Film Review: Godzilla (2014)

60 years ago, a monster rose up from the depths.  Godzilla, a gargantuan beast borne from nuclear fire, invaded the monster movie scene in 1954 and gave us a terrifying vision of Tokyo's destruction.  Godzilla's reign persisted through nearly thirty movies, seeing the titular monster as both villain and hero, pitting him against a whole universe of monsters, aliens, armies, and machines.  Then, after running through a whole gauntlet of battles in Godzilla:  Final Wars, the beast was given a good ten-year rest.

In 2014, Godzilla rose up again with a fresh new look and fresh talent.  Even though the beast has been rebooted repeatedly before, he has never before hit the western shores as hard.  In this American production, great care and detail has been given to provide a hard-hitting thrill ride that will remain true to Toho's original vision.

In a somewhat Spielbergian fashion, Gareth Edwards' vision of Godzilla purposefully builds tension before giving us the actual monster combat.  Much like Jurassic Park, the film steadily builds up the suspense with tremors, sound, and focus on subtle details.  Much like Jaws, the actual monsters receive limited screen-time to maximize their impact when you do see them.  And much like 2005's War of the Worlds, much of the action is subdued to the background, with a firmer focus on the characters' drama.  Above all, Godzilla represents an evolution of Edwards' debut film Monsters, which accomplished all these same techniques on a more limited scale.

What this amounts to is a film that builds and builds, taking its time on character-building and plotting before giving us what we really want:  all-out monster bashing and city stomping.  When you finally get to it, the mass destruction is modestly satisfying.  Special effects are top-notch throughout, giving us an intense and epic vision of creatures smashing into each other and smashing into buildings.  However, the action is not overblown or overdone, and it never overwhelms the plot.

The actual story involved is pretty much on-par with the older Godzilla films; most of these give us a handful of military and scientist characters who figure out what's going on, then behold some massive monster battle.  This film stays true to this formula, but the focus is constant on the characters and their struggles, whether it be the struggle to deal with the monsters, or the struggle to save loved ones.  The film definitely tries to pull at the heartstrings by showcasing a father trying to reunite with his family, while also trying to save his father and fulfill his mission.  While this can be a bit contrived and sappy, the film does have a little more depth and power to it than the older kaiju flicks.  All that being said, the characters are still not huge stand-outs; their emotional struggles are pretty much the only thing we can latch on to, but they remain pretty shallow and flat.  Plotting suffers a little as well, given that some parts don't always make sense, and characters don't always make the best decisions.  Much like the older films, the story overall conveys a strong theme about the folly of messing with mother nature and abusing nuclear power.

The film is competently made, with quality photography and editing.  It is especially noteworthy in the way it masterfully reveals just what it wants to when it wants to, to draw out the suspense and make each monster's presence more powerful.  Acting is okay from the whole cast; Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a pretty average everyman hero character, Elizabeth Olson is a pretty average as the guy's wife, Ken Watanabe is an average scientist dude, and Bryan Cranston steals the show in an all-too-small part.  Writing is so-so.  This production has some great-looking sets, props, costumes, locales, and special effects.  Sound design is phenomenal, with monster roars that's guaranteed to make the entire theater shudder.  Music is pretty interesting.

Finally, this has got to be the most intense and hard-hitting Godzilla movie since the original.  Storytelling and characters aren't a big standout here, but never were in the older movies anyway; this version still offers a phenomenal build-up and a satisfying payoff, and anybody wanting a good monster-movie fix should be pleased.  It'll be thrilling to see what directions modern film-making like this will take Godzilla next.

4/5 (Experience:  Good | Story:  Average | Film:  Good)

Film Review: Godzilla vs the Sea Monster (Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no Daiketto)

Godzilla's back, and he's hungry for some lobster meat! Taking place on a remote island with secret underground military lairs and a bunch of natives, the sea monster Ebirah is just one unique entity in this colorfully fantastic addition to Godzilla's saga.

The actual monster combat is pretty limited in this film, and what you see is ultimately short and silly. When Godzilla and Ebirah clash, they initially throw rocks back and forth at each other, like some kind of monster-sized volleyball match. When they clash again, they have a more prolonged struggle, but the cheesy rubber-suit acting often makes it more funny than exciting. And then Mothra shows up, just for fun. And, for whatever reason, a giant bird appears to claw at Godzilla's head. When all the monsters aren't doing battle, the film still maintains a very light, colorful, and campy tone as the characters explore an island that almost seems to be a mix between Skull Island and Dr. No's island. The film overall is silly, but the camp strikes a perfect level that's not too overbearing, and keeps the film evenly entertaining throughout.

The story's pretty wild; it tracks a group of energetic dudes who sail to an island and wind up facing a military nuclear weapons base, headed by an overzealous commander with a wicked eyepatch. They hook up with a hot native girl, and Godzilla just happens to be sleeping nearby; the guys come up with the brilliant idea to wake him up, so that all hell can break loose. Definitely not a great story, but it's full of endearing characters, and the plot is laid-back enough that it's easy to digest. The classic themes of nuclear warfare are touched upon, but it's hard to tell what this film is trying to say about it (if anything, really).

This film uses good, colorful, and steady photography and editing. Acting is pretty silly and over-the-top. Writing gets the job done. This production uses some cheap-looking sets, props, and costumes. Some of the special effects hold up, and others don't. The music is okay, matching the film's lightheartedness.

There's a lot to laugh at in this film, but with its campy tone and colorful scenes, it's clearly doesn't take itself seriously either. And it is pretty fun that way.

3.5/5 (Entertainment: Good | Story: Average | Film: Average)

Film Review: King Kong vs Godzilla (Kingu Kongu Tai Gojira)

Here it is:  the most gargantuan battle of monsters anybody could come up with.  From the west, there's the massive gorilla that was worshiped by natives and went on to climb the Empire State building.  From the Far East, the giant fire-breathing lizard spawn from the atomic age that crushes entire cities.  This film unites the two iconic titans in a vicious match of pure bestial muscle power.

As cool as it all sounds, the film may inspire more absurd laughter than actual thrills.  When the two beasts collide, King Kong throws his arms around in a hokey ape-like manner, while Godzilla throws a hissy-fit and flaps his arms erratically.  In the confines of gaudy rubber suits, it looks incredibly silly.  The actual mass destruction is plentiful, but these scenes seem so few and far-between.  By the film's end (after a ridiculous scene where Kong is airlifted by balloons), the conflict just kinda fizzles out with no clear winner or loser.  It's a cheap and dated film with horrid special effects and bad costume work; even if you look past that, the execution is so weak that it can't be taken seriously.

Of course, if you don't take it seriously (and you probably shouldn't for monster flicks anyway), then it's still pretty fun.  Fans should get a kick out of the epic clash, despite all its cheesiness and flaws.

The story is pretty standard stuff; most characters exist to simply to provide a human conduit for the audience to follow as the monsters roam around.  The plot does take a few stupid turns (seriously, King Kong flying around on balloons? And since when can he grow stronger with electricity?).

This film is pretty cheap, featuring okay photography and editing.  Acting is pretty cheesy, and is made even worse with terrible English dubbing.  Writing is pretty nutty (possibly marred by the changes of the US cut).  This production uses some cheap and gaudy sets, props, costumes, model-work, and some horrid-looking compositing effects.  Music is okay.

This film has had a pretty spotty history.  For the US, parts of it have been cut out, and many new footage has been cut in, in a manner similar to Godzilla:  King of the Monsters.  I don't know what the exact changes are, but the added news reports and exposition feel quite forced, and some of the explanations given seem misinformed, and possibly biased to appeal to Americans.  Even in Japan, parts of the film have gone missing (some of which has been restored for home video releases), and the overall condition of the film has been poor. 

This film is probably best seen for watching the two titular beasts duke it out, in all their cheesy rubber-suit glory.  It's not a good film, and the story is pretty dumb (at least for the US version), but if you ever wanted to see two of the biggest and most popular monsters engaged in epic combat, this film has its moments.

3/5 (Entertainment:  Pretty Good | Story:  Marginal | Film:  Marginal)