I know I said a few hours ago that my next post will probably be a review of Jurassic World, but fuck it, I'm bored, so lets review a movie. This review will contain a spoiler or two, so be warned. Like my last review, I am a big fan of Godzilla, the older, Japanese ones, not the 1998 fishfest. As a kid, I loved, and still do love watching guys in costumes of giant monsters brawling in model cities. I also loved the idea of Godzilla, a giant, radioactive dinosaur worshiped in ancient culture as a god, and with a desire to protect his earth from other monsters, often both at the benefit and detriment of humanity, and evident benefit for the audience.
My thoughts on suitmation are very similar to my thoughts on the puppets from thunderbirds, oozing with charm, but out of date, I accepted that Godzilla was going CGI the day I learned the Yanks were taking another shot at the big lizard. I got really pumped when I learned that Bryan Cranston was in it and that it was being directed by a British indie director by the name of Gareth Edwards, who's career I secretly want to steal and have for myself. more on prior to release, have you ever felt that one day something only you like will be popular and you can give everyone that called you sad a big fat fuck you, I gave them all big fat fuck you's because pre release hype for Godzilla was massive, but no one was as buzzing as me, for the week leading up to the release I got a couple people asking if I was on Crack.
And so the film releases, and me, in my stupidity didn't realise that my party of 5 going to see it was not going to the regular cinema, I had been duped, we were instead going to the IMAX. And so we went to the IMAX, and sat for 2 hours watching the movie. Like all hyper fan boys, I came out thinking that was the most awesome shit I've ever seen in my life ever. but as the fangasm wore off, I realised that what we watched was actually a pretty awesome movie.
Something immediately apparent was Edwards' respect for the source material, something painfully lacking in the 98 film, this reboot was clearly crafted with love by someone passionate about the lizard. this was also, unlike pretty much the past 60 years of the franchise on both sides of the pacific, a very serious movie. It was awesome to see Godzilla handled in such a grounded and dark way, given that last time anything like that happened, as I was -13 years old (-43 if you're real Godzilla purist). A snag I think the film hit was Pacific Rim, not that I have a problem with that movie, I loved that movie too, but that movie knew what it was, a big, dumb, fun time at the cinema watching giant robots and giant monsters fight. Godzilla knows what it wants to be, a serious, dramatic and epic disaster movie, but the audience, with Pacific Rim under the belt and a prior knowledge of Godzilla as a big goofy kid's film, had a good chance of being disappointed by the admittedly remarkable lack of Godzilla. Yep, in this 2 hour movie called Godzilla, Godzilla has about 10 minutes of screen time, a lot of people thought this was stupid, but minus 1 scene in particular, I thought the slow burn was very good, and helped with the film's dark and serious style. The 1 scene in particular is of course the airport scene, which is a joke, the scene had a great build up, jacking up the audience for a big fight, which didn't happen -literally, Godzilla shows up, and next scene. I was annoyed with this scene even though I like the slow burn of the film. Something I was less annoyed with, but still thought was dumb, was the lack of Bryan Cranston, by far the best character in the film, who dies half an hour in, leaving us with his passable but comparatively hollow son, and his even more uninteresting wife. All the actors in this film did a decent job, but they're all rather pale in Bryan Cranston's shadow.
Undeniably, the final act of the film is PURE FUCKING AWESOMENESS, as Godzilla and the MUTOs do battle in San Francisco. The moment Godzilla's spines started lighting up is my best experience in a cinema ever, by far. Not just because I'm a massive Godzilla freak, but because it was executed beautifully. And do not lie, when he breathed fire down the bitch's neck was awesome, just awesome. As I said earlier, this film sometime has beautiful execution, I also has sick directing from Edwards, who's approach to filming was just as grounded as the film itself, and it captures the size of the monsters very nicely. The film's design was also very cool, while the MUTO's aren't really at the high end of Godzilla's swag meter, Godzilla himself looked really cool, still maintaining the classic Godzilla look, but with a spikey, armour plated touch, and the build of a bear, which weirdly isn't a coincidence.
Verdict
Godzilla is an epic movie, there's a lot of fun to be had, even though this film can be taken remarkably seriously, and, for snobbier film goers, the film is very well shot. Though some execution wasn't so cool, some of it was beautiful. And, unlike it's fishy predecessor, it is respectful to Godzilla's darker, more serious roots. the film is definitively worth a watch, and is, at least to me, both as lovable and as terrifying as the lizard himself.
Let me know if I sold you on Godzilla, see ya chumps.
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