Directed by: Gareth Edwards
USA/Japan, 2014
Kaiju/Godzilla, 123 min
Blah, blah, blah, Gareth Edwards. Blah, blah, blah,
Monsters, blah, blah, blah, amazing debut movie. Blah, Blah, blah what to do
with the legacy of Godzilla. You know all that, so let’s not waste time, and chill. I won't spoil anything for you if you haven't seen it yet.
FINALLY, it hit the screens, the most anticipated monster
movie this year, or the last three years if you have been waiting as long as I
have. So there we where my blogging buddies Fred from Ex-Ninja and Jocke from
Rubbermonsterfetischism (who also reviewed GODZILLA today), fidgeting,
worrying, fretting, trying not to focus on the negatives we’d heard before
hand, but remind each other of the positives we’d heard too. If you’re a
listener to the Podcast that Fred and I run, The Human Centipod, then you know
all our backstory with Godzilla, and just what our hopes where for this one and
what we where expecting.
Well it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I wanted monster
movie mayhem non-stop, instead I got semi interesting drama with monster movie
mayhem in it. But, that’s all right, because even though I feel that there was
to little Godzilla in the movie, the monster mayhem was absolutely foot
stomping, building crushing fantastic and gorgeous in every possible way. It
took its time getting there, but boy does it pay off. It’s a genuine goose bump
moment when she finally shows herself and a damn mighty scene that will stay
with you for a long time. I shit you not, if I'd have had my kids with me at the screening, I would have fucking teared up at sharing the moment with them. At the same time, this is probably on of the most
serious Godzilla movies made, on par with stuff like Godzilla Vs Destroyah,
because it’s a big bad, dark toned movie without place for goofy standoffs,
corky dialogue, and as Joachim would say, "The cheapest, poorest western actors
possibly available, to play the Americans".
But despite a cast of really good actors, Bryan Cranston,
five minutes of Juliette Binoche, Aaron Taylor-Johnson Elizabeth Olsen, the
characters where still really paper thin. No real character development, no
real character arcs, no attention grabbing multifaceted dimension… but wait…
This is a GODZILLA movie, there has never really been any dimension,
development, or arcs for that matter, in any Godzilla movies. But still, in the
world of Godzilla, character dimension is huge, because it’s all found in the
title character, GODZILLA! So where I could waste precious time yapping about
the lack of all this I’d rather focus on the real character of the piece,
Gojira!
Straight up, She’s a beauty in Gareth Edwards GODZILLA. Big, strong, forceful, and as both
Jocke and Fred pointed out, her face looks like that of a bear. I don’t think
this is by chance, as the plot somewhat focuses on Godzilla being a mystic
force of nature, risen from the depths of the ocean, as to quote Ken Watanabe’s
Dr. Ichiro Serizawa character “Set the balance right!” A strange force attacks
nature and mankind, that’s the MUTOs, and Mother Nature sorts things out… or
should we say Mother Bear. Because just like a Mother Bear protecting her
offspring, that is the exact thing Godzilla does here! She steps out from her
hiding and beats the crap out of our antagonists in her genetic
programmed “defend the kids” instincts. She’s also where all emotions lay, as Godzilla
is the one I root for, Godzilla is the one I feel for, Godzilla is the one I
cheer as that last scene closes the movie. Yeah, this one has some really
iconic moments to be honest, and it’s a movie that will slot in amongst the top
29 Godzilla movies.
I’d heard it was a slow build and a somewhat tedious first
act, but it never really felt neither slow nor tedious. Obviously it was thanks
to the plot, not to be confused with characters, because the plot does keep
stuff moving forth, and it adds and evolves the Godzilla universe, and it
works. Again not the most spectacular plot, but as said, this is a Godzilla
movie, no need to complicate it, and we’re only here for one thing, and one
thing alone. The plot uses our history to shed light on events; it uses our
history to explain the story of Godzilla. And one cannot help but think that
certain scenes are taping into our horror of current events like the Fukashima
disaster, the tsunamis and earthquakes of the last couple of years, and to some
extent 9/11. Perhaps a rhetorical fantasy for something to come save us as we
destroy our world
No matter how serious they try to cloak Godzilla, there’s
always going to be a Kaiju playfulness to it, and that shines through here too.
Even though it is dark and somewhat “bleakish” at times, there are fun moments
where Edwards staying true to the “less is more” form that he used on Monsters
shows huge destruction scenes, but has them shown as parts of news broadcasts.
Framing and visually they come off as the signature wide-angle distant shots
that make rubber suit monster model chaos Kaiju. The MUTO monster is grand, and
looks nothing like those plastic toys that surfaced online a few months back. These
are slick organic ruthless Kaiju beasts that solidly earn their place in the
Godzilla universe.
Go see GODZILLA at the cinemas now, because this movie needs
to be a hit and spawn a multitude of sequels so that we can keep shooting up
our Kaiju fixes for a long time to come.
(And please, please, please, despite my complaining that the
movie was a tad to long, and took a bit to long to show the monsters, please
release a longer bluray so that we get to see the deleted Akira Takarada
scenes.)