Review: Godzilla

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Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla is a film based on a wealth of classic source material and limited by sub-par writing. It features actors capable of great performances and does nothing with them. It features glorious monsters and stunning scenes of destruction, captured with magnificent special effects, both digital and practical, yet never gives the viewer any reason to care about them. This film stands as a testament to wasted potential.

 

The first act is a great indicator of what this film might have been. It opens with a highlight reel combining Bikini Atoll footage seamlessly with glimpses of the titular titan. The prologue follows setting up the main characters and monsters, with further hearkening to film’s Japanese roots, in particular the theme of man vs nature. Bryan Cranston plays a nuclear physicist who, after losing his wife – played all too briefly by Juliette Binoche – in a suspicious nuclear meltdown, becomes obsessed with investigating the incident. His son (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) wants to move on with his life, but finds himself dragged back into his father’s obsessions when disturbing events begin occurring in the sealed-off ruin of the old power plant. For this section of the film, Taylor-Johnson and Cranston give great performances, and set up the pieces for a compelling character study.

 

However, the film soon loses interest in this human story with the arrival of the main attraction. The plot threads and character dynamics so carefully set up earlier are dropped to the wayside. It’s as though the appearance of massive monsters invalidates the character developments which came before, rather than serving as a backdrop which these relationships can play off of. Once the missiles start flying and the giant lizard starts roaring, all moments of genuine humanity in the film are restricted to the occasional doe-eyed glance of the (again, criminally underused) Elizabeth Olson. By giving up on creating a human connection for the film to rely on, Edwards takes away the only reason an audience has to care about the world these god-like beings war over. Similarly, the rich thematic resonances with previous Godzilla films – focusing on man and nature, father and son – are forgotten, being reduced to occasional catechism spouting.

 

In spite of this crucial flaw, it must be said that the gods in question are simply gorgeous. The film does a fantastic job at capturing the ludicrous scale of the creatures and the devastation left in their wake. Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim managed to capture the wacky sensibilities of the Japanese “Kaiju” genre, but Godzilla, at its best, captures the far more profound sense of almost religious awe and terror these monsters were meant to invoke. By waiting as long as possible to reveal his monsters, and then only showing them in occasional glimpses in the style of Cloverfield, Edwards allows his them a haunting otherworldliness. In its most striking scenes, the film’s myriad flaws cease to matter, as the viewer is left staring at a figure of undeniable wonder, no small feat in modern cinema.

 

However, the effect does not last long. The viewer is soon reminded of the poorly-woven narrative, pointless characters, and weak, underdeveloped themes. By anchoring an entire movie on the premise of saving humanity yet failing to deliver any real human element, Godzilla presents a cinematic experience no more engaging than an impeccably crafted fireworks display, offering unforgettable imagery without a hint of depth behind it.

 

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