King of the Monsters!

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2014)

I grew up with Godzilla, I watched the Toho movies all the time as a kid and loved every one of them. I got very excited at the prospect of the 1998 reboot, but like most was bitterly disappointed with what I saw. I had consigned myself to the fact that there would never be decent big screen outing for Big G - thank goodness for Gareth Edwards is all I can say! Don't get me wrong, I wasn't that thrilled when Legendary announced that they were re-booting Godzilla again, but I became curious when they attached Edwards to the project, his breakthrough movie Monsters was superb and he was a self confessed Godzilla fan boy, it began to sound rather positive! As snippets of information began to emerge over time, it became clear that Edwards was looking to keep his Godzilla adaptation more faithful to the original and with blurry images and finally the glorious trailers my curiosity peaked - I had to see this movie and I'm glad I did! Edwards has assembled a great cast, Bryan Cranston (Joe Brody), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Ford Brody), Ken Watanabe (Dr Sherizawa), Elizabeth Olsen (Elle Brody)and Juliet Binoche (Sandra Brody) to convey the human side of the tale, which begins in Japan in what appears to be a tragic accident at the Jinjura nuclear plant which parallels what we've seen in recent years at Fukoshima. The events impact primarily on both Ford and Joe, the latter becoming a truth seeking conspiracy junkie who insists that there's more to the accident than the authorities are letting on and the former doing what he can to keep his father's obsession In check. Cranston's performance is excellent conveying desperation, tenacity and sadness in the face of what he witnessed. Taylor-Johnson's Ford is an adequate hero. He's acutely aware of his father's eccentricities and has to balance keeping him in check with both a military career and a young family. While Taylor -Johnson does a good job, he doesn't ever truly convince and as such you're not overly invested in what he does - a shame. Elizabeth Olsen is Taylor-Johnson's love interest, underused and somewhat throwaway in her role and Juliet Binoche has a small part as Ford's mother at the start of the movie, the scenes between Binoche and Cranston are great. That leaves only Watanabe as Dr Sherizawa, a scientist belonging to a shadowy corporation named Monarch, he knows what caused the accident at Jinjura and is keeping as tight a lid on it as he realistically can. As with most movies Watanabe is attached to, he does a superb job, he does spend a lot of time looking like he's thinking about mortgage rates, but he does convince in his role and ultimately makes the decision to let chaos reign as a means to restore order - good plan! The human element do a fine job in channelling the story from one element to another, it does go without saying that when the action starts, they play second fiddle to the VFX, but at least there is a story underpinning the action, helmed by decent actors who admirably do their bit until the big fella arrives! Well, onto Godzilla himself. I've read a lot of reviewers and critics complaining that there wasn't enough of Godzilla and that he took his sweet time turning up! Edwards has clearly adopted the less is more approach with his treatment of Godzilla. Yes, he could have had Godzilla bold as brass stood there from the very start, but Edwards allows the story to develop and for the tension the build before Big G is ready for his close up. His approach is very reminiscent of some of the older generation of creature features (Jaws, Alien & Cloverfield spring to mind) in so far that we have snippets that build into a final reveal, and what a reveal it is! There are no doubts in my mind that Edwards has taken the right approach to Godzilla, If he hadn't, he could have allowed this movie to become a Transformers-esque descent into CGI based tedium where loud noises and countless CGI explosions dull the senses and numb the mind - thank goodness this didn't happen. When Godzilla is revealed, it's an event, it's a pay off of epic proportions, when I saw the movie a cheer went up through the screen, which is strange for U.K based audiences, everyone was happy to see him. I'm certain that if we'd seen him in all his glory in the first 5 minutes he would have very quickly lost that sense of majesty as the film continued, here, every time he is on screen Godzilla seizes and holds the audiences attention and thanks to an amazing design coupled with epic VFX, he is every inch the titan he should be.
Well, there you have it. Godzilla is proof that with the right director, the right actors and the right approach you can still make excellent creature features. The action is non-stop, the destruction is mighty and the effects are epic. Yet there is a story here, it's decent and relevant. This movie isn't perfect, but Edwards has expertly exorcised the demons of the 1998 version and had given Godzilla fans a glimpse of greatness.