Godzilla (2014) Review

Director: Gareth Edwards

Starring: Aaron Taylor- Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Bryan Cranston

Released: May 16th, 2014

Based on the film: Gojira by Ishiro Honda

Boy, do I love Godzilla. Both the character and films featuring the Big G have played a huge part in my life. As a kid, I owned a vast majority of the Showa Era pictures, Godzilla was like a small religion to  me and helped to pave the way for my understanding, and appreciation of black and white films at a very young age.  Sure many people had no idea how this little six year old  found these badly dubbed films entertaining nor did they understand how I could watch them day in and day out. I can remember sneaking into my basement with my friends and playing in my Godzilla play-tent, the small structure acted as my own small hideaway from the complications of the outside world, Godzilla made things simple for me, he helped me learn valuable lessons revolving around pollution and the mistreatment of animals ( which has just recently become part of my everyday diet), if it wasn't for Godzilla I really wouldn't be here right now talking about not only my love for film, but I love for Anime and Japanese film (which Godzilla primarily introduced me to). Sure we can all make fun of Emmerich’s horrible Godzilla film from the ‘90s, but even then, I found something in that mess of a film that helped entertain me for hours.

My love for Godzilla wasn't only subjected to my early childhood, oh no. Ask any of my friends and they could tell you how in high school I tried desperately to get anyone that I knew to  watch Godzilla: Final Wars, or to play Godzilla: Save the Earth, on my Playstation 2. Although that little boy whose dream job was to play one of the Kaiju in a feature film, my love and admiration for the entire franchise is still strong. So, imagine my excitement when I found out that Legendary Pictures were going to release a brand new North American adaptation of Godzilla, I lost it. Every single day I impatiently waited for any glimpse of Godzilla, any tid-bit of information, or even a glimpse of a trailer. Eventually I got my wish,  when I went to see the Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, I got to see the first amazing teaser trailer for the film. After that it was a crazed roller coaster ride as Godzilla quickly became my most anticipated film of 2014. Well, I've finally gotten a chance to see the movie, and what did I think?  I loved it!.

Like the original film by Ishiro Honda, Godzilla isn't about giant monsters scrapping  out in city landscapes. Godzilla primarily focuses on the interactions of a select group of individuals as they try to cope with the horrific events unfolding around their very eyes. This take on Godzilla primarily focuses on the Brody family, whose lives are ultimately destroyed during a core meltdown at a Japanese power plant in 1999. Since then Father, Joe Brody ( Cranston) has dedicated his life to prove that what happened at the facility was not a natural disaster, it was something far more ancient and insidious. Joe’s son Ford, is sent back to Japan in order to help his father unravel the mystery of the reactor meltdown, and unwittingly becomes a major player in a gigantic battle of the titans that could very well destroy the modern world as we know it.

Director Gareth Edwards has given us the king of disaster films, a movie that will be talked about for a very long time. Edwards knows what to show audiences and what to cleverly hold back, I find that this is one of the strong points of the film. Gareth takes cues from films like Ridley Scott’s Alien, and Steven Spieldberg’s Jaws. We only get glimpses of Godzilla throughout the film, and tiny teases of his epic battles with the films antagonists, the Mutos. It all adds up to one explosive finale that will make any Godzilla fan cheer in delight.

The designs for Godzilla and his enemies, the Mutos are extremely well realized. For a monster that never appeared in any of Toho’s pictures, I found that the Mutos were perfect additions to Godzilla's massive ensemble of Kaiju co-stars. On one computer alone it would take approximately 400 years to animate Godzilla, that's how impressive and massive he is in his outing! Every time Godzilla is on screen it is completely jaw dropping and awe inspiring. The movie evokes every emotion one would feel if they actually encountered the King of Monsters. You feel fear, yet at the same time cannot take your eyes away from this magnificent creature of the past.

Writers Max Borenstein and Dave Callaham have weaved the a new origin for everyone's favourite Kaiju, I won’t spoil it but Nuclear testing isn't the major catalyst that awakens Godzilla this time around. I think the story that is presented here is more of a human drama than  a giant monster free for all, and many Godzilla fans might disagree with me, but I think the film was served better this way. The film has many nods to past films, with references to classic Toho creatures like Mothra.

However although this movie is fairly good, there are some unfortunate problems that riddle the film. Now some of these might not bother some, but as the film has already been out for a weekend it seems like many of these issues have placed a negative opinion on movie-goers.

Like I said before, the film is primarily a human drama, under the backdrop of a  Kaiju film. Now many people might have thought going in that this is a Bryan Cranston helmed feature, that is not the case. Bryan Cranston gives a gut wrenching performance and is hands down the best actor in the entire film. Joe Brody is a very sympathetic character who audiences will immediately latch onto as the heart of the film. As you probably noticed in the cast list I placed in the review, I put Cranston as the last name on the list. That's because this is Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s film, not Cranston. Cranston is only around for the first twenty minutes of the film. After that, the movie is completely handed to Taylor-Johnson who unfortunately can’t even hold a light to Cranston's amazing performance. We are with Ford Brody for the entire film, as he tries to get back to his family in San Francisco. I know Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a good actor, he’s great in the Kick-Ass films. Even reading the Godzilla Art of Destruction book it seems like he put a ton of effort into this character. Unfortunately the script gives him absolutely ZERO to work with. He comes off as stale and robotic, which is probably due to the characters military background, other than that he seems more like an after thought. In fact almost every performance in the movie desperately tries to scramble after Cranston leaves the picture, which is unfortunate because there are some really great actors in this movie.

Elizabeth Olsen plays Ford’s wife, Elle. Elizabeth is a fine actress and I've been a major fan of hers since I saw Silent House back in 2011. Unfortunately she also is given hardly anything to work with in this movie, and occasionally pops up throughout the course of the movie to remind us that Brody has a family he’s trying to get back to.

Now the most drafted, sidelined actor in this entire movie is Ken Watanabe. Watanabe is one of my favourite actors, the man is a genius and is a highlight in practically every film he’s in. Unfortunately his character just stands around looking like a deer staring into head lights. He’s the films Morgan Freeman, a character who is there solely to give us the plot of the film, explain why Godzilla is even attacking cities, and of course to say Gojira, in an overly dramatic tone. Watanabe I am so sorry you were given so little to work with.

Another complaint someone might have (personally I didn't) is that there isn't a lot of Godzilla in the film. If you are going in expecting to see Godzilla smash buildings for 2 hours than stay at home. The titular creature only has round 15 minutes of screen time, and really only one fight in the entire picture. In fact I think the Muto’s have more screen time than Godzilla, since they are the monsters wreaking havoc on the world. I found the tease of any colossal breakdown between the creatures to be a  smart move, but to current generations of audiences, they might find this annoying.

If you go in expecting Pacific Rim, or Bryan Cranston vs Godzilla you will be overly disappointed, if you go into the film knowing these things you might find something to enjoy in the film.

Although most of the problems in the film are due to someone's taste in films I will have to admit that the detraction  from Bryan Cranston did make the film lose a big portion of its heart and it’s credibility, however the scenes with Godzilla are breathtaking and I know I’ll be seeing this movie again in the near future. I give the 2014 re-imagining of Godzilla a,

7.5/10

There is some fun in the film, however the human characters we are forced to travel with (other than Cranston) are not very interesting.  The movie however is slated for a sequel and I will be there on opening day to watch Godzilla raise from the depths again.