"He's gonna do it!"

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2014)

We either love kaiju, or we don't. As a life-long fan of Godzilla and his brethren, I've taken the great with the ridiculous, and relished every knocked-down cardboard city that Toho Studios could fabricate for the man in the rubber suit to destroy. Somehow, Godzilla became an icon along the way, even to those who hate monster movies. His take-no-prisoners attitude, physical form, and ability to flatten anything in his path earned respect. The Big G was as recognizable as Coca-Cola, and as indispensable. Love him or hate him, Godzilla cannot be ignored.
So. Here we are in 2014, anticipating the Big G's resurrection, especially after the embarrassment of the 1998 misfire. The new incarnation of Godzilla is something amazing. The first true kaiju to showcase the enormity of this reptile force of nature, using all the tricks in the book to give him life. Director Gareth Edwards has knocked the viewers silly with this epic. He wisely holds Godzilla back until you think you've been had, and then flattens everything with the last act smackdown between the MUTOs and Big G. Godzilla, while not visually present through at least two-thirds of the film, remains a real presence through a number of sly invocations. Remember that even another monster,Dracula himself, the title character of a 400 plus page novel, only appears on about 37 pages. Director Edwards uses this strategy to heighten tension and anticipation. You're thinking about Godzilla from the opening titles. The two MUTOs are the appetizer to the buffet, which is the final sequences of the film. Superior effects and great sound enhance the tasty main course. Godzilla's battle with the MUTOs is often balletic, poetic, and elegiac. Those who hated this film would also have hated a two hour monster battle, claiming it was nothing but fighting, and therefore, boring.
So. Our pal Godzilla proves yet again he can surprise, delight, and yes, even scare jaded viewers who take a minute from looking at their cell phones and annoying the other theater patrons. As I watched the final act of this great monster epic unfold, I kept wondering about Godzilla's ability to breath nuclear fire. Suddenly, the question was about to be answered. My friend, sitting next to me suddenly sat forward and muttered "he's gonna do it". And do it he did. How great that we weren't drowned in specific effects here! Director Edwards did tremendous work by undermining your expectations, giving silence when you expected thunder, and paying a ton of homage to the kaiju epics gone by in a hundred off-hand ways. His gift to the die-hard fans didn't go unnoticed by this viewer, especially in the low-key performance of the great Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ichiro Serizawa. For those who care, or remember, Dr. Serizawa created the Oxy-destroyer, the weapon that actually killed Godzilla in the original 1954 film. Serizawa also perished in that film, but here he is again in a lovely valentine for Godzilla fans. Again, if you never liked these sort of films, why would you think this would be anything other than it presented itself to be? You can't keep a good monster down, and this wonderful take on the Godzilla legend only proved that.