Godzilla Month: Godzilla (1954) movie review

Here's what you need to know; the nation of Japan is thrown into panic when ships start mysteriously disappearing in its waters, but it is not prepared for the truth. Godzilla; a beast of mythological stature, a living dinosaur is not only very real, but very upset that its slumber has been disturbed by the actions of Man. As panic further grips the nation, it becomes a race against time to understand this creature, and to find a way to stop it from reopening Japan's historic wounds, or worse, a Pandora's box of nightmares that could forever change our world.

I find it odd that I've never reviewed this film, in the four years of this blog's existence, I've never written a proper review, but if there was ever a time to do that, it's now, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is so close now, so very close, and in celebration, I'm going to the beginning; sixty-five years into the past to the film that birthed a genre and forever changed film history, the original, the one and only, Gojira.

Godzilla's first ninety seconds are, in a word, intense, as an unseen force lights the sea on fire and incinerates a boat. The calm, pleasant atmosphere of the boat is shattered, replaced with dread and urgency as people scramble to escape the unseen terror and the ship's radio operators desperately call for help, a futile effort as the ship silently vanishes beneath the waves. Within two minutes, and with not a single word spoken, Godzilla tells you what you need to know, it's a film that doesn't play nice, a film that, like its titular monster, will be cruel and unapologetic. If you're not familiar with this film and only know Godzilla as a series of campy monster movies about men in rubber suits stomping on models cities, this film will come as a bit of a shock to you, because it's not that at all, it's a different beast entirely. From there we get our introduction to some of the film's characters, of which the film primarily focuses on a few. Now, the film's characters are an interesting bunch thanks almost entirely to the two most interesting characters; Daisuke Serizawa and Dr. Yamane, as they each represent two of the film's core philosophies. Dr. Yamane is a scientist and is, in a way, the Ishiro Serizawa of this film; the leader of scientific research into Godzilla and someone with a passionate interest in him. He's very much against the grain in this film, with the rest of the country being gripped by fear and hatred for Godzilla, Yamane sees him as something special, a one of a kind specimen that needs to be studied and understood, not killed. This naturally puts him in conflict with other characters in the film, chiefly his daughter's lover, Ogata, who understands that Godzilla maybe a marvel of nature, but also understands the danger of keeping him alive. And on the other side of the coin is Dr Daisuke Serizawa, a war veteran and scientist who is the only person with the means of killing Godzilla.

That sounds great doesn't it; a guy with the means of killing an unstoppable force of evil, but like all things in this film, it ain't that simple. Serizawa is the film's most compelling character by far and his conundrum is one of the film's greatest strengths. Serizawa may have a way of ending his nation's suffering, but he fears the cost is too high, knowing that his creation; the Oxygen Destroyer, could be used for evil. Godzilla is not just a monster movie, it's a film with a very strong anti-nuclear message, one that resonated very strongly with the Japanese back in 1954, only nine years after some two-hundred thousand of their people were killed by the Atomic Bomb. In the context of this event, Godzilla takes on a much darker, much juicier meaning, one that cemented it as icon in film culture, and Serizawa's plight speaks directly to that meaning. His Oxygen Destroyer is a doomsday weapon; one that could kill millions if it fell into the wrong hands, a horror he does not want to see inflicted on the world again after seeing it being inflicted on his own people. The Oxygen Destroyer is a direct parallel to the Atomic Bomb, and Serizawa's guilt over creating it is easily one of the film's strongest attributes, leading to an emotionally gripping and harrowing ending that is part of what makes this film truly special. The rest of the film's characters are very much overshadowed by Yamane and Serizawa, even if both of them have a somewhat small amount of screen-time. The rest of the film's primary cast is your standard assortment for a film like this; an everyman, his lover, a journalist, you know the drill. The film's romantic subplot is very prominent throughout the film, but doesn't really become effective until the ending, and even then, that's solely down to Mister Eye-patch and how he completely steals this film.

Well, I say steals, but this film has one other, very obvious film stealer, the Big G, portrayed here as frighteningly as he'll ever be. Like the 2014 film, Godzilla takes some time to build up to the big moment, teasing as Godzilla causes chaos in the seas before coming ashore on a rural island, his arrival being accompanied by a violent storm. The first time you see him on-screen though is kind of like watching Alien, if you're not in the right frame of mind, you're probably not going to find it scary. That changes however when he comes ashore on the mainland for the first time, a scene that is greatly elevated both by Akira Ifukube's absolutely amazing music and Ishiro Honda's brilliant direction. This was very pre-CG and Honda didn't have the time or the man-power to create Godzilla using stop-motion, and Honda's solution to this problem, when it works, creates a monster more real and frightening than what even some modern monster and horror movies can pull off. As cheesy and campy as the rubber suit would end up looking throughout the 60's and especially the 70's, there was nothing cheesy about this one. When the full suit is used, it looks incredible; the fact that it's an actor in a suit gives the monster so much personality and life, far more than anything stop-motion could ever achieve. The added physicality of a real man in a suit crushing physical models buildings give the destruction a sense of realism and weight, giving these scenes an almost beautiful sense of horror. Make no mistake, Godzilla is a film that's trying to make its monster scary, and when the full suit is being used, it absolutely succeeds, not even breaking the illusion once. But then there's the puppet shots, which are a bit more mixed in their effectiveness, some of them are still incredible, while others are so obviously a rubber prop, and these shots do dent the illusion.

But Godzilla pulls it off for the most part, the child friendly, lovable superhero Godzilla would become was still over a decade away, this Godzilla is a walking embodiment of death and suffering, and more often than not, this film makes Godzilla scary. But Godzilla isn't just about a walking metaphor for the nuclear bomb, he's the star of a film that, at its core, is about the suffering of a nation. Remember the last five or so minutes of the 2014 film where firefighters are doing their best to rescue survivors and families are tearfully reunited in makeshift shelters, that's the entire last half hour of this film, and there are no tearful reunions, it's fucking rough. If you wanted to watch this film for a fix of fun action and campy monster goodness, be prepared to not be prepared, families aren't reunited in this film, they're ripped apart; children cry as their parents die in front of them, a mother tearfully tells her frightened kids that they'll be with their dad in heaven soon, the hospitals are flooded with helpless wounded. The bit that really got me was the little girl who starts screaming when they take her mother away, and the sombre, defeated look on Emiko's face as she tries to comfort the distraught child, and when I say got me, I genuinely mean had me struggling to hold back the tears, even now while I write this, I hate it. This is where the true horror of this film lies; the film doesn't indulge in destruction for the sake of entertainment, it plays it straight, showing the human cost of such a disaster in as harrowing and uncomfortable a way as it possibly can. In an age of films having themes and messages, Godzilla is not only a prime example of how this can work, but how it can define a film and turn it into a masterpiece of its genre without the need to be direct or heavy handed, and this was over sixty years ago. And as a cherry on top of this nightmare cake, we have the music of Akira Ifukube, a name which means nothing to you if you know jack shit about Godzilla, but his music is instantly memorable and exciting, his themes for Godzilla are powerhouses of dread and tension, it's some of the best music in the science fiction genre, and it further enforces this film's complete lack of cheese.

