Godzilla roars louder than ever before in this second American adaptation, thanks to unparalleled CGI and a masterclass in directing by Gareth Edwards.
Giant monster movies are a staple of Japanese cinema, where they are referred to as "kaiju". Lately, however, said genre has been branching out with greater and greater international impact, largely due to poster child Godzilla and its long franchise history. As a result, it's only appropriate that one of the biggest movie events of the year is the franchise anniversary of 60 years, celebrated with a brand new reboot.
The movie kicks off to the ominous tones of Alexandre Desplat's rousing score as one of the coolest main credits sequences plays out - atom bombs, redacted documents and glimpses of the titular creature as we learn those nuclear tests in the 50s weren't tests...they were attempts at his life.
Then we move right into 1999, as foreign scientists of a mysterious organization called Monarch discovers a giant fossil down in a Filipino mine. Somehow this is connected to a harrowing nuclear plant meltdown sequence which engages the young protagonist Ford as his parents are involved.
Cut to 15 years later and Ford is a now bomb disposal expert, stoically played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson of Kick-Ass fame and his dad (Bryan Cranston) is a crackpot claiming a military conspiracy was behind the meltdown. Lo and behold, he wasn't entirely wrong and what follows is a 2 hour monster mash, half of which is prelude and teases of what's to come. It turns out the big lizard's not the only prehistoric creature that has emerged, but also multiple "MUTO's", formidable foes for Godzilla, who instead of wreaking havoc on his own comes off as a personification of nature intended to "restore balance".
While this approach to the beast may appear novel to western audiences, it was in fact there in the Japanese films since they started in 1954. "Gojira" as he was then called, was portrayed as a cautionary tale of nuclear armament as well as a mother nature incarnate, who often fought inadvertently with the humans against a bigger threat in its many sequels. This stands in stark contrast to Roland Emmerich's prior Americanized version of 1998, which was lambasted by critics and audiences alike for the horrendous in-name-only adaptation which had less to do with the original and more to do with contemporary disaster movies and the Jurassic Park franchise.
This time around, original Japanese studio Toho was involved from the start and approached American company Legendary Pictures to help produce an anniversary origin story. Legendary already had Guillermo Del Toro's massive kaiju epic Pacific Rim in the works and probably felt like a natural fit for the material.
Director Gareth Edwards rose to fame with shoe-string budget alien invasion movie Monsters, of which he created the impressive special effects himself on a laptop. For what's only his second feature, he was trusted with a $160 million US budget, a major name brand franchise and an all-star cast based on his pitch alone, and he makes good on that pitch probably more than anyone involved expected.
Taking a page from the Jaws-playbook, Edwards teasingly doesn't reveal the big burly lizard of the title until nearly an hour in, and even then he doesn't put him into action until the finale. The resulting suspense becomes nigh unbearable, with constant teasing with glimpses and pre-monster fight moments until all hell breaks loose in the finale.
The danger comes with focusing on the normally expendable human characters, as kaiju movies aren't typically well-known for clever dialogue and high emotion. This is also the weakness of the script, which I'll get to later, but Edwards does his best in sidestepping the issue in keeping the pace up. Indeed, multiple scenes feel a bit cut short and the dialogue is starkly functional, but the film is buoyed by strong performers, an incredibly aggressive score and stunning effects.
The CGI stands out as a star in its own right, with images of immense creatures and mass destruction all rendered in extraordinarily loving detail. The title character, in particular, is a feat in its own right. With a design harking back to the original man-in-a-rubber-suit, the effects crews were hard at work in making the creature appear as real as the leads.
The new MUTO creatures are wonderous to look at, accomplished original designs in their own right and serve more than well as the antagonists of the story.
Aided by an evocative motion-capture performance by expert Andy Serkis (Lord of the Ring's Gollum, King Kong and Caesar of Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Godzilla becomes not only a character, but the character audiences root for more than any of the humans.
As a result, the movie feels occasionally half-baked, with the success of the effects diverting attention and the filmmakers not fulfilling the audience's desires for more screen time for Godzilla.
Overall a strong lack of humor or ironical distance may also come off as self-important, a necessity of post-Christopher Nolan/Dark Knight blockbusters today, but the spectacular imagery more than makes up for it. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey outdoes himself in conjuring up stunningly composed and lit images that seem ripped from the walls of an art gallery. That breath-taking HALO-jump scene in the trailer? Just the tip of the iceberg.
The story also like an overly long trailer, coming peppered with scenes of great visual impact, one after the other, yet only vaguely stated plot points hinting at a more ambitiously scripted, better film.
Monster mash aside, the globetrotting nature of the film begins to wear thin by the second hour, with Taylor-Johnson's constant presence in particular feeling more like an odd contrivance rather than a natural result of cause and effect.
Indeed, our young soldier finds himself ping-ponging between locations spread out over thousands of miles yet constantly runs into one or more of the creatures by chance rather than his essential nature to the plot.
One wonders if writer Max Borenstein wasn't inspired by a young boy's toy box and simply decided to draft an intricate complex backstory around action figures and dinosaurs, but in the end, that is what a kaiju movie is supposed to be.
Taylor-Johnson's role suffers accordingly, with little dialogue outside of plot necessities and few moments of actual personality. He does his best with what he's given however, and never bores or fails to emote even while reacting to green screens and imaginary creatures.
The supporting characters don't fare much better, with little but a name and vague job description to tell them apart. Yet clearly, and cleverly, Edwards saw through these flaws and decided to pepper the film with recognizable character actors and distinct personalities to make up for the gaps in characterizations. Veterans such as David Strathairn (L.A. Confidential, Good Night and Good Luck) and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, Inception) do their best to lend gravitas to the proceedings, despite their perfunctory functions as observers and commentators. Military men and scientists tend to act as the Greek Chorus in these movies, after all.
Taylor-Johnson's onscreen wife, although well-played by Elizabeth Olsen, is given little to do except weepy phone calls and terrified reaction shots and is more or less completely wasted as the damsel in distress.
The one to really shine, however, is Bryan Cranston. Not unexpected, given his meteoric rise to fame with AMC's Breaking Bad following years of unrecognized supporting work, but rewarding nonetheless. His manic speechifying and madman ramblings are virtually the main reason for suspense for the whole first hour as well as the film's one true beating heart. Safe to say, once Cranston disappears from screen, his absence is almost as severely felt as Godzilla's.
When all is said and done, the last half-hour of the film makes up for any and all flaws preceding it. With consistently inspired visuals and staging, including one of the most brutal finishing moves in a kaiju film, Edwards' film becomes not only a fun popcorn movie, but a genre masterpiece. Finally delivering with a massive monster fight, the finale becomes a rollercoaster ride of sheer unadulterated action, a seldom before seen spectacle of gargantuan proportions. Once again, a big budget sci-fi movie proving the might of technology over storytelling, for good and bad, but Godzilla still manages to illicit considerable emotion out of the trials of the giant lizard. The inevitable triumph is every bit as engaging as even the most hardcore sceptics would want and it is glorious.
Flaws aside, this is truly the Godzilla we've been waiting 60 years for.
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