2014 Summer Retrospective: Godzilla

 

There is a scene near the end of Edward’s Godzilla were a group of men are jumping from a plane into the city below were a battle is raging between Godzilla and another monster referred to as a MUTA. The sky is dark, but it is illuminated by trails of red smoke that mark the jumpers decent. This image is lingered upon and well orchestrated; it is honestly one of the most strikingly beautiful images I have seen in cinema this year.

One of the jumpers is this movies protagonist, played by that guy from Kick-Ass. He is a one-dimensional character, who either has no emotions, or is played by someone who can’t act; I’d believe either. This guy, not Godzilla, is the rock this movie is rested upon, and his story and motivations are wishy washy at best. He seems to do things, not because they are things that a person would do, but because he has to do those things so that the plot can get were it’s going to; This is true of almost all the characters in this movie.

The point I'm trying to make here is that Godzilla Is a bad film directed by a talented director.  Resulting in a movie that plays like a solid film, but fails terribly under the slightest bit of analysis.

The action here is surprisingly limited. Scenes that could have been giant action sequences are often played down. But then at the end, when the movie stops pulling its punches and gives us a straight up monster battle, it is something to behold. The action here isn’t as awesome as Pacific Rim, the closest comparable title, but it also doesn't have the emotional build up that movie did. Edward’s didn’t have strong characters to get us invested in the action sequences, so he wisely used anticipation of an action sequence to keep the audience invested. I think less really is more in this situation.

This new Godzilla is definitely an improvement over Roland Emmerich’s version, but that’s not saying much. I would recommend it to hardcore Godzilla fans, and not really anyone else. Edward’s direction basically turned what would have been a toilet-bowl of a movie into something watch able.

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