"Godzilla" (2014) - The King is Definitely Back (and he's definitely still taking names)!

Rating: 10/10 (18 May 2014)

"...'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds...'" - J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), in a 1965 television broadcast recalling his witnessing of the Trinity test in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945

First, some perspective.
For years, I've been against yet another attempt of an American "Godzilla" film, ever since I first heard that Hollywood was making one. Put simply, the first American attempt at a "Godzilla" film, "Godzilla" (1998), was a disaster, yet I saw it six times in the theater. Of course, I was but 12 at the time and was just hyped to finally see Godzilla lay waste to the United States.
But then reality (and age) set in and I realized what a god-awful mess that movie was. The Japanese already had their eyes set on reviving the mighty King of the Monsters for a third movie series with "Godzilla 2000" (1999), while he lay in a state of disarray here in the United States. During that time, other giant monster features have made a splash here; the first was South Korea's "The Host" in 2006, followed by the J.J. Abrams-produced "Cloverfield" in 2008, and then Mexican director Guillermo del Toro gosh-wowed (most of) us with "Pacific Rim" (2013) - which was, quite frankly, the best of the bunch - last year.
So giant monster movies have seen an increase in popularity (and legitimacy) here in the U.S. over the last seven years. So, what better way to capitalize on that increased popularity and legitimacy than to once again go back to the one giant beast (or "kaiju" - the Japanese word for "strange monster" or "beast") that started it all in the first place, Gojira (Godzilla).
To put it simply, Ishiro Honda's dark & gloomy, black & white "Gojira" (1954) is the single greatest monster movie ever made; yes, it's better than "King Kong" (1933) - there, I said it. I've been the biggest devotee - that I know of - of Japanese "kaiju-eiga" (Japanese giant monster movies) for much of my life; Godzilla, obviously, was the most famous of them all (Hollywood confirmed it themselves by giving him a star on the Walk of Fame 10 years ago to mark his 50th anniversary). Of course, that darkness and gloominess didn't last long, as Godzilla (originally a living manifestation of the atomic bomb and nuclear warfare) was eventually reworked into a superhero throughout the rest of the first-generation Showa-Era films - only returning to his roots as a rampaging menace in 1984 with the second-generation Heisei-Era films, beginning with "Godzilla 1985" (1984).
Now, Britain's Gareth Edwards has completely dazzled us with 2014's "Godzilla." I knew this movie was working when at a pivotal moment late in the third act when Godzilla (brilliantly motion-captured here by Andy Serkis) - now slightly re-worked here to appear literally as a force of nature - appears to lay waste to human civilization, over half the theater erupted in applause (myself included amongst them). In short, this is the "Godzilla" movie we've all been waiting for since the original "Gojira."
While this is nowhere near the greatness of "Gojira," it's definitely not the '98 "Godzilla." This film contains much of "Gojira's" gloominess and growing atmosphere of imminent apocalyptic doom from the beginning, and that's a good thing. The picture begins in 1999 in The Philippines, where Dr. Ichiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe, whose character's name is an obvious reference to both the late Ishiro Honda and the doomed scientist from "Gojira," Dr. Serizawa, played there by the late Akihiko Hirata) and his assistant Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) have discovered the remains of an enormous prehistoric creature in an underground cavern. Things then shift to Japan, where American nuclear engineer Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is at war with the corporate owners of a nuclear power plant in Janjira to shut it down over growing safety concerns and soon enough, tragedy strikes, losing his wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche) in the process.
15 years later, Joe has become a paranoid conspiracy theorist and virtual recluse, convinced that the Japanese government covered up what really happened at the plant and is desperate to get answers. His son, Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), now a family man himself, has just returned from active military duty overseas to his wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and young son Sam (Carlson Borde), and soon joins his father where they make a terrifying discovery.
It turns out that a previously unknown species of large prehistoric creatures (which vaguely resemble the monster from "Cloverfield," crossed with a praying mantis) - called here as MUTOs ("Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism") - that feeds off radioactive materials has been awakened from an eons-long slumber and is now ready to lay waste to all of human civilization. In turn, the MUTOs are also being hunted by an even larger stone-age monstrosity, and you can pretty much guess who that is, if you haven't figured it out already...
"Godzilla" has the usual epic destruction, monster-vs.-military firefights, and monster-on-monster smack-downs that have long characterized the monster-on-the-rampage movie genre. The only downside to the experience can be all the 9/11-styled imagery that's present (in addition to scattered references to Chernobyl, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster), which could rub some viewers the wrong way and possibly incite calls of "bad taste."
This is one "Godzilla" devotee who was once a doubter, went into the theater hyped and came out eagerly a believer, and REALLY eager for an even bigger sequel (and possible future franchise cross-over with "Pacific Rim," which Legendary Pictures also produced)...
10/10