Godzilla (2014) Review

It's hard to write about this movie without giving out major spoilers. I liked this movie so I don't want to spoil it for people. 

Let's get something straight first: Why do people want to watch Godzilla? They want to see the giant monster of course! However, modern movie audiences are so much different from the old audiences of the old Godzilla movies. You show a kid an old Godzilla movie and I doubt he can appreciate the special effects in their context or the work put in to make it look good. Special effects have advanced considerably and the possibilities of computer-generated imagery are limitless. That's a problem. 

Modern movies are already so saturated with CGI effects that it can get old real fast. The amount of destruction we see in a typical Transformers movie is already a lot if you think about it. The average person has probably seen so much simulated destruction of cities already that it isn't impressive. It doesn't make as go, "Woah..." OK, maybe the first few minutes are amazing but if you get fed the same slop for an extended period of time, you get sick of it.

So the problem then, for this Godzilla movie, is that people want to see the monster but if you overexpose the monster, it won't be as awesome anymore. I sincerely doubt movie audiences can really stomach an "old school" Godzilla movie where choppers just follow Godzilla around for two whole hours non-stop while scientists and poorly dubbed Japanese people talk about how important everything is.

So the problem then is to prevent overexposure of the monster. The solution is to slowly build up the monster (to make us want to see it even more) while adding a human drama element to keep the audience attached in the meantime and place themselves into the movie. If you'll notice, the trailers themselves don't even reveal much of the plot or the monster. So everything has to be rationed and doled out efficiently and effectively. The movie succeeds in this in my opinion.

The Human Drama Element

First of all, it wasn't stupid or insulting to the intelligence so that's a major plus. Bryan Cranston does an incredible job acting and pretty much carries the movie all by himself for the crucial first part of the show. The lead, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is alright enough. I didn't mind him. I like Ken Watanabe because he's Ken Watanabe. Let me just sum it up by saying that there were no major problems as far as the acting talent is concerned. Nothing was stupid or made you roll your eyes. There was nobody named, "Niko Tatopolous" or shit like that. There is no lameness or attempts to be tongue-in-cheek here.

As to the plot of the human drama, it's not that strong. It's standard stuff; military has a plan, they don't listen to the scientist, the hero is separated from his wife, raised stakes, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with that. You can't have the human story get too convoluted lest we forget about the three hundred fifty foot monster, you know?

The Monster

Oh man. OK, let me just say this: People complain about not seeing enough of the monster. Again, I doubt the audiences today can stomach two hours of watching Godzilla walk to some place to do some thing. You build it up, it appears, it does its thing and then it leaves. The film cuts back to the humans a lot and that's supposed to tease you. I totally understand if people have no patience for these games but personally, I can appreciate why they did it. You gotta have them begging on their knees for more. You gotta work em' good for that big payoff.

Do we get it though? Yeah, don't worry. The end is satisfying. You see just enough. You don't see too much where it gets too over the top ridiculous and clashes with the straight and serious tone of the movie.  It's not too little either where you feel you were outright cheated out of your money.

That's pretty much all I can say about this movie. It's enough. Not too much, not too little. It hits it just right. I thought it was good and I recommend it.

So thumbs up, eh?