GODZILLA (2014) Review

GODZILLA (2014): A Fan’s Review

Godzilla is back. This is the first Godzilla movie I have ever seen in theaters, and yes, it is worthy of the title and being classified as an official Godzilla movie. This isn't really a traditional C.C.C. list, so I'm classifying it as a review, but a review that uses C.C.C. Issue #24 (Top Ten Godzilla 2014 Requirements) as the basis. I’ve decided it’s not possible to fully discuss the movie without getting into spoilers (some of them fairly major), so I’m warning you now, if you are reading this and HAVE NOT seen Godzilla yet, then STOP READING because there are SPOILERS AHEAD. 

10. Did they get the tone right? = 10/10

Director Gareth Edwards did a terrific job directing the human drama and sweeping monster scenes. Not only were the visual effects nearly flawless, but the film looked incredible as a whole. It had the somber feel of the original Godzilla, only now in colour and set in the modern day. It feels like a Godzilla movie, and Godzilla’s presence is known right from the start. He’s there from the beginning through to the end—even though he’s not always around or on screen, you never forget he’s looming somewhere in the film. It’s incredible that they were able to keep Godzilla in a realm of seriousness and (somewhat) believability, without it being too overly serious or dark. This actually connects to one of my main issues with the movie, which I will get into later. As far as tone, Gareth Edwards nailed it, with a serious vibe throughout, but never forgetting the humanity aspect and even inserting a couple moments for the audience to laugh.

 

9. Was Godzilla unstoppable? = 10/10

Godzilla is depicted as a force of nature in this film, and he is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Big G shows up when the world needs saving, and he does. He sets things right, restores balance, and leaves. No one can stop him. Not even two epic giant monsters teaming up against him. I said before that if Godzilla died the movie would suck. This almost happened at the end, but he was just taking a nap after his huge battle. Having the fake out that he might have died bugged me; I didn’t think it was necessary because we all knew he couldn’t be dead, so why bother to try and mislead us? But at least the monsters and military and even nuclear bombs couldn’t truly stop him. This brings me to the next point.

8. Was the military useless (but still tried)? = 10/10

The first time Godzilla comes ashore and everyone sees him, what does the army do? They start shooting him with machine guns. MACHINE GUNS! I actually laughed out loud, but not a pitiful laugh. I was so pleased to see the army try so uselessly to shoot him down, not only because that’s a trademark of any good Godzilla movie, but because it's actually done in a realistic and believable manner. If you were in the army and saw a giant dinosaur towering over you, what would you do? If you had a gun, you would probably use it. No matter how futile your efforts might be, there’s nothing else to do, except run. It was a great moment, because it happened quickly and wasn’t focused on too long, so it didn’t go from funny but understandable to laughable because it was ridiculous.

7. Did they reinvent Godzilla? = 10/10

Godzilla looked great overall, despite some nitpicky details I didn’t care for. He was a little bit too fat and could have been sleeker, his eyes were really small, his snout looked too dog-like, and his feet were too elephant-like. Other than that, he looked like the real Godzilla, and the updated look was well designed. The visual effects to create Big G were excellent. At no point did it feel like he was just a computer generated image—largely thanks to Gareth Edwards situating the audience right in the action and creating a great sense of scale. The textures of Godzilla were even visible, and I couldn’t believe some of the detail they were able to achieve with such a large creature. His roar, though altered and updated, sounded incredible and sent chills down my spine. He even emoted at a couple points, which is something I’ve never seen from Godzilla, but was happy to see. The atomic breath was brought back and looked incredible, his fighting style was kick ass, and he moved with surprising speed at times. All in all, Godzilla looked to be inspired by the original creature and concept, but was not reinvented too much and looked great.

6. Did they show Godzilla and what he can do? = 8/10

This is one of two large problems I had with the movie. While I would love to tell you this was a 10/10 Godzilla experience and did everything right, it wasn’t and didn’t. A lot of people are complaining you don’t get to see Godzilla enough throughout the movie. Someone pointed out that you see him about as much as you see the shark in Jaws, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, and the original Godzilla in Godzilla from 1954, and it's enough. I have to agree with the latter. Godzilla was in it enough for me, but that’s not my issue. After the first act of the movie, the Muto monsters were established, the story was underway, and Godzilla had been introduced. It was time to have some giant monster action, but the filmmakers felt otherwise. It kept cutting away from the action, and instead showing it on TV screens and news reports rather than getting up close and personal. I was okay with it at first, but then it started getting repetitive to the point where I was feeling cheated. We came to see Godzilla kick monster ass and we weren’t getting it. When Ken Watanabe’s character Dr. Serizawa tells the others, “Let them fight,” and it’s the perfect setup for the best fight scene to take place, the fight never happens. At this point I was getting a little annoyed, but what came next more than made up for it...

