Plot Synopsis
In Summer 2014, the world’s most revered monster is reborn as Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures unleash the epic action adventure “Godzilla.” From visionary new director Gareth Edwards (“Monsters”) comes a powerful story of human courage and reconciliation in the face of titanic forces of nature, when the awe-inspiring Godzilla rises to restore balance as humanity stands defenseless.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
This weekend the newest Godzilla movie made it's big screen U.S. debut. There has been a lot of anticipation among Big Monster Movie fans and even the average movie-goer for this film. I think many fans wanted to wash away the memory of the infamous 1998 version. You won't find very many people that are willing to even see that as a "real" Godzilla movie. Usually it's sited as being a crappy Jurassic Park knock-off and ridiculed for replacing the beloved prehistoric inspired King of Monsters with some "no-atomic-hearth-having, big headed, iguana". Luckily, all the promotional material leading up to the movie showed a design for Godzilla that is much closer to the "classic" look. Expectations for this new movie were high. Did Godzilla live up to those hopes?
Yes and no.
Much like my outlook on the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie, the title character exceeded my expectations to the point of being by far my favorite incarnation of the character. The problem is, the whole movie built around the character did nothing for me.
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of great things going for this movie, like great special effects and CGI, along with various picturesque settings, and competent acting. It's just that a lot of the focus is put on uninteresting material that doesn't really go any where and characters that I just don't really care about. It's pretty much the same issue I've had with the Transformers movies where way too much focus is put on the human characters rather than the characters promised in the title of the movies. Of all dozen or so main characters in this movie, I honestly think Godzilla gets the least screen time.
All the human characters are just so generic. There's the brilliant scientist that everyone thinks has gone crazy, but it turns out he's the only one who knows what's really going on. Then there is the heroic everyman that is placed in one extreme situation after another on his journey to reunite with his family. Of course there is also the man that has studied the monster his whole life and can somehow predict everything about the motives of the character. Let's not forget the General or Admiral that will do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of his country even if it means sacrificing an enormous amount of those very same people he's trying to protect. We have all seen these very same characters in numerous movies before and there is not a single thing that makes these stand out over any other.
While were on the subject of generic movie tropes, can I just ask that Hollywood stop making "Big Block Busters" that rely on the heroes stopping the bad guy before military bombs a city off the face of the Earth? It doesn't have to go away forever, just stop using it for a little while. It was recently done in Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. Hell, I just watched that same plot device last week on the season finally of Arrow!
I'm completely surprised by just how bored I was through parts of this movie. I literally caught myself nodding off at one point. That has NEVER happened to me in a movie before. I really hate the fact that they skip right over two of the big monster battles in this movie! You see the monsters about to engage one another, then they cut to a scene with people blabbing about stuff and over their shoulders you can see news reports of the battles happening, by the time they cut back, the fight is over! What a friggin' waste.
I will give the final battle credit for being pretty awesome. (I kind of has to be considering it's the only one you see.) Godzilla really shines in the last 20-30 minutes and is really outstanding, although his motives are a little unclear. Even though he does a good deal of destruction, he still manages to come across as more heroic than Superman did in Man of Steel. And if there is one redeeming thing in the movie it's this; Atomic Fire Breath. Admittedly pretty badass.
Unfortunately, this movie just did not do it for me. That's not to say that I don't what to see more Godzilla movies, I do, especially with this version of the King of Monsters, I just want everything else in the movie to be better.
Rating 5 out of 10 Godzookies:
-Brunpuppies
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