Be Happy With Emiko, Goodbye

Godzilla is like a lot of old masterpieces; it's a film you need to be in the mood to watch, because if you're not, you might be distracted by some of the film's dated effects, but when you're in the mood and want to see some of the most effective, haunting kaiju thrills that film can muster, Godzilla really is in a class of its own. While Godzilla may have a reputation for campiness and fun, cheesy monster action, this original film isn't anything like that; it's a subtle, sombre, frightening exploration of the horrors and evils of war, one that doesn't even try to be nice to its characters or its audience. It's scenes of destruction are darkly beautiful, but beneath them is a beating heart that keeps this film alive in your mind even after it ends. Godzilla is not for everyone, it's not a crowd pleaser, but it is one of a handful of films that reduces me to tears, it is a masterpiece, and it is an absolute must watch.

Godzilla Month: Godzilla (2014) Redux Review (2019)

Five years ago today, I got a very nice surprise when our cinema trip to Godzilla took us to the IMAX, and what followed was a two hour decent into a euphoria the likes of which my miserable existence has rarely offered me. Ok, so that was a bit over the top, but you get my point, clearly my Mum thought that seeing Godzilla was a massive deal for me, so she booked us seats for the IMAX, and because she was dead right about how much that meant to me, the IMAX ticket is currently sat on my computer desk in a photo frame. It's since been five years, and while I've devolved from a happy-ish, moderately cynical, cubby college student to a completely miserable, massively cynical, cubby warehouse worker, Godzilla has returned from his slumber and become a titan of the film industry once again, literally evolving into the critical and box office phenomenon that was Shin Godzilla, spawning a cinematic universe state-side, as well as an anime trilogy that we can just pretend doesn't exist for now. And five years after the film that started it all, we finally get a sequel, one that will thrust three of cinema's most iconic kaiju into the mainstream, hopefully. But two years ago today, I posted an in-depth review of Godzilla, a film that I said then was almost nearly a masterpiece, and surprise, surprise, my mind hasn't changed, so in celebration of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, here is that Redux Review, revamped and reposted with better grammar and better wording, because there's always room for improvement. Also, as this is an in-depth review, I'll be spoiling the entire film, which makes telling you what it's about pointless, but there's an order to these things, and somewhere in that order is the obligatory synopsis, so...
Here's what you need to know; Joe Brody has long suspected that the cause of the nuclear disaster that killed his wife was covered up, but when he and his son Ford return to the site in search of answers, they learn the terrifying truth. Something huge is about to be revealed, as forces far older and more powerful than they could possibly imagine emerge from the depths of the Earth, forces humanity is powerless to stop.

Godzilla makes an impression in its opening titles; as the nuke tears up the islands and the camera is swallowed by an atomic shockwave, the title fades in slowly, particles fall from the top of screen, as if to invoke the image of ash or debris, and the distant, echoed sound of screaming people can be heard, these few seconds says so much about the film, the suggestion of ash or debris is reminiscent of natural disasters; Volcanoes, Earthquakes, which is aided by the people screaming, conveyed a sense of terror and tragedy that would come from such a disaster. It's an incredibly subtle touch, but it's one I noticed even back in the IMAX, and it does a fantastic job of setting up the film's tone. Plus, that intro reel with the archive footage and the awesome music was great and sets up the Monarch story line in the film, showing Godzilla being nuked in 1954. It's then that we get the first of a few homages to other films, this time it's Jurassic Park, as a helicopter flies over a dense jungle, only accompanied by ominous and foreboding music. It's at this point that we are introduced to one of the film's major themes, and it's something that can be easily missed; the detail that the miners dug up the MUTOs thinking they'd found Uranium. In a broader sense, it was Man that woke up the MUTO; two of the film's major themes are the Arrogance of Man and the Insignificance of Man, Man waking up the MUTOs is down to his Arrogance, the miners disturbing their spores caused the male MUTO to wake up and start burrowing for Janjira, otherwise it's safe to assume that they'd have stayed dormant.

The Insignificance is also something that can be observed here, as they walk through the cave among the enormous bones, bones that belonged to a creature that no doubt completely dwarfed humans, which is something that comes up a lot in this film. Joe Brody serves to give the events of the film emotional weight, as we see him so committed to his job at the plant that he forgets it's his birthday, informing us of his obsessive nature, which will be important later. The Janjira plant is destroyed and he is forced to seal the door, before saying a crushing goodbye to his doomed wife. This is a heavy scene, you can't help but feel that immense sadness as Joe sees his wife on the other side of the door. She's two feet from him but he's completely powerless to save her, and the film excellently conveys that hopelessness. The film then jumps forward a decade and a half and we now see Joe living alone in an apartment littered with books and newspapers, the walls are covered in newspaper clippings and posters, the only thing missing is red string to tie it all together. Over the years Joe has clearly let his grief, guilt and obsession drive him insane, but at the same time his situation is entirely understandable, he wants to find any reason his wife is dead that doesn't fall to him. What makes Joe such a great character is that motivation, he's a crazy truth seeker, but at the heart of his crusade is a simple desire to understand why his wife is dead, while the only other thing he has in his life, his son, now has his own family, and doesn't want to drag them into his crazy conspiracies. These are two characters that handled an incredible loss in two different, but entirely understandable ways, one trying to forget it and leave that pain behind, while the other has let that pain consume him and drive him insane.

At the heart of Godzilla's first act is that personal story, one that starts with Joe's wife dying, and ends with Ford being reunited with his wife at the end, through this personal drama we are shown an apocalyptic scenario, and that emotional anchor adds a huge amount of realism to that apocalyptic scenario. It's a bit of a waste that Joe dies so early on in the film, dying from his injuries after the MUTO's suspenseful escape, because without him as an emotional anchor, the film loses a lot of its emotional weight, and with Ford being a much colder and more reserved character than Joe, there isn't really anything to replace that loss. But he is also a catalyst for the film's story, and in many ways, this film is a thriller, with mysteries and twists that build to the big moment, which we'll get to. As much as I adore this film, I will admit that killing Joe off in the first act was a mistake, as he is, from an emotional aspect, easily the film's strongest character. Before being a drama or even a thriller however, this film is a philosophical tackling of the conflict between Man and Nature, and that becomes very evident in the Janjira quarantine zone. The city is eerie; devoid of humans, and slowly being retaken by the land, overgrown with plants, and inhabited only with animals like wolves, a subtle signifier that Nature is going to win in this battle with Man, not very original, but it's where the film goes. Meanwhile in the plant Man continues to meddle with Nature, studying the MUTO as it grows, inadvertently letting it become a threat to humanity's existence, because of not just scientific curiosity, but arrogance, a misguided belief that the situation was under control when it so very wasn't.

And when we get our first really good look of the MUTO, the theme of insignificance is perfectly encapsulated as Ford looks up in amazement at the massive creature climbing up out of the pit, and its true size is revealed. The film has several of these shots; with humans in the foreground and the Kaiju in the background, to show the audience how small they are in comparison to the kaiju. This is also the scene where Joe dies, and in my last posting of this Redux Review, I tried to justify his premature death. While I still think what I said was at least kind of true; that in the film's themes of human insignificance, a loved one dying makes sense, with Ford having his dad prematurely taken from him by a force of nature outside of his control, just as a hurricane or earthquake would, that doesn't really change the fact that the second and third acts of the film lack the emotional weight of the first. The film establishes a conflict between Joe and Ford, that being Ford's distancing from Joe after his mum died, and that could have made for a compelling ark for the two of them as they reconcile in the midst of this apocalypse, but that's never allowed to happen, and I'll finally be honest about it, it's a waste. And in Joe's place, we have a reserved soldier, which is undeniably a downgrade, as good as you feel Ford may or may not be as a character. On one hand, his calm and level headed demeanour is beneficial to the film's grander scenes, as he serves as the audience's eyes in many of these scenes, but on the other hand, he's a bit boring, which is probably a factor in why this film is so divisive, outside of the obvious.

