The king is back

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2014)

The scene in Godzilla between Bryan Cranston and Juliette Binouche near the beginning is a powerful moment, and the sold-out, IMAX 3D audience I watched it with sat in stunned silence throughout it. We've been trained not to expect scenes like the one above in a summer blockbuster that features CGI monsters knocking each other out, and the audience reacted accordingly—I don't think many were expecting to be tearing up in a movie called GODZILLA. As the doors closed on Juliette Binoche someone behind me whispered "Daaaaaang", and that's when I knew director Gareth Edwards, arguably the next Steven Spielberg, had delivered with his sophomore film. His first film, Monsters, was an indie flick made for half a million dollars. That Legendary Studios and Warner Brothers believed in him enough to give him 160 million for this one says a lot.
It helps that Edwards clearly respects what came before: GODZILLA contains Jurassic Park references (a bus driver wipes the fog from his windshield to see Godzilla just like Malcolm does to see the Tyrannosaur), Jaws references (his spines cut through the water in extended shots just like the shark's fin; the BRODY family), Close Encounters of the Third Kind references (Cranston sneaks into a military site, nobody believes his wild theories); there's even a Mothra reference. What helps even more is that Edwards fills the film with talent: the aforementioned Bryan Cranston and Juliette Binoche give what could quite possibly be the best performances in a monster film ever; Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins plays scientists studying Godzilla; Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen play a husband and wife torn apart by the monsters' destruction. It helps that every single one of these actors have been in acclaimed indie movies before, for none of them act like they're in a dumb summer movie. Instead, all treat the material like they were in a smaller, more personal film, an edict Edwards himself personally told Cranston and Binoche to follow. This elevates the film immensely, making the film more about the Brody family then Godzilla himself. (Herself?)
When Godzilla does show up though, it's glorious. Complete with motion-capture effects by the brilliant Andy Serkis (who played Gollum in the LOTR trilogy and Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes) Godzilla lives and breathes like a real creature we empathize with, feel for. He's bigger and meaner than ever before, but at the same time the movie makes him our savior. He's only here to restore balance, and the film makes it a point to show that he's not out to directly cause harm to mankind. He causes a tsunami simply rising up out of Waikiki Beach, killing hundreds if not thousands in its wake, but it's only to fight off another monster: a winged M.U.T.O. (Massive Unidentified Terrestial Organism) currently wreaking havoc across Hawaii. Later on his spines shield a bus full of children from some stray missiles carelessly launched by a panicked Navy cruiser.
Though the trailers are a bit misleading—despite what they make you think, it's Taylor- Johnson who carries the film, not Cranston—Johnson carries the film superbly. Many reviews have criticized Johnson for being "flat" or "unemotive"; it's simply not true. He's a soldier, he's trained to act that way—take it from someone who's not only worked at a Air Base for two years, but someone who's dated a girl leaving for the Air Force and is best friends with a current Army soldier. When Johnson is suited up and with gear, he acts exactly like a soldier should. He gets a couple nice scenes with his wife and son early on too, and there he doesn't act like a soldier, he acts like a husband and father. He laughs with his son. He tells stories with his wife. He emotes perfectly fine.
Even when the film does slow down a bit with several scenes of exposition, "perfectly fine" is still an able description of it. At it's best it's applause-worthy though, and my audience burst into applause several times at key moments. Those key moments are worthy of the biggest screen you can find; when Edwards finally cuts loose and lets the monsters rumble, nothing can prepare you for the amount of awe-inducing shots. Director of Photography Seamus McGarvey crafts some of the best wide shots I've ever seen before, Edwards and Editor Bob Ducsay keep the cuts to a minimum and give us several extended tracking shots of sheer mayhem, and Alexandre Desplat gives the film a booming, awesome score worthy of the King of Monsters. Akira Ifukube's classic Gojira theme is missing, but Desplat makes sure you never actually miss it. If there's anything to miss, it's Olsen herself—outside of some brief scenes running away from monsters, she's not given nearly as much to do as everyone else. At times it feels like her runtime was cut, but it's not detrimental to the movie as a whole.
Still, Godzilla is given plenty of screen time. Many have also complained that the titular creature merely cameos; those that complain must subscribe to the Michael Bay school of thought that explosions and action must carry on for hours on end. What Edwards has done here gives us a more thoughtful, slow-burn monster movie that builds to a fantastic climax, and it does pay off much better than any Transformers movie ever has. Think of it this way: in the original 1954 Godzilla, he only gets 17 minutes of screen time. Darth Vader is only in 12 minutes of "A New Hope". The Joker is only in 33 minutes of the 152 minute "The Dark Knight". Edward's Godzilla is only in about 20 minutes of the movie but like the above examples, it feels like a lot more.
At the end of the day the king is back and Gareth Edwards tried to make the film the best he could and succeeded .
Grade: A-