Ahead of seeing Godzilla vs. Kong, I’m rewatching the three most recent films featuring these two, starting with 2014’s Godzilla.
{🚨SPOILERS🚨}: Directed by Gareth Edwards, Godzilla is the 2014 reboot of the iconic king of monsters, and the first installment of Legendary’s cinematic monsterverse. The story is mostly from the perspective of the mysterious group Monarch and a young soldier named Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor Johnson). Ford, after a series of catastrophic events, is attempting to reunite with his family, while getting caught in the crossfire of ancient monsters who have arisen: parasitic monsters called MUTOs, who feed off radiation and seek to repopulate in order to take control of the Earth; and the mighty Godzilla, who seeks to destroy the MUTOs and maintain the natural order of the world. The monsters leave colossal destruction in their wake, and their war could forever change the world and threaten the survival of humanity.
For as long as I can remember I have always been a massive fan of Godzilla and all his films. I have seen and own almost every single film he has been in, from all the different eras. When this film came out in 2014 I was very excited to watch it, seeing as they were properly adapting the iconic monster after the failure of the 1998 attempt by TriStar Pictures. And after I watched it in 2014 I absolutely loved it and still consider it one of my favorite Godzilla/Monster films to this day.
I know many people take issue with this film for a variety of reasons (some of which I can totally understand) but I still think this is one of the strongest installments of the monsterverse so far, since its main goal was to be a competent film, in which I believe it succeeded. Yes, many people (including myself) love having fun monster action and destruction, but at the same time I think it was great to have a new, mature take on Godzilla from the hands of a talented director. There’s a lot of amazingly impactful and creatively thrilling scenes in this film, as well as strong narrative themes that get expanded on in later installments, even as things get more action focused.
This has been the only monsterverse film so far where I cared for all the human characters, because they all had some good development. Being able to witness events from their grounded perspective really added to the thrills and tension in this film. It reminds me of what Gareth Edwards did with his film Monsters, which had a similar direction and point of view as Godzilla, though on a much smaller budget. I can understand why some people may not like this direction for a giant monster film but I personally think it was a great choice, and in a way it also honors the original Godzilla from 1954, which had a similar style and feel to this adaptation.
In fact the very opening credits of this film does give tribute to the original film by showing attempts to kill Godzilla in Bikini Atoll with a nuclear bomb in the year 1954, almost making this 2014 film a spiritual sequel. It’s not just because of easter eggs like this, but also the themes and tone of this film match the maturity of the 1954 film.
People seem to forget that before Godzilla was a badass monster in fun kaiju flicks, he was a symbol of nuclear holocaust from Japan’s perspective, nature taking revenge on mankind for its actions. That theme is present here, albeit in a different way. The use of nuclear weaponry and energy is always shown to have great consequence in this film, as well as how humanity’s manipulation of nature and obsession to control everything can have great consequences. Some of these themes do carry on through the monsterverse, but they aren’t focused on as much, and are instead more in favor of monster action.
The human characters in this film may be bigger than life, but they all have great performances from their individual actors/actresses. Aaron Taylor Johnson serves as a decent lead, and being able to witness many of the events from his perspective is actually exciting, thrilling and sometimes terrifying.
But among the characters there are definitely two main standouts, both for their performances and development. We have Ken Watanbe as Dr. Ishirō Serizawa, one of the major heads of the Monarch Project, who seems to really understand these creatures, seeing how they can be a danger or an ally. He understands that nature should be allowed to take its course and that further human interference could worsen things, which is something he has experienced both in the past and present. Watanabe delivered such a great performance here, and would do so again in the sequel.
The second stand out is Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody, Ford’s estranged father and former lead engineer at the Janjira nuclear plant, until its destruction in 1999 by a MUTO in the beginning of the film. While he is unfortunately not in the film as long as many people would wish, he perhaps gives the strongest and most emotional performance. Some of the scenes that hit hardest including the nuclear plant scene where he is forced to watch his wife (Juliette Binoche) in the destruction of the plant due to radiation exposure. Scenes like that and others make for a really strong first act that I was invested in, even before Godzilla makes his appearance.
Now let’s discuss those monsters. As mentioned before, we do mostly see them through a human perspective, and most of the grand monster action is left for the third act. I can totally understand why people didn’t like this choice, but personally I think it really establishes how terrifying the monsters are and just how destructive they can be in their rampage across the globe. I also love the fact that they all have such a great set up for their appearance, with Godzilla perhaps having the best entrance of all.
Perhaps my favorite scene in the film is seeing Godzilla arrive in Hawaii, spearheaded by a destructive tsunami, and of course shown in truly tension filled scale of just how massive he is, right before we get our big reveal of him and that beautifully powerful roar. It’s such a perfect introduction for the king of monsters that is so unforgettable, even thinking of it still gives me goosebumps and a dumb grin on my face.
Godzilla has other great scenes too, like when he arrives in San Francisco and ends up having a rather destructive entry when the military fires upon him. And of course there are fights with the MUTOs, which when we do finally get to witness, and they’re all really fun and exciting. And we of course get his classic and deadly atomic breath in action, which was really well earned fan service and leads to a great execution of one of the MUTOs.
The MUTOs themselves are a unique addition to the film, and the Godzilla franchise as a whole, since they are original monsters and not based off anything in Godzilla’s rogues gallery. The first one we are introduced to is a male MUTO that has the ability to fly and is able to use an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) to wipe out all electronics in a large radius, which puts the military forces at an extreme disadvantage and leads to very destructive sequences. The female MUTO shares the same ability though is not able to fly. However, she is much larger than the male, and ends being just as destructive and dangerous, and both serve as powerful adversaries to Godzilla. Both MUTOs end up having really awesome tension filled scenes; for the male MUTO we have its violent awakening, and for the female we have its attack on a military escort on the train tracks. For two original monsters they were awesome and the action they deliver alongside Godzilla is great.
If I were to maybe give one particular criticism on the action, primarily in the third ac, I will say it seemed rather too dark in a lot of scenes. People have had this complaint primarily for the sequel, but I’m actually able to see everything happen in the sequel, while here it is difficult to make out stuff in certain sequences. As I write this review, I understand that a remastered 4K version of this film is on the way, which fixes this issue, so I’m glad to know the filmmakers acknowledged this issue and have found the means to fix it. There is no real need to have it so dark when the visuals and effects are truly outstanding. I love the design and CGI for all the monsters, especially Godzilla. They all look so great so there’s no real need to hide it so much. It kind of takes away all the hard work the CGI artists have done for this film.
The cinematography is truly outstanding, giving us some epic and tension filled shots that add so much to the film as whole. Perhaps my favorite sequence that combines the amazing visuals and cinematography would have to be the halo jump. I think everyone can agree that scene is truly incredible and it was the one that truly hooked the audience from the start since it was shown in the first trailer (although in the final product some parts of it were different from the trailer, but still awesome).
And of course, no one can forget the truly haunting score by Alexandre Desplat, which also adds so much to this film as a whole.
There was truly so much care and effort put into this film. The direction and narrative is probably the best of all the monsterverse films, and even though it sets things up for future installments, it focuses on being a stand alone film. The creators made a very competent and well crafted film that not only pays respect to the source material but offers a more thematic monster film, compared to the more action heavy films we later get. I’m going to give Godzilla an A.
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