Godzilla (2014)

So Godzilla and I have a spotty track record at best. My first real introduction to him, was by Mystery Science Theater. A show that watched old movies, and makes fun of them while they play. It is fantastic, but it does not paint the classic films in a great light. It wasn't until I was older and started to become interested in the Kaiju culture that I went back and watched the films without the comedy track on top of it. The older films can be quite hard to watch, but they have their own merit to them. Godzilla had a purpose, he was not simply a monster. He was a warning about mans folly, and the dangers that nuclear war could bring. Godzilla was created by a atom bomb, something this movie never really alluded to sadly. It does however set up that this was not our first contact with Godzilla. I thought that was a nice touch, it acts as a continuation of the franchise instead of a origin.

The most recent American Godzilla film was quite hard for me to watch, I honestly don't remember if I ever finished it. So when a new one was announced, I was a bit worried about the final product. The first trailer was shown at comic con, and not released to the public...not a great sign. Slowly however, more and more news started to come out. We got casting decisions, and our first look at the King of Monsters. Things began to look up, and I began to get excited. Gone was the overly lizard like creature we got in 98. He was replaced by a larger, more bulky and truer to the original, monstrous creature. This Godzilla looks like the original, if the original didn't make you laugh. He has a similar body shape, the smaller head, and walks on his two feet like a human. It may not sound like a great idea on paper, but it worked wonderfully in the movie. It really did add a lot seeing the design being influenced by the original suit. And hearing the name spoken for the first time in the movie by somebody who wasn't white, was a cool moment. Godzilla was first called Gojira, but I can't say it that way in public way without coming off a little racist. I would swear to you though, that was what came out of Actor Ken Watanabe's mouth, and it was glorious.

The story of this particular movie, was not what I expected. Godzilla is already established, and the movie takes place after we have already tried to kill him before. They don't dwell on that to much, but tit does go over it in the intro with minimal details. We are then introduced to Bryan Cranston's character Joe Brody. He is a american working in a nuclear plant in japan. We are given our first taste of what is to come, but no real proof or sign of a monster. It is simply a set up and a tease, something we get used to throughout the movie. We are then moved forward a dozen years or so, and now we are introduced to Brody's grown up son, Ford. Ford and his Dad end up at the center of the initial monster attack, and given his dads past history, get roped into helping the military. From there it is a movie about us trying to stop the Monsters as they destroy everything put in front of them.

The movie introduces a new Monster, or Kaiju, simply titled M.U.T.O. Yes that stands for something, and no I don't recall exactly what. They said it once, and I was to busy being excited about destruction to focus properly. Something something terrestrial object....Mobile maybe? The new monster though was very well done. It had huge legs similar to a insect, and could fly. It had a hard shell much like armor, instead of flesh. Very angular in its design, with nice sharp edges that stood out. Toho and Legendary Pictures really came up with something great here. I am hoping I can find a small toy or statue of it along side the new Godzilla for my desk. It may not reach the level of some of the classic monsters, but it can stand on its own. M.U.T.O. serves as the villain of the film. I was under the impression this would be us against Godzilla, so this was great news for me. Watching tanks and planes fight a monster is alright, but seeing monsters fighting each other is much better. Which brings me to my next topic, effects.

If Godzilla looked fake, it would be hard to take the movie serious. When the main appeal of your film is a computer generated creature, it had better look damn impressive. And thankfully this one did. We are treated to quite a few shots of the different monsters in the film. And although they do use some tricks from time to time, they always look impressive. They also manage to establish a scale of each monster, which really helped sell the whole, were screwed vibe the film had going. The cinematography really shined in these scenes. Having shots from the view of the soldiers or civilians as the monsters fought above them created a powerful image. Even in scenes were no monsters were present, the camera work did a great job of drawing you in. Sometimes it was simple framing, such as a shot of a vehicle where you could see stuff going on in the side mirrors. Or the truly breath taking scene where the military is air dropped into the city around the final battle. Pretty much every aspect of this movie was wonderfully done, you could tell a lot of care went into it.

Something fun you may have missed in the movie, don't worry, it is not a spoiler. There is a scene were the Brody family returns to their house in japan, you can see a moth in what looks like a fish tank. On it is a piece of tape with the word "Mothra" written on it. Mothra being another Toho Monster from the 60's who had his own film as well as one with Godzilla back in 64.

Looking at the actors, we do have some choices that seemed to put off people before the movie came out. Aaron Taylor-Johnson who played "Kick-Ass" being one of the major ones. Kick-ass was far from a serious role, and for most people that is all they know him from. As the human aspect of this movie revolves around his character, people were worried he would not be able to step up to the role. After watching it, I can see where that criticism comes from. He doesn't have the greatest presence, but he still managed to do quite well with it. He won me over, and I had no real complaints with him. Elizabeth Olsen played his wife in this film, kind of funny since they were siblings in Captain America 2. If you have seen Elizabeth's work before, you know she has some talent. This role was not huge, but she did well enough with it. Ken Watanabe always puts on a good show, and continued to do so here. I do wish Cranston had a bigger role, but what little screen time he had, he delivered on. It was also nice to see him with hair again.

Godzilla (2014) at its core is a film that holds true to the belief of the original, nuclear war is bad. It goes about it in a more subtle way, but it still stands behind that belief. Nuclear energy is a huge plot device that extends throughout the entire film. The movie had constant nods to the early films. Godzilla and M.U.T.O. look awesome, and we are given a strong story driven film with great visuals. So what is the downside? Well this one is subjective, but I would say they teased the audience to many times. There were multiple times we get the feeling a big showdown is about to start up, then we see it happening.....and then cut away. Two times you don't see the big fight, just the beginning and the aftermath. Granted it is all about building to that final scene, but it did piss me off both times. Still there was plenty of action, and I was kept very entertained and happy. So a minor complaint, nothing more.