Modern but classic telling of the king of monsters

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 2014)

I grew up with films. As long as I can remember I've loved movies. I hold many real near and dear. The most that happen that way are films that take me back to the time when I was a child. There was no stress, no responsibility, no adulthood. I could be taken to a different time and place seeing things that only dreams are made of. Godzilla was one of the first monster movies I ever saw. I fell head over heels for this giant city destroying creature of prehistoric origins. Along with him and Frankenstein they were alone. It fit me well being the only child in my family. I would sit as close to the television as I could gawking in amazement at these motion pictures that which displayed visions of the mind.
Monster movies meld all different types of genres which I enjoy. I don't like being stuck in one box. I want a piece of me in all the boxes. That way I can take the best piece of each and mold them into something astounding. There's drama, metal and physical, action, adventure, science fiction and at times horror. This new version of Godzilla, brought to the world by still newcomer Gareth Edwards feels old. Not saying that it's a bad thing. It's far from that. I felt after seeing the film I had just watched a classic tale. But there was nothing classic about this other than the story telling.
The story is pretty straight forward in that humans trying to rid the world of something in fact create something so threatening that the only way to rid it of this is let a "God" deal with it. But the story isn't told from the point of view of the monsters. It is told from the views a family lead by Joe (Bryan Cranston) an American engineer working in Japan. He lives there with his wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche) and their son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). An accident happens in the past which sets up for the future. Most of the movie takes places 15 years after this first accident where humans are still trying to understand and test what caused this horrific accident. Scientists Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins lead the research which causes absolute chaos.
I have read that many people are upset that most of the film is very human oriented. Well, it has to be. You don't get sucked in if most of the movie is just monsters battling each other. Although very cool, there has to be a human element to drive the story leading to the action. Yes, I'm probably taking a shot at Transformers, which I love but for different reasons. Cranston is great but he's not on screen for long enough. I would have loved to see more of his character. Taylor- Johnson is the lead. He does hold his own as strong willed soldier but at times he's a bit stone faced and bland. Watanabe and Hawkins make the most with the screen time they do have. I do like their interactions it's very master/apprentice. Elizabeth Olsen portrays Taylor-Johnson's wife who really doesn't have too much to do other being a women in distress hoping her family will make it out of this earth shattering event.
For the first moment of the film, which I think this was a nice nod to Jurassic Park, I was sucked in. It's doesn't overstay it's welcome. This is more of a slow burn building up the suspense, the drama and action culminating in a payoff that is so worth the price of admission. The whole story is played very much as a classic monster movie. I just loved it that way. There are times when these new tent pole action films get caught up with shoving the action just down our throats. Maybe I want to be wined and dined first. There are only glimpses of Godzilla before his big reveal. Both of which make you scream at the screen but get the anxiousness in the body boiling. His look, his sound, everything about him when he is on screen is just...awesome. This movie did it all for me. I was a five year old kid watching an epic film unveil itself in front of my eyes. For those film nerds there are plenty of nods to the film's long history. The only thing I have left is the king of monster is backofficially.