Godzilla(2014)

Godzilla


"The King of the Monsters"


My Thoughts

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a huge fan of the Godzilla movie franchise. I've watched some of the older movies, and I've saw the 1998 Godzilla starring Matthew Broderick, which I liked as a kid but as time has gone by I don't like it as much now, maybe I'll go into my reasons about that If I decide to review that film at some point.

What I am going to talk about is the new reboot to the long standing monster franchise Godzilla 2014. when I first heard they were going to bring him back onto the big screen, my initial reaction was their going to really mess it up because it's going to be CGI to death.

Then they announced that Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Aaron Taylor-Johnson(KickAss), Elizabeth Olson(Oldboy), Ken Watanabe(Inception), Juliette Binoche(The English Patient) were going to be starring and that peaked my interest because all of these people are good to great actors, since the cast is good then I might give the movie a chance.

Of course I was still on the fence about the movie being made because in my mind, I'm thinking its going to be a CGI mess or Clusterfuck LOL...until I saw the first teaser trailer, which it was just that a teaser that gave us just enough of a look at what this movie as going to be about, which finally sold me on the idea of seeing this movie.

So opening day(May 16) I went to the movie theater to see the new Godzilla, I didn't see the movie in 3D nor IMAX. I have issues with all of that but save once again for another post. I saw it in regular old 2D(Old School I Know), before the movie started two things I noticed 1) at the time I went to see the movie there were more then the number of people in the theater then I expected and 2) most of them were teens who probably were not fans of the original films and really little when the 1998 film was released.

The opening of the movie gives some good back story like a lot of these reboot movie do and some should do in the future of rebooting movies.

I'm  not going to go deep into this movie like I've done with many of my reviews on previous movie reviews so I will keep things simple here.

ACTING

Bryan Cranston does a really good job here(when does he not) the only thing about his character is that during the movie when he talks about keeping family safe and government cover ups, I didn't see his character but saw some of Walter White/Heisenberg shining threw. the guy will always forever be Mr. White in my opinion but it doesn't take anything away from the good performance here.

Elizabeth Olson she is good in the scenes she is in but the one thing about her character that kinda sticks out in a negative way is that she was a bit young to be playing the kinda character that she was supposed to be but see still pulls it off for the most part.

Ken Watanabe has always been a good actor in every movie I've seen him in, here he seems to be the link between the movie and the audience meaning anytime something needed to be explained about Godzilla or something else he was the go too guy for that, for that I felt he was some what underused in the movie, but at the same time I get why he was that way.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson who is must famous as KickAss seems to grow up and leave that behind here, which is a good thing, he really shows range with his acting and as you get to know the most about him as the movie goes on.

Sally Hawkins was a surprise to see in this movie as she does more drama or dramedy type movies, so seeing her here as Ken Watanabe character partner was somewhat a surprise because like him her talents are under utilized.

Juliette Binoche has a glorified cameo here as Bryan Cranston's character wife, felt like her role could've been played by virtually any actress, but I guess there needed to be a very dramatic impact here but I felt she was very very under utilized in this movie for sure.

Acting 3.5/5

Godzilla doesn't play out like a typical movie of this genre and nor does it play out like most of the older Godzilla flicks, this movie is very character driven and which helps you feel for the supporting Human characters.


GODZILLA

The king of monsters himself doesn't look like the 98' incarnation thankfully, but more like the original monsters, but not cheesy neither, The CGI effects in this movie are done very well and makes him looks like if Godzilla was really this is how he would look, I know there were some who didn't feel his roar was loud enough well when he does roar in the movie you know he is there and he means business.

Godzilla 5/5

Directing

Gareth Edwards really seemed to pull all that make Godzilla what he is together in this movie as well as give a good story to follow here with character emotions and how this would play out if it was real, also mixing reality with fiction was a good touch, there is also some Spielbergesque directing here as well when it comes to how we see Godzilla and the build up to him is very good as well.

directing 5/5

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

After the movie was over the majority of the crowd I saw the movie with gave an applause at the end because the movie overall was very good, because If you are not a die hard Godzilla fan like myself you can appreciate this film and if you are a die hard fan you should really enjoy this film because it looks as if Godzilla has come back strong with a huge roar.

I didn't stick around to see if there was an after credit scene ( that seems to be the thing now) but even if there is or isn't a after credit scene I wouldn't mind a sequel to this film even though there doesn't necessarily need to be one.

MY OVERALL RATING 4.5/5



Cast
Aaron Taylor-Johnson-Ford Brody
Elizabeth Olson-Elle Brody
Ken Watanabe- Dr. Serizawa
Sally Hawkins- Dr. Graham
Juliette Binoche- Sandra Brody
David Strathairn-Admiral Stenz
Bryan Cranston- Joe Brody