Happy 60th Big G!

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 2014)

60 years ago, a monster rose up from the depths. Godzilla, a gargantuan beast borne from nuclear fire, invaded the monster movie scene in 1954 and gave us a terrifying vision of Tokyo's destruction. Godzilla's reign persisted through nearly thirty movies, seeing the titular monster as both villain and hero, pitting him against a whole universe of monsters, aliens, armies, and machines. Then, after running through a whole gauntlet of battles in Godzilla: Final Wars, the beast was given a good ten-year rest.
In 2014, Godzilla rose up again with a fresh new look and fresh talent. Even though the beast has been rebooted repeatedly before, he has never before hit the western shores as hard. In this American production, great care and detail has been given to provide a hard-hitting thrill ride that will remain true to Toho's original vision.
In a somewhat Spielbergian fashion, Gareth Edwards' vision of Godzilla purposefully builds tension before giving us the actual monster combat. Much like Jurassic Park, the film steadily builds up the suspense with tremors, sound, and focus on subtle details. Much like Jaws, the actual monsters receive limited screen-time to maximize their impact when you do see them. And much like 2005's War of the Worlds, much of the action is subdued to the background, with a firmer focus on the characters' drama. Above all, Godzilla represents an evolution of Edwards' debut film Monsters, which accomplished all these same techniques on a more limited scale.
What this amounts to is a film that builds and builds, taking its time on character-building and plotting before giving us what we really want: all-out monster bashing and city stomping. When you finally get to it, the mass destruction is modestly satisfying. Special effects are top-notch throughout, giving us an intense and epic vision of creatures smashing into each other and smashing into buildings. However, the action is not overblown or overdone, and it never overwhelms the plot.
The actual story involved is pretty much on-par with the older Godzilla films; most of these give us a handful of military and scientist characters who figure out what's going on, then behold some massive monster battle. This film stays true to this formula, but the focus is constant on the characters and their struggles, whether it be the struggle to deal with the monsters, or the struggle to save loved ones. The film definitely tries to pull at the heartstrings by showcasing a father trying to reunite with his family, while also trying to save his father and fulfill his mission. While this can be a bit contrived and sappy, the film does have a little more depth and power to it than the older kaiju flicks. All that being said, the characters are still not huge stand-outs; their emotional struggles are pretty much the only thing we can latch on to, but they remain pretty shallow and flat. Plotting suffers a little as well, given that some parts don't always make sense, and characters don't always make the best decisions. Much like the older films, the story overall conveys a strong theme about the folly of messing with mother nature and abusing nuclear power.
The film is competently made, with quality photography and editing. It is especially noteworthy in the way it masterfully reveals just what it wants to when it wants to, to draw out the suspense and make each monster's presence more powerful. Acting is okay from the whole cast; Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a pretty average everyman hero character, Elizabeth Olson is a pretty average as the guy's wife, Ken Watanabe is an average scientist dude, and Bryan Cranston steals the show in an all-too-small part. Writing is so-so. This production has some great-looking sets, props, costumes, locales, and special effects. Sound design is phenomenal, with monster roars that's guaranteed to make the entire theater shudder. Music is pretty interesting.
Finally, this has got to be the most intense and hard-hitting Godzilla movie since the original. Storytelling and characters aren't a big standout here, but never were in the older movies anyway; this version still offers a phenomenal build-up and a satisfying payoff, and anybody wanting a good monster-movie fix should be pleased. It'll be thrilling to see what directions modern film-making like this will take Godzilla next.
4/5 (Experience: Good | Story: Average | Film: Good)