Godzilla Review
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast Headliners: Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe
Original Release Date: May 16th, 2014
He has been called the King of Monsters, a god lizard,
Gojira. But to us he is Godzilla, the most classic representation of the idea of
a giant monster destroying cities. The Godzilla franchise has a long and
storied history of cheesy yet epic bouts between this beast and his many
equally frightening foes; they are some of Japan’s defining pop culture exports
though however they ended after a point.
The rights to a new Godzilla film have ended up not with Japanese company Toho again, but with Warner Bros and
Legendary Pictures. After the very lame 1998 American version which had Matthew
Broderick and radically different atmospheres and visuals to the original, it
can gladly be said that this time Godzilla “2014” gets right why these movies
can be awesome experiences.
In some ways the film tries to capture the messages of
the original 1954 titular movie. Godzilla was the nightmare climax of the
nuclear era, a threat spawned by man.
This movie takes a twist on that by saying the entire Cold War was
merely attempts to kill this titanic beast.
Like any good monster movie, at first there is only small references to
Godzilla and his kin. We are introduced
to the Brodys, expats living in Japan (clever clever). 15 year prior to the main events of the film,
something happens at a nuclear power plant where Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is
a physicist along with his wife Sandy (Juliette) and their son Ford. After this
flashback, and other events which set the cauldron bubbling, happen it jumps to
15 years later where Joe and his son (now played by Aaron-Taylor Johnson) are
estranged. Ford returns home from a tour of duty as an EOD military expert to
his wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) before he has to return to Japan as his father
has become involved in shenanigans.
A question to ask might be, “I thought this movie was
about a giant lizard destroying cities?”
A good one to ask, as it seems a large part of the film is about the
humans. The slow build to hell breaking loose is interesting, but at times the
human element of the film drags it down. Bryan Cranson is absolutely brilliant
in his role and the only notable quality acting performance of the movie aside
from Godzilla himself, but sadly his time on screen with his ranting about
conspiracies to hide Godzilla is only a small segment of the entire
experience. The view of Ford as an
on-foot soldier during the monster’s attack is pretty good but not always so,
it feels like a distraction from the best parts. However there are effective
and awe-inspiring uses of his and other people perspectives of the giant beast’s
combat. Even less entertaining are when
we see Elle’s experience (which there are a bit too much as well). However, another good human element is
Dr.Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) who seems to understand the power of Godzilla and
whose ideal of “let them fight” enhances the thought provoking factor of nature’s
fury.
When there are not people having dramatic dialogues or military
missions happening, there’s massive epic destruction. This is the most exciting
part of the movie, and interestingly once “they appear” it gets mixed in with
other parts. For besides Godzilla (who
looks perfect in his insanely tremendous size and finely detailed scales and
spikes), there are a pair of new monsters in the “mutos.” It’s interesting enough to see Godzilla just
merely exist and be massive, but what makes up the soul of these movies are
when he fights against equally deadly enemies.
The mutos resemble the xenomorph aliens from Ridley Scott’s franchise
and are just as cool to see tower over and destroy cities as the King of Monsters. One of them even flies; when fight scenes
between the beasts actually do happen there’s some incredible “choreography.” The fact that director Gareth Edwards was
able to have some classic Godzilla vs other giant monster fights in the movie
is a wonderful reason why this is so much better than the 1998 American movie.
We don’t want to see Godzilla fight tanks and helicopters forever, we want him
to throw creatures into buildings and shoot blue laser beams. Luckily after a point the slow buildup gives
way to a mostly constant stream of intense action. The visuals look gorgeous, it is highly recommended
to see this on a IMAX screen if possible.
Godzilla feels at times a lesser part in a movie which
features his name on it, which is perhaps not the best thing. The atmosphere is very grim and dark, but it
is not consistent as sometimes it will feel slightly less so. That is what the
original films were though; they jumped all over the place in their style. It is perhaps best that they didn’t stick with
being totally grim. Overall it maintains a quo of epic classic Godzilla
spectacle mixed in with a human perspective that’s hit or miss. It is a really good reboot the big guy
deserves and delivers on the simple pure fun that fans or general audiences will
like and kicks off the summer blockbuster season in style. (insert Godzilla
roar which sounds especially awesome in this version) for 8.45 out of 10
