Gareth Edwards - The Next Steven Spielberg!

Rating: 10/10 (14 May 2014)

In an age where visual effects such as CGI is what sells a blockbuster movie and ultimately is what the film mostly consists of with big-headed Directors who think they know what audiences want (I'm looking at you Michael Bay...), here comes our one light in the darkness: Gareth Edwards.
Anyone who saw Gareth's earlier film 'Monsters' knows how impressive it was and how inspirational this person has become, going from a low-budget debut to a massive scale movie like this but what's even more impressive is his admirable restraint in visual effects with extremely high-budget and resources.
Godzilla is actually shown through glimpses and teases at first, which eventually builds up tremendously to one of the greatest movie climaxes I've ever seen! The characters are surprisingly developed and greatly interwoven with the monster set-pieces. It's really clever how they connected these two plot lines and how they balance off each other. The main character is especially interesting in the fact that he goes through the same things Godzilla goes through. When the big creature stumbles, he also stumbles. When Godzilla is put down, he shares an eerie glance at Ford Brody which represent the bigger themes of this movie.
What's great about the themes/subtexts of the film is that it respects and pays homage to the original 1954 Gojira, but it doesn't wink to the audience or cut short on the ideas. Early character arcs are established to show nuances within the tone of the film and the screenplay by Max Borenstein complements this with appropriately fantastic writing and dialog - much resemblance to classics like Jurassic Park and Jaws. In the end, everything comes full circle and Godzilla is shown as an anti-hero - the way he should be.
In conclusion, Godzilla is not only the greatest monster movie of all time, but a refreshing and spectacularly smart film that shows restraint and compassion in times of inconsiderate film-makers who make movies for money and not for the love of the movie-goer.
(10/10)