Godzilla 8/10
This score might change later. I'm gonna watch it again next week. I might just be biased here. Big fan of Godzilla, and he's just a badass in this. The film itself isn't a re-invention of the genre by any means but it is a nice entry into it. The film, much like director Gareth Edward's first movie is full of atmosphere-- for the reverence and awe of the monsters, the human element being amongst the destruction, and for the possibility of human drama to play out. I say possibility because it really feels like Edwards wants to give us more of the humans, but is afraid that it will make the film unbalanced, in that some people might say that the film does not even need monsters in it at all. I think he did a better job of this in the first film, but then again, the monsters in "Monsters" aren't as iconic or demanding of screen time as the king of monsters, Godzilla. They are interesting, but a movie about Godzilla, should have Godzilla as a standout. I've got a couple points of awesome and a couple points of wha? I'll start with the less positive things.
*** Light spoilers ahead (only really with the screen time of some characters)***
The synopsis -- After stumbling upon the cover-up of the reason for his mother's death by a giant creature, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialist, Ford (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) races to get back to his wife, Elle (played by Elizabeth Olsen) and son, Sam, amidst the destruction these monsters wreck. As the monsters, known as M.U.T.O. (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) lay waste to everything around them a monster, not seen in 50 years, returns from the deep to bring balance to the natural order of things.
**The not likes section**
The TRAILERS! -- I'm so sick and tired of how these things are cut now adays. Especially with the amount of screen time two particular characters have (Godzilla and Joe Brody, Bryan Cranston's character). I'm going to stop watching anything other than teasers. Neither of them are in the film a whole lot and most of the stuff we see in the trailers is what we see of them in the film. There's a really big reason I hate this, but I'll explain it more in their individual sections.
The score -- Guh! Seriously, Alexandre Desplat's (Zero Dark Thirty, Rise of the Guardians, and Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows 2) score kind of is the cheesiest part of the whole movie, and it opens the film, setting a different atmosphere than the actual film itself drawing homage to the campy horror/sci-fi b-films, and while many fans will remember and enjoy Godzilla more for his cheesier incarnations (I like them too) the film itself (and my preference) goes back to the more serious tone of the original. So to me this was an odd choice to open the film with. The only benefit of the doubt I could give him is that this might be because the sound systems are sub-par. I wish the theaters in my area had amazing sound systems, but they kind of suck. But to me, his score was either unimportant and simply filler for scenes or it was the wrong tone, which is a shame. This is especially tragic as a fan when you remember such amazing scores as the military march or Goji'-san's iconic original theme from the late Akira Ifukube. Other than the opening though, I didn't get any feeling from the score. It came off as flat and the composer as a result seemed to not understand the source material.
The Military's Portrayl
While there might not be much substance to his movies, Michael Bay, at least with the Transformers movies does a decent job of portraying the military as competent and somewhat effective. They don't fare so well here. And it isn't even just a matter of not realizing that conventional weapons won't hurt Godzilla but the armed forces as a whole does a poor job of communicating with eachother. I know that this is a situation that is unconventional to them, but they do
**the likes section***
The human element -- Man, with the way the trailers were cut it sure seemed like Bryan Cranston was going to be in the film a lot. He is definitely integral, and man he's one of the most passionate characters in the movie, so while I understand using him in the trailers, I think they're bastards for doing so. The film's human aspect is focused on Ford and his journey to get back to his family. As I said earlier, I feel like Edwards really wants to recreate the same level of human drama he had in "Monsters", but just doesn't have enough screen time to do it. Johnson and Olsen do an amazing job with what little they have. Johnson for the most part spends much of the film giving us the human perspective of being in the presence of these towering animals. In a way... most of his time on screen is spent doing the same thing Dakota Fanning did in the 2005 adaptation of "War of the Worlds," so he doesn't have much dialogue and is simply shot in reaction shots. Both Olsen and Johnson are required to give us the deepest levels of fear and relief with not knowing whether or not a family member survives a natural disaster and then finding out they did, and it needs to come through in a matter of seconds. Seconds. For what little time they have. Again, amazing. Ken Watanabe and David Straithairn play mostly expositional characters, but they give it their greatest level of respect. Watanabe, plays a scientist who has been studying these radioactive creatures and Straithairn is the daily head military officer in charge of protecting the citizens under attack by the giant beasts. The problem with the human element amidst the behemoths, is that none of them have character arcs which in a monster film can be fine as long as their stakes are high, but because of how some of the sequences are organized the stakes for Ford, which should be high, are too disjointed to carry much weight. His character kind of just seems to go, and in some cases by luck, to where he needs to be and Elle just seems to be another bystander running around with no sense of real time threat. At one point it seems like she stands in the rain for like an hour... Even though a MUTO is present. There's also one big irksome leap in logic.
