Godzilla (2014): Review

Godzilla (2014)
D: Gareth Edwards
W: Max Borenstein
S: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston

The King of Monsters returns to the big screen and puts up his dukes against not one, but two monsters, called MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism). In the meantime we got a U.S. Navy officer (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) caught in the middle of this as he tries to get back home to his wife and son. Will he get home? Will Godzilla be able to put an end the destruction caused by the MUTOs?

When to comes to Godzilla movies there are times when you have to be a little lenient towards the film. It'd be really silly to point out things and go "Well that could never happen," well chances are neither could a giant 300 foot dinosaur who breaths atomic fire, so we critics and reviewers have to pick our battles. Now that's not to say there are stupid moments in these movies, but not all of them are worth calling out.

One thing that kind of separates this entry in the franchise from others is that this has a lot of concentration on the humans caught in the middle of the monster brawl. Which, in some of the Godzilla films I've seen isn't handled to well. Sometimes it can a little dull, others times it can be really annoying (Godzilla's Revenge), or it can just be uninteresting and rather unnecessary (Roland Emmerich's Godzilla), but this time around it works in my opinion. Although of a lot of it may be a tribute to the fact they've got some really good actors for the parts. The best in my opinion is Bryan Cranston. He probably gives the best performance in the film. And just for the record: No, I have not seen a single episode of Breaking Bad so I'm not saying this as a fan of the show. The man truly is one of the best actors we've got around. Every single scene he is in you can not take you eyes off him, and you believe his emotions and what he is going through. Sadly he's not in the film as much, it does mostly concentrate on his son, played by Kick-Ass star and future Quicksilver, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Now I liked him in Kick-Ass but I felt Taylor-Johnson was not as compelling as the others in the picture. He is by no means a BAD actor, but he does get over shadowed by the likes of Cranston, Hawkins, Watanabe, Strathairn and even Elizabeth Olsen who plays his wife in the film. But all in all, the human stuff is fine.

But you don't care about that do you? You want to know about Godzilla and the other monsters do you? Well, it is alright... for the most part. You know how in the trailers they build up Godzilla by barely showing him until the end of the trailer? That's kind of how it is the film. It mostly concentrates on the new monsters and what the military plans on doing to stop them. That doesn't bother me, matter of fact the MUTOs are pretty cool monster and the film is effective in showing the disaster and how much of threat these things are, but when it looks like a fight is about to get underway they cut the humans and we see some of the fighting on the TV, but come on we want to see that stuff up front. They actually do get the fight scene and it is pretty exciting. Especially Godzilla's final kill move for the second MUTO. I won't spoil it for you, but I'll tell you this, when he did that finishing blow the whole theater roared with applause. It was that amazing.

I also like how they made Godzilla into the hero this time around. Now when I say he's a hero I don't mean in the, "I am Godzilla. Defender of the Universe. Truth, justice, and the Kaiju way." No, Ken Watanabe's character said it best, 

"He wants to put nature back in order."

In conclusion, is this the best Godzilla film? Probably not. I say that because 1. It is completely objective. 2. I haven't seen all the Godzilla films. But it is still a pretty strong film. I recommend seeing this film in the theater, especially with a crowd. And if you can, go see it at a drive-in theater. This is the perfect kind of film for that environment. I want to try and see it again at my local drive-in theater. 

Also just for kicks here are some other Godzilla films I recommend:

Godzilla/Gojira (1954, Dir. Ishiro Honda, Terry O. Morse [American scenes]). The original classic. Can't be beat. It's actually part of the Criterion Collection. That has to mean something. 

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962, Dir. Ishiro Honda) Classic cheesy monster mash. Not gonna lie, I wouldn't mind seeing a remake. 

Invasion of the Atro-Monsters/Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965, Dir. Ishiro Honda) The first Godzilla film I ever rented from a video store. This is when things start to get a little silly (I'm mainly talking about the little dance Godzilla does at one point. I'm not joking, he is literally dancing at one point.) This also features two of Godzilla most frequent co-stars, Rodan and Ghidorah. It's a good fun popcorn film. 

Godzilla 2000 (1999, Dir. Takao Okawara) The first Godzilla film I ever saw in theaters. A real treat.

If I left one off that you like, feel free to share. And again, keep in mind I haven't seen all of them.

Want more about Godzilla? Check out James Rolfe's video series Cinemassacre's Monster Madness: Godzillathon. The guy is a die hard Godzilla fan and in this series of videos from 2008 he gives his opinion on every Godzilla film at the time. Check it out here on his website: Cinemassacre - Godzillathon.

Here's his review of the latest films as well. Cinemassacre - Godzilla (2014)

What are your guys thoughts? Did you enjoy the film? Share your thoughts in the comment section. 

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