Review: Godzilla (2014)

A plot synopsis seems kind of silly here, as the title should tell you everything you need to know, but nonetheless here we go: In 1999, American nuclear physicist Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is working at a nuclear power plant when there’s a reactor meltdown. Joe’s scientist wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche) is tragically killed. An investigation sees the incident labelled an earthquake, but Joe knows something very different was going on and smells a government cover-up.

 

15 years later, Brody’s estranged son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a nuclear explosives expert for the US Navy, with his nurse wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and their kid Sam (Carson Bolde). He gets the call to come pick up his dad in Tokyo, after the old man has been arrested for trespassing on the premises of his former employ. Seems Joe is having a hard time forgetting about the incident of years ago. Losing your wife and a fishy-as-hell, lame-arse government explanation tends to make you go a little bit ‘conspiracy nut’. Ford doesn’t believe his dad’s ramblings, and really only bails him out due to family loyalty. But Joe is convinced that whatever happened 15 years ago is set to happen again in the near future. Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins play a couple of scientists who uncover a MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) in the Philippines in the film’s opening scene. Joe and Ford happen upon them in Japan in the present as they are witness to the MUTO hatching and a giant monster springs forth. Soon, another MUTO in the US awakens and seems set on a meeting with the other one. And that’s when the giant beast of the title makes its presence known. Whose side is it on? David Strathairn plays a Navy Admiral.

 

I’m a “Godzilla” fan from way back and have seen most of the films from the various series since the 50s. I was pretty pumped for this 2014 film I must say, despite the previous non-Japanese “Godzilla” film being pretty shit, and despite not much liking director Gareth Edwards’ previous film, “Monsters”. Edwards tried the “Jaws” approach in hiding his monsters/aliens in “Monsters” and in my view it was the wrong tactic. In fact, if he didn’t have the budget for an alien invasion movie, he damn well shouldn’t have made the movie at all (I still can’t believe Edwards comes from an FX background). “Godzilla” doesn’t warrant the “Jaws” approach, it’s the kind of film where you want the central monster introduced pretty damn quickly. It’s the dictionary definition of a cheesy, fun monster movie. I figured even Edwards would be smart enough to realise this. I was wrong, and pacing is the primary flaw in this “Godzilla” film I must say. I so wanted to love this film, but Edwards is pretty much 0-2 in my books. No, neither this nor even “Monsters” is a bad film (especially this one), but that they are both seriously frustrating films it cannot be denied.

 

One of the problems with “Monsters” was that the characters weren’t interesting enough to compensate for the lack of, well, monsters. Here Edwards looks like he’s going to rectify that mistake as Bryan Cranston immediately grabs your attention and gives a much better performance than you’d expect to find in a “Godzilla” film. Although he’s the only human being in existence who forgets his own birthday, and although he plays a huge disaster movie cliché (The guy who knows the shit’s about to hit the fan and no one will listen), Cranston is an immediately likeable, dependable presence. You genuinely like this guy and care what happens to him. Unfortunately, he’s not long for this film, and although everyone else in the cast is OK, their characters are not nearly as captivating. The film loses the human element somewhat before it even really gets going.

 

That said, there’s still things to like in this one, even if “Pacific Rim” still feels like a better “Godzilla” film (despite not even featuring “Godzilla”). In fact, it’s probably on par with the late 90s early 00s Japanese-made “Godzilla” films, and indeed shares with them the slow pace/slow reveal. We get an immediately brilliant Alexandre Desplat (“The King’s Speech”, “The Monuments Men”) music score to start us off in the best manner possible. It echoes the original Akira Ifukube music score without actually specifically using it. After the music has played out we get nuclear warfare images. Nice. From a pure spectacle POV, the film starts off well as Edwards really goes all out with the disaster movie goods. If you’re not going to give us the monster early on, at least giving us some kind of spectacle is a reasonably smart move. So I appreciated that. Some of the environmental/scientific themes running through the film will definitely have series fans thinking back to the original “Gojira”, which is appropriate. Speaking of “Gojira”, I was very happy to hear Watanabe refer to the creature as such. Using the English name would just sound odd from a Japanese actor/character. Yes he adopts the English name later on, but one assumes this is because he is conversing in English with non-Japanese characters, so I’ll let it slide. 

