Godzilla (2014) | Movie Review

Since Toho gave us our first cinematic glimpse of Godzilla way back in 1954, the over-radiated kaiju has been stomping his way towards global destruction for decades. Veering in-and-out of the roles of villain, hero, and even Matthew Broderick’s girlfriend; Godzilla is here to stay.

In his latest incarnation, director Gareth Edwards (the well-received and ultra-low budgeted Monsters) offers us not so much of a reboot, as an extension of previous films. The screenplay by Max Borenstein and Dave Callaham cleverly alludes to and deviously connects to the original film as a launching pad for this one.

Edwards also presents this Godzilla by offering a slow, sometimes VERY slow, reveal of the titular monster through the lens of his Spielbergian influence. Every shot seemingly pays homage to the mass-market-master in a way J.J. Abrams has yet to achieve. Unfortunately, Edwards does not yet have the restraint of Spielberg to trim the film to move at a faster click, nor the intriguing characters to propel the monster-less portions of the film. That is something Spielberg has always been a cinematic marvel with: conceal the reveal…but always entertain. Make no mistake, there is a long, drawn-out period before you will get what you paid to see.

You might be asking yourself, why have you not yet mentioned the plot? Because,by the end of the film, there really isn’t one. This is a monster movie, where everything banks on the massive kaiju brawl at the end. Every human character, outside of Bryan Cranston’s Joe Brody (another Spielberg nod and the only well-written human character), is inconsequential and ultimately boring. Inconsequential because if you actually removed all of the human characters and storylines from the present-day portions, the film would not change. In fact, it might get to our brawl just a little faster.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Brody’s son, Ford (GET THE HOMAGES YET?!), is a fine actor in other films, here he just looks like he is going through the motions. Not boring so much as ‘present and accounted for’, as a military bomb expert he serves only as a proponent to provide us insight into the plight of the human characters, military strategies and to prove his father’s theories about ‘something deeper’ were true. His relationship with his wife (and soon to be sister, Scarlet Witch in Avengers 2), played by Elizabeth Olsen, is meant to give you emotion as Ford’s life is placed in more and more jeopardy…yet all it does is delay our monster mash longer than the human brain should ever be forced to wait.

Ken Watanabe offers us the viewpoint of a seemingly very old (by my record he should be in his mid-70’s per his speech about his father) Japanese scientist. It is great that the filmmakers paid respect to the origins of the original films both in the film’s Japan opening and this character. Unfortunately he is given absolutely nothing to do except stare off into the horizon and mumble random exposition the entirety of the film. WHAT IS HE LOOKING AT?! Whatever it is, it must be cooler than a giant lizard because he is always staring at it.

The human characters here are the opposite of those in Jurassic Park, where we were engaged and entertained the entire film. Those characters we felt we were along for their ride, it was OUR adventure. Here we just cannot wait to be done with their story in order to get to what we came here to see: Godzilla Smash!

Where the first two-thirds of the film are a bit of a letdown (the cheap Hawaii fight that is never shown other than telecast was a huge mistake by Edwards and the writers), the final third does everything you have ever wanted a Godzilla movie to do. Edwards’ masterfully directed sky-diving scene has to be seen to be appreciated, it is absolutely breath-taking. As well as his final throw-down between big G and the Starship Troopers-ish M.U.T.O.’s will be a highlight reel for any genre film aficionado. If this last third was the entire film, Godzilla would have put Pacific Rim firmly into the recesses of your mind. Edwards captures the kaiju aspects, the fun and brutality of these fights, so much better than Del Toro. THIS is the monster fight we have always wanted to see.

This Godzilla does not screw around. He will rip buildings down. He will absorb your puny weapons and swat them away like swamp gnats. He will move forward with his singular purpose and he could care less about any militaries, civilians or mass carnage left in his wake. If we silly humans would have just gotten out of his way to begin with, this would have been the most amazing monster movie in the history of man. Too bad we need to talk so much.

Gareth Edwards was definitely the right choice for this franchise, he just needs to hone in his Peter Jackson-like tendencies to stretch the film out longer than it needs to. The final 40 minutes of this film are worth the price of admission alone, even if you might have to jar yourself awake a few times on the way to it. This is a film for the big-screen, it deserves to be seen there to be fully appreciated. The ass-kicking monster of lore has finally returned.

If $10 is the full price of admission, Godzilla is worth $7

 

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider