Godzilla (2014)

So, I just got back from watching the new 2014 Godzilla reboot. Id actually been looking forward to
this film for a long time, and I had quite high expectations. The trailers were suspenseful and tense,
somehow managing to leave audiences with a feeling of foreboding and perhaps even fear,
something almost unimaginable after 1998 practically killed the Godzilla franchise. The trailers, for a
long time, stuck to the number one rule of monster movie creation: Dont show your monster too
much. The more we see your monster on screen, the less presence it possesses. Im glad to say that
the movie, for the most part, followed this rule nicely. It did, however, in some parts, follow that rule
a little too keenly. As usual, whilst Im going to avoid major spoilers in this review, some will
definitely creep in, as per usual.
The film is broken up quite clearly into several acts which increase in action and decrease in tension
as time goes on, which is fairly normal for a monster movie. The first act sets the tone by
foreshadowing the apparel of both Godzilla and a second, unidentified threat. A mystery plot
revolving around strange seismic activities within a nuclear power plant follows, with Brian Cranston
serving as the protagonist, searching for answers. Hes unable to do so, and the power plant
collapses, throwing him into a state of grief as his wife was among the victims of the plants
destruction.
The actual movie is set fifteen years from this point, now using Brian Cranstons son, Ford, as the
primary protagonist, and reverting everyone else to minor characters. The journey follows Ford as
his father unveils the mystery that destroyed the plant, and the events that follow this discovery that
lead to the appearance of not one, not two, but three ferocious monsters. Whilst Brian Cranston
appears briefly, he is only present for maybe thirty minutes of screen-time. The most interesting
character is removed, as is the best actor. Instead, were forced to watch a boring, characterless buff
bomb specialist military lieutenant. This is the first baffling choice of direction among several in the
movie.
The protagonists and human characters in this film generally have very little sway on the plot, which
makes them feel powerless; an effective design choice. They must act around everything the
monsters do, plot courses based on their movements, and in the ultimate climax, they are essentially
forced to watch and hope for the best. Whilst the human characters have absolutely no influence on
the eventual defeat of the monsters, they do resolve the problem that THEY caused when they
armed a 20 megaton nuke to destroy San Francisco in hopes of taking the monsters with them. Most
of the shots featuring Godzilla and the other monsters are point of view shots, which work very
effectively to increase the creatures screen presence. There are some wide-shots that give the
audience some breathing room and let us watch the action without a more intimate feel, but
thankfully theyre not too common.
Godzilla is totally disinterested in human interaction in this film. His purpose is to fight the other
monsters that are a direct threat to civilisation. The new creatures are attracted to radiation, which
means theyre attracted to nuclear plants, weapons and waste. Why this leads them to converge in
San Francisco frankly makes no sense, especially considering the origin point of one of those
creatures is the actual nuclear waste deposit in the Nevada desert. They should have just gone
there, but instead, they have to stomp around in the city and reproduce by feeding nuclear bombs
to each other. Seriously, they eat nukes. I chuckled every time it happened because theres

something really humorous about watching a chunky monster chewing on a massive metal warhead.
I dont know if that was meant to be funny, but the important thing is, it allowed the humans to be
targeted by the creatures. They wanted to use nukes as a deterrent, but that was what got most of
them killed. One might wonder if this is a call-back to the original anti-nuclear war message that
Godzilla initially carried upon creation, because he doesnt have that anymore. Godzilla is now an
ancient force of nature that rises to restore balance should any other monsters appear. I suppose its
hard to have Godzilla represent the travesty of nuclear war whilst hes saving the damn day. There is
an anti-nuclear message delivered by the Japanese character, nicely played by Ken Wantanabe. He
serves as the voice of reason within the military, pleading the commanding officers and trying to
push them away from the idea of nuclear counter-measures. Sadly, his efforts fail, and the military
proceeds with using bombs. Strangely, when the bomb goes off in the end, it doesnt seem to do any
damage, despite the fact they previously stated the fallout would be dangerous if it was any closer
than 20 miles away. Based on the speed of the boat carrying the bomb, and the displayed time
remaining, theres simply no way its twenty miles away, but thats a minor detail, I suppose. Kind of
like the really strange and convoluted reproductive and life-cycles of the secondary monsters that
fight Godzilla. We sat down and chatted about it after the viewing. We think that they start off as
little eggs, then they burrow into large radio-active creatures, then they become pods, then they
hatch into burrowing larvae and find another radio-active source, then they turn into a cocoon, grow
hundreds of feet tall, and eventually hatch into the creatures we see on screen. This is literally the
only way their cycle can work for the movie to make sense, as its established early on that their
parasites, and we see them in at least three different forms, along with being informed of their
reproductive behaviour. The female actually appears to be fertile immediately, but its suggested
that they cant reproduce without radio-active materials. The male gives the female a nuke in San
Francisco as a present so she can lay her eggs around it, but the female came from the nuclear waste
site, meaning she could have just laid her eggs there instead of walking thousands of miles. It makes
no sense.
In the third act, Godzilla actually becomes another protagonist. The cameras follow him when
heroes arent around, and the movie even plays sad music when things start to look bleak for him.
Whilst Im actually quite fond of the idea of Godzilla fighting other monsters and saving the world
(something he used to do in the old Japanese films) its hard to simply disregard all of the people he
killed early on in his hunt for the other monsters. His arrival from the ocean causes huge tsunamis
which kill hundreds, as, no doubt, does his stomping around and smashing through buildings.
In addition to buff soldier Ford and Godzilla, we also frequently cut to shots of Fords wife and child.
These two characters essentially serve as representations of a standard citizen. Theyre scenes are
mostly reactive, and they try to demonstrate how standard members of society might react to the
official news that giant monsters are charging around America. Whilst this might seem like a good
idea, in practice it can actually be quite boring. These scenes do seem to drag, and they dont
progress the narrative in any effective way, merely serving as a way to invoke some sort of
emotional bias and give a face to the victimised masses. This would be much more effective if we
gave even a slight crap about these characters. Again; Brian Cranstons character would have served
better for this role, along with filling the role of a knowledgeable scientist. Hes not a military man,
and he was engaging and interesting to watch. The wifes character is wife. The childs character is
child. Thats really it. We dont care. Move on.

Saying this, however, the movie does deliver on some good action scenes, fantastic visuals, some
great elements of tension, decent performances from most of the cast, and sound design that offers
a really cinematic experience. Godzillas roar in surround sound is fantastic, and that alone almost
makes the cinema ticket worth it.
If you can ignore a plot with a few holes here and there, and endure the irritating family scenes in
which nothing happens, then youre up for an enjoyable experience. Because this movies primary
protagonist is boring, replacing one that could have been much more interesting, and because I fear
this movie will lose a huge amount of impact once its released to DVD, I can only give it a reasonably
positive recommendation. Its good. Its not great, but its enjoyable enough and for the most part, it
doesnt feel its two hour long run time.