Harry Situation Reviews: Godzilla (2014)
The King of Monsters makes his epic return to cinema this weekend. Since this new film marks the third entry in the Monsterverse line of films (I already reviewed Kong: Skull Island and was not impressed by it. Follow this link here in case you’re curious about my thoughts on that: https://theprose.com/post/141831/harry-situation-reviews-kong-skull-island), I think it’s time to talk about the film that kickstarted the new cinematic universe outside Marvel and DC with 2014′s Godzilla.
Godzilla was a kaiju monster movie released back in 2014, and is the second Americanized version of the iconic Japanese monster of the popular Godzilla movie franchise. It starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Sally Hawkins, Ken Wantanabe, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston, and, of course, our favorite city-destroying kaiju, Godzilla. This film was directed by Gareth Edwards, whom many recognize as the director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This film serves as a reintroduction to Godzilla and helps set up this new Monsterverse by pitting the King of Monsters against new monsters called MUTO’s, and humanity must adapt to the realization and aftermath that their world just smaller when these behemoths battle across their cities.
I’m a huge Godzilla fan (or Gojira as his original Japanese name is pronounced). I’ve seen most of the original Japanese films. My dorm building actually set up an all-day movie marathon of watching nothing but Godzilla movies. As much as I would like to do Countdown Reviews for each film, there’s one too many movie to talk about, plus all the Mothra and Gamera movies, and there’s certainly not enough time for me to write them all. So let’s just stick to the one that seems the most relevant to most American audiences.
I will definitely say the first big (no pun intended) positive is Godzilla himself. He looks great. The CGI that helped bring him to life looks fantastic and it also beefed him up a notch. This is by far one of the largest versions of Godzilla in cinema history (measuring about 108 meters in height whereas the original Godzilla measured roughly 50 meters in height). And his roar sounds epic too. Very loud and very powerful. And just seeing him use his iconic atomic breath on the other monsters, beautiful.
Now I know that there are people who have seen this movie are going to gripe about how little screen time Godzilla has in this movie. My best rebuttal against it is this: have you even seen the original 1954 version of Godzilla? He shows up towards the end and has less amount of screen time than that!
I like the additions of these two new monsters, the MUTOs. There are two different versions: a male that can fly and a larger female whose size almost rivals the King himself. They definitely feel like a threatening force that needed to be dealt with. Plus, I like seeing new monsters added to the Godzilla movies. It helps keep things fresh and original. And once again, the CGI really does a great job of making them supersized and life like.
I know I’ve talked about the computer effects a lot in this review, but it really has earned the most praise in this movie. The looks so good thanks to the visual effects. Everything feels so much bigger and the fact that director Gareth Edwards makes every shot feel like a first-person perspective, where it feels like you the audience is right there amist the destruction of the cities and the rumble between these titans of nature, that’s where this movie succeeds.
Now let’s address the issues. I’ve already mentioned that Godzilla didn’t have a lot of screen time in this movie. But do you know who have even less screen time than the titular monster? Bryan Cranston. Frickin’ Walter White himself. He’s easily the most relatable character in the movie, Cranston gives it his best performance, and then his character gets killed off within the first act and that’s the last we see of him. I remember when a crap ton of their advertisement featured Bryan Cranston as the focus, but no, he’s barely in this movie too. The real main character is his son (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson). That’s bullshit.
Everyone in this movie delivers good performances. I heard people say Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s performance felt stale and unemotional, but I personally know some guys in the military who are like that. The problem is that I just don’t really care about his character, or his wife (played by Elizabeth Olsen), or any of the other human characters in this movie other than Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe’s character, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa.
Also, was I the only one who was weirded back at the time when Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen were husband and wife in this movie, and then literally a year after the release of this movie they were brother and sister Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron, made even weirder since I knew in The Ultimates line of comics those two characters were in an incestual relationship? Nobody? Do you feel weird now that I brought this up?
Overall, this is a really good movie. If you’re a Godzilla fan and haven’t seen this movie yet, check it out.
Positives:
-Godzilla
-The MUTOs
-Great visual effects
-Good direction
-Good performances
Negatives:
-Not a lot of Bryan Cranston
-Some less important human characters
Final Grade: B
So those are my thoughts on Godzilla (2014). Have you seen it? What were your thoughts? Excited for the sequel? Please be kind, leave like and comment, and check out more reviews here on Prose!
Best Quote:
Dr. Serizawa: “The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in our control and not the other way around. Let them fight.”
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