Godzilla Review:
Of Monsters & Men
BY IAN
TAN
Godzilla (2014) is Warner Bros. and
Legendary Pictures’ reimagining/reboot of the iconic King of Monsters. After
the crap-fest that was Roland Emmerich’s (The
Day After Tomorrow, 2012) 1998 version of Godzilla, fans of the Toho
monster went under the great depression. Eager to please fans, as well as earn
as much box office returns as possible, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures got
hold of young British director Gareth Edwards to helm the 2014 reboot of film’s
most iconic monster. After a string of impressive marketing and eerie trailers
that revealed the film’s darker, more serious tone, the hype for Godzilla was
apparent through both fans and non-fans, as well as casual movie-goers alike.
So, does Edwards succeed in bringing Godzilla back to the big (now much bigger
with IMAX) screen with enough prowess and blockbuster spectacle to spawn a new
generation of Godzilla fans and restore the faith of fans disgraced by the 1998
film?
For the most part,
the answer is yes, he does.
The film opens
with a discovery of two egg-shaped pods, one of which seems to have hatched, at
a quarry in the Philippines. At the same time, a nuclear plant in Janjira,
Japan suffers from a radioactive leak and a supposed “earthquake” that led to
its destruction. Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), however, knows that what caused
the incident was something far worse than just a natural disaster. Fast-forward
15 years later, and we see Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his wife, Elle
(Elizabeth Olsen) struggling to stay together as a family amidst the monster
chaos that begins to occur, and soon enough, we have our Godzilla monster movie
on the (rather slow-burn) roll.
The film
definitely takes a few turns that audiences - unfamiliar with the original Godzilla films from Toho- might find to
be a distraction to the titular character in terms of his portrayal.
Nonetheless, it’s highly unlikely anyone will walk out of the theater not
rooting for Godzilla. That’s right. Rooting.
As far as acting
goes, Brian Cranston definitely serves the film with some of its best, and most
humanly emotional moments. In contrast, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a bit stiff in
his role as Joe’s son, Ford. I understand that he’s a military man, and
military men in real life may very well act the way he does in the film - lacking
emotion, but this is a movie, and audiences expect a little more emotion from
characters. Taylor-Johnson is a capable actor, as seen in films such as Kick-Ass and Savages. However, he does feel rather bland in Godzilla. Fortunately though, he is able to overcome this
seriousness with a sense of likeability that comes with being Aaron
Taylor-Johnson. Other supporting actors such as Elizabeth Olsen, who plays
Ford’s wife, and Ken Watanabe, who plays scientist Serizawa, are good in their
respective roles, but aren’t given enough substance to work with from the
script, resulting in a human story that rarely engages the audience as
emotionally as Edwards might have wanted, which can be quite a drag as the
reveal of Godzilla takes its own sweet time to unfold. On a more positive note,
the messages of humans’ arrogance towards nature and the way in which the world
would react and respond to such a monstrous (literally) situation is well
handled and makes for some of the film’s more intense and thrilling
moments.
Humans aside, the
main star of the film is Godzilla, and boy, did they get him right. Godzilla’s
height of 108m and overall creature design is simply phenomenal. The sheer
attention to detail and love for the iconic radioactive lizard-turned-monster
is definitely apparent in just how good the creature looks. Next to the
dragon Smaug from The Hobbit: The
Desolation of Smaug, this is one of film’s most realized, impressively and
intricately crafted CGI animal creations. The size of Godzilla alone demands
the film to be seen on the largest screen possible, preferably IMAX, as the
larger screen size and amplified surround sound coupled with 3D definitely
sells the scope and cinematic value Edwards envisioned the film to have. It
asks for a little extra of your buck, but trust me, sit close enough and you’ll
get your money’s worth. The downside is, Godzilla’s actual screen-time never
gets more than a quarter’s share of the film’s runtime of 123 minutes, which
may disappoint some.
On the whole, the
2014 reimagining of Godzilla does have a rather slow build-up that feels more
arduous than suspenseful (unlike the suspense conjured up in films like Jaws & Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which Edwards says to have
drawn inspiration from), and although the human story and characters aren’t
given as much depth as one might hope, whenever the monster mayhem ensues, the
film acts as one of the biggest crowd-pleasers of the summer so far. Now, if
only Godzilla was in it for more than his 15-minute stay onscreen … now that would
be an even bigger crowd pleaser, ala Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim last year. But as far as Godzilla films go, this marks as one of the franchise’s best.
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