'Godzilla' Review

Below is my review and grade for the movie ‘Godzilla’. I wrote this assuming you have seen the movie, or do not care about spoilers. 

[SPOILER ALERT]

Let them fight!

What I liked about the film

Act 1/Bryan Cranston – Right out of the gates we are hit in the face with the most emotional scenes in the movie. The first third of the movie really captivated me and it created humanity in this world that was

relatable. Bryan Cranston’s performance tears at your emotions, and I immediately bought in. The scene where he has to close the door on his wife was heartbreaking. Even though I had seen that shot in the trailer, It still got to me. Also, when he is trying to get the real answers for what is happening, you are rooting for him as an audience member. His portrayal of this damaged, conflicted character completely sucks you in.Then I really enjoyed the end of the first act when everything is building up to the reveal of the first monster, it has thriller aspect to it.

Visuals – How they depicted Godzilla and the other monsters in the film was magnificent. It almost made me squirm in my seat whenever they showed a close up of the monsters. I definitely had a lot of “oh, shit” moments going on in my head. The visual effects were phenomenal, and they looked completely realistic.  The way they walked and fought through the different cities was great. I especially loved the scenes of Godzilla swimming with his “fins” out, or the impact of him coming out of the ocean. However, my favorite scene visually has to be when the paratroopers are sky diving down into the city right near Godzilla with their red flares streaking. That was one of the most beautiful shots I have ever seen in an action movie.

Directing – The director, Gareth Edwards, I thought did a great job in the film really making the audience apart of the story. The way he shot a lot of the scenes really made us see everything that was happen from the human perspective. Doing so, it creates even more fear and terror, as we seem just as hopeless as the humans running for their lives in the movie. Even though I feel this was a little over done, I like the scenes of the news broadcasting the fights on TV. It definitely was good break in the action, and added a little humor to the situation.  Going back to the scene of the paratroopers sky diving; when he put us inside of Aaron Taylor Johnson’s goggles, that was very cool. It gave you a better scale of Godzilla, and made you think how absolutely ridiculous and terrifying this must be.  There were a lot of key decisions made from behind the camera, and it definitely paid off.

Act 3 – The last 20 minutes of this movie is what made the film worth going to see. The ending fight scene is

by far the best part of the movie. The fight between Godzilla and the two other monsters was exactly what I wanted to see, I just wish there could have been more of that. I understand that they needed to build to that point, but I’m just being selfish and wishing we could’ve seen more of the monster’s fighting. Regardless, the visual effects were stunning and terrifyingly realistic. I wish I could go back and just watched this part of the movie again. Then obviously the best part of the fight was when Godzilla used his radiation fire breath against the monsters. Not only is that cool enough by itself, but when he opened one of the Muto’s mouths and breathed fire down his throat.… that was one of the most bad ass things I have ever seen. The movie did not fall short in this aspect of the movie and I am happy that they got at least this part of the film right.

What I didn’t like about the film

Act 2 – I probably could have taken a nap during this entire part of the movie, and I probably would’ve enjoyed it more. It hurts me to say that I was actually bored in the movie theatre when this part of the film was occurring. I just felt liked it dragged on and there wasn’t a lot of meaningful plot lines. For example, Aaron Taylor Johnson and that little boy he helped on the train…what was the point of that? I just felt the film lost its humanity after Bryan Cranston was killed. Cranston’s character was the person who brought the audience in and made us care about this world and these people. Then once that was taken away from us, we had no connection with Aaron Taylor Johnson’s character, and it just felt forced. Speaking of…

The Ford Brody character/Loss of the human element – This is nothing against Aaron Taylor Johnson, because I think he is a good actor. However in this movie, this character just fell short. I think it’s a

combination of poor writing and ATJ’s inability to display different emotions effectively. I felt like he had the same facial expression for the entire movie. As I said above, it felt like the movie forced us to relate to this character, and it didn’t work. We weren’t as emotionally invested into Ford, as we were to Bryan Cranston’s character. So I didn’t seem to care about him or his storyline. The connection between him and Elizabeth Olsen was fine, but I felt like there needed to be a stronger storyline involved. I just felt myself waiting for the end to happen and to see the monsters. A film like this should have the audience enthralled with the pressures and issues that the humans are dealing with, and then, oh yeah, there’s a freaking monster coming out of the water. That would’ve elevated the end of the movie even more if they had that platform to build off of.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and I would recommend the average movie-goer to go see it. They definitely captured Godzilla perfectly, and the visual effects are phenomenal. I liked how they made Godzilla an anti-hero, and a ‘protector’ of earth. There are some magnificent scenes that were amazing to watch in the theatre and there were more surprises than I expected. The movie does drag on during the middle of the film, and it hurts the movie as a whole. Also, this is a film where the trailers were very well done and made you believe something different, which is disappointing. However, Bryan Cranston and the ending fight scene is what made this an enjoyable film.

Score: 7/10