Godzilla

Rating: 8/10 (30 May 2014)

For me, usually the summer time is a fairly weak time of movies, so during the summer I review few movies and just do not get out to the theatre all that much because of lack of selection. As my usual readers know, I am not one for the usual summer fare that comes out each year. Superhero films, sequels, prequels, big budget action films with a lot of special effects. None of that is in my range of taste whatsoever. I prefer the fall and winter seasons, because then you have all the award worthy films trying to win Oscars coming out and sure not all of them are always great, but it is a much better selection and they are better films quality wise than what we are subjected to during the summer time. That being said, I was not sure whether or not I would like this new version of Godzilla. It was released during the summer time, had the special effects, 3D glasses and big budget and all the things I usually avoid from a summer movie release. The last time I saw the character Godzilla, on the big screen was Roland Emmerich's 1998 version, which I saw when it came out and I thought it was absolutely terrible and for obvious reasons associated with that, I have never seen it since. A few years ago, The Criterion Collection issued a DVD and Blu Ray release of both the original 1954 Japanese version of Godzilla, directed by Ishiro Honda and in the same package also included the 1956 American version directed by Ishiro Honda and Terry O. Morse and starring Raymond Burr. I ended up getting that DVD release and I enjoyed both the Japanese and American versions of the film (while I still did like the Japanese version better). With this new version of Godzilla, I have to say that overall I quite liked it. It was better than I thought it would be, not a masterpiece, but for a film of this kind, quite good and it exceeded my expectations for it. I have read online that a lot of viewers were disappointed with this new version, but for the reasons they did not like it, it seemed like those were a lot of the reasons I did like it. The film while it does have scenes of monsters, destruction and mayhem, did not focus exclusively on this and actually built the story up a fair bit before we are actually even introduced to Godzilla. I liked how it showed how these events occurred and sort of setting the tone and mood for what would come later in the film as well as giving a back story both to the human characters in the film as well as the monsters as well. So for that reason alone, I think a lot of people who just wanted non stop action for their two hours were disappointed because the film actually had a lot more to offer than that, by way of a fairly well developed screenplay and characters. I am not usually a fan of 3D, or the glasses, but I did not find that this version used it in an overwhelming, or self indulgent way as to take away from the story. The 3D really did not play all that big a role in this film and focused more on story and characters instead of the monsters themselves, or the explosions and crumbling buildings and I thought that was the right way to go. The film had a good pace and captured my interest from the beginning and continued to hold it to the end. Also while some of the Godzilla sequels over the years (we might even include the 1998 version in here as well) got very campy and silly, this version played it seriously and got rid of the hokey ness and bad effects and acting of some of the other versions in this 60 year long series. While the acting was not really good, or bad in this new version, I did feel that the performances suited the film and the tone they were trying to go for. We have a lot of good actors in this new version and I would not say they were wasted here, but rather they all came out to do a film like this and probably had fun and now they can all go back to the serious and dramatic roles that we are more accustomed to seeing them in. The effects for the film were impressive, but not too flashy, or in your face either and the action was handled just right, so it seemed believable enough without getting too ridiculous, or far fetched with it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself during this film and overall I was entertained which is the job of a film like this. Would I buy it? No. Would, I see it again someday? Maybe. As it stands it works exceedingly well as a summer popcorn film that actually has more to offer on the table than your usual summer blockbusters and has more of a thinking person's mentality to the film and giving it a certain edge of seriousness and taking away all camp and silliness. The film was more about story than explosions, or action and that is one of my main compliments for the film and while it may turn some viewers off I know it will win over more, including people in my camp and stance for these kind of films as well.