Movie Review: Godzilla (2014)

Roar Than You Bargained For?

Godzilla has always been an unlikely icon - a towering, irradiated dino with anger management issues, wicked bad breath, and a reckless disregard for skyscrapers. But despite his grizzly demeanour, The Big G has wormed his way into our collective consciousness, clawed his way to the top of the monster heap and remained a cultural mainstay for nigh-on sixty years.

Things have been quiet on the Godzilla front since 2004’s ‘Final Wars’, but now, ten years later, Toho has teamed up with Legendary pictures to dust off the atomic lizard for a whole new generation. The man tasked with bringing Godzilla out of retirement was Gareth Edwards, the little Welshman that could, who brought us the slow burning indie drama ‘Monsters.’ Edwards was a surprise choice, but his retelling of the Godzilla myth is intelligent, meticulously staged, and relentlessly entertaining.

As monster movies go, Godzilla is surprisingly reserved. Well, as reserved as a film about titanic uglies knocking lumps out of each other can be. Edward’s metes out his thrills and spills in a manner that hearkens back to classic monster mashes such as Jaws and Alien.  It’s rare to see a film of this scale puts so much faith in its audience – Godzilla rewards patience and never indulges in action for action’s sake- and the movie’s ultimately better for it. When you really get down to it, this is still a big, goofy B-movie, albeit one leavened with a sense of care and realism that elevates it above your usual blockbuster.

There’s a palpable sense of weight and scale to the destruction, and the camera doesn’t shy away from showing us the human cost such a cataclysmic event would cause. You get a real sense of what it feels like to be a tiny, vulnerable human caught in between these lumbering behemoths.

Kick Ass star, Aaron Taylor Johnson, is the human heart of the film. He steps into the boots of bomb-disposal expert Ford Brody, who pings around the globe, following in Godzilla’s tempestuous wake. Taylor’s performance has come under fire from many corners of the web, and while it’s true he often feels like little more than a cipher -our conduit into this weird world of nuclear-powered beasties- he gets the job done, providing the necessary thrust to keep the film ticking forward. We’ll concede that he isn’t necessarily the most electric leading man, but he never needs to be, he’s simply the tissue that connects the bouts of monster mayhem together.

Ken Watanabe and Bryan Cranston fare better, the former’s wide-eyed reverence for the titular beast makes him feel like some kind of Kaiju hype-man, while Cranston makes the most of his limited screen time by acting everyone else off the screen. Rest easy, Breaking Bad fans - the one who knocks, knocks it out of the park.

Edwards swings for the moon during the film’s many set-pieces. We've all seen the HALO jump from the trailers and Godzilla is crammed with these kinds of tub-thumping, crowd pleasing sequences. A tense, vertiginous stand-off on a railway bridge is a real highlight, and the climactic confrontation between Godzilla and his MUTO nemeses is the kind of thing our 12-year-old selves’ dreams were made of. 

And at the end of the day this really is Godzilla’s film. Sure, the MUTOs get the bulk of the screen time, but it’s the Lizard King who leaves the most lasting impression. He’s a frightening, slightly sorrowful creation, and when Edwards finally does unleash the beast his reverence for the character can be felt in every tic, tail swipe and teeth rattling roar.

Verdict

Relentless, intelligent and crafted with a rare verve and confidence, Godzilla, is a thinking man’s blockbuster. The only chink in its scaly armour is the slightly underwhelming human lead. Otherwise, this a film worthy of the Big G’s sixty-year legacy that finally puts the specter of Emmerich’s ’98 version to rest.