pacific Rim on the big screen so we can refresh our memories of what a cinema outing to a proper monster movie should be.

Comments

[pauldormer.livejournal.com]

Not planning on seeing this, but interesting to see a mention of - I assume you typoed - Ligeti and the music used in 2001. I assume, with your association with intellectual property law, you know the story of the use of Ligeti's music in that film. Short version: the first he knew about it was when he saw the film. Lawyers got involved.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Ta - typo fixed!

The scene in question is substantially reproduced in the early trailer for the film (unusually for a trailer, the same music as in the actual film is used.)



Yes, I saw the comment on Ligeti's Wikipedia page about unauthorised use of his work in 2001. I found several versions of the story online, varying in how Ligeti found out and what happened, but this one is credible. It may well be that Kubrick took the cynical decision that an emigre composer living in Austria would not be in the position to pursue a lawsuit for copyright infringement, but it does seem clear that Ligeti did eventually receive royalties, and the fact that Kubrick used his music in further films suggests that some sort of deal was reached.

I looked to see if I could find any record of a court case involving Ligeti. I couldn't, but I did find the recent case of Rosenzweig v NMC Recordings, which mentions his name but is interesting as being a case on the extent to which someone disappointed that a charity has declined to support and promote their work has grounds for redress.

[pauldormer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's more or less the version that appears in Gyorgy Ligeti: Music of the Imagination by Richard Steinitz. (I know Steinitz to speak to, he used to run the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.)

Apparently, Karajan was paid for his recording of Also sprach Zarathustra, the Darmstadt Chamber Music Players were paid. Even Alex North was paid for the score Kubrick rejected. Only Ligeti didn't get paid. MGM's reply to Ligeti's lawyers' letter ended, "The process will continue to Los Angeles. There, too, you'll win. But we think it will take twenty years. Would you prefer $1,000 now?" In 1973, he settled for $3,500.

25 years later, Ligeti was staying in California and happened to meet a member of MGM's legal staff. He asked him if he knew the story about his dispute with MGM. "Yes," replied the lawyer. "Everybody knows it, and everybody thinks you were stupid to engage a German instead of a Hollywood attorney."

Incidentally, Ligeti attended the German première of Eyes Wide Shut with Kubrick's widow.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

I just watched Pacific Rim because you recommended it. A great romp, but I do wish they had more helicopters. I could forgive lots of daft engineering, but as someone calculated, you'd need 1000 Chinooks to lift the things, and it niggled me all film!