Marval Movie

I once made a joke that if the new Godzilla movie sucks then at least we have Pacific Rim. Now that I've seen the movie that joke seems to be a genuine statement rather than some banter that I had with my friends.

The movie starts off in Japan (of-course), where a scientist named Brody (Bryan Cranston) is working at a local power-plant.  All seems well with him and his family until there is some kind of disaster, the plant gets damaged and there's a radiation leak and Brody' wife is a casualty. Cut to years later where Brody is still looking for answers and his son Ford (Aaron Taylor Johnson) has grown up and is a father and married (Elizabeth Olsen).

We then see that there is an egg at the center of the plant and it hatches. But what comes out is not Godzilla but a different monster. I genuinely applaud the marketing people because there was never a hint of this in any of the trailers or promotional material, this is a legitimate surprise.

But for the main attraction we do get Godzilla, we get the appropriate amount of buildup for him and then we see him and then he's gone, then we see him again for a bit then poof, gone again and it goes on like that through the whole movie. He does come with that all-mighty roar, one of the greatest sounds in movies (I'm calling it). When we see him its awesome, it really is but he's scattered through the movie. A little of Godzilla here a little Godzilla there, we never get to really soak him up and enjoy him. But still he's designed well and we see him do what he does best.

Throughout the movie there is a heavy emphasis on nuclear weapons and that's good because that was the reason that the Kaiju genre was created. Because of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Godzilla was the living embodiment of the nuclear devastation. Godzilla and the nukes should always be tided together.

America specializes in long range warfare. They have tanks that can successfully hit their targets from over a mile away and yet it seems like whoever is manning these tanks and planes weren't told that because they are constantly getting as close as they can to Godzilla. There is a scene where fighter planes are either circling Godzilla as close as they can or flat out ramming into him. Why? Did they run out of ammo so they decided to throw themselves at him?

The Asian market is quickly becoming one of the most important markets for the box office, a movie could do badly in America but if it does well in Asia the movie could still be very profitable. So that's probably one of the reasons why this movie was made. Yet they constantly white wash the cast and situations, Ken Watanabe is the only real Asian member of the cast. There are American's working in Japan, OK I accept that but it seems that the power-plant where they work in the beginning of the movie only has a few Asian employees. Later on in the movie white Americans come into the military base and say that they'll be taking over. Why? How? What right do they have to do this?

There are only two actors that are able to get close to a good performance in this movie. The first is naturally Bryan Cranston, he is one of the greatest actors ever, so naturally he gives a very well felt, engaging performance. The second is Elizabeth Olsen who I know a little about but have never actually seen her in action through a whole movie until now. This wasn't the best thing to see her in first, but still she gives it her all. Its not even the others actors fault, I've seen their other work and their accomplished actors but their given nothing to work with or care about. The are as interesting and as well developed and little plastic toy soldiers.

It seems that CGI animators that work on these blockbuster movies really hate building. In Man of Steel they devastated building after building and now we have a Kaiju to trample every man made monument in sight.

My ow my there is a lot of gray in this movie. The smoke is gray, the buildings are gray and Godzilla himself is also gray so we get to see gray on gray upon gray. How unpleasing to the eye.

Director Gareth Edwards won claim when he made Monsters where he made the entire thing on his laptop. Well it seems I know what kind of director he is, he's a big effects effects effects director. The movie is well put together with its shooting and cinematography but there's nothing to hook in the audience so that we are invested. This is a soulless movie.

Its fascinating to think that everything that infuriates me in this movie is everything that Pacific Rim did right.  In Pacific Rim there was color, characters that we cared about and were interesting, you got to see the monsters in combat and there was a balance of the micro and the macro.

If at any point you don't know how to feel in the movie the musical score will be sure to let you know.  Every wide shot of destruction, or moment of build up there is a score which serves as Oow, Ah, or Wow! It is practically condesending.

To be as fair as I possibly can to this movie there was clearly effort put into it and at times there are some genuinely awesome moments in it, but its the equivalent of giving you a tiny taste of a delicious cake and then immediately taking the cake away. Godzilla is king of the monsters, but you wouldn't know it by watching this movie, still though long live the king.

Rating: 1 1/2 stars out of 4