Let's jump ahead to Hawaii and check out a visual metaphor, a close up of a lizard with soldiers in the background not paying it any attention. It's a clever reversal, as now we see a creature that is tiny and insignificant to us, just as we are tiny and insignificant to the Kaiju, and that tiny creature is a lizard, how very poetic. The Hawaii sequence is a masterclass in building suspense, from the missing submarine in the jungle, all the way up to the Airport, this scene builds and builds the dread and anticipation, as the MUTO causes chaos on the island and the sea recedes. A second creature appears on radar, and Serizawa rushes to the flight deck, believing, almost hoping that it's Godzilla, for whom he has an immense amount of respect, even adoration. On the flight deck, he peers through his binoculars as three rows of spines emerge from the sea and thunder towards the ship. It's fitting that Godzilla arrival is heralded by a tsunami, given the film's themes of Man vs Nature, but as the camera pans up from the flooded street, up the building, as the flares illuminate a massive creature and the crowd stares up at it in shock and awe, the tension is replaced with that same awe as an impossibly large creature strolls past, apathetic to the chaos it's causing. This brief sequence shows off very little of the creature's appearance, showing us little more than a huge, reptilian hand, some serious thunderthighs, and a long, spine covered tail as it sweeps around a building. We already know what this creature is, but even so, Gareth Edwards teases and teases, giving us only tiny glimpses to build the suspense and anticipation. This culminates at the Airport, where the power coming back on illuminates the MUTO looming over Ford's train and we get that beautiful shot from inside the terminal as an impossibly massive foot thuds into frame, silencing the screaming crowd inside as they watch in awe.

Do you remember how I said earlier that there was an obvious thing that makes this film divisive, well, here it is; Edwards builds and builds and builds this reveal, creating so much excitement as we get our first look at the Big G, with the camera slowly panning up his body, from the toy planes at his feet to his vicious, animalistic face, as he revs up and lets out an earthshattering roar. This is now peak excitement; this scene has reached its climax and the audience is craving what is bound the follow, a throw down. So what does Edwards to as the audience twitches and trembles with a need for that sweet, sweet release, he cuts away, cutting to Ford's wife and kid seeing the Honolulu fight on the news. This might be the worst blue-balling in movie history, and I can not only see why this rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, I can kind of understand it. The previous scene was so, so effective at building the anticipation, the final shot of the scene is a about as awesome as it is possible to comprehend, only for it all to be a massive tease. The film does this once or twice more before the finale, but none of them are as bad as this one; Edwards may have intended for this scene to be frustrating, but he did that a little too effectively, and it turned a lot of people off this film, not me, mind you, though I can't exactly say they're wrong for being pissed off by this scene. Last time I posted this Redux, I also tried to explain it away as the film sticking to the representation of the kaiju as forces of nature, like earthquakes, and how most people never see the earthquake itself, only the wreckage and rubble left behind on the news, and like my justifying of Joe's early death, it is true, but it's not very satisfying for the audience. This is a problem that's been getting more prevalent in the last couple of years in entertainment; writers and directors subverting the audience's expectations and failing to substitute that expectation with something satisfying, with the excuse being that no one saw it coming and therefore it was good. But while it's usually the result of writers and directors being morons, it feels very deliberate in Godzilla, making me wonder if Gareth Edwards, whose previous and at the time only other film; Monsters was also very understated and restrained, struggles with knowing not how much is too much, but in a twist, a subversion if you will, how much is too little.

There is another scene where Edwards builds the tension, that being the scene where the female MUTO attacks the train. This scene is less effective than the airport scene, as it more hastily builds up to the attack, with the MUTO apparently being a ninja with a knack for dramatic timing. But the scene does effectively convey the uselessness of the military against the MUTO; first with the river full of wrecked, burning Tanks, then with the sequence with Ford and the other guy on the bridge as the MUTO gets unnervingly close. This scene makes good use of the unseen, with the MUTO first destroying the defences, then wiping out the train itself, all either off screen or concealed by darkness, with the only clue of what's going on being distant screams and the crackle of gunfire. This use of the unseen serves two purposes, the serve the film's theme of the insignificance of Man, and to create dread around the female MUTO, as she does something to the train, we don't know what, but when we next see it, it's on fire, we don't see what happens to the Tanks, we just know that they end up in the river, completely wrecked. It also highlights the flaw in this plan to nuke the Kaiju, again rolling with the notion that Man's meddling with Nature and attempts to fight it will always do more harm than good. The nukes will not work, Serizawa knows it and so do we, nothing we can do will work, Man just has to get out of the way while Nature does its thing and Godzilla restores balance. Even on a purely visual level however, the scene still conveys this theme, just as the Airport scene did through that shot in the terminal, both that shot and this scene show humans in the shadow of the kaiju, showing off their immense size and our comparatively tiny and insignificant presence. The soldiers on the roof were useless, Godzilla didn't even notice them, just as Tanks were useless against the female MUTO, Man's meddling is annoying at best, self-destructive at worst, and in keeping with this theme of Man vs Nature, we get one of my favourite scenes in the film, the Golden Gate bridge scene.

The scene starts out somewhat foreboding, with the bridge partially obscured by rain and cloud, but everything appears fine with the police aiding people along the bridge and the kids on the bus getting all excited by the military presence, but like the foot in the airport, everything comes to a stop with a single noise, a distant roar. The suspense builds as the birds all start flying inland, as if they're flying away from something, Godzilla's spines emerge from the fog, ploughing towards the warships around the bridge, but they stop before impact. Godzilla's spines already look big in this scene, but then it's quite excellently revealed that that's just his tail, as the much larger spines on his back start lifting the Warships out of the water like toys. In the ensuing panic, several ships fire their missiles and end up hitting the Golden Gate bridge, but before the bridge takes more fire, Godzilla rises, blocking the stray missiles and casting a literal and metaphorical shadow over the people on the bridge with his sheer size. When I think of the Lovecraftian horror of this film, I always think of this scene, because there is no better example in the film of this almost cosmic horror. Godzilla may be simply an animal, but to Man, he might as well be a God, a creature that casts humanity into complete insignificance with his very existence. When Godzilla attacks the bridge, it's just one great shot after another after another, as the people on the bridge, and by extension the audience, bear witness to the enormity of Godzilla; taking missiles and tank shells to the face and only being mildly annoyed by them. The camera is always kept at ground level with extreme low angles, and Edwards deliberately keeps Godzilla's entire form out of the shot to impose a sense of scale upon the audience, one similar to his first appearance in Honolulu, which enforces the horror of the scene.

The children are screaming as Godzilla destroys the bridge, put yourself in that position, a few dozen people at least were just killed by a creature so impossible and monstrous, how scared out of your mind would you be. How oppressive would the feeling of insignificance be as you looked up at this God, you probably would scream. Also notice how ineffective the bridge is at stopping his progress, again feeding into the film's themes of Man vs Nature, or in this case, Godzilla vs an American landmark. Like a hurricane, Man's creations are not safe from Nature's forces. It's at this point that the army arms the bomb that they plan to use to kill Godzilla and the MUTOs, right before the male MUTO arrives and fucks everything up. The boat loses power after an EMP blast comes from somewhere in the clouds above, and Edwards does his thing again, with a beautiful escalation as the lights go out, followed by Ford's wife seeing a parachute descending through the mist, right before it starts raining fighter jets. I really like this scene, like Godzilla and the warships, the MUTO renders the fighter jets completely useless as they fall from the sky like toys. As usual, the MUTO completely ignores the soldiers shooting at it and dive bombs that boat, making off with its nuclear cargo before hooking up with the female, which is made a great scene by how it shows the size difference; even with as huge as the male is, the female makes him look tiny, and the shot of him landing and her emerging from the debris is incredible, establishing her as the primary threat through her size and through the male's submissive nature around her, she's the boss, the big bad.

