The King of Monsters has Claimed his Throne!

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2014)

Finally Godzilla arrived in the 21 century in all his computer animated glory and it all starts where the myth originally came to life: Japan!
What I liked the most about this version is that the director takes the iconic figure of Godzilla very seriously and pays tribute to his roots which is not only mirrored by the monster's traditional looks in contrast to the version of 98, but most of all because the director has understood what Godzilla stands for, which is the pure power of nature, it's a metaphor for all the uncontrollable natural catastrophes that we are helplessly exposed to and a warning of nuclear destruction in the sense of its Japanese creator who developed the idea of Godzilla as a response to the atomic attacks on japan. So it's a logical consequence that we find a lot of references to current major catastrophes in this movie like the great tsunami catastrophe in 2004, the core melt accident in Fukushima, and there are even scenes that reminded me very strongly of ground zero and the aftermath of 09/11 with all the fire men looking for buried survivors in a ruined, dust-covered surrounding. This affinity to real disasters that we have all seen on TV enhances authenticity and thrill factor of the movie.
What's also extraordinary about this release is the way the fighting scenes are presented. It's not only the usual confrontation of several monsters whereupon a whole city is getting destroyed, there is more to this, the director plays with our expectations, he postpones fights, uses special camera angle's and finds quite pictorial ways to present the scenes which thus have a certain poetic quality to them, something unique that was not seen in any of the previous Godzilla movies due to the lack of cinematic means.
In a time where massive city destructions are seen in movie theaters on a regular basis (I mean, the "Transformers" series alone showed them in each of the three parts, not to think of "Pacific Rim", "Avengers" etc.) it is refreshing to see that you still can get something special out of the same genre-typical elements. so everyone who expected just two hours of mindless battles might be surprised by how much thought lies behind this beautifully depicted clash of monsters. It's true, that it takes a while until we hear Godzillas famous roar, however the time it takes is not spent in vain as it serves the creation of suspense and gives space for character development in the context of which the one and only, living legend Bryan Cranston plays a major role as an obsessive scientist who is involved in a very touching family drama. His son, a soldier, later attracts the focus on his struggle to fight back the threat (very evil MUTOS) with military means as there soon comes the point where scientists get pushed back to an counseling role like it is the case with Ken Watanabe who plays an Japanese scientist, a brooding voice of reason and an intermediary between the cultures; its good that the producers chose a Japanese actor to play such an important figure.
The director Gareth Edwards did not reinvent the entire genre, there are still the typical ingredients to be found, but a very smart script that offers some good twists, a strong cast and a very beautiful cinematography make this movie one of the most ambitious and impressive contributions to the monster movie franchise, maybe not as good as "Jurassic Park" but definitely worth seeing. If the Godzilla of 1998 was a silly joke than this one is an awakening, the first milestone of a new era of Godzilla movies that will be measured against this one. The king of monsters has claimed his throne!