Beware, here thar be spoilers
Godzilla, like Star Trek, is one of the only nerd properties
that I only have a passing knowledge of. I don’t know the difference between
Rodan and Mothra, I don’t know how the Oxygen bomb killed him in the first
film, and I don’t know which Kaiju it was that had the ability to communicate
with humans. All I remember is the basic films from my childhood, those classic
Technicolor or black and white monster films, and I remember how they were
constructed to play to both children and adults hearts.
In that regard, and in that spirit… this movie totally
knocked it out of the park.
Now don’t get me wrong, the film certainly flaws, but when
you view in the context of what a Kaiju monster movie should be, I can’t really
find much to complain about when it comes to this film. I was so invested in
the spectacle occurring on screen (especially during the non-stop and epic
third act) that I really couldn’t care less that Elizabeth Olsen’s character
was barely more than a cardboard cutout of “wife in peril”. This is one of
those examples of film that sets out to accomplish a very particular goal, and
not a whole lot else. It’s the special teams or designated hitters of movies,
and in that regard it’s damn near perfect.
What do I mean by damn near perfect? Well let’s look at some
staples of the monster movie genre that this movie does or doesn’t accomplish.
The Reveal-Most
monster movies these days seem really anxious or excited to show off all the
goods way to early into the film. Typically, a commonly accepted practice is to
not show the monster until around the end of the first act or just before the
halfway point of the movie. This allows the film to build up tension from the
anticipation of wanting to see the monster, but not being allowed to. This
tactic was employed masterfully (and accidentally) in Jaws, and it has
been a staple of film since then.
Godzilla doesn’t just adhere to this rule, it flat
out perfects it. The reveal itself is placed at just the right moment in the
film, and when it does finally occur it is a slow, drawn out reveal instead of
a simple snap zoom or edit that seems to have become the staple of modern
movies. As much as I really ended up liking Pacific Rim I always felt
that the film showing the Kaiju in the first ten seconds of the film was a bit
of a mistake. I understand that this film is more about the Jaegers than a
typical monster movie, but I think it would have been more effective to just
show the devastation and news clips in the beginning and save the Kaiju reveal
itself for the first time it comes out of the water in front of the fishing
boat.
The Mystery-Perhaps
the most surprising thing about this movie is that despite all the press,
rumors, and stories I had heard about this film, it was absolutely NOT the film
I was expecting to see. This movie has had one of the most brilliant and
successful ad campaigns of the last twenty years, and despite all the fanfare
and speculation surrounding it, I legitimately didn’t see a lot of what
happened on screen coming. All things considered, it’s a nice change of pace,
especially considering how most trailers nowadays seem to be obsessed with
accidentally or intentionally giving away key plot points of the film.
This works as a massive advantage to the film, as another
staple of monster films is in the mystery, research, and discovery of the
monster’s motivations. This film does a great job of accomplishing this, and I
should really warn you that from this point on my review is going to be quite
spoiler heavy.
Ken Watanabe does a good job with the time he has on screen
explaining the possibility that maybe Godzilla isn’t the destructive force of
terror that the trailers have made him out to be, that maybe instead he is
natures’ bounty hunter instead of natures’ weapon. He seems to have a respect
for the monster as much as he has a fear of it, and in this way he reminds me
of Charlie Days’ character from Pacific Rim, just not quirky. As much as
I liked him though I felt like the film could have used more of these scenes.
You know, the old monster movie laboratory scenes where a bunch of
scientists
are standing around in a room that looks like this:
And always seemed to have a low hum in the background that suspiciously
sounded like Aunt Beru’s food processor thingy from Star Wars.
But perhaps what I love best about this sense of confusion
and desperation that is present in the film is the fact that we never have that
overused stereotype of military vs. scientist mindset. The military is always
using the advice of the scientists, and at one point “Admiral Expository
Dialogue” flat out tells Watanabe that if he has any ideas better than theirs
that now is the time to voice it. It just plays well in the film, and as a
result the mystery of Godzilla and the MUTOs are that much more interesting.
The Characters-Having
the monster be the main spectacle of a monster movie has always been a tried
and true staple of the genre, but so has developing the characters in the
limited time they have on screen. This is the only staple that I believe the
film stumbled a bit with.
I already mentioned how the characters stood out a bit as
cardboard cutouts and they needed some more time for development, but I think
that removing about ten minutes of action from the film to lend to Aaron Taylor
Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen would have gone a long way towards making these
characters more relatable. Even more disappointing was the idea of (and again… SPOILERS) killing off Bryan Cranston’s
character so early in the film, especially when he was established to be the
most interesting character with the most depth at that point. Just because the
audience didn’t anticipate his death didn’t mean it was a good idea to include
it.