The next few minutes of the film consist of the soldiers planning out their mission to disarm the live nuke that is now buried under downtown San Francisco. Up until this point in the fight of Man vs Nature, Man has done nothing constructive; we woke up the MUTO, then failed to contain the MUTO, and then failed to stop the MUTO, even with all of our tanks and planes, but why stop there, why not break out the nukes, how could that possibly go wrong. But it's here that Serizawa delivers his most memorable line, though we're not going to focus on the "let them fight" bit, we're focusing on the rest of it. "The arrogance of Man is thinking Nature is in our control, and not the other way around," in this line, Serizawa sums up the film's primary themes perfectly, and in the context of this quote, we can see the decision to use nukes as Man's arrogance. All of Man's toys have proven useless against this new and terrifying threat, but Man still has an ace up his sleeve; the atomic bomb, the crowning achievement of Man bending Nature's power to his will. This is the arrogance part, thinking Nature is in our control, but now not only do we have to deal with monsters that we woke up, we now have to deal with our secret weapon which has not only failed, but is now as much of a threat to human life as the monsters themselves. This is the self-destructive aspect of Man's fight with Nature; relentlessly scrambling to get the upper hand on a foe that cannot be defeated. It's a shame though that people gravitate to the "Let them fight" bit of that quote, especially with now divisive this film is for its lack of fighting, in fact it's the very next scene where the male MUTO and Godzilla square up for a rematch that we never see.

Then there's the infamous HALO jump scene; where the highlight we are treated to is hellish and ominous imagery, intense and unnerving music, and a fantastic point of view shot of the Monsters. This scene maybe visually beautiful, but there isn't that much else to say about it; It's a great sequence to put in a trailer, which is almost certainly why it was in the trailer, but it isn't the most thought provoking scene in the film, nor is it the most suspenseful or beautiful, that still goes to Honolulu. Like Honolulu though, the sequence does know how to build the tension thanks to its great music and cinematography. We also get the amazing POV shot of Godzilla, as well as that even better shot after they land of Godzilla simply walking past, his massive tail sweeping down the street. But this sequence primarily serves to kick off the finale, which kicks off properly in the China town clash. This sequence is also similar to Honolulu as the music calms and the camera pans upwards. This entire finale is complete eye candy, and it starts here, with a tail whipping slowly through the fog and a flash of lightning revealing a godly silhouette. Into view comes Godzilla's face as he revs up again for the most intense roar of the film, a roar that kind of unnerved me when I saw it in the IMAX, not that I minded. This roar is how the final battle is kicked off, as the MUTO charges, opening a window for the soldiers to attack the nest while Godzilla grabs her and drags her through a building. We then get a scene of the soldiers exploring the nest and seeing all the little MUTOs swimming around inside their eggs, which is lovely, but this sequence serves to give the finale a bit more urgency by giving our heroes and Godzilla a time limit; just twenty-seven minutes before the bomb goes off and everyone dies.

The build-up is now over, let the throw down begin, and Pacific Rim this is not; the fighting is not intelligent, it's animalistic, it's swiping of claws and thudding of insectoid limbs, nor is the fighting flashy, its vicious and impactful. This is the act of the film that will appease people looking for Monster Mayhem, and appease them it will as Godzilla and the MUTOs kick the ever-loving shit out of each other. The MUTOs get the upper hand in this fight, with Godzilla unable to keep up with two targets as they work together to turn him black and blue. But this stops when Ford tries to be a hero, having stayed behind to destroy the nest while the rest of the team try to extract the bomb. This scene manages to turn the MUTOs into more sympathetic creatures as the female MUTO cries about her dead babies, after all, they are just animals, all they wanted to do was hook up. When some debris falls on Ford, the MUTO looks up and stares right at him. She gets real close, but is distracted from getting her revenge when a mysterious blue glow lights up behind her. I've got a few favourite moments in this film, but the one that hit me hardest, so hard in fact that I was literally crying in the IMAX, it was this moment; as Godzilla's tail emerges from the darkness, a blue glow running up its length, the shot cuts to a wide as the glow travels up Godzilla's back and he revs up again before letting her have it. This scene is just so cool, from how deliberately slowly he charges the shot for dramatic effect, to the intense, elemental hum of the beam, to the MUTO's reaction of just dropping to the floor. This is one of only two times in the film that he uses the atomic breath, and it's not the cooler of the two, but its execution is so effective and so, so cool.

While the female MUTO sits there in abject shock, the fight carries on with the male swooping in for a sucker punch, but the female's rage is reignited when she hears the soldiers trying to escape with the nuke, which makes for some of the film's most visually horrifying shots as the female MUTO charges towards the boat. Meanwhile, Godzilla and the male are still scrapping, with Godzilla landing a killing blow when he tail slams the MUTO into the side of a building, which is awesome, it sounds awesome too, turn up your volume for that tail slam. But what's even more awesome is that we now get a little moment of humanisation with Godzilla as he stops to catch his breath. This is very subtle, but it shows us that Godzilla in this film is not just an unstoppable engine of destruction, he needs to stop and breathe for a minute because he's tired. And the face he pulls when he looks up to see the building coming down, doesn't it just scream "are you fucking kidding." The humanisation continues as Ford and Godzilla come face to face and share a respectful glance. Ford doesn't look scared, just as Godzilla doesn't look angry or disgusted, there's an incredibly understated sense of understanding here, suggesting that Godzilla may not be purely apathetic to humans and has no direct interest in hurting them, while Ford's lack of fear suggests that humans don't need to be scared of Godzilla and that the two can coexist, which is something the sequel is very clearly going to be playing with. In this scene, Godzilla is not the ancient alpha predator, he's a tired, old hero, like Ford, he's a soldier with the mission of making wrong things right.

Ford makes it to the boat just in time to see the rest of the team get either eaten or swatted by the MUTO, taking the opportunity to take off in the boat. But before he can get far, the boat dies as a massive, insectoid foot falls into frame. This film really knows how to make its monsters look huge and menacing, as the get a very menacing wide of the MUTO looming over the boat and staring down at Ford, who, in a somewhat comedic final stand, draws his pistol after seeing her be only slightly annoyed by rockets just seconds earlier. But before the MUTO can get her revenge, she stops, and the camera pans to reveal the Big G sinking his teeth into her shoulder. We then get a beautiful wide of Godzilla wrestling with the MUTO, grabbing her mouth and yanking it open, giving us what probably isn't the coolest death of any monster in Godzilla's long and colourful history, but who cares, it's so cool. Godzilla pulls her mouth open, charges up his atomic breath and fires it down her throat, killing her instantly and burning away her neck. Something that always sticks out to me in this shot is how her arms are wrapped around Godzilla and clawing at him, and how when he fires his breath down her throat, those swiping, clawing limbs all go limp. Let's face it though, that's not what you're really looking at in this shot, you're looking at the absolute savagery as Godzilla gives the MUTO the meanest kiss in the history of history. with the MUTOs vanquished, Godzilla lets out a triumphant roar, throws the MUTO's severed head into the bay, and then does something very ungodly, he staggers ashore and faints.