And for the reason that he would not really have any stakes in protecting the city should he do the logical thing instead, plot takes precedence over logic. Watanabe's scientist gives a real sense of awe and scientific wonder to Godzilla and the MUTOs, but is so one-note that he can at times come off flat despite his talent. In a way he might unintentionally be the audience's desire, because he keeps saying "let them fight" as a solution, whereas Straithairn's Admiral is more realistic in using weapons of mass destruction on them. So while "let them fight" might have worked for a cheesier film like "King Kong vs Godzilla", I kind of agreed with more conventional weapons. So I liked the characters, and the actors give it their darndest, but their roles aren't exactly the juiciest.
The Cinematography
Edwards and his Director of photography Seaumus McGarvey, did an amazing job shooting this movie, from the amazing shots of the Kaiju (yes, giant monster in Japanese) in motion, exploring, and even still, to the dire circumstances the people face from the kaiju. Just awesome. Every single shot was interesting to look at and really added to the tone of each scene.
the MUTOs
These creatures are kind of a cross between
Gyaos from the Gamera series
Gigan
and
the Cloverfield monster
(On a side tangent, I don't understand why so many of the new monster designs take after this design.)
These monsters are beautifully realized, and they have real emotion and personality to them. Interestingly, the main goal of these two creatures are similar to the two in Edward's "Monsters": to meet up and procreate, but that seems to be true of any animals.
Godzilla
He is amazingly portrayed in this film. He is equal parts awe-inspiring, animal, unintentional hero, and badass. While he is a bit... fat, the way he moves lends itself to making him believable at that size. Like... it seems right. In the film he is a force of nature but he is also an animal. He moves like one and the logic to his actions reads honestly as an animal's. When he's on land, there's purpose, he isn't just running around destroying stuff because he's pregnant (which I don't know why you would destroy things -- no one make a comment about how clearly I've never been pregnant before). He's searching for his prey, he's on the hunt. The way he fights, is raw and animalistic. This is true of all of the monsters. They all have fighting styles distinct to their build. Now to the trouble with the trailers and his screen time: Godzilla isn't on screen a lot, and this may be a big negative to some, understandably, as this film is named after him, but I think Edwards does an amazing job of making every single moment he's on count and making a reasonable choice to do this. His reveal... DANG IT ALL I wish they had kept that moment out of the trailers. There's a bit of added business he does as an animal that makes it slightly different and more awesome, but I wish they had saved that entire pan for the movie itself. They already had bits of him in the other trailers so I wish they had kept it out. I was happy with the reveal because he had been talked up so much up to that point in the film, but I feel it would have been even more impactful had they saved it for the movie alone.
The Fights
Edwards TEASES the fights up until the final climactic one, with many happening offscreen or on tv sets via the news. But that last fight... man. To me, it's like I paid the right price for something tiny, but awesome. And it's so awesome that I only wish they gave me a bigger helping. So it's the glutton in me who wants more, but it's because what they have is so amazing. Seriously, I along with others in the audience clapped often during the fight. So good, the fight alone, just to see how gargantuan and viscous he can be on the American screen is worth the price of admission.
Again, this review might be biased by my being a fan and wanting so badly to see Godzilla done right and on the big screen. I hope the movie does well so that Legendary will do more outings with Godzilla because I want to see more, and I think you might too. Check it out. I'm going to at least once more.
Edited by chouzu_tao, 16 May 2014 - 09:24 PM.
