A new life for Godzilla, after years of being mistreated in the cinema.

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2020)

I confess that I was never a fan of Godzilla because it always seemed unrealistic to me. The amount of bad movies with the city-destroying monster doesn't help either. So, it is no wonder that I had little expectations for this film and decided not to see it in the cinema but at home, when it was on TV.
I felt, right from the start, that the film is concerned with creating a logical story to sustain the monster. The nuclear theme is there, but now it was not created by human bombs, it existed for thousands of years, drawing power from atomic radiation, like a chargeable battery. Even so, I did not feel completely convinced, given that radiation kills and, here, human beings seem at ease with a gigantic creature that certainly emanates more radiation than fifty thousand reactors. There are more times when everything sounds false and the story reveals weaknesses, but it is better not to take these issues further if we want to give the film a chance.
The script is simple: it all starts with a tragic nuclear accident in Japan and Joe Brody's search for what really happened. His search causes him and his son, now an American military man, to stumble upon a hidden truth: that there are colossal creatures in the world, older than Humanity and mostly asleep, who can wake up and endanger our lifestyle. They are monitored by a secret international organization called Monarch, and one of its leaders, Ishiro Serizawa, places hopes on the strongest and most powerful of them - the Gojira lizard - to control all the rest. The rest of the film is a trail of destruction, with humans screaming, soldiers firing, things on fire and colossal creatures in titanic battles.
The film features a cast full of famous stars but it is not the type of film we see for the interpretive quality of the actors nor do we have the opportunity to truly care for the characters. Moreover, most of the actors have little time on the scene and little to do. This is the case of Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen and Juliette Binoche. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is weak to lead the film but works reasonably as an action figure. Ken Watanabe is the most striking actor in the entire film, functioning as a kind of "Master Yoda" who knows more than everyone else and always has a cliche of wisdom up his sleeve. Watanabe always knew how to stay above the rest of the cast and give us a good job.
Technically, the film is grandiose and justifies the millions in the budget. Bet on creating a threatening environment, with a lot happening at night or in cloudy scenarios, where we don't see everything. There are cities devastated to the ground, a lot of noise everywhere, dust and animalistic deafening roars. The sound and visual effects are to be congratulated, as well as the entire CGI and computing department. Well-made sets, good props, good sound mixing and editing work are also very evident. The soundtrack, responsibility of Alexandre Desplat, is competent but not impressive or epic, as it could be.
Of all the films I've seen involving Godzilla, this is certainly the best. But it is the best because the others were too bad or too weak to compete with a film that has more money, more sound actors and better production values. It is a film that could be better, but it is good enough to be worth it.