Let's ignore the little detail that there is no way in hell that the boat made it far enough away in time, given that it was still in the bay with five minutes on the timer, but I've seen this film eight times now and I can assure that the magic teleporting nuke is only the tip of an iceberg of illogic and inconsistencies. I can ignore them though because that fight was fucking awesome, and any will I may or may not have had to criticise this film's illogic melted away like the female MUTO's neck. But carrying on the unusual parallel with Godzilla and Ford, as Ford falls and begins to lose consciousness, he watches Godzilla collapse, and when we next see him, he's still lying motionless in the ruins of San Francisco, trying his hardest to make the audience think he's dead. It's very bizarre that the film would show Godzilla like this, but it is consistent with how the film portrays Godzilla and the MUTOs as animals. Godzilla's massive, seemingly lifeless corpse looms over the scene of chaos he and the MUTOs created, with firefighters and soldiers digging around in the rubble looking for survivors, a scene very reminiscent of disasters and tragedies that have happened in our world. And in a final, rather poetic spin on the arrogance of Man theme, as Godzilla wakes up from his nap and makes his way out of the city, we see news coverage of him branding him the "King of the Monsters - Savour of Our City?" As Ford and his family make a tearful reunion, the crowd around them cheer for their hero, the King of the Monsters. Never mind that Godzilla levelled two cities and probably killed tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people, Godzilla saved the city, he's a hero. This is quite the bittersweet ending, one that serves the films themes deliciously.

On the one hand, the survivors hailing the Big G as a hero only shows that Man is still arrogant, even in the shadow of a God, we see the actions of said God as an act of heroism, as that God saving us rather than just cleaning up our mess. But on the other hand, it's a somewhat hopeful ending as now we have Godzilla, a creature that will emerge when he's needed to restore the balance of nature, in a way, he is a guardian, one who we can rely on to put things right, even if he's not doing it for us. There is a brilliant idea for a sequel here, one I wanted Godzilla: King of the Monsters to explore and said as much in my previous posting of this review. It does appear that the sequel will be addressing it however; I wanted to see a post-Godzilla world, one still in confusion and fear after San Francisco, maybe one where entire religions have sprung up around Godzilla, where politicians ponder on the implications of a major city being flattened in hours by a creature that we cannot stop. It all sounds a little Batman V Superman-ish, doesn't it, but it's something I think would be cool; seeing just how the world reacts to the events of this film and to the revelation that monsters exist. King of the Monsters however looks a bit too straight forward for that, which I don't mind at all, but it does make me think; what would Godzilla: King of the Monsters look like if Gareth Edwards stayed on, I highly doubt that we'd be getting the same movie, and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing after Gareth Edwards created a film as thoughtful and compelling as this. And the final shot of Godzilla's spines disappearing beneath the waves is rather symbolic. The world as we understand it is gone forever, but a new peace has been created by the events of this film; sure, three cities are gone now and humanity's true place in the world has forever been cast into uncertainty, but so long as Godzilla lives, there will always be a force to restore balance, there will always be hope so long as we stay out of the way and let them fight.


Nature Has an Order, A Power to Restore Balance, I Believe He is That Power
happy Birthday to my favourite film of 2014, to the Godzilla film I never knew I wanted. In the Blu-ray's special features, director Gareth Edwards talked about wanting to make a film that would stand the test of time, and in my opinion, he completely nailed it. Godzilla isn't the crowd pleasing kaiju clash that I think most of its haters wanted it to be, it's something else entirely and in my opinion, it's all the better for it, even if the Honolulu fight was a piss take. That's not the only problem of course, there's also Joe's premature death, but there's just so much good in this film that I can forgive most of its flaws. Like the best Godzilla films, under the surface is a complex web of ideas and themes that blend together into a genuinely thought provoking monster movie that never fails be hugely entertaining, it's an epic, non-stop thriller that I really can watch again and again and again. Godzilla is brilliant, I genuinely think that, and it's absolutely a must watch.

Godzilla Month: Godzilla and the Hickey from Hell

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is just three weeks away now, that's only three weeks that I don't need to die or go blind so that I can do that from seeing the sheer awesomeness that I so desperately want this film to be. I guess that tells you how I feel about this film, as if you didn't already know. But as I've expressed before, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a film that I've been looking forward to seeing for my entire life; I've been in love with Godzilla from my earliest years, having grown up on his epic brawls with the likes of Gigan, Mechagodzilla and of course, Ghidorah. But while the superhero genre has exploded in popularity in the past two decades, the Kaiju genre still remains much more fringe, even with financial big hitters like 2014's Godzilla and 2013's Pacific Rim. But now, in 2019, we're getting a Godzilla film that I never thought would happen; Godzilla facing off against some of his oldest and most iconic foes, in a Hollywood blockbuster with hundreds of millions in American money behind it, and if that wasn't enough, next year he's throwing down with King Kong for the first time in fifty eight years, it's fucking Christmas. That and Japan's making Godzilla films again too, but their recent track record's a bit naff, so what can you do.

For the past couple of months, since the release of the last trailer, Warner Bros. has released about half a dozen TV stops for the film, some of which showing new footage, some not, not that it matters because I'm insatiably hungry for this film, it's not healthy. These TV stops alone weren't enough to dive back into the topic for me though, I needed more, and one night, as I walked out of work and checked my YouTube notifications, I got that very thing, the Final Trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In this post, I'll be discussing this new trailer as well as the TV spots, the two songs from the film's soundtrack that are now on YouTube, as well as the Shazam! IMAX footage, which, thanks to Reddit, I managed to see, thank god for Reddit. So let's start with the TV spots, which are very straight forward to sum up; interesting and cool music, some new footage that is expectedly badass, and that's about it. The most notable ones are the Beautiful one and the How many are there one, the latter because of the number apparently being "seventeen and counting," and the former being for its interesting choice in music. Seventeen though, keep in mind that we know four of them for sure; Godzilla, Ghidorah, Mothra and Rodan, Dougherty also alluded to the film referencing Kong, which makes him a possible fifth monster, though that's a complete unknown. That's still twelve that are unaccounted for, which is very interesting purely because of how big a number it is, it makes it sound like this film is going to be some Destroy All Monsters type shit.

I'm not sure how that'll work to be honest, as with such a huge roster, you have the two-fold issue of the new monsters being overshadowed by the big four, and/or taking some of the limelight away from the big four, and back in 2017 I wondered if this film would be crowded with just four. It's also possible that not all of them are in the film, but that we'll be getting a taste of them before they get expanded on in future Monsterverse films. The latter option is the smarter one in my opinion because they surely want to world-build for this cinematic universe and this would be a good way of doing it, but also because I want the big four to take centre stage, and would consider it a disservice to them if they didn't. Then there was the Beautiful TV spot, which was interesting because of its use of, of all songs, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, a song that is used again in the Final Trailer. This isn't a bad choice, but if you're expecting me to explain why in an eloquent fashion, you're in the wrong place, I'm not a musical expert, I wouldn't call myself much of an expert in anything if I'm being honest. I like the song, I don't think anyone doesn't, and the soft, melodic tone of it, when infused with a bit of Hollywood bombast, replaces the dread of the first film's marketing with a feeling of awe. This reflects a change in tone that the film looks to be going for; whereas Gareth Edwards's film was clearing going for a sense of horror and dread about the kaiju, this film seems to be going for something almost magical, portraying them less as eldritch horrors for us to fear, and more as god-like beings for us to marvel at.

