Godzilla (2014)

"Let them fight."- Dr Ishiro Serizawa

Godzilla has finally stomped back to our silver screen after his monstrous outing back in 1998. Growing up in the 90s and in Asia, I've got a bit of taste of the Japanese's Godzilla outing and also the God forsaken Roland Emmerich's Godzilla in 1998. When hearing Hollywood was going to do another live action movie on Godzilla, I was excited. I got all giddy when I saw the leaked photos of a model of what Godzilla might actually look like, and when the teaser trailer finally hit the web, I was thinking the King of Monsters is finally getting his spotlight and do justice to what a true monster movie should be. From the trailer snippets and the HALO jump sequence and music, we are meant to expect destruction, deaths, horror and dread of a massive scale. Boy, was I excited and pumped to face Godzilla in all his glory when taking my seat in the cinema... and boy was I left disappointed.

SPOILZILLA AHEAD!

So much tease and so little pay off. I would expect Godzilla to take the limelight in his very own movie. But honestly, the human drama and the life story of MUTO fills up almost 80 percent of the movie. I don't mind human drama at all. A matter of fact, I do want to see some human drama in the backdrop of a monster attack movie. I want human characters that we could all relate to, especially when facing a near apocalyptic event like this. But when you drag that out, it becomes too tiring and too boring. It comes to a point we're just waiting for our G-Man to come out. It feels like the first half of the film is just full of tease, like we haven't had enough with all the promotional material before coming into the cinema. We are given the destruction at a Japanese power plant and when everyone thought it was an earthquake but we as the audience and Bryan Cranston's character knew it wasn't, it was Godzilla! Years passed and we could once again relate to Bryan Cranston's character to not giving up research on what happened on that fateful day, and perhaps give us clues and information (and perhaps an expository) about the monster. And when it all came down to another destruction of the same power plant, we are then told who or what was responsible for all the destruction. Not Godzilla... Enter MUTO! Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism (Yup, he has no real name) Sigh.. we then follow MUTO around and learn everything there is about it, before we get to see our G-man.

What's with all the insect-like Monsters/Aliens that Hollywood is spewing out these days?

Half way through the movie, we got a peek at Godzilla's entrance, mostly of him swimming and following MUTO's trail (Yes, halfway through the film and they're still teasing us) but that's after MUTO wrecked havoc in Japan and Hawaii. It was only in Hawaii that we get to see Godzilla in all his glory. The slow camera pan shot to give us the reveal of his whole body, the musical build up and finally followed with his iconic ROAR, that was perhaps the best part of the film. Just when you see Godzilla and MUTO ready to wrestle out and you think "Oh, We're going to get a Monster vs Monster fight!", we are quickly cut to a household TV screen with snippets of the fight broadcast... (One pay off and more tease...) It will be awhile again before we see Godzilla, but we're treated with more MUTO story... a matter of fact, we're given one more MUTO and taking one step further, we're also given an expository of MUTO's reproduction story and we're introduced to billions of MUTO's egg that just seem to say "Godzilla and our main characters better do something about the MUTO or we're going to invade the screen with a lot of lil' MUTOs."

 Perhaps the most or only interesting human character...

Like any monster movie, we need human "supporting" characters to fill the audience in with relevant information about the monsters and the potential destruction these monsters could bring, as well as for audience to relate the fright, horror and awe when seeing monsters destroying your city. I have to say, the drama taking place is good, at least they are a whole lot better than the comedic response the characters had in the 1998's one. Bryan Cranston's Joe Brody and Ken Watanabe's Dr Ishiro Serizawa are the ones that truly stand out in the main cast. It's too bad Bryan Cranston's Joe had to die early in the film, and Ken Watanabe's Dr Ishiro becomes pretty useless after the MUTO's hatching scene. All focus was given to Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen's character which I have to say contributes very little to the story which made me cared little about them. Of all the scenes in the movie and perhaps the best scene that truly stood out is the HALO jump sequence. The music, the cinematography, the heavy breathing in the mask and the silhouette of our monsters wrecking havoc in a hellish backdrop really brings out the tension, the fear and the horror of the situation they're called to be in. However, I was somewhat disappointed that what was shown in the teaser trailer is not the same as the one in the movie whereby only Godzilla silhouette was seen and not of MUTO's.
 

Much fire... Many Tense...So HALO... Very Cinematography..

Let's take a look at our G-man! His design is perhaps the best I've ever seen. He may be the biggest Godzilla ever. My initial reaction was that he looks a little fat, especially in his thighs. But on closer inspection of the original Godzilla's design, is that he had huge thighs too so, no problem there. There were great moments when he used his iconic roar. The scene was crafted as such that we could feel the roar in all his glory. Besides his iconic roar, what differs Godzilla from other movie monsters is his atomic breathe. The build up to his atomic breath was something truly magnificent and something to behold! I dare say it's beautiful in the eyes of fan boys. Everything about Godzilla is perfect! I can only wish that they top it all off with the inclusion of his original theme. It was ashamed that he was not in his own solo film as much as I would have hoped for. However, this take on Godzilla is not the city-destroying, unstoppable force of nature, atomic-bomb metaphor Godzilla that we knew and fear from the 1954's original Japanese 'Gojira' and the 1956's American Godzilla: King of Monsters. This take is very much of the later versions of Godzilla, with him being the hero in battling monsters of all sorts and nature, including King Kong himself. So, to say that this isn't a Godzilla film would be a lie. However, what I'm truly disappointed was that we're thrown into so many marketing materials that has given us the impression and expectation that this film is going to be very much like the 1954's Godzilla but we ended up with the actual thing being a completely different take. So, if you traced back to all the destruction scene in the trailers and previews, you can now realize that it's not of Godzilla's handiwork but it's of MUTO's.

 That's no marine iguana!

I feel like the filmmakers copped out in making a true 1954 Godzilla movie. Granted that this one is not as bad as the 1998's one and there are some great moments too, especially with the music, the cinematography, and every Godzilla's scenes. I really want to see Godzilla become the force of nature that he should have been. I personally think that the filmmakers should have remade the 1954's Godzilla as a way to introduce Godzilla back to our silver screen, and only then introduce the other monsters for him to fight with in future sequels. This not only make the stakes higher for our G-man but for our human characters as well. But with what we've got, I'm satisfied with it, especially knowing that it could have ended up as bad as the 1998's one. I would give this a 7 out of 10 atomic breathes.

Ever wonder what happens when Godzilla meets Bambi? Click above.