First and foremost, I must touch down on the titular character is crafted and structured, from origin, personality, design, and how he's handled.
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GODZILLA
GODZILLA is an origin film/reboot of the franchise. In the beginning of the movie, you'll see old footage from 1954 of how the world is stunned when encountering Godzilla, and numerous times tries to kill him through Nukes. However even Nukes cannot kill him.
Besides grounding Godzilla's existence in 1954, a nod to the original Gojira. Godzilla's origin is dug down deeper later on during the film. Being a prehistoric monstrosity that existed for millions of years and survived by feeding upon the radiation during Earth's younger, more unstable age. And was awakened during the age of man. This plays well into Godzilla's nuclear origin and keeps it all intact. Added with the sweetness of Serizawa calling him Gojira, it really is a firm way to introduce newcomers to Godzilla.
Dipping into his character, he is indeed a force of nature, instinctively hunting threats that threaten his world, his territory. This is quite established when he's deemed as the Aphax Predator, and literally only seeks out the MUTO. He is not interested in mankind as we are just ants below his feet and are not his prime target. Even when we attack him, we are still insignificant to him that we don't even show up on his radar.
Personality wise, Godzilla shows some very expressive aspects. During his encounters with the MUTO, you see raw aggression and pure atomic wrath just leaking from his very presence. He's wonderfully horrifying! But even by the end of the film, despite all of his wrath and nuclear prowess, he has this noble atmosphere. He's definitely not a hero by any means, but I do believe Gareth's "Last Samurai" characterization is spot on. He'll fight, and he'll conquer, he's not good nor evil, but he will continue to exist as an embodiment of natural order.
Design-wise, Godzilla looks absolutely magnificent! Massively bulked, towering, and completely monstrous! Respectfully classic, true to the source material of Toho, and yet properly modernized. You take one look at him, and you know right off the bat that this is Godzilla. The real Godzilla. This is Godzilla done right, complete justice. I know some people are so-so on the feet, but overall they work well with the design. And ultimately, you won't even feel bothered by them throughout the entire film.
Handling-wise, Godzilla is checked on all counts thus far, but what about the remaining aspects that truly places the GOD in Godzilla?
Indestructible to man made weapons? Check. Nukes couldn't kill him, and general fire arms never made a dent in him, nor slowed him down. Even more so, he didn't run from the military, he still marched onward in his hunt for the MUTOs.
Atomic Breath? MOTHERFREAKIN CHECK!!!! When you see on screen you'll be cheering and clapping like a maniac! My whole entire theater did this, and they did this when Godzilla's grand entrance rolled on screen. And don't worry about thinking he does it one time, he does it three times! And the last time he does is perhaps the most insane moment throughout the entire film.
Does he die at the end of the movie? HELL NO. This is definitely NOT GINO. The King survives the brutal warfare at the very end, and swims out to sea. But not before roaring victoriously to the world.
In terms of handling, GODZILLA is pure justice and the greatest form of respect.
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MUTOS
Now then, the MUTOs. Generally, the MUTOs are a parasitic prehistoric species, a species that feeds on nuclear radiation very much like Godzilla. And despite what impressions they may give you from Toys, toys don't do these destructive beasts justice. They are quite terrifying, unique, and vicious. There's a male, and a female MUTO within the movie.
The male MUTOs is bat-like as it has massive wings but seem batish, almost in the nature of Gyaos from GAMERA, but also fairly insect-like in overall build. He's massive, but is nowhere near as massive as the female MUTO. Quite small in comparison, which from an animal perspective, makes sense as there are species in which females are much larger than their male counterparts. What makes the male special is that from absorbing massive does of radiation, he is capable of unleashing city size EMPS that can knock out electric running devices/creations into complete shutdown for a certain period of time. This makes man-made weapons useless, including Mechs if you think a Jaeger could take it out.
The Female Muto is quite the monster! A juggernaut without question. She's a lot thicker, larger, and seemingly more powerful than the male MUTO. She really gives Godzilla a tough fight for his life. In terms of build, she's somewhat like the Cloverfield monster, only because some of her appendages recalls the design to a fair degree. But generally she's unique and so creatively well put together you won't even notice it at all unless you're purposely looking for the comparison. The female doesn't have any special abilities, but her thick hide and massive strength still makes her gravely intimidating none the less.
