GODZILLA (2014)
Tagline: The world ends, Godzilla begins
(Action, Adventure, SCRHEEEEEEEONNK) [PG-13]
See? There it is again! That is not a transformer malfunction, that is an electromagnetic pulse! And it affects everything from miles and miles, and it is happening again! This is what caused everything to happen in the first place! Can't you see that? And it's gonna send us back to the Stone Age! You have no idea what's coming.
I saw this last night in
IMAX 3D which if you can do it, is definitely the way to go. Godzilla is
centered around the idea that once the earth was a pretty radioactive place.
Once giants roamed the earth and eventually were driven underground as the
earth’s radiation levels got lower and lower. If you have a problem with the
premise you might have just skipped all the earlier films altogether. For an
Easter egg check out the references to Bikini Island. Oddly one thing that
thrived in the area was sharks (and when I say thrived, it means at one point
there were more sharks in Bikini Atoll than there was almost any other place
in the world) after it was bombed. Currently, earth's apex predator it makes
sense that the Japanese had the imagination to come up with Godzilla in the
first place. This part of the storyline is also carefully and meticulously
lifted from Godzilla Raids Again… So far so good.
Plot-wise we are given our antagonist first and the thing is pretty freakin epic looking which was a pleasant surprise after goofy-looking pics of the toys surfaced well before the movie came out. There is enough storyline here to develop an entire TV series around. Don’t believe me watch the first season of Army Wives. Godzilla pulls beautifully from everyday life and some things you’d understand if you had kids or were ever in the military. The chemistry between Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and Ford (Aaron Taylor Johnson who looks like a taller skinnier Elijah Wood) is exceptional, especially during scenes shot shortly after he arrives home from Japan.
Director Gareth Edwards's
style of direction shines in the opening stanza when the ruins of covered-up nuclear accidents are being explored. The entire city is done in such detail it’s
almost hard to truly grasp it all in one viewing. Those who loved MONSTERS also
directed by Edwards will spot this right away. Even the intricacies with which
the opening scene is married with its aftermath counterpart are so well done
and so intriguing for G Fans that I can’t wait to see what Gareth has in store
for what will surely be a 2nd installment. There are parts of the
movie where it is tough to figure out how the heck Ford got where he is, but the time spent on that is the time taken away from the genius handling of the nuke
situation in the film and the grand scale that is Godzilla just freaking the
freakout.
The ties between Ford’s
father Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) and Dr. Ichiro (Ken Wantanabe) are strained
only because it’s like having one secret agency following up after a secret
government agency. Oh, wait….yeah the same plotline in almost every Godzilla
flick (especially in the Millennium Series or Godzilla’s made from 1999 to
2004).
Then about 45 minutes
into the film all freakin hell breaks loose and the film never really lets up
from there. If anything there may be too much storyline here for a Godzilla
film but the payoffs are so complete and spectacular that it’s well worth every
tease we get along the way. Fans of the Showa series (Godzilla made between
1954 and 1975) are giving a clever yet pretty epic nod if you watch every
newscast that comes up. Just watch, you will be in for a treat and it will probably
keep you from complaining about the non-rubber suit portions of the film.
One of the fight scenes in this
one is already being called by a lot of fans the best one ever and I have to
agree with that. I have seen all 30 films now in the past few months and
nothing even comes close to how freaking good this thing is.
Godzilla 2014 paid so much attention to fans and details that it not only covered the big 3, it went overboard to give us something so epic it’s already an instant classic. So people were concerned about the reason for a halo jump but the film does a damn good job of explaining to us why this had to be done and it plays right into the powers the antagonist in this movie has. The powers here are drawn mostly from things we see in Godzilla 2000, but also dating back to Godzilla vs Biollante where Godzilla started fighting crap that had powers he hadn’t really seen before. We also get a taste of this in Destroy All Monsters which is like a 6th-grade film project compared to this movie. Now the BIG 3, please do not read beyond this point if you don’t want spoilers. This movie got a 7 out of 7 on this scale and almost forced me to make the scale higher just to contain its awesomeness.
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THE BIG 3 –
I spend about 5 months
talking with fans and reading their hopes and dreams for this series. We all
wanted 3 major things.
1) Godzilla needs to have atomic breath. Damn, if you saw Godzilla 1998 you left pissed that all we got was a fire-breathing lizard taken down by a bridge….a freakin bridge. Do we get atomic breath in this flick…YEAH, WE DO!!!!!!!!!!!! Godzilla needs to have his spikes light up. Damn--- some movies skipped this all together but it’s a staple now. If you do not have light-up scales before that atomic breath comes out…you lose the battle already. Do we get light-up scales ---- YEAH WE DO!!!!!!!!!!! Not to mention in the best way freakin possible. Holy cow.
2) Godzilla needs to fight something that can possibly kick his head in. Yep….we get that. Godzilla gets knocked on his butt a few times and comes back more pissed than ever.
3) Probably the biggest spoiler of all ---- Godzilla needs to live. Even TOHO has blown this point in 2 of the movies ie Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Destroyah. There are other films where his death is indicated but never shown. Does Godzilla live? YES, yes he does.
Overall I give this movie
a 7 out of 7.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF LEGENDARY PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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