Godzilla (2014)

Sorry for the brief delay in this one, I did see Godzilla on Friday, May 16, but I also graduated from college on the 17th and used the 18th to rest. So here's my return to form. The Amazing-Spider-Man 2 review got me back in practice, but this is where I step it up. Here we go, with a review of the aforementioned newest Godzilla film.

 

I loved this movie, from start to finish it was like I was reliving my childhood days of watching those old Godzilla Kaiju fighting movies, only with a bit less camp.

No, sadly, this does not happen.

The campiness came primarily through the dialogue of the film, which was easily the biggest flaw of the movie. Sure, there weren't any, "that's a lot of fish" lines, but there was the whole "let them fight" line (delivered magnificently by Ken Watanabe) which was followed immediately by the first encounter between the Muto male and Godzilla. If that isn't a campy line I don't know what is. I can't fault the actors for their lines, however cheesy and ridiculous they are, there were a lot of fun lines sprinkled throughout the film that made it all the more enjoyable to me, and the excellent deliveries from Watanabe and Cranston made some of them all the more worth it.

Perhaps the only other qualm I had with the movie was the mild constant shakiness of the camera. It seemed to be handheld throughout the film, which was a bit ridiculous, especially when the monster fights came around because the camera became no more shaky than when we were standing in the Brody's apartment. It's an odd stylistic choice that's a little confusing, but not all too noticeable or off putting to the average viewer.

Like I said, the only thing that saved the dialogue was the manner in which the actors delivered their lines, all except for Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who was given nothing, and Elizabeth Olson, who no one cared about. Don't get me wrong, nothing was wrong with these characters, just the way they were portrayed on the screen left myself, and seemingly the rest of the audience, without a care for them. And with one of them being the main character, that's kind of an issue. I like Aaron Taylor-Johnson for the most part, but he seems to need the right director to get him to perform well. Just look at Kick-Ass he's at least able to act in those. But again, he was given crap to do in those movies, and lines that weren't boring and pointless. He does one thing in the narrative that is smart, and I'm 90% sure that's why his character is "the main character." That and being Bryan Cranston's characters son.

Elizabeth Olson on the other hand, despite being extremely talented and one of the most sought after younger actresses today does literally nothing in this movie that is redeemable and just comes off as the pointless wife/love interest to Taylor-Johnson's character. She literally just camps herself in LA, while the monsters are fighting, she doesn't let her son leave the area, until the last fucking minute, and she does all of this why? Because for some reason, the screenwriter thought it would be a good idea for Ford Brody (Taylor-Johnson) to ask his wife to wait there for him, and for her to say "okay" in response.

 

Godzilla does not like your treatment of women in his movie!

All of that being said, this isn't much different from the norm in Hollywood, and I'm only really upset about it, because it's the god damn norm and I don't understand why. Not only do I not understand why it's the norm, I don't know why it doesn't bother other people. Her character could have been written out of the entire movie, along with the son, and literally nothing would have changed. Ford would have went to Japan to bail his dad out of Jail, then he would have went to Hawaii, then Vegas, Then LA for the climax because all he was doing was following the Kaiju on his way to LA. He wasn't going to LA to get to his family, he was going there because that's where the monsters were. Having his family in LA only served to add some bullshit lines about how he "has to get to LA, because his family is there." If he cared about his family's safety he would have said something like "hey, LA isn't safe babe, get out. Love you, bye." But no, he tells her to stay there and wait for him, the big strong army man to come rescue her from the monsters that are taller than every skyscraper in the city. Sure, Godzilla's a nice guy, but those Muto's certainly are not. Further, even though Godzilla is a "nice guy" he still destroys countless buildings fighting these things. How would Ford Brody have felt if his wife were in one of those hundreds of buildings that got crushed in the final climactic fight? The narrative seems to tell me he wouldn't have cared. 

I got to tell you, if this film is any indication of the chemistry between Taylor-Johnson and Olson, I have some bad news for Avengers: Age of Ultron, even though the two of them are only siblings in that movie, it still doesn't speak well. But Whedon can likely direct the two of them a lot better than the relatively unknown Gareth Edwards, whose pretty much known for this Film and one other called Monsters that he did back in 2010.

The lighting reminds me a lot of Pacific Rim, and that's a good thing. When it's dark you can still see everything going down, nothing is to obscured in shadow. The cinematographer was the director of photography for the Avengers as well, Seamus McGarvey. It kind of shows in the ease of following the conflict while still being in a big city and moving through skyscrapers. Though most of the fight can be shot from above them, as both Godzilla and the female Muto are bigger than every skyscraper in the city, the male Muto, not so much, but he can fly. 

 

Something I just remembered about the silliness of the military in this film was their inability to understand what an EMP can do. The Mutos launch EMP strikes with their Talon's and this is apparently forgotten when the military decided to send Jets after them, more than once.

Despite all of my qualms with the minor issues of the film, I couldn't help but be left in awe of the spectacle that I was watching. This wasn't the 1998 Roland Emmerich Godzilla, nor was it in any way similar to what we would have gotten if it were Michael Bay's Godzilla. It was still a well made monster movie, with a rather poor human script, but in all honesty what Godzilla movie doesn't have a rather poor human script? I can't really think of one that isn't at some point weak, aside from maybe the original 1954 Gojira. The nods to older films were nice, especially those that we haven't seen in a Godzilla film not made by a Japanese studio. It was very nice to see the tail start to light up, and the pay off of said tail lighting up, as well as the nods to the destruction of the trains, neither by Godzilla though, because he's the good guy.

All in all I enjoyed myself, more so than I did with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 a few weeks back. I'm still having trouble with this whole x/10 rating system. I'm not sure if it's because I don't like doing that whole thing any more, or if I have to see a movie more than once in order to justify a number based rating. But as of right now, Godzilla (2014) receives an 8.5/10.

And in other news, a sequel is already in development (source). Godzilla apparently dominated the box office this past weekend grossing roughly $93.2 million in just the U.S. alone as well as taking home another $103 million from the international market. The box office success has apparently persuaded Legendary pictures to promise that a sequel is in development. Personally I wouldn't buy into the other hype in the article about a Pacific Rim and Godzilla crossover. One, it wouldn't make any sense, and two I would only imagine that Godzilla would be fighting Gypsy Danger or another Jaeger only to lose because we are man and we destroy monster with mighty robot. Though I wouldn't mind seeing separate sequels for both films, especially if the main cast of Pacific Rim sticks around for the sequel. Godzilla can recast for all I care.

Here have a trailer for another one of my most anticipated movies of the Summer, coming in August:  Guardians of the Galaxy.