As long as you’re not looking for well-drawn or particularly interesting human characters, Godzilla should whet your monster whistle just fine.
In 2014, the second American version of Godzilla hit the big screen. The first, 1998’s Godzilla, was a colossal failure at the box office and a complete mockery of the iconic Japanese monster. I was skeptical when it was announced that an American studio would take another stab at Americanizing the Big G. Thankfully, director Gareth Edwards and scriptwriter Max Borenstein turned Dave Callaham’s story into a largely successful re-imagining of the kaiju’s origin story.
This time around, Godzilla was awakened by nuclear tests in the late 1940s/early 1950s. He has been out-of-sight since the military attempted to destroy him in 1954 by using nuclear weapons. A multinational corporation called Monarch keeps an eye out for signs of his re-emergence.
In 1999, a Monarch scientist named Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) is called to inspect a mine in the Philippines. A tunnel collapse has uncovered a pair of large, fossilized eggs. One is intact but the other appears to have hatched and whatever was in the egg has disappeared into the sea.
In nearby Japan, slowly increasing tremors have engineer Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) on edge. He’s responsible for the safety of a large nuclear power plant. Brody attempts to convince his superiors to shut the plant down until the cause of the tremors can be ascertained. Before he can, the plant is destroyed by a large earthquake and Brody’s wife, Sandra (Juliette Binoche), also a nuclear scientist at the plant, is killed by escaping radiation.
Flashing forward fifteen years, Brody is obsessed with trying to find the source of the tremors that destroyed the nuclear plant as well as his family. His estranged son, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is now a Lieutenant in the United States Navy. Brody convinces his son to travel with him into the now-quarantined area in Japan where they used to live so he can retrieve some data that will help him prove the Japanese government is covering up the earthquake’s true cause. Reluctantly, Ford agrees and the two end up being arrested and taken to what should be the remains of the power plant. Instead, they find a government-run facility that is housing something very much alive. In perfect movie timing, that something escapes just after they arrive. That’s about as much as I can say without giving any major plot points away.
Godzilla may disappoint monster fans looking for an overabundance of monster action. Director Gareth Edwards conservatively doles out small peeks at the titular monster for the first two thirds of the movie. It’s a risky move but it actually works in the film’s favor by building anticipation for the creature’s eventual reveal.
The human-focused parts of the story, especially those involving Ford Brody and his wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and son (Carson Bolde), are much less compelling than those featuring Joe Brody or Dr. Serizawa. Unfortunately, Ford is chosen to be the “hero” of the story. I’m not sure if it’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s rather bland performance or the character to blame, but Ford Brody is not someone in whom I felt especially invested. Thankfully, the pacing of the film is brisk and the story’s monster setpieces may be few but are never boring.
I am not a fan of CGI-heavy special effects but Godzilla‘s are well-done and portray a giant monster’s impact on the world rather convincingly. The action sequences are easy-to-follow and things never get too busy, ala Transformers, which is usually my biggest complaint. The effects are light years ahead of the earlier Japanese films which depicted the monster by using a man in a rubber suit smashing model buildings. (Although more recent Japanese entries in the series, especially 2016’s Shin Godzilla, have vastly improved effects that can stand toe-to-toe with the American films.)
Overall, Godzilla is a satisfying start to Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse series which will introduce reimagined versions of characters such as King Kong, Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah in later films. As long as you’re not looking for well-drawn or particularly interesting human characters, Godzilla should whet your monster whistle just fine.
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Buy on Amazon!
