Godzilla

Rating: 5/10 (22 May 2014)

Since 1954 the King of the Monsters has appeared in many guises, with sequels good and bad from Japan and Hollwyood following, the only one I had seen previously was the rubbish 1998 Roland Emmerich version, I was most excited to see a new blockbuster movie to try and reignite the franchise, from director Gareth Edwards (Monsters). Basically the film opens with Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb test in 1954, before forwarding to 1999, where in a quarry in the Philippines scientists Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Inception's Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Blue Jasmine's Sally Hawkins) are called, there a colossal skeleton and two egg- shaped pods have been discovered, one of the eggs has hatched and whatever what was inside it has escaped to the sea. In Japan, seismic activity happens at the Janjira nuclear plant, supervisor Joe Brody (Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston) sends a team, including his wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche), into the core to inspect for damage, while this is going on an explosion occurs, radiation threatens the outside if released, Sandra and the team are unable to escape, the plant collapses, and an earthquake is caused after the disaster which results in the Janjira area being quarantined. Fifteen years later Joe is arrested trespassing in the quarantined area, his son Ford Brody (Kick-Ass's Aaron Taylor-Johnson), an explosive ordnance disposal officer in the United States Navy, travels to Japan to sort his father out, but he is convinced to join his father into the closed off place, which is not radioactive at all, to return to their old home, to retrieve floppy disks containing vital information. They are captured after finding the disks they are taken a secret facility not far from the ruins of the power plant, Serizawa and Graham are there investigating a discovered chrysalis, a colossal butterfly like egg, and it soon hatches releasing a gigantic winged creature, later identified as a MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) that feeds off of radiation, it devastates the facility before flying off, Joe is mortally wounded and eventually dies. The creature is being tracked by the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CVN-88), commanded by US Navy Admiral Stenz (David Strathairn), but there is another creature that is hunting the MUTO, a much larger prehistoric monster named "Godzilla" that was awakened in 1954 by a deep sea expedition, it has been continually covered up during it's existence, with numerous failed attempts to kill it with nuclear weapons, and after information given by Ford about his father's information the scientists believe the MUTO was communicating with something else. The wreckage of a Russian nuclear submarine is found in a Hawaiin forest by a Special Forces team, and there the MUTO is feeding on it's reactor, a battle ensues at Honolulu International Airport, and Godzilla arrives and creates a devastating tsunami that hits Waikiki, but the MUTO flies, and meanwhile the second creature pod in the Phillipines hatches at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, and a much larger female MUTO escapes and destroys Las Vegas, Serizawa and Graham know that the two MUTO creatures will meet to breed. Stentz sees the only way to destroy all three monsters is to launch a powerful nuclear weapon on them when they reach San Francisco Bay, but the scientists have faith that Godzilla can destroy the MUTOs, a train with two warheads heads to the city, but the female monster stops it, and consumes one of the weapons, the other weapon is airlifted and armed on a boat in San Francisco, but this too is stolen by the male monster and given to the female to construct a nest. At the Golden Gate Bridge the military is defeated confronting Godzilla, so Stentz agrees to allow Godzilla to fight the MUTOs, and meanwhile Ford and and a team of soldiers must disarm the weapon in the nest, but is has been damaged and cannot be stopped, so instead the boat is moved out to sea, the next is destroyed by Ford, the male MUTO is killed by Godzilla being smashed into a skyscraper, and Godzilla appears to be crushed by the collapsing building. The female MUTO kills most of the team at the boat, but Godzilla returns and attacks it, firing his atomic breath down it's throat, decapitating her, and then Godzilla collapses, Ford sends the boar out to sea and is rescued before the weapon detonates, he is finally reunited with his wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen, Mary-Kate and Ashley's sister) and son Sam (Carson Bolde), Godzilla is praised by the media as "King of the Monsters" and the "The City's Savior", the monster unexpectedly awakens, lets out one last roar, before returning to the sea. Also starring Richard T. Jones as Captain Russell Hampton, Victor Rasuk as Sergeant Tre Morales, Patrick Sabongui as Lieutenant Commander Marcus Waltz and CJ Adams as Young Ford. The cast is certainly full of well known stars, Taylor-Johnson is alright as the one trying to save the day, Cranston indeed makes an impression as the mad but correct theorist, Strathairn plays the strategist well, Watanabe gets his moments knowing all about the monsters, and Binoche should have been on for longer, but I will agree the human characters are not what draws you. The stars of the picture are indeed the monsters, the reptilian Godzilla and the scary winged MUTO creatures, this is a definite return to classic routes, not just seeing the super-sized monster destroying cities, but where he battles with other monsters, so the fantastic special effects come thick and fast, I look forward to a possible follow up for this dramatic come back, a reasonably fun and smashing science-fiction monster movie. Worth watching!