 

Although the film takes forever to introduce the big green lizard at just under an hour, I can’t say any of this is boring. I like that Edward has given us a bunch of other monsters (I’ve always been a sucker for the more ‘monster mash’-oriented kaiju films), but I must admit keeping Godzilla off-screen for so long had me worried that Edwards was trying to pass off one of these creatures as Godzilla. I’m not entirely sure Edwards couldn’t have more clearly differentiated between the monsters to be honest. Still, it’s pretty enjoyable spectacle at times, and when Cranston is on screen it’s even more than that.

 

Aaron Taylor-Johnson (whose character’s surname is Brody. God, you’re such a dork, Mr. Edwards!) and Ken Watanabe are both well-cast, but their characters, although interesting, aren’t as captivating as Cranston’s. The main reason for investment in the Ford character is his fractured relationship with his father. When Cranston’s character gives way to Taylor-Johnson’s character as our chief protagonist, something emotional is lost, and we’re almost forced to start again with the Taylor-Johnson/Olsen dynamic at the centre. This relationship just can’t compensate for what we lose. Like Watanabe and Hawkins, David Strathairn, plays a ‘type’ here rather than a character, but playing a no-nonsense military man is very much in Strathairn’s wheelhouse, so it’s tough to complain there. However, when you add in Sally Hawkins and Juliette Binoche to the mix, the casting seems to reek of a director trying to class up the joint with some indie/arthouse cred. I see what you’re doing, Mr. Edwards. Nice try, but no. Poor Elizabeth Olsen is instantly appealing (she’s by far the most talented member of her family), but also instantly handed the dud role of the girlfriend whom our hero is kept apart from due to the disaster. Like Sela Ward in “The Day After Tomorrow”. Exactly like her, given both also work in hospitals and are dedicated to staying with their patients despite impending disaster. Olsen’s is probably the weakest role in the film. The weird thing is, for all the complaints I have, I still have to admit that clichéd or not, this is a well-written group of characters for this kind of thing…just not nearly as well-written as the filmmakers seem to think by placing so much emphasis on the younger Brody. Brody the Elder is where the heart and depth are. Newbie screenwriter Max Borenstein could’ve done a much more half-arsed job with this kind of thing, it must be said (Apparently the script had previously been worked on by the likes of Frank Darabont and David S. Goyer). We’ve all seen the Roland Emmerich film, right? Right. However, it’s still the difference between an OK film and a good film. If we had more scenes with father-and son we might really have had something here.

 

On a visual level, this is a much better and stable-looking film than “Monsters”, but this has its negatives, too. The cinematography by Seamus McGarvey (“The War Zone”) is just too dark to really make anything out at times. It renders the monster action (the most important thing in any “Godzilla” or kaiju film) not nearly as enjoyable as it could’ve been. Yes, there’s a kick-arse moment where Godzilla finally breathes its fire, but on the whole the night scenes look incredibly murky. The Godzilla creature design isn’t awful, but it didn’t thrill me, either. The head is too small (I’ve read that eagles were an inspiration for it. Eagles? Eagles? It’s a giant lizard for fuck’s sake!) and they’ve grossly overdone the ridges/Stegosaurus-like plates on its back, though everyone probably has their own views on how the creature should look. However, at least Edwards knows how to properly frame the big lizard (much better than Roland Emmerich ever did), even if the lighting is questionable. And if nothing else, at least Godzilla looked more like Godzilla than the generic monster Roland Emmerich tried to pass on us. Godzilla’s roar here is unfortunately pathetic. What the hell is up with that? Would it have really cost them a fortune to borrow Toho’s sound FX? (Apparently Toho lent the sound designer a recording of the original, which he then decided to ‘upgrade’. It’s shockingly ineffectual).

 

This is a non-Japanese attempt at your standard late 90s/early 00s “Godzilla” film with the big lizard taking out other monsters, albeit without the goofy “Voltron” team and psychic girl who seemed to turn up in all of those films. It’s about on par with most of those films, maybe a little lesser than some (Non-Japanese filmmakers will never truly understand “Godzilla” as it’s a Japanese character born out of Japanese culture and history). It’s uneven, but still the best non-Japanese “Godzilla” film to date and at least it’s not “Cloverfield”. Small praise, but although poorly lit and slow in introducing the title character, the film is never boring. I just prefer the campy “Godzilla” films of the 50s and 60s, personally. It’s not bad. Borenstein’s screenplay is based on a Dave Callaham (“Doom”, “The Expendables”, “Tell-Tale”) story.

 

Rating: C+