Movies: Godzilla

Score:  *** out of ***** (C)

Long Story Short:  Summer's "biggest" film (if we're measuring by size of the film's star) comes out in the form of an updated classic, Godzilla.  Despite very promising previews, this film is a disaster, and I don't mean the genre.  A suspenseful intro with interesting characters quickly dissolves into a senseless, even dull chase/disaster film with too many boring humans and not enough monster mayhem (until there's too much).  Skip.


May keeps bringing more big movies to the theater, and so far I'm keeping pace!  I'm back to action with this one and, if I get to see the films I'd like to for the rest of the month, there will be more action and comedy to follow.  I'm not a particular fan of Godzilla - in fact, I've never seen any of the originals (saw the 1998 version but don't even remember it).  However, a trailer made it look quite promising as a disaster film, along with Breaking Bad's great Bryan Cranston.  Godzilla, the 2014 update, was directed by Gareth Edwards and stars Cranston, Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Ken Watanabe.

Starting off in 1999, a team of scientists is called to a quarry in the Philippines where a massive skeleton is found deep underground, along with two mysterious cocoon-like structures.  At the same time, in Japan, Joe Brody (Cranston) works at a nuclear facility and a seismic event causes a catastrophe that leaves him with a deep personal scar.  Flash forward to 2014, and Joe relentlessly pursues the source of the 1999 disaster.  His son, Ford (Johnson) comes to Japan to get him out of trouble for snooping around.  In exploring the wreckage of their former hometown, the two stumble upon a shocking operation.

The 1999 event was no "natural disaster", as Joe and Ford discover a new world.  And just in time, because that event is about to repeat itself, and this time there's going to be much more trouble.  A small group, including the scientists from the Philippines, help in the race against time - but can mankind do anything to stop the impending doom?

Godzilla features an impressive cast that is given an increasingly awful script to work with.  Bryan Cranston plays the traumatized, conspiracy-theory father, Joe.  Spoiler alert: despite his prominent role in advertisements, he's only in about the first 30 minutes or so.  He does a great job with much of the set up at the beginning of the film, then gets handed crap (which he delivers as well as possible) near the end of his time.  After that, Aaron Taylor-Johnson takes the lead's reins as Joe's son.  Like Cranston, Aaron does good work with some of his early scenes (a warm-hearted protector), but his role crumbles into dullness and cliche as the film goes along.  His wife is played by Elizabeth Olsen, a role that is so meaningless it should have been scrapped entirely.  Ken Watanabe is intriguing as a scientist, Dr. Serizawa, and doesn't get enough screen time for his part to be ruined.  There are more stars with small roles, none of them particularly notable (Sally Hawkins, David Straitharn).

On those cheerful notes about the cast, what about the rest of the film?  Godzilla represents an interesting, perhaps unique, challenge as a modern film.  It has a huge and loyal following, back to the days when Godzilla was a man in a monster suit - but today, technical wizardry can make just about anything look real at the click of a button.  Old Godzilla films featured fun, epic throw downs between giant monsters, while today's films tend more toward ominous themes directly related to present challenges (terrorism, climate change, etc.).  This film tries to have it all.  It is sparing, in a modern way, with its use of monsters:  Godzilla doesn't really show up until about halfway through.  Yet by the end, we have mayhem on a truly immense (I would say ridiculous) scale.  Godzilla has an interesting, suspenseful introduction, but this unspools rather quickly into bland "how do we kill the monster?" talk which proceeds as expected.

***

I really had high hopes for Godzilla.  The trailer presented what seemed to be a fairly realistic version of the classic as a disaster film, featuring top-flight acting talent led by Bryan Cranston.  Talk about false advertising (even more misleading than last year's Now You See Me).  All the problems basically come down to the film wanting to have it all, as described earlier.  The film has such a promising start, but they don't stick to the intelligence, suspense, and interesting human elements that it offered.  If they wanted to have the monster mash that it ends up as, then fine:  but if so, then a much more silly (there are so many opportunities for humor!), much less serious attitude needed to be taken throughout.  As it is, a neat set-up and characterization gets flushed down the toilet, and the "serious" scenes of the massive devastation caused by the monsters (hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people killed) are superseded by an unaffecting "family" element.  The only reason that this gets a "C" is that it's fairly entertaining in some spots despite being a pretty bad film (like last year's Kick Ass 2 - also starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson!).  If you're going to see this, it should be in the theater - but it's also not worth the money.  So, if you have a decent-sized screen at home, go rent/Netflix a similar but superior film:  Pacific Rim.  Godzilla has finally met his match - Hollywood executives and their writers!