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Godzilla Movie Review

Godzilla is a 2014 monster film directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe and Bryan Cranston. It’s a flawed, but respectable outing.

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“The arrogance of men

is thinking nature is in our control

and not the other way around.

Let them fight“

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A soldier attempts to return to his family while caught in the crossfire of an ancient rivalry between Godzilla and two parasitic monsters known as MUTOs. There are a lot of interesting things to be said about this movie, but first of all I have to commend Gareth Edwards for at least trying to make a serious, grounded movie for this franchise. His direction is admirable, and although I also found his ‘Monsters’ movie problematic, it’s clear by now that his ideas and execution are at least different enough than the other blockbuster directors working today.

This movie tries to have it both ways – be a grounded movie that includes dialogue and characters, but also be a fun blockbuster with action spectacle. Its success in both of those areas varied wildly depending on the scene in question, but for the most part the movie is quite good. What I appreciated here is at least some attempt at characterization, but that unfortunately backfired in the film’s second half.

The first half is very serious, it almost plays out as a drama about grief. Bryan Cranston is very good in his role. But afterwards, the movie failed its characters as it shifted the focus to the monsters. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is very subpar and boring here, but Ken Watanabe is reliably good in one of the movie’s better roles.

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The beginning sequence is incredible. It’s a shame that the rest of the movie could never rival the sheer wonder and eeriness of that scene reminiscent of the first ‘Alien’. The whole nuclear subplot felt rushed and underdeveloped with the themes of the movie not being well explored. Unlike the original Japanese classic, this one has nothing to say about these matters, which was unfortunate, but at least it gave this franchise a refreshingly realistic, modern approach.

Those MUTOs are not explored properly, but they are quite memorable with their fight scenes being terrific. As for the big guy himself, he looks terrific. He is different from previous versions, but still recognizable, and in particular his aquatic origins was wonderfully showcased here. The scenes with the swimming and rising from the water were super cool. The effects here are truly excellent, but I wish that the movie did not adopt that annoying darker look that most blockbusters suffer from these days. I wanted to see more in the fights themselves.

This Godzilla movie is different for actually cutting away from some of the big action set pieces, entirely evading others and never overstaying its welcome in that fighting department. This decision backfired in terms of audience reception, but obviously it was well received by the critics themselves. I side with the critics on this one.

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Godzilla appears just enough here, and these monsters are much more memorable when they appear in shorter bursts of action, which is something that most people forget these days. The Spielbergian approach here was done for better and for worse, but for the most part I appreciated getting back to the way blockbusters were filmed back in the seventies and eighties. The movie is uneven, but it’s at least a step in the right direction.