The Best Monster movie since Jurassic Park

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 2014)

This is a lot more character-driven than you might go in expecting. Godzilla does not take centre stage here, which becomes evident in the action scenes where our focus is deliberately shifted away from the giant lizard. This is my only real complaint, but it's a pretty damaging one. Putting the focus on the characters is one thing, but taking us away from the reason we're sat in the cinema in the first place isn't exactly a good idea. It's not always obnoxious, but on multiple occasions the MUTO will come in for the kill and Godzilla will attack back, and then the camera will swing round and follow the humans instead. It's frustrating.
Thanks to it's character focus, the plot is a bit of a slow burn. We get a rather long flashback to fifteen years ago to set-up the movie with a mining operation that goes wrong and reveals a rather large skeleton, and an open pod that leads into the ocean. Nearby in Japan, an engineer at a Nuclear Power Plant is concerned about some of the readings he's getting, but it's too late and the area is quarantined. This takes up a good quarter of the movie or so, and still takes a bit to pick up after that. The engineer is still obsessed with what caused the disaster and suspects a conspiracy. He takes his son back just in time for the birth of the MUTO. From this point on, I wouldn't say it was all steam ahead, but it builds and builds and never lets up until the very end. We're taken on a goose chase across the pacific culminating in the big climax in San Francisco.
For a character-driven story, I've got to be honest, there isn't a whole lot of meat to the characters. There's quite a lot of them to juggle and so there's only enough time to establish the core attributes of those characters; the obsessed engineer, the estranged son, the scientists who've been tracking it for fifteen years, the concerned wife. There isn't much else to them. However the focus on these characters does keep the movie grounded. It gives us faces to relate to. When the name of the game is suspense, you need characters to focus on, and Godzilla utilises that to it's fullest.
Thankfully for all the two-dimensional characters, the acting quality is sky-high. Bryan Cranston absolutely owns his role. Not going to lie, he moved me on an emotional level right at the very beginning before much had even been established. It was his performance that made me feel sad for his character. Unfortunately, while he was prominent in the marketing of the film, he's definitely not the lead. By the second third of the movie, he's completely absent. More Bryan Cranston wouldn't have gone amiss. The other great stand-out is Elisabeth Olsen. She gets even less of a character than Cranston, playing the wife and mother who's constantly worrying about her husband. However she has that special factor that makes the lacking character lift off the screen and feel like a real person. Again, more of her wouldn't have gone amiss. The rest of the cast did their dues. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the real lead and his performance is pretty good. It is however overshadowed by everyone else. He's the fairly typical hero, willing to do anything to save his family and his country, and thrust into everything by chance and coincidence more than anything. Ken Watanabe is brilliant as one of the scientists, as is Sally Hawkins as the other scientist. Again, not much to do, but they make their characters feel like real people, and that's what's important.
The effects are unsurprisingly amazing. Gareth Edwards, director of the fantastic Monsters, pretty much got his dream job here, directing a big blockbuster monster movie. He relishes in it. Godzilla never looked this good, harking back to the original bulky design, but of course with a lot more movement and detail. Watching him rise up against the dark cityscapes is an absolute beauty to behold; every other frame could be a piece to put on your wall. My only complaint here is that the MUTOs look a little odd due to a lack of tail. All they needed was a tail to balance them out a bit and they'd look killer, but as they are they look more like aliens than subterranean creatures.
But you know what makes me happiest about Godzilla? You remember that teaser trailer I mentioned? It's here, untouched. The first half with the skydivers to the sound of 'Kyrie' through these beautiful skyscapes is right there in the movie. That teaser sets the tone of the movie absolutely perfectly, because it's ripped directly from the movie, soundtrack and all. It's so tense and suspenseful from as soon as the MUTO is born in the first third, and the music goes a long way in creating that tense atmosphere. My only complaint with the soundtrack is one particular scene right at the very end where it goes into cliché mode. Eurgh.
Godzilla is, hands down, the best monster movie since Jurassic Park over twenty years ago. It's gritty and realistic, it's full of suspense that'll keep you on the edge of your seat, and a particular focus on the human element keeps it grounded amidst all the giant monsters. It's not perfect though, with underdeveloped characters and a frustrating tendency to not show the best bits. I give Godzilla a very good, and thoroughly recommended, 8/10.
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