Godzilla

I saw the trailers for this a year ago while I attended a screening for Aronofsky's NOAH . I didn't fancy it much . GODZILLA conjures up memories of the big budget blandfest from a decade and a half ago . Just put some CGI on screen and voilà you've a Summer blockbuster . This version did get a very good average rating when it opened , something in the region 8.1 but progressively got lower and it now has a rating of 6.6 indicating something average . To be fair I went in with an open mind and did find myself enjoying things more than I probably expected

The original GODZILLA from 1954 was of a course a Japanese film that used the monster as a metaphor for the bomb . It did quickly abandon this subtext and just became a long running franchise where the titular monster got involved in all sorts of battles with other giant monsters . In its favour Gareth Edwards version of GODZILLA does keep the ethos of this . Radiation is very much to the fore of the story and while Godzilla might not be the hero he's certainly not the villain and this is reserved for "Massive Unidentified Terreistial Organism" a sort of hybrid between a giant praying mantis and a dragon . You know at one point they're going to be meeting in a climatic battle

Of course two hours of giant CGI creatures getting in to a punch up isn't going to resonate with an audience so Edwards includes a very human backdrop as the story takes place through the eyes of serviceman Ford Brody . You got to love that name , it's sounds like a character John Wayne was born to play , a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do , get off your horse and drink your milk etc . It wasn't until I found out after seeing the film that I found out Brody is played by English actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson who I was totally convinced was one hundred per cent Uncle Sam . That said this isn't an actors type of film and I'm speculating that the casting of Cranston and Binoche might have led to the backlash by many people . If you want to see Binoche try not to be blink because you will literally miss her . It's also difficult not to notice that there's a strong streak of manipulation as to how the characters play out . It's also yet another film where a little kid is used in a scene to keep the audiences emotions on tenterhooks

Regardless of this people watch a film like GODZILLA for action set pieces and you can't really fault Edwards for what he's done here . He doesn't have a idiosyncratic quirk to his directorial style and the film does have that kind of Summer blockbuster look but he also previously directed MONSTERS and that movie featured a couple of aliens mating and here the MUTOs have a similar though much more shorter sequence . If you need a film calling for alien reproduction I can see Gareth Edwards being a natural auteur

When this came out, people were upset that it did not have enough creatures in it. I agreed back then but now after the sequels I realize that Gareth Edwards was trying to focus on the story and not just a CGI fest. I really enjoyed Bryan Cranston's character and wish I could have more of that too. While I left wanting more, sometimes that is better than having too much.

Finally sat down to watch this movie today. After all the hype it had had it's fair share of great moments but in the end felt something was missing. I'll agree with many that Godzilla wasn't shown as much as he should have and maybe that was what missing or maybe it wasn't. Needless to say even though Godzilla doesn't make many appearances in this movie it still is a rather good movie with a an interesting story line. The best way to go into this movie is to not buy into Hollywood's hype because if you go into it like that you will be disappointed greatly. Overall I was satisfied with Godzilla. Great story, special effects, and even the acting was pretty solid. Worth the 2 hours for sure. Sit back, grab some popcorn and beverage and enjoy!

Godzilla (2014)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The "plot" really doesn't matter, now does it? Let's just say there's an accident at a nuclear reactor, which no one pays too much attention to until MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) wakes up and heads to the West Coast of America but also on the way is Godzilla.

It's clear that Godzilla movies are always going to be made and some are going to be better than others. I think the nicest thing I can say about this version is that it's slightly better than the remakes from 1984 and 1998 version. However, there are still a lot of problems with this version including the fact that it has to be one of the most boring action films in recent years. I really can't count how many times I kept looking at my clock to see how much longer this thing was going to go on. There's a family drama thrown in to try and balance everything out but this too is incredibly boring and goes nowhere.

I guess the worst thing about this film is also the best thing. The special effects are quite frankly excellent and once you doze off to the actual story, it's easy to just admire the work. For the most part the CGI effects really look good and especially the monsters as they come across very realistic and all of it blends in well with the real stuff. The various explosions also look very realistic but with this budget you'd expect that. Now, even though the special effects are great and the highlight of the picture, they're also a major problem. I really, really hated the look of the villain MUTO because it's supposed to be a prehistoric monster but instead it comes off more like a robot. For the life of me I couldn't help but think we were watching some sort of robots do battle and this here was just extremely disappointing. Even Godzilla comes across more like a robot than a prehistoric dinosaur. A real shame that as great as these monsters looked they couldn't have been more realistic.

There's a lot of family drama thrown in but all of it is just as boring as the action. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the lead and isn't given much to do, acting wise, and after a while it just becomes laughable that he happens to be at various parts of the globe just as "important" things happen. Even the usually wonderful Elizabeth Olsen can't bring any life into the picture. Juliette Binoche has a good cameo but even Ken Watanabe is wasted in his part. The bad story is a real shame on two levels. One, it takes up way too much of the running time and it's simply boring. Two, had they not gone for this boring melodrama then perhaps we would have gotten more of the monsters.

But, then again, that might not have been a good thing since the monsters are filmed through dark skies, fog and various bits of smoke. It's hard to ever get a great look at them. GODZILLA certainly has a group of fans out there but for me it was a complete dud.

I'm no great fan of summer blockbusters and for sure am resistant to the idea of paying over the odds to sit in a crowded room and be disappointed. This usually sees me picking up with such films when they are cheaper to get on rental and just watch in my own home. With Godzilla I will admit I was tempted to join for the spectacle because in addition to this the film had the appeal of quite a starry cast list in addition to being from Gareth Edwards, the man who famously made Monsters in his bedroom and on the fly. This suggested that perhaps there would be more to it than just effects and big money shots. That said, I had heard negative things and I did approach it with low expectations because after all, it is just a Godzilla movie.

The film does try to create a human story to ground the audience and it casts wisely with Cranston, Binoche, Watanabe, Hawkins and others – all people who have a good presence in front of the camera. I was not to know that so many of the names that drew me to the project would be removed from the film pretty early on – a device that has impact for sure, but doesn't seem particularly brave since one suspects that the reason people like Cranston got onboard was that they were promised a lot for only relatively small parts. This leaves us with Taylor- Johnson and his quest to get home; a quest that never really interested me but at the same time is constantly pushed into the middle of the action no matter what or where it is. This saw my interest in the human side waning as the film progressed, leaving just the action.

On this front the film pushes things as hard as it can. The makers clearly know their action genre because this is a film that understands that soldiers running with guns and speaking in tough military dialogue while music pumps in the background, can grab an audience – so it does it, lots. Considering I didn't care two hoots for them, I was surprised by how much time I spent watching soldiers sweeping areas with guns pointed – it did start to bore after a while. The monsters and their destruction is nicely hinted at first, but eventually the film plays all its cards and we have lots of action and knocking down of buildings. Unfortunately much of it plays out in darkness – something which helps the atmosphere but limits how much can be seen. Technically it looks good and the money is all up on the screen (in the darkness) but it is probably the noise that makes the most impact and even on a lesser system the roars and thuds of the monsters are engagingly meaty.

Unfortunately this is really all that the film does, and it is quite uninvolving and unsatisfying. There is a lot of very good noise and big spectacle, but we have to experience through the human characters who we increasingly do not care about, and when the action really ramps up, it is detached from any sort of reality and I found myself appreciating the technical work rather than getting lost in what could have been dramatic and thrilling. As a blockbuster it probably has enough noise about it to be a distracting two hours if you have a good enough home entertainment value.