The rest of the TV spots were not all that different from the trailers. there's some new footage, like Godzilla slamming one of Ghidorah's heads, which is awesome, and Mothra taking Ghidorah's gravity beams to the face, which is probably a spoiler as Mothra has a habit of dying in self-sacrifice. The TV spots did also suggest something that I'm not sure about, and that's comedy. A lot of the TV spots have jokes in them, which raises the obvious issue of the film having too much comedy, but I'm not going to be too worried, I highly doubt this will be another The Predator or Halloween. After the TV spots came the IMAX footage, which showed before screenings of Shazam!, and this footage is very simple to sum up, it's an edit comprised of several scenes from the film, most prominently the scene where Ghidorah wakes up, which is the highlight of the footage, obviously. The first minute or so of the trailer feels a lot like the teaser trailer for the 2014 film, with a similar monologue by David Strathairn about the apocalyptic scenario the characters are faced with. Then we get what is presumably a condensed version of the scene where Ghidorah emerges from the ice. The scene has a lot in common with the scene in the first film where the male MUTO wakes up, like that scene, the action is always framed alongside the human characters to emphasise the size of the monster. But what I love about this scene is the dread; Ghidorah's heads emerging from the ice one by one is menacing as shit, as is that sinister arse grin that he has on his faces.

Ghidorah in this film looks terrifying, which is exactly what I wanted, those faces are so filled with malice, and there has yet to be even a single shot of him in any of the marketing that doesn't convey his sheer presence, he literally is the apocalypse. It's actually funny that this Ghidorah is just a monster, but just from the marketing, is already more frightening than his Anime Trilogy counterpart, despite that Ghidorah being an interdimensional, cosmic horror that eats planets, that and the fight in that film was awful, whereas this fight is going to the coolest fight in film history, and I'm not even kidding. I also absolutely love the way Ghidorah sounds; this Ghidorah's roar is new, certainly less recognisable than Godzilla's but it fits the look of this Ghidorah and is familiar enough to Toho Ghidorah's roar, which was always more of a scream than a roar. The footage only features glimpses of the monsters throwing down, and the scene ends with Godzilla and Ghidorah facing off as they did in the second trailer. And Godzilla's entrance is going to be absolutely epic, as the ice around the helicopter glows blue before exploding to reveal the big G himself, who looks at Ghidorah with a hateful glare, ending with that mouth-watering shot from the second trailer of Ghidorah and Godzilla facing off in the snow. The rest of the footage is cut together similarly to the trailers, and isn't all that remarkable, minus a brief glimpse of Burning Godzilla, brief enough to confirm his presence in the film, but not enough to really know what he looks like, which is how I'd rather it be.

And then there was the Final trailer, released five weeks before the film, and what needs to be said, it was another trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters; I fucking love it. For the most part, this final trailer is an amalgamation of all the previous TV spots, featuring footage and lines of dialogue from them, as well as the music from the Beautiful TV spot; Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Once again we get that ace song, as well as an even better listen at Ghidorah's roar, which sounds amazing. But where the trailer really picks up is after the comically cheesy "My God", "-Zilla" quip, because then this trailer becomes the most beautiful and badass shit this marketing campaign has produced yet. Before that though, and going back to a previous point about how this Ghidorah looks so mean and evil, that squint when he looks through the window at Millie Bobbie Brown is pure malice, it's terrifying which, as I keep saying, is what Ghidorah needs to be. But then the trailer kicks into high gear, giving us yet more shots of Rodan as he crawls out of an erupting volcano and turns the town upside down, but why the fuck not. We then get Serizawa in that scene from the last trailer where he's in the thermal suit, only now it appears that he's arming a bomb, which is weird. Especially when you consider that this is obviously the same scene where he comes face to face with Godzilla, and Serizawa is a character with an immense amount of respect for Godzilla, being one of the few characters that doesn't see him as just a big mean lizard that needs to die.

So why would he be arming a bomb in this scene, unless said bomb was going to be beneficial to Godzilla in some way. We know from the first film that nuclear bombs can't kill him, we see it in the first two minutes of that film, but is this film going to suggest that nuclear bombs make him stronger, because that'd be a stretch, that'd require a great degree of suspension of disbelief in this film about God dinosaurs and God bugs. Do you know what though, I grew up watching Toho's Godzilla films, I'm pretty used to Godzilla being weird and dumb. I've always said that a bad idea can be saved by good execution, and since I'm also a massive fanboy, my personal experience and bias with this series will almost certainly stop me from taking issue with narrative shortcomings, provided of course that they don't take the piss. But I'm not the general movie going public, most of them know very little about this franchise outside of its titular Kiaju, so what does this film look to be selling itself with. Well, firstly, Millie Bobbie Brown's in it, which is sure to bring in fans of Stranger Things; that other, other, other Netflix show that everyone was obsessed with at one time or another. There's that, and there's also the monster madness; the simple draw of seeing giant monsters beat the piss out of each other. This trailer has that; it has a lot of fast cut shots of Ghidorah and Godzilla clashing, including that awesome demon hickey you see pictured, which, since it's cut to the beat of the song, is completely cool, manipulative, yes, but so cool.

The trailer also shows something very strange, that being Godzilla falling from space. In a previous trailer, there was a shot of something falling to Earth in a fireball, with my guessing at the time being that it was Ghidorah, but that shot is in this trailer too, an it's followed by another shot of what's clearly Godzilla falling in a fireball. So here's my guess, this is how Godzilla becomes Burning Godzilla; Ghidorah flies Godzilla up to space and drops him, which, as it would with most things, completely fucks him up, but Mothra sacrifices herself to save Godzilla from a killing blow, while also giving her power to Godzilla, which is something that's happened in Godzilla films before so it isn't that bonkers, at which point with Mothra's power, Godzilla goes super-Saiyan. If you think that's a weird idea, you've never seen a Toho Godzilla film; there was one where Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra had an argument about saving humanity while a pair of fairies translated for the human characters, and there was that one time he could fly, which is true, I promise. But this is where the fanboy's mind goes when presented with a trailer, the point is this film might be weird, which I'm not going to mind at all, and given the response to Avengers: Endgame, I can also assure you that weird isn't much of a turn-off on its own. But the film is clearly selling itself as a badass monster brawl, and in keeping with that, in addition to the neck biting, we get the clash from the second trailer, as well as Godzilla lighting up Ghidorah with his atomic breath, a shot that conveys the power of Godzilla atomic breath very effectively as Ghidorah is thrown back by it, which is badass.

