Saturday, 24 May 2014
On 24.5.14 by KieronMoore in Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Film, Gareth Edwards, Godzilla, Monsters No comments

I treated myself to a
post-big-university-deadline screening of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla yesterday. The one-word version of my review follows:
GRAAARGH.
That’s both an impression
of the titular lizard, who is fucking cool, and a roar of frustration at the
crap storyline surrounding the human characters.
Here’s the longer review:
I love Gareth Edwards’ Monsters. I really do. It’s a fantastic
sci-fi film, a very personal, intimate romance, against the backdrop of an
alien-infested South America. And Edwards literally did all the VFX in his
bedroom. With this superb debut in mind, I was thrilled that the director had
been picked up to take on the cinematic icon that is Godzilla. Surely his take
on the scaly kaiju would be way superior to Roland Emmerich’s 1998 disaster.
Indeed, in many ways, it
is.
Edwards clearly has a
great reverence for the original Godzilla tale, a reflection of the Japanese
post-war fear of nuclear power, and this is reflected heavily in his film.
There’s a great credits sequence harking back to this era, using real footage
of nuclear tests and a bit of CGI to craft this Godzilla’s backstory. Then
we’re in 1999, where an accident at a Japanese nuclear plant leaves Bryan
Cranston without a wife and lets a MUTO (equally-giant enemies for Godzilla to
wallop) out into the world. Zip to the present day, and the MUTOs are heading
towards America – but Godzilla’s on their trail.
The way the action plays
out is, in many ways, blockbuster filmmaking done right. So many films give the
game away by revealing the monster too early, but Edwards builds up tension Jaws-style by really making Godzilla’s
presence felt long before we see him – a company established to search for him,
a dog running away from a tidal wave he’s inadvertently caused – and then
revealing him piece by piece – a foot stomping across a city street, a spine
sticking from the sea. By the time we finally see the massive bastard in full,
we know he means business – and he doesn’t disappoint; the action sequences are
thrilling, with an awesomely cinematic sense of scale and danger.
That’s not to reduce Godzilla
to a device for action – he is himself a great character, and there’s something
very sad about him which the animators have really got right – he’s the last of
his race, the guardian of humanity, and he genuinely seems to care about us – but
he’s just too damn big and clumsy and can’t help squashing people. Sniff.
The problem with the film,
however, is the human characters, whose personal stories need to be engaging in
order to justify the scale of the action.

So, what happens next? A
father-son bonding story framed by the monster hunting adventure, in which Walter
comes to realise his errors and encourage Ford, who’s come to admire his
father’s strengths, to be a better father himself? That would have been a good
way to continue the story. It practically writes itself. But no.
As soon as Ford realises
that there is indeed something shady going on, Walter immediately dies. It’s
not even a dramatic or emotional death. He falls off a bridge, gets carried
away in a helicopter, and next we see him, is being zipped up in a body bag.
So we’ve lost the best
actor in the film, but hey, this death can become the motivation for the rest
of Ford’s story, right? Well, again, no. Walter is barely mentioned again and
Ford doesn’t seem at all sad about his loss, not even bothering to pick up the
family photo which Walter cherished, just leaving it to get in the way of
Professor Ken Watanabe’s important scientific documents. Ford’s story arc for
the rest of the film is an entirely generic case of wanting to make sure his
wife and son are safe and also wanting to stop monsters destroying America.
Without the father-son story, he is an entirely dull character – killing
Cranston way too early is a tragic mistake.
Speaking of dull, generic
characters, Ford’s wife (Elizabeth Olsen) is, well, she’s Ford’s wife. That’s
it. She cares for her son, she worries about her husband, she stays behind in
San Francisco not really doing much so she can be re-united with him, she
somehow doesn’t get stomped on or set on fire. It’s a big shame that the female
lead gets such a stereotypical and sketchily-plotted role.
So, on a character level,
the film really does fall apart in the second half. Nevertheless, it does have
a lot of very exciting, well-paced action, giant monsters bashing the shit out
of each other, and that bit with the dog. It’s a big improvement on Emmerich’s
version, and I can’t wait to see what Gareth Edwards does next, whether that be
a return to the world of kaiju or something in a galaxy far, far away…
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About Me

- KieronMoore
- Hi there. I'm Kieron. I write films, comics, and other assorted scribbles. I like Doctor Who, LGBTQ subjects, and chocolate digestives.
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