All the characters in the film, despite their somewhat
rushed stories, were surprisingly likeable though. I especially empathized with
Johnson, who was just trying to get home and seemed to have the absolute worst
luck on the planet. Johnson goes to Japan, the MUTO chooses that moment to wake
up. Johnson goes to Honolulu, the MUTO follows him. Johnson hops a train to get
home, the MUTO finds him there. Finally the guy just has to jump out of an
airplane to get back to his home city, maybe the scientists were wrong and the
MUTOs just wanted Kick-Ass’ autograph instead of nuclear material.
In addition to this, I couldn't help but notice a gradual withdrawal from the characters to the story of the monsters. At first I believed this factor to be an oversight or side effect of the film, but the more I thought about it, I think this was intentional. Notice how this withdrawal occurs in conjunction with the increasing importance of the Kaiju's influence on the corresponding cities. I also noticed there was a very apparent Spielbergian influence present in the film (the main character was named Brody, hellooooooo?), and just like in Jaws there was a gradual withdrawal very similar to that film.
I would also like to point out that whoever was in charge of
Johnson’s training in the military deserves a promotion and a medal, because
JESUS is this guy trained for every imaginable scenario. It’s established that
he was EOD in the Navy (more or less a military bomb squad guy), but suddenly
he has knowledge of infantry tactics, antiquated detonators, and even HALO
jumps, the most complicated and dangerous jump in the world.
A lot of other little things impressed me about the film as
well, namely the look of the monsters. Godzilla looks flat out awesome in this
movie, he’s huge and he’s scary, and he looks a little like a cross between the
classic Godzilla look and a grizzly bear. But then there’s a hint of something
else added to his face, something mammalian that helps lend a sense of emotion
to him and lets us relate to what is going on in his face. Then we have the MUTOs,
big, ugly, scary insect looking things that seem to be there to just tear shit
up to get at the gooey nuclear waste they so want. There is nothing in those
eyes, just a fiery sort of glow that conveys pure hatred.
The pacing of the film was great, if not a little bit
rushed, and the cinematography was absolutely perfect for what a monster movie
should have been. They also nailed what made Godzilla so awesome in the first
place, sheer unbridled power and unknown surprises. I started giggling like a
child when I saw that tail start glowing, because I knew the awesomeness that
was about to follow, and oh boy, it did not disappoint. I also loved the HALO
jump itself. It was scary and exhilarating, and even after watching it two
dozen times in the trailer it still manages to be awesome (you’ll understand
why when you see the finished product. The music is scary and tense, and lets
you feel the fear and severity of the situation at hand. I loved the opening
scenes, both in the caverns and the nuclear power plant.
Bryan Cranston nailed
the painful loss of a loved one with a sort of effortless grace that reminds me
why I think he is going to be one of the biggest things to hit film in the last
decade. I also loved when he and Johnson were going through an abandoned part
of Japan, it was beautiful and terrifying at the same time to see the slow
decay of such a previously vibrant part of a city. Finally, I liked David Strathain
in his role of the commanding admiral of the situation. Even though he was
there mostly to spout expository dialogue, he did it with enough grace and
talent that it made something out of something that could have been a thankless
role.
There were certainly some other things I didn’t like about
the film however, namely that there was just a bit too much action. Like I said
earlier, if they had cut about fifteen minutes from the action and tacked on
fifteen minutes of “science talk” this film would have been pretty much
perfect. The pacing was a little rushed at some points, whisking us from point
A to point B with little explanation, but it’s handled nowhere near as poorly
as it is in the Transformers films. The film also had not one, but two
instances where characters were able to magically find who they needed in a sea
of faces. Finally, one last thing that bugged me a lot more than it should have
was the caption on the bottom of the jumbo-tron at the end of the film. I won’t
ruin what it says, but I would have liked it a lot more if it had said “____ __ ________ ALIVE!” instead of “____ __
________ SAVIOR OF OUR CITY!”, the audience doesn’t need to have it pounded into
their face how Godzilla wasn’t the bad guy of the film, we can figure it out.
These are minor complaints of course, because overall the
film was exactly what it needed to be. These small distractions didn’t really
detract from the spectacle on film because I was too enthralled in the fact
that we were finally getting a Godzilla movie done right in America!
This is the
monster movie we have been waiting for.
This is Godzilla.
And the best part of all? Ferris Bueller was nowhere in
sight.
8.5 out of 10
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