Together, they are a near unstoppable force, and it really showed when Godzilla struggled heavily against them in a two on one match off. This monsters are the villains of the movie as their very existence threatens the world. They feed and grow stronger by feeding off of radiation, even more serious, the creatures mating and reproducing brought a high alert of extinction for humanity as a legion of them could very much wipe us out. And if they were strong enough to kill one ancient Godzilla, and render our society to dark ages, it's pretty clear should they continue to exist, nothing on the planet will survive should they reign. Even with a living Godzilla in the fray.
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HUMAN CHARACTERS, to my surprise I actually found myself interested in the characters. And at the very, found them surprisingly like-able to a fair extent. And honestly, I was invested enough that I had one tear-jerk moment.
Joe Brody, played by Bryan Cranston, he's a character who you will emotionally connect from the beginning of the film. He's a hard working, everyday normal dad. A man who truly cherishes his family despite always appearing to be busy at Janjira. But the moment when everything collapses in his life, and how he's responsible for his wife's death. You watch a broken man desperately trying to piece whatever puzzle he has in pursing the truth for the lost of his wife. He's really down and out, and even worse, his son thinks of him as someone whose lost it.(And pretty much wants nothing to do with him)
Joe really tries his best in finding the truth despite all doors in his life being closed, and tragically, when he does find the truth, he is killed. Unable to attain any justice for his lost. His character and his moments really tear-jerked me, twice! That's Bryan Cranston for yeah.
Ford Brody, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson, a fair amount of people find his character boring or generic. A solider, a father, and someone desperately trying to save his family from forces out of humanity's control. Same with Elle Brody, played by Elizabeth Olsen, she's a nurse, a mother, and is someone desperately trying to find some form of control in a situation growing more and more out of hand. Constantly worrying over her husband and just hoping to reunite their family.
What made these characters feel firm to me is that they play into Gareth's vision. What if this happened in real life? If this happened in real life, you will have a soldier who's also a father, trying to ground his family's safety in the face of disaster. You will have a wife, who's also a mother, desperately worrying about her husband and family. You will see people simply trying to survive and find some form of control, even if there isn't any for them to grasp onto. This is us, how we would play out if any of this actually happened.
You're not going to see anyone making any leaps of character development as if it were a Christopher Nolan film. You're not going to see anyone make massive world changing decisions like: Sacrifice myself by nuke and hopefully taking out these monsters/Or sacrificing thousands of innocent people in exchange for saving my loved ones if I was stuck in a situation where I had to choose between the two.
With this premise, it was fairly easy to connect to the characters because I understood the director's human element. At the very least, Ford developed to some extent as he finally acknowledged his father and his actions, and embraced him on his death bed.
Dr. Serizawa, played by Ken Watanabe, he's a very interesting character. Not only as a homage to the character from the original film, but thoroughly because he has followed and studied Godzilla for years, and is pretty much the only character that realizes that Godzilla might be the necessary evil(or Order) needed to end all of this if we're to survive. His character has a lot of potential depth that while it is showcased, isn't completely tapped into during the film, this is because it is generally saved for GODZILLA: AWAKENING which tells his character's background and the events leading into GODZILLA. (Well that and they couldn't fit all of their ideas and developments within the run-time of the film. Which also explains the graphic novel as well)
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MUSIC SCORE: Alexandre Desplat really sells GODZILLA with his scores, their inspired style and nature of Akira Ifukube really makes the film feel much more like a TOHO film, as if it were straight out of Japan. Some scores are better than others, but for the most part they stomp load
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CINEMATOGRAPHY: This film looks well filmed and splendidly crafted, I was a bit nervous when Seamus McGarvey was going to be at the helm in filming the movie. The Avengers looked good, but it had a Television visual craft, and made the cinematic experience watered down as it didn't look a grand epic, but a high budget TV show finale. But I'm quite happy to say that Seamus McGarvey exceeded my expectations, everything felt weighted during intense moments and fairly real when the film showcased mass destruction and leveled cities. A bit too dark in some scenes, but overall everything was well done. Props to him.
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CRITICISMS:
1. I would have enjoyed a little bit more Godzilla mythology within the film, Oto Island and how their legends regarded Godzilla as God. The amount of origin invested in this film is enough for a reboot, but having just a bit more lore would have been enjoyable.
2. Akira Takarada cameo being cut, I was quite sadden to learn of this, it would have made Godzilla's rebirth back on the big screen much more meaningful as he was one of the original cast from Gojira. But I'm quite happy to learn that his scene will be included within the Blu-Ray and DVD release.
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Mon May 12, 2014 8:59 pm
