The original is back. After many pretenders to the throne, including Cloverfield and Pacific Rim, which saw different takes on the idea of a monster film, either in how it was shot or in adding the idea of giant robots to fight the giant monsters. All have had varying degrees of success with these ideas, but ultimately it all comes back to a huge monster tearing through cities and us trying to stop and no one does it better than Godzilla.
Rebooting after the previous Roland Emmerich directed 1998 version, this version plays around with the origins of Godzilla, while tying in the post World War 2 nuclear testing that is synonymous with the creature and his previous films.
I’ll avoid spoilers as best I can, but here is basic idea of the opening. After the discovery of a skeleton belonging to a prehistoric creature is found, a dormant parasite living inside awakens and heads off towards the nearest food source it can find, killing thousands as it does. Years later, a scientist who survived the destruction is still looking for answers and trying to expose a cover up in the place his wife died.
The cast of the film is filled up of a mix of very accomplished and well known actors who make the most of the their parts and bring a real weight to them, and a few younger, less recognisable actors who make the core of the more intimate human story. The first half an hour is dominated brilliantly by the borderline manic Bryan Cranston as the scientist searching for the truth as he argues with anyone he can, in order to expose the truth.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen, play a young couple who a torn apart at the beginning of the film and who spend the rest of the film, trying to get back together. They have a believable connection in the film, even though they only have a few scenes to establish a key relationship with the film.
When talking about the look of the film, we really have to start with Godzilla himself, he has a more traditional look than the last film, where he or she had a more velociraptor feel to it, and was more athletic and harder to hit. Here there is a genuine sense of weight and power as it smashes through cities, the destruction comes as a result of not just its actions, but the weight and subsequent stress that is put on the city.
The film’s two biggest strengths are its tone and its restraint. Its tone is very real world (or Nolanized by some people), as it tries to portray a realistic reaction to a massive creature tearing through cities and slaughtering thousands.
There isn’t a lot of time of humour, because quite frankly there wouldn’t be. What’s funny about the situation? Some may argue that the film isn’t as fun, similar to what happened with Man of Steel, but to force humour or anything into a film, because you think it’s what the audience needs, not what the film needs is a mistake.
During my trip to the cinema I did hear some groans of frustration and utters of “this is gay” from some impatient imbeciles behind me, when the film held back on showing you all of Godzilla. They clearly just came for the mindless destruction, something you can’t sustain for two hours. Any criticism for this restraint is quite frankly wrong, it chooses to focus on the people caught up in this catastrophe ahead of the carnage. What use are characters if you aren’t invested in them. There are only so many times you can show Godzilla before you start to diminish his grandeur and the spectacle he brings with him.
One scene that stuck out to me, it was actually the scene shown in the teaser trailer, was the HALO drop into San Fransisco. This a scene where every part of it is working in perfect harmony, I can’t think of a more chilling sequence in a blockbuster. The music belongs in a horror film, adding to the terror as the soldiers get closer to the ground, as Godzilla moves through the smoke, ash and flames of the destruction on the ground.
While I thoroughly enjoyed Godzilla, it’s probably my favourite film of the summer so far, there was one part of decision that I would have done differently. But as it happens at the end of the film I’ll put out a spoiler warning.
The next paragraph features spoilers.
At the end of the final battle, Godzilla collapses, victorious, but wounded onto the streets of San Fransisco, where he lies for a few minutes in our time, but hours in terms of what the characters are going through. Before he gets up and triumphantly walks back into the ocean. Even getting a positive headline on a TV news station.
I’d have simply had him collapse into the bay and disappear beneath the waves which would have left us with a sense of ambiguity for the eventual sequel that will follow.
Spoilers end.
The king of monsters is so far the king of the summer. This isn’t a mindless spectacle, if you want that then prepare to be disappointed, they’ve tried to make a real film here and have definitely succeeded.
Director: Gareth Edwards.
Writer: Max Borenstein (screenplay) and David Callaham (story).