That pretty much sums up the trailer, there's not really anything else I can say that can't be boiled down to 'it's badass', but as usual, the awesome doesn't stop as not long after the trailer dropped, WaterTower Music uploaded two tracks from the Godzilla: King of the Monsters soundtrack to YouTube; Old Rivals and Godzilla, the latter being a cover of the Blue Oyster Cult song composed by Bear McCreary with System of a Down's Serj Tankian doing vocals. Let's start with Old Rivals since it's the more straightforward, and from a title like Old Rivals, there's a lot you can infer, like how Godzilla and Ghidorah probably know each other, which explains the face Godzilla pulls in that IMAX footage, but outside of that, the track is a thundering march that homages Akira Ifukube's music while doing something a little different with it. This track sounds like a lot of ideas getting mashed together; you've got Ifukube, obviously, but there's also some Alexandre Desplat in there, which I like a lot because I both love his score for the 2014 film and the consistency this has with that score. One very noticeable change is the chanting, which is very different from the 2014 film's score, but it fits with the film's apparent shift in its representation of the kaiju as gods and demons rather than mere animals, and the chanting gives this epic and brutal piece of music an almost religious aspect. As I said before, if you want an eloquent breakdown of music, you're not in the right place, but to sum it up, Old Rivals is an epic piece of music that homages Akira Ifukube and Alexandre Desplat nicely and, in doing so, creates an even more perfect score for a Godzilla film, one that I'll absolutely be getting the CD of, because I'm too much of a dinosaur to go digital but not enough of one to go Vinyl.

But then there was the other track they released, the Blue Oyster Cult cover with Serj Tankian on vocals, and now we are talking, what a banging tune. Weirdly, despite loving Godzilla and enjoying the odd Blue Oyster Cult song, mostly Don't Fear The Reaper, I was never a huge fan of their Godzilla song, I never disliked it, I just never really listened to it. However, it took all of five seconds to figure out what it was that I was listening to, and I've listened to it many, many times since. My apathy towards the song melted away when I heard this, it's suddenly an awesome song that I love. I'm listening to it right now, in fact, and I can't keep my head still, yes, it's one of them. There's just something so cool about the song's mashing together of the film score's orchestral, epic style with the Hard Rock of Blue Oyster Cult, the chanting choir along with Tankian's vocals, as usual, I can't describe how or why I feel the way I do, but I can tell you how I feel, it's awesome. Unlike Old Rivals, this song will probably play during the film's end credits, because films these days have made a habit of using animated credits accompanied by a song. And it's not like there's a better song they could use, there is no song on Earth that's more fitting than Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla, and there is a satisfaction in it actually being in a Godzilla film, especially this one; Godzilla's epic return to the big screen. It occurs to me that Godzilla: King of the Monsters will probably have a post-credits scene, I mean, Kong: Skull Island had one, and this is the Monsterverse, one of the many film franchises now trying to be like Marvel and the MCU, so this song being in the credits will make that wait a lot easier, not like I'll be able to stand up when the film ends anyway.


The Return of Titans
So in conclusion, no one has learned anything new today, I am still losing my mind over this film, but that's not new, and the new developments regarding this film have done nothing but make me even more excited. There is one bummer I didn't mention, NECA apparently has no plans to produce a Ghidorah figure, which is only a little heart breaking. Box office tracking for the film is also not great; with current numbers putting its opening weekend at a worryingly low fifty-five million dollars, but on the plus side, we only have three weeks to wait before we know the actual numbers, and I hope they're higher than that. Having been there for the opening weekends of both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, I can say it sucks to not have anyone to talk to about a film, especially one that is as much fun as Infinity War and Endgame. But this is Godzilla: King of the Monsters, it's a film that I've dreamed about for my entire life, and I want this film to get as many butts in seats as possible, just so that as many people as possible learn what I and many others have known for our entire lives; that history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man, go go Godzilla.

Avengers: Endgame movie review

Here's what you need to know; following their defeat at the hands of the Mad Titan, what remains of the Avengers are left to suffer as they struggle fruitlessly to keep what's left of the world from collapsing, some carrying on the fight as best as they can, others hanging up their capes and wishing to just be left alone. But a new opportunity one day erupts back out of the Quantum Realm, one that might be their only hope of undoing what Thanos did and stopping him once and for all, a mission that will be the hardest they've ever faced, and for some, it may be the last.

In all my years of going to the cinema, there has never been anything quite like Endgame; being one of, if not the biggest cinematic event in history; the culmination of a decade of films, one that heralds the end of an era in many ways, the hype has been remarkable, the memes have been spicy, and now it is finally here. I have never seen my local Odeon as busy as I did on opening weekend, never, in my life; it's never been so bad that the people behind the desk were having to turn people away because there weren't enough seats, in a ten-screen multiplex that had twenty-two showing of this and nine showings of anything else. It was madness, and I'm glad I got in early for the 11AM showing, but a little miffed that I didn't have the foresight to book for a later showing, but what can I say, it was the endgame, it was unprecedented. Avengers: Endgame is already the highest grossing film of 2019, knocking Captain Marvel off her very undeserved top stop after a just a few weeks, which is nice, and I've seen the film a couple of times now, so I can and will now tell you how I felt about the Marvel Cinematic Universe's defining chapter. One more thing as well, this review is going to contain spoilers, don't worry, I'm not going to tell you who dies and how, it'll be little things, but nonetheless, spoilers, consider yourself warned.

Endgame picks up right where Infinity War left off, but wisely takes the massive, universe shattering ending of Infinity War and shows it to us from a much smaller, more human perspective as Hawkeye's entire family is disintegrated. This is a great scene, one that, like the opening scene of Infinity War, establishes an ominous, dreadful tone as we watch in inevitable horror unfold. Then the film does something that I am genuinely stunned by, it gives us practically everything that was in the trailers in the first twenty minutes of the film. Seriously, the whole plan to take down Thanos and undo the Snap is in the first twenty minutes. Were this any other film, I'd be a bit nervous at this point that the film had blown its load, so to speak, but instead I was intrigued; curious as to just where the film would and how it would end, since Thanos didn't just snap half of life in the universe out of existence, he put the Avengers in a completely unwinnable situation. And that is how the film starts; it opens with the Avengers losing all hope, and from there, the only way to go is up as after a considerable time jump, in walks Scott Lang, fresh out of his purgatory in the Quantum Realm with a bonkers scheme to get the Stones. The first act of this film is dedicated almost entirely to the fallout of Infinity War, showing us where they all ended up after Thanos fucked them up. I am a little disappointed by what they did to Hulk, as the conflict he dealt with in infinity War is solved offscreen, but I do like how the change they made was executed. Tony Stark and Thor kind of steal it in this regard though, as Tony has given up being a hero all together and settled down with Pepper, while Thor has been reduced to a nervous wreck, a perpetually anxious, perpetually drunk mess of a person for whom the anger and loss of Infinity War too much.

I can see Thor in this film pissing off a few people, I can also see Thor being seen as a purely comedic presence in this film, but to me, Thor is one of the film's most compelling characters. I love how he is presented as a broken hero; a man who lost everything he ever loved, put all of his remaining faith in a Thanos-killing weapon that failed to kill Thanos, watched Thanos wipe out half of life, and now blames himself for all of it. I'm not surprised that the guilt Thor feels has driven him a little mad and reduced him to a shadow of his former self, one who is prone to panic attacks and has a serious alcohol problem. I do, however, take mild issue with how his story ends, specifically with the choice he makes about where to take his life; while it may be very entertaining, it lacks the emotional payoff that this story deserved, which is a bummer. Iron Man is equally fascinating, as he too was left broken by Thanos, something that is uncomfortably apparent when he confronts Rogers in the film's opening. But while Thor has hit rock bottom and said fuck it, Stark has taken the horror of Infinity War's ending and tried to make something good out of it, having since got married to Pepper and become a father. The film sells this aspect of Stark beautifully in his scenes with Pepper and Morgan, making his reluctance and eventual decision to go for one last try at saving the world an emotionally enthralling conflict, one that builds to the film's tear jerker of an ending. I love where Stark's story goes in this film, I also love where Rogers' story goes, as the man out of his time ark comes to a very sweet and very fitting end. With most of the phase two and three Avengers gone and Thanos surprisingly absent, this film serves as a send-off for the phase one Avengers, as each one gets some kind of payoff this film, some, like Iron Man's and Captain America's are better than others, but none of them drop the ball in any major, fanboy enraging way, at least that I see.