5. Was there a decent monster fight? = 10/10

The third act of this movie blew me away. Finally, after false lead ups for much of the second act, it comes down to the main character Ford (Aaron-Taylor Johnson) trying to get a nuclear bomb out of San Francisco, which happens in parallel to Godzilla fighting the Muto monsters in the city. The fight scenes are epic, with Godzilla using classic moves like grappling, biting, tail smacking, and of course his atomic breath, which is hinted at moments before it happens with a terrific, subtle visual tease. The way he kills the final Muto is perhaps one of the greatest monster kills in all of film history. Looking back on it, the false lead ups to those fight scenes that never panned out actually created suspense and built up anticipation for the final confrontation, which made it even more satisfying and exciting. A lot of people are complaining there wasn’t enough of that, but I think there was. This isn’t Pacific Rim with constant, over the top fight scenes; it’s more conservative, but also more meaningful.

4. Did they make the characters likeable... = 7/10

Aaron Taylor-Johnson was decent in the role of Ford Brody.  Having said that, his character is a little flat and cliché, and I wasn’t always rooting for him. As for the rest of the cast, everyone did a serviceable job. Elizabeth Olsen as Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s wife was pretty good, but again I wasn’t always concerned if she lived or died. During the final action sequence it kept going back to her because she was in the city, but it almost felt like a poor excuse to cut away from the monsters. Ken Watanabe as Serizawa was great. Even though a lot of the time he just stood there and looked in awe at the monsters or destruction, he still had some great dialogue. Bryan Cranston was excellent, of course, as a scientist at a Japanese Nuclear Reactor (and Ford’s father) who becomes obsessed with a conspiracy surrounding the event which causes the reactor to melt down and kill many workers, including his wife. The acting was good, however...

3. ...But were the characters made too important? = 8/10

The human drama was favoured over Godzilla’s drama. That’s fine, and even though I think we saw enough of Godzilla throughout, I still feel like there was too much emphasis placed on the humans and new monsters over Godzilla himself. It’s almost like in Godzilla vs. Megalon, where Jet Jaguar was the main hero and Godzilla was the side kick, even though Godzilla was in the title. I’m not saying I would rather have seen two hours of just Godzilla stomping stuff and fighting Mutos and no human interaction, but I think there could have been a finer balance of Godzilla and the human characters. Godzilla is almost at supporting character level here, and the Mutos actually get more screen time than the king of the monsters himself. 

2. Did they give the new monster a good intro? = 9/10

Muto is a paradoxical creature, in that it’s pretty much like everything we’ve seen before, and yet it’s a totally new and original monster. It has elements of previous creatures, like wings similar to Rodan’s, a head kind of like Orga’s from Godzilla 2000, and even some proportions reminiscent of the Cloverfield monster. It’s EMP attack was interesting, but most of all it looked formidable, posed as a worthy villain for Big G, and caused some great destruction. The setup was excellent, and I absolutely loved that Godzilla was briefly explained and just showed up, but we actually got to see some of the Muto’s life cycle, what it’s mission was, and even see it eat a nuclear missile like it was a subway sandwich. While I wished we had seen more of Godzilla, it was excellent to see plenty of Muto.

1. Did they make Godzilla the hero? = 6/10

Here lies my biggest problem with the new Godzilla. As I said before, Godzilla is at his best when he’s an unstoppable force of nature out to settle the score with an enemy at the expense of humanity. He doesn’t care if we live or die, just as long as he wins the fight. Here, Godzilla is a force of nature, but he’s the balancing element. He comes to kill off the Mutos, and though he destroys lots of human structures and killed a lot of innocent people, at the very end when he reawakens after defeating the monsters, he gets up, walks back to the ocean without destroying anything, roars, and swims off. That was fine, but in a stadium, it’s showing a newscast of Godzilla walking away with the headline: “King of the Monsters – Saviour of Humanity?” or something like that. It was great to see that title used in the film, but lame that humanity perceived him as a saviour. Instead of having people cheering and pleased that he came to destroy the monsters, everyone should have been silent and in awe of his awesome power and size as he lumbered back to the ocean, unsure if he saved humankind or just the planet (his home) with total disregard to our own survival. This small thing was almost enough to undo the notion that he was a force of nature and establish him as a hero.

Other positive aspects: The music was great and perfectly complimented the look and feel of the movie, the sound effects were extremely well done and fit with the creatures and destruction, and it actually paid tribute to the original Godzilla in a few ways. Plus, a Mothra Easter Egg had me giggling to myself.

Other negative aspects: Considering how excellent the cast was, the characters were uninspired and unremarkable. Not that I expected human characters that would be really excellent (we’re here to see Godzilla, after all), but considering actors like Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe were present, their characters were underused and underdeveloped.

Final score: 7/10. I thoroughly enjoyed this Godzilla reboot. While it wasn’t perfect (I didn’t expect it to be), it still delivered pretty much everything I wanted to see in a new Godzilla movie. Despite some iffy human melodrama, a lack of seeing Godzilla destroying stuff, and a disappointing concluding scene, Godzilla is visually incredible, delivers epic scenes, and re-imagines the character for modern American audiences in perhaps the best way possible.