The 'King of the Monsters' Returns to its Roots

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2014)

Back in 1954, Japanese filmmakers made a film called Godzilla, it was a move that explores the devastating consequences of nuclear effects on nature and symbolically features a monster figure that would not only bring terror to movie audiences, but it would create an iconic character for the world to love and remember. Being that this year commemorates the 60th anniversary of Godzilla, Hollywood filmmakers thought it was time to bring 'the big guy' back to modern audiences (though it had been done in 1998 with the dreadful and utterly horrible adaptation). It was placed with high expectations that it would be better and closer to its original roots, and filmmaker Gareth Evans (Monsters) delivers the expectations with full quality.
The storyline begins with a flashback, showing how 2 scientists discovering an enormous find in the Philippines before realising that once of its subjects has hatched and fled to sea land. Where else in Janjira a Nuclear Plant suffers an explosion and major radiation leak, causing a massive loss in lives and destruction of Janjira with claims of quarantine and evacuation for the area. This is shown to be a major life-changing event for Joe Brody (Breaking Bad stat Bryan Cranston) and his son Ford (Kick-Ass and Savages star Aaron Taylor –Johnson). Years drift by and both father and son have gone separate ways, Ford is a family man coming hum from his military service and Joe becoming an 'cover-up' investigator, believing that the events in Janjira lead to something much worse to fear and that it was a cover-up. Convincing Ford of this truth, they go to the quarantined Janjira only to discover that scientist Ishiro (Ken Watanabe) is leading a study mission on the found chrysalis that is similar to the opening find but it appears to have awaken and appear destructive. What follows after is an epic race against time that pushes the humans to fight against this and realise the truth of what was found in the Philippines may be the only hope of survival.
What makes this reboot to be so amazing that the fact that it's much much better than the 1998 version that its darker, intense and epic. The storyline for the film was indeed entertaining but some may complain that the character development wasn't strong enough but I personally felt that how the characters developed was fine by me and there was some minor detail in the monster's side. The performances on the other hand were all superb, making them believable and realistic with emotion of the destruction that occurs in the story. Cranston here is still strong just after finishing Breaking Bad and it seems like he wants an Oscar nomination in the future. Themes to the story too are really an eye-opener, one of them being the theme of Man Vs. Nature. Others complain too that Godzilla's appearance is only half but from what I could see it was done excellent. Fans will be waiting for the epic monster fights to appear full on but there are only teases of it in the middle of the plot, but no disappointment will occur when we are given the full fight of the climatic battle of good vs. bad.
The visual effects here are all top-notch and are given state of the art detail. The detailing to Godzilla and the other monsters that appear here as well are so much like the original version from 1954 but in terms of the size of Godzilla, he is REALLY MASSIVE and this has been considered to be the biggest version of the monster in the franchise history. Covered in scars, scales and loud roar (using the original sound wave but re-mixing it to be a big boom) this is definitely proof that Godzilla has the potential to be a strong contender for Visual Effects awards. It is up to the excellence of Pacific Rim, Smaug from The Hobbit trilogy, Transformers and even The Avengers standards.
The Music score here is very impressive, being written and composed by French composer Alexandre Desplat (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1 and 2, Argo and The King's Speech). Godzilla's theme is so much like the very original tune, where the tone of horror and devastation is much like a fearful sound.
Overall, Godzilla is a sight to behold for the fans and movie audiences. Although a bit of background knowledge of the franchise is essential but being a reboot it will hopefully set a promising franchise that will indeed earn a lot of acclaim and praise. A fun watch as well if you had enjoyed Pacific Rim and King Kong.