Now, let's get this out of the way first. I'm a Godzilla fan-boy. I own all the movies, even the bad ones. I even own the 1998 Godzilla. I don't like it that much, but I do own it. I've been looking forward to this movie since the first trailer came out last year. You would think that being a fan-boy of the Toho movies, that I would be against this movie, since it's an all CG Godzilla, not set in Japan, not done by Toho, etc. Well, sorry, but when it comes to Godzilla, as long as the movie is interesting and has a lot of destruction in it, it's a good Godzilla film. And today I've learned that there's a very vocal minority that completely hated the movie. I honestly do not understand those people. They either don't understand Godzilla or were expecting something akin to Independence Day. I would caution those people that they'd be better off watching the 1998 version of the movie... and that therefore they should probably butt out of the conversation, and should be laughed off the internet for liking that movie better.
So the movie is about this bomb defusing Navy guy played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2) who, 15 years earlier was son of a scientist (Bryan Cranston) who worked at a nuclear power plant in Japan. His mother (Juliette Binoche) worked there too. Well, there was a disaster there that the Japanese government has labeled as a nuclear accident. Since then, his dad has been trying to get evidence that the incident was not a nuclear one, and was instead caused by something living. Before the incident, there were seismographical readings that were patterned instead of random, which could not be caused by an earthquake and wasn't coming from the plant itself. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character ends up having to go to Japan in the present day to bail his dad out of jail after he trespassed on the supposedly radiated property they used to live on near the plant. After that, things go to shit. Ken Watanbe plays doctor Serizawa, who is a scientist who knows more that he lets on at first. Elizabeth Olsen plays Aaron Taylor-Johnson's wife, who is a nurse in San Francisco, where they live in the film. It's hard to write this without giving too many plot points away. Let's just say that there are more monsters in the film than Godzilla himself, and they do tend to get more screen time than he does. Also, the main characters are not well fleshed out. I felt more for Ken Watanabe than I did Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Heck, I felt more for the other monsters in the film than I did him. But see, unlike the film's detractors, I went in not caring about the human characters. In Godzilla films they never matter that much anyway.
Now I know that many will consider myself an impartial reviewer for saying such things, and they would be right. If you look at it as just a big disaster film that's supposed to wow you with CGI, it's merely a good movie. If you go in wanting human drama and character development, you're going to hate it. If you go to see it wanting destruction, an easy to follow plot, cool cinematography, and a technically well made film, you'll probably love it, as the latter is what I wanted. There's been a lot of talk about Godzilla himself being in only 20 minutes of the film. Well, I wouldn't say that's true. He may be on-screen for 20 minutes, but as in Jaws and Alien, there's a build up here. You see the other monster about 30 minutes in. This monster, the MUTO or whatever they call it, is the star monster here. That's the way actually a lot of Godzilla films are. The other monster terrorizes the city or whatever, and Godzilla comes in late in the film to destroy it. I know a lot of people have actually never seen a Godzilla film though, so I can't hold their disappointment at this against them. I just know what to expect, and they didn't.
The cinematography here is great. I loved the way that the camera was always at human level. You saw things as the people would. You don't have fancy crane moves. You don't see Godzilla at face height unless there's a person at face height of Godzilla in that situation. (Like the halo dive.) It gives a more "you're there" feel to the film, but it's not shaky cam, thank goodness. I'd compare the way it was filmed to Jaws, where you are at water level in the scenes where people are in the water, not 5 feet above it. And the music to this was great too. Alexandrè Desplat's score is one of the best I've heard for a while. There's a primal sense there that goes great with the force of nature theme in the movie. It's a dark score, but adventuresome as well. I'll definitely be getting the soundtrack.
All in all, it's the best monster movie I've seen in a long while. I'd put it on par with Jurassic Park in terms of monster movies. (I know it's a stretch calling it that, but T Rex is king of the lizards, and Godzilla is king of the monsters.) The acting in the film is pretty good, but the characterizations are pretty meh. I don't even remember the names of the characters, but that doesn't bother me here. At least I didn't actively want them to die like the ones in the 1998 version. I think I'll go see this in theaters another time or two before it leaves. I liked it that much. It's set to make almost $100 million this weekend, which will make it a hit. It was shot for $160 million, which is only $30 million more than the 1998 version cost, and that's without inflation. So it should make up it's money by the end of next weekend just in American box office. Please folks, if you want some fun, go see this. If you want a brooding character study, go watch The Dark Knight again. You should know what you're going to get with a Godzilla film.
6 1/2 out of 7 stars. Must see.
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