Review Godzilla film review by GeekZilla9000

GeekZilla9000

Written By GeekZilla9000 on 2014-06-07 10:42:31

Godzilla

Godzilla Movie

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4.0

Here's my review, if you like it (even if you don't agree with it) please comment on Amazon where I posted it originally - it doesn't seem too popular as 0 out of 2 people like it! Anyway -here it is:

 

Back in the '80s my TV entertainment mainly consisted of a diet of Danger Mouse, horror/Sci-Fi films which I was ten years too young to watch, and Godzilla movies.

The 'Zilla films I watched were the badly dubbed '70s Sh?wa series movies which are often looked down on for being too campy and comedic, the Godzilla suit may be falling apart in some (you can actually see it falling to bits in "Son of Godzilla") but as a kid they cemented Godzilla as my de-facto King of The Monsters and I've had a soft spot for the giant atomic lizard since. I was excited when the 1998 film came out, I actually enjoyed it at the time but it didn't really feel like Godzilla, Subsequent re-watches have highlighted the Gigan-sized plot holes and the fact that it simply isn't a Godzilla film, it's often called "GINO" (Godzilla In Name Only) - and for good reason. A Godzilla film is not a Godzilla film without Godzilla - that might seem a bit obvious, but Emmerich's film seemed to forget that.

Needless to say, after seeing the trailers for the 2014 movie I was hyped up - although I felt that a Hollywood Godzilla film was entirely unnecessary - it was something I was desperate to watch, the promotional material suggested that Gareth Edwards seemed to 'get it', but did he...?

The main problem with a Hollywood Godzilla film is grounding it in reality, or at least creating a universe where it doesn't seem dumb. The Japanese films have you suspend belief, there's a somewhat artificial look which creates a style unique to Daikaju features and it allows you to accept that anything goes, you can buy into a human-sized robot that can become a giant at will (Jet Jaguar) or an oversized rose-bush capable of destroying the world (Biollante). Edward's movie plants Godzilla in our world but combines some far-eastern mythology with pseudo-science to make it plausible. This doesn't feel as though it's a Hollywood theft of a Japanese icon, this sits firmly alongside the Toho Godzilla films, in Japan, often a Godzilla film is a sequel to the 1954 original, with all the others never occurring and this 2014 film works in that very same way. The existence of Godzilla is known by a select few after his emergence in 1954 - and sixty years later he has re-emerged. Allowing this film to function as a sequel to the original Gojira film legitimises it as a *proper* Godzilla feature film, it respects the franchise rather than hijacking it. Of course, it also works as a standalone piece, the start of a new trilogy which dovetails nicely into the DVD collection of fans, it feels like part of the canon. Toho weren't aware that their 1954 film `Gojira' would spawn the longest running film franchise of all time (beating James Bond by 8 years), Godzilla wasn't planned as a character to fight ever-increasingly bizarre monsters. Gojira was a way of blending an anti-nuclear message alongside images of destroyed cityscapes analogous to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in a country where showing the atomic destruction had been censored under American Occupation. Legendary's 2014 Godzilla contains a similar message, it relates in the appearance of Daikaju with the potential destructive force our reliance on Nuclear technology may bring.

The main strength of Godzilla 2014 is that it was taken seriously. The source material and the history it inherited was treated with respect, and that comes across. Instead of a campy adventure with comic moments, we get a film which is fantastical yet somehow believable. Like Ridley Scott's `Alien'; what is essentially a B-Movie is given a credible script, serious actors and shuns anything which will compromise the tension - the result is a compelling monster film with monsters that are capable of being genuinely menacing. And this *is* Godzilla, not a big lizard called Godzilla, not some Western approximation - it is recognisably Godzilla, I'm making this spoiler free but as a fan there was one thing I really wanted to see Godzilla do, and at the risk of sounding very vague - when indications were that he was about to do 'the thing', I actually punched the air, and because of the explanation concerning Godzilla's background - it naturally fit the story too. The film follows a less-is-more philosophy for the first half, focussing more on constructing the world and the characters within it, before having a giant reptile stomp right through. It's a sound investment, you care about the people and you want to see them prevail. Godzilla himself is allowed to exist without any political agenda, although you may cheer for him, he is neither a goody or a baddy, he is Godzilla - not a flag waving hero who high-fives the ant-like humans at his feet even if there is a tendency to herald him as a saviour due to Hollywood's desperation to polarise heroes/villains. It's hard to believe that this is Edward's first major motion picture, it's a project beyond ambitious and could easily have been a huge mess. But against the odds he has crafted a film which although containing some of the Hollywood sentimental-sweetness a blockbuster seemingly has to contain, also feels like fan-made production (with a whopping budget). I left the cinema smiling, it's the first film for a while that I've seen and not felt as though I witnessed a series of missed opportunities. I also felt as though I had seen an actual Godzilla film, and I can't wait to see where the next one heads. My favourite Godzilla titles will probably always feature a man in a suit, although it is often mocked, the truth is that mediocre CGI can look far worse. Thankfully the CGI work here is incredible and I never felt as though I was watching a special effect, throughout the film I was immersed. An excellent cast, with Brian "Say My Name" Cranston being superb, owning any scene he was in, and Aaron "Kickass" Johnson just about carrying the film until we see Godzilla and doing an excellent job as "tough but nice guy". I was pleased to see Sally Hawkins though her role seemed a bit underwhelming as she was simply left to follow Dr Serizawa, looking concerned as he gave sagely advise based on folklore.

In a nutshell: Those who are aware of Godzilla (pretty much everyone) but have never been a fan will appreciate this slow-burning, action-adventure which introduced Godzilla to our world in a way which makes sense. `Zilla fans will appreciate that this is in the spirit of Godzilla films and will hopefully have picked up on some of the nods to the original films (surely I wasn't the only one grinning at the name of the Moth kept in a tank!). Though having to pander to some of American Cinema's clichés, they are managed well and don't detract from the many strengths. We get monster brawls, a plot which actually works, and no Ferris Bueller managing to 'lose' a giant reptile in New York. Some characters could have been better utilised at times, and the science won't stand up to scrutiny but that's a minor gripe and I'm being picky because it works within the confines of the film. The truth is there's only one star of this film - and he is allowed to shine. This isn't my favourite Godzilla film - but it easily makes the top ten.

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