Godzilla (2014)

In 1999, a Japanese nuclear reaction accident, tied to the discovery of giant monster fossils in The Philippines, killed nuclear engineer Joe Brody’s (Bryan Cranston) wife. Now, Brody is obsessed with discovering the secret of what really happened, a secret that involves a giant monster known as a MUTO. Brody’s son, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) gets dragged into his father’s hunt, which puts him in contact with Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe), who has a zealot’s faith that the answer to their giant monster problem is another giant monster, the mysterious Godzilla.

With the many complaints from fans that the 1998 American Godzilla film was not enough like Godzilla, director Gareth Edwards and company wanted to make a movie that was heavily influenced by the Japanese productions. That’s a good thing… Right?

It is, isn’t it?

Original Godzilla flavor? Isn’t that good?

Sigh.

No, it’s not good.

There’s so much that is fantastic in the old Godzilla tales. The majesty. The fear. The deep themes. The exploration of what it is like to live in the aftermath of nuclear destruction from the only people who know. The complex characters of the 1954 film. The fun adventure of Godzilla verses Mothra. There’s a lot to grab on to. But none of that got pulled into Godzilla 2014. Edwards even made a point of ignoring the first masterpiece. His movie was going to be like the later Godzilla verses X movies.

So, what did influence them? Well, we get monsters that look like they are men in suits. We get superfluous humans characters who have no effect on anything. We spend a lot of time watching them watch screens. The military runs around a lot and shoots at the monsters but it never matters and we know it isn’t going to matter. We get characters making religious speeches or vague statements about Godzilla. We even get a Kenny (a Japanese trope of a small child that we are supposed to think is cute who ends up in the middle of the action).

The older Japanese movies spent a huge amount of time with unimportant human side plots because it was cheap. I have no idea what Edwards’s excuse is. Taylor-Johnson’s Ford Brody is as bland as bland can be. He follows along, always near the action and it is pointless. He doesn’t matter. He’s a void of personality, sucking emotion out of every scene. And there’s a lot of scenes with him. But I was more annoyed at the waste of Ken Watanabe. Maybe he was drunk. He looked it. He stands around and mutters that Godzilla will save us all. No one would listen to someone like that, and while in the film, they do listen, they then ignore him. So why is he in the movie?

“Yes,” You say, “But what about Godzilla? That’s what we are here for.” Well, I’m not. I’m here for a good plot, meaningful themes, and interesting characters. But OK, I’m not getting those, so, what about the monster? Look elsewhere. Godzilla doesn’t get a lot of screen time in this Godzilla movie. You get his back plates. And you get his foot. You get a few rear shots. But full on clear frames of Godzilla? Maybe thirty seconds worth. The rest of the time you get fog and darkness. San Francisco is really foggy. Yes, yes, it is supposed to be dust from the destruction. It doesn’t matter what it is. What it does is hide the fighting monsters. As for the MUTOs, who are also often hidden in fog and darkness, they get a bit more screen time, but then they aren’t worth more time. For the 1970s, they look pretty good, but I can’t think of a modern film that doesn’t have better looking critters.

Godzilla is a case of Hollywood learning the wrong lessons from the past.

It is connected to Kong: Skull Island as well as the still-in-production Godzilla King of the Monsters and King Kong Verses Godzilla.

For my reviews of the Japanese films, go to my Godzilla page.