Thursday 18 September 2014

Godzilla (2014) - Movie Review



Godzilla is a reboot of Ishiro Honda's horror classic Gojira directed by Gareth Edwards, a new arrival to the Hollywood blockbuster scene who's responsible for the independent film 'Monsters' that got him the big break. A film controversial for being the first film to touch on the subject of the nuclear age that resulted in the end of the Second World War and the many lives taken and affected by the events which occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A film that was released from a country who experienced it first-hand just less than a decade before the world knew of this monstrous embodiment of nuclear power turned pop-culture icon whose starred in 29 movies over the course of 60 years (excluding the 1998 bastardised version).



The second attempt at recreating the design of an 'American' Godzilla is very much a vast improvement of respecting the source material from the 'Rubber Suit' era and completely disregarding Emmerich's imposter stripped of all of the Japanese version's trademark abilities and overall look. Godzilla in this film is intricate from top to bottom and various close-up shots of his mouth, scales and face is pleasing to the eyes from a modern perspective of anthropomorphised characters made into photo-realistic animals that could well be existent, whilst maintaining his famous stance and towering scutes on his back. His roar is a spectacle by itself if you're listening to it from the speaker system in the cinema, one scene in particular shows it off with the camera rippling to heighten it's power and persistance from every appearance he makes throughout the film, retaining it's former glory of being the most renowned sound effect to grace the silver-screen.



From the huge publicity of the trailers alone, I think I can speak on behalf of everyone surrounding themselves with the viral marketing of this film, that film-goers want to see a monster brawl of Pacific Rimesque proportions rather than a 'David vs Goliath' tale of humanity conquering all. (no spoiler warning there). The two enemy monsters, known as the M.U.T.O, are seeking to mate with each other only for Godzilla (aka *&”*blocker) to intercept their calls and stop they're make out session and possibly prevent an evil, hell-spawn of giant bugs. The design is of these new monsters have a heavy dose of originality to the point of pointlessness; they're a concoction of irregular shapes fitted on with a Cyclops visor (inspired by one of Toho's own creations). I honestly thought we're better off with Toho designing a monster for Legendary or providing the rights for their own more down-to-earth creatures from the Godzilla franchise that fit perfectly to this new universe. Though silly it sounds, those monsters from the sleazy, costumed films from the 60's are more level-headed than these M.U.T.Os used for a questionable serious take of Godzilla. After an hour of babbling on about the monsters movements and plan of action, We are introduced with the third act of the film where we witness three behemoths that inevitably lay waste to a city; Desplat's vastly epic score coupled with the fight scenes made me believe they were not ordinary Earthly creatures but Gods opening up ideas of our insignificance as we sought to believe from the beginning that we will forever see ourselves governing over all species.

Nevertheless, the critical reception this film's received is divided and very much every popular critique made is true to some extent. The human story that follows Aaron Johnson's character of soldier struggling to keep his wife and child safe (played by Elisabeth Olsen) and the complicated relationship he has with his dad (played by Bryan Cranston), to which I say is nothing more than drama filler to live up to the incredibly cliché of succeeding to defeat the threat to boost my heroism and the protection of my loved ones. This is only a mistake from the script writer not allowing a lead to step forward and go alongside Johnson for the whole ride, instead we are served with small sections of unaccustomed actors troubled with carrying the film forth and overruling the stale acting abilities of Aaron Johnson.

One potential who could of transported the film to whole new levels was Cranston who stuck around for the first act and already established himself as the best and most heartfelt out of the entire roster of big names. The beginning showcased a tragic outcome for one particular character, namely Bryan's wife, and so the execution of his reaction was an applaudable tear-jerker so raw that it felt like it transcended his emotional propulsions felt from his notable role in Breaking Bad. Another was Ken Watanabe who played the scientist coordinated his role to be hysterically conventional whenever he pulled the 'truly fascinating' face after every dramatic line. We're talking about someone with acting chops to pull off any role he's given (Batman Begins, The Last Samurai and Letters from Iwo Jiwa to name a few) but wasn't enough this time to support the film from the sidelines. I felt the writing for his character was unsuccessful in regards to not exploring the symbolic story that hits close to home for the Japanese people upon mentioning a specific object of his that evoked a powerful emotion only they can feel. I felt this scene, and among others, should be truly credited for paying homage to the original since the film, at times, strays away from the villainous character that defines the original incarnation. Godzilla was more respected as a hero, likewise to his early incarnations from the many sequels and didn't really reflect on his cataclysmal origins of remorselessness for the human characters. A reason why many felt deceived from the trailers of the damage susposedly caused by him.

The film was only let down from the story-telling but the finale made out to be a satisfying gift of features of Godzilla's attacking aresenal that the fan-base will be quite familiar with.