There is a bit of an elephant in the room here, and if you know me at all, you already know what it is. Captain Marvel is in this film, having made her big debut about two months ago in a solo film that I thoroughly disliked, as did many others. There was, however, a rumour that behind the scenes there were two cuts of Avengers: Endgame, one with more Captain Marvel, and one with less. |That rumour probably wasn't true, but let's assume that it was, in that case, we got the one with less Captain Marvel, who only has about fifteen minutes of screen time in this three hour long epic. It gets better, as not only is she barely in it, but her contribution to the film is shockingly minor, to the point that were she written out of the film entirely, the film wouldn't be that different. Appearing at the very beginning of the film and only reappearing in the finale, it's easy to forget that she's even in it. That being said, I'm conflicted about her portrayal in this film, as it is at once an improvement from her own film, and an even bigger virtue signalling, pandering hunk of bullshit. There are scenes in this film where she emotes, which is a massive upgrade from her solo film, but it's a jump from zero to one, for most of the film, she's still a boring, blank faced robot with nothing to say outside of deadpan snark, plus she's now rocking a total Karen haircut, which is hilarious. Her arrival in the film's finale is also a cool scene, but it's rather ruined by what might be the most obnoxious case of feminist pandering I've ever seen in a film, as all the female Avengers assemble around her for a go-girl empowerment moment that's more eye-rolling and in your face than anything even her solo film mustered, it is, in fact, the only scene in the film I genuinely did not like. Do you know what I did like though, that bit when Thanos punches her in the face, but of course I would. Captain Marvel was not a show-stealer in this film though, and I like that, not just because I hate her, but because it would be taking the spotlight away from what really matters in this film; the conclusion to the stories of Stark and Rogers, and that would have been inexcusable, whether you love or hate her.

Marvel's marketing of this film was genius because the trailers never really told you anything about the plot. It was however a suspicion, a theory, if you will, that the film would involve time travel, and in that regard, I've been winding people up by telling them that the middle hour of this film is basically season sixteen of Red vs Blue, not a single person understands it, but it's true. In Endgame, the surviving Avengers build a Quantum tunnel that they use to travel into the past to 'borrow' the Infinity Stones, and from there the film is basically a solid hour of fan service as they bounce around time and conduct their time heist while events from a bunch of previous Marvel films happen in the background. The film uses this for comedy, obviously, but what's sweet is how the film manages to inject a bit of heart into these scenes as well, as Stark, Rogers and Thor get little character moments that foreshadow their fates. There's also something joyous about slightly different angles on previous events, like how the Ancient One defended the Sanctum during the New York invasion from The Avengers, plus, since Doctor Strange is one of my favourite MCU films, I loved seeing her again. And she isn't alone as Endgame's middle hour just has cameo after cameo after cameo, and one of them is Stan Lee, naturally. There is a catch to the whole time heist thing though, and that's simply that time travel doesn't make sense. Like all films that involve time travel, Endgame is very timey wimey, and can therefore be nit-picked into oblivion should you be pedantic enough. The film does its best to explain how time travel works, and to its credit, it really tries to make it make sense, and it almost succeeds. How much this bothers you is dependent on how much you let bother you, because as Hulk says "either it's all a joke or none of it is," it's better to just not think about it and enjoy the ride, which is very easy to do when said ride is a blast, especially if you're familiar with the films that this film pulls from. It's even easier when you get sucked up in this film's heart, which I admittedly was, as all the people crying in the cinema also were, clearly.

One thing that might throw you off is the first hour or so's lack of action, as the team reassembles and begins putting together their time heist plan. There is Hawkeye's awesome one-take samurai duel, but shit doesn't really get going until the time heist, where, naturally, things go a little nuts because time travel. This is a very, very character heavy film, and is unapologetic in how dependent it is on its foundation. That's a fancy way of saying that if you're not a big MCU fan, you're going to be lost and bored until the finale; whereas Infinity War was more straightforward and accessible, Endgame doesn't care if you don't know anything about the MCU, which is a minority anyway because this is the MCU, the most successful film franchise in history. But that finale though, holy shit. The final act of this film is absolutely insane; it's a finale that can't even be described, it simply must be seen, and it has so many crowd pleasing moments that were wonderful to watch, as was the reaction from the audience, there were a lot of gasps, a few claps, and a significant amount of sniffles and whimpers. I'm only really familiar with phase three of this franchise, but it doesn't matter if you got on this wagon for phase three, two, or have been here since the beginning, this finale is the culmination of the entire MCU and as such, has something for everyone. It also just keeps going and going, delivering something similar to what Infinity War delivered; a massive battle against faceless bug monsters, as well as an intense throw down with Thanos, once again spearheaded by Iron Man. This is obviously the highlight of the film, as the Titan fight was the highlight of Infinity War, though ignoring the sheer size of this finale, ignoring that it's nothing but fan service, I did find Infinity War's finale more enjoyable in some respects.

That is something I, as someone who isn't completely entranced by the fan service, can honestly say about this film; Infinity War was a better film. Endgame wraps up ten years of films and therefore has a lot of stories and character arks to conclude, whereas Infinity War was merely the build-up to this conclusion, yet I personally feel that Infinity War does more with its two and a half hour runtime than Endgame does with its three hour runtime, it was tighter, better paced, delivered more satisfying action, and since it didn't have to wrap up a bunch of story arks, it felt less bloated. As a complete package however, Infinity War and Endgame make great companions, and I look forward to the day that I will inevitably watch the two of them back to back. It'll probably come at the end of an MCU binge, which I will eventually get round to doing, I think I owe Endgame that much at this point, and even now, there are several MCU films that I haven't watched, so I should get round to that. What's quite cool too is that both of them feel complete as films, or at least they do from a structural standpoint, Infinity War is more casually enjoyable than Endgame, which is unapologetically for the die-hards. That's hardly a negative when you really think about it though, because I doubt Endgame's appeal to people who aren't already aboard the wagon is very strong. But whether you are or aren't on this wagon doesn't affect the sense of finality this film has, there's just a feeling to it, a notion that this is the end of something huge. There's a sentiment going round that the MCU's glory days are over now and that Endgame really is the endgame of this series, and to be honest, if the future of the MCU looks anything like Captain Marvel, I'm inclined to agree with that, but this series is special, it's an important moment in film history, and I, being mad into films, will appreciate that about Endgame for a very long time.


Let's Kill Him Properly This Time
Avengers: Endgame is exactly what you expect it would be, for better or worse. It's the endgame, the finale of a decade of films, one that brings several arks and stories to an impactful and effective end, mostly. There are things I don't like about the film, but they're really only limited to Captain Marvel, Thor's ending and the detail that in general, this is a less cohesive film than its predecessor. Its time travel aspect is as much of a mind fuck as it is mind blowing, but that melts away in the film's final act, which delivers an awesome final battle between Thanos and the Avengers, one that'll probably make any MCU die-hard that sees it melt in their seat. Avengers: Endgame is a fitting finale and an entertaining film, and I'd very happily watch it again, probably two more weeks from now when the line for tickets isn't stretching out the door, it's definitely worth watching.