Contains Spoilly Spoilers of Spoilrific Goodness
Godzilla 2014
promised me Godzilla and they certainly gave me Godzilla, however, contrary to
what the trailers pushed the new Godzilla movie has more in common with Godzilla v.s Megalon then it does with Gojira 1954. The new Godzilla film, directed by Gareth
Edwards and starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, is a strange trip back in time back
to the Showa age when Godzilla danced on the surface of plant x and flew by
means of jet propulsion to catch the sinister Hedorah. Of course at the same
time Godzilla is also very realistic
and full of dim lighting and dark colors making it perfect for American movie
going audiences.
As both a critic and a lover of film It is my solemn
patriotic duty to warn all potential moviegoers that Godzilla 2014 is not a serious analysis of nuclear mismanagement
nor is it completely humbleness before nature. While these themes do exist it
is only on a very superficial level and practically gift wrapped to us in exposition. There is very little subtext, the audience is
for the most part told exactly what to think, which probably causes some
transformer fans a sigh of relief. Godzilla’s
story is not one of philosophy or horror but instead mimics the air of a
superhero blockbuster. Fortunately the film fates smile on us lowly G-fans and
the superhero flair does nothing to detract from the film and Godzilla is still ends up as a fun romp
in the world of building smashing monsters.
Sadly the film does suffer from a few maladies which include
is a lack of monster presence and weak human drama. The slow cook reveal Edwards is so fond of can
be an effective tool for cinematic tension when properly applied; unfortunately
it is not used to such affect in Godzilla. I found myself more than once frustrated by
Edwards’s cutaways and misdirection’s thinking to myself, “hey! I wanted to see
that!” I have never considered it in good taste to have the title character of
a film be upstaged by any other cast member. I did appreciate that when Godzilla was on
screen he was awe-inspiring and commanded tremendous presence. The big G simply
needed more opportunities to demonstrate why the movie was called “Godzilla”
and not “MUTO”. Especially since the
entire film we have Ken Watanabe constantly reminding the audience how powerful
Godzilla is but when it finally comes down to it he seems to struggle quite a
bit against two seemingly average
monsters with no real explanation as to
why the MUTOS were such force to be reckoned with.
The Human element was also a problem and since roughly 80%
of the film was humans it’s worth mentioning.
Having seen Edwards’s original work Monsters
and now Godzilla I can say with
confidence that Edwards ability to tell a compelling human narrative is
severely lacking. I think Gareth Edwards has potential as a young and upcoming
director however he lacks the necessary experience in story telling to make his
human cast dynamic, relatable, or otherwise interesting. His casts are always very lukewarm, never
creating enough character or emotion for me to care what happens to them. The characters in Godzilla are no different;
most of them needed a bit more spice to become interesting so they instead just
ended up as talking heads and plot devices. Which is why I can’t fathom why
anyone would possibly want to spend more time on these characters then they
would on the actual star of the film.
Humans and lack of screen time aside Godzilla still
generates a crazy sense of fun which tends to overpower a lot of the negatives.
The third act is probably the crowning jewel of the film when we finally get to
see Godzilla come out in full force and do his thing and its well worth the wait. The MUTO’s were fun and while I did feel
their design was a little too Abrams I still had fun with them even when the
guy next to me in the theater kept screaming “shoot it!” Every time one appeared.
Godzilla is a fun action adventure story and while it
suffers from monster withdraw and humdrum humans it still manages to be a great
entry into the Godzilla lore that any G-fan can appreciate. I may still prefer my Toho produced man in a
suite features, but this new Godzilla is still very welcome because Seeing
Godzilla in with a big Hollywood budget in an American city is still enough to
get me to grin like a sixth grader.
Things you probably don’t
care about but I want to point out anyway:
. Hearing Ken
Watanabe say “Godzilla” is kind of awesome.
. The first and probably last time you will ever see
Godzilla get a Navy escort.
. MUTOS have a heck of a long gestation time, were those eggs
really that much of a threat?
. Wow Godzilla’s power seems to fluctuate all over the
place. I won’t argue about how wickedly cool
a mouth nuke is but shouldn't of his radioactive fire done a bit more damage to
the female MUTO?
.I didn't think it was possible but I think we just made
Godzilla mainstream; does that now make me a Godzilla hipster?
