Godzilla (2014)
Mommy, Look, Dinosaurs
Sam Brody
Summary:
Godzilla follows the story of Ford Brady, 15 years after a nuclear power plant accident that killed his mother. After returning from deployment, he goes to see his father, although unwillingly, where he discovered that his father, Joe Brody, still believes the government is hiding details surrounding the accident. Joe convinces Ford to return to his childhood home and the location of the accident. Although Joe had theories, they could have never imagined the true cause of the accident.
Characters:
Godzilla has two parallel storylines happening, which follow different sets of characters. From the background and science perspective is Doctor Serizawa, played by Ken Watanabe. Serizawa is a lead doctor part of Operation Monarch, an international coalition who studies beasts from the time of the dinosaurs. From the military perspective, the movie follows Brody Ford, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Ford suffered many traumas during his childhood. After a disaster 15 years ago, he tries to repair his relationship with his father and help protect his family.
Sebastian: 8.5/10
As with many of the older movies we review (though this one isn’t that old) I have seen this movie and upon my rewatch I found I enjoyed this more than the first time. To be clear the first time I saw this I was 11 years old and wanted to see big monsters fight and I did not appreciate the science and the mystery of the first half of the film. The movie really takes its time to reveal Godzilla and it has some really interesting ideas that it introduces. This movie definitely has elements that are easy to tell where to create its own cinematic universe especially with Monarch an organization that monitors these creatures which definitely sets up more movies in a connected universe. The acting in this movie is pretty solid overall though as with many kaiju movies the characters are just to show the human perspective to the destruction the creatures’ cause. Joe Brody ( as played by Bryan Cranston) is an engineer who lost his wife in a nuclear power plant meltdown 15 years ago but he believes that something else happened and the government covered it up. He wants to know what actually happened. Cranston gets some really good acting moments throughout the movie as we get to see him at pretty high emotions almost constantly and Cranston does a good job. Ford Brody (as played by Aaron-Taylor Johnson) is the son of Joe and he is a soldier who does not believe his father’s wild tales of a government conspiracy but after he witnesses one of the creature’s attacks he is thrust into this world of monsters while he tries to make it home to his wife and son. Johnson does a good job portraying someone who found his way into this accidentally and just wants to do what’s right though at times he does not look as shocked as one might expect. The rest of the cast also does a really good job with Elizabeth Olsen and Ken Watanabe being the other standouts. The scientific aspect plays a large role in this film as we are told how these creatures are older than humanity and how they feed on radiation. Godzilla himself is really built up and when you finally get to see him it is awesome and there is a huge sense of scale when you see how large he is. My only criticism ( which is one I know others have made) is that in a film called Godzilla we don’t see Godzilla for long and when he is there it is almost always dark and while I know this is corrected in subsequent films it is still a complaint about this one.
All in all, this is a pretty good movie filled with action and suspense that I’m glad I revisited before going to see Godzilla vs Kong and I would definitely recommend it to others. So, hop on Netflix and see what you think.
Nathanyal: 8.5/10
For my first time viewing Godzilla, I found the concept really interesting. From my point of view, I had always thought Godzilla was a crazy monster that destroys lives and terrorizes cities. Instead, I was greeted with a protector instead. And I found this perspective very endearing and interesting. It was enjoyable to watch him fight other creatures the same size as him, and it made the fights a lot more intense and even. Another aspect I enjoyed about this movie was its opening scene. Quick and to the point, this movie sets up a massive tragedy that pulls the viewer in. Even with the short screen time of some characters, enough time was given so that the audience can feel loss during the disaster. For the most part, this movie delivered on its main premise. When you watch a movie about giant monsters walking the Earth, you would want to see big fights and destruction. Now, in this movie, not only do you get destruction, you also get more monsters of equal size, which raises the intensity up a level.
Now, there are only a few downsides to this movie. For one, it has a long runtime. For a 2-hour movie, it doesn’t really accomplish all that much plot wise. Most of the screen time is spent following the monsters to the location of their final standoff. With a shorter runtime, the movie could have kept the intensity without people losing focus. Another downside is that the last battle scene is quite dark. Some of the action gets lost since the background is black and the monsters are black.
Overall, this was still an enjoyable movie to watch. There are some good action scenes, the characters are alright, and it mostly delivers on what you expect. I did appreciate the different perspective it brought with Godzilla being a creature that restores order and wasn’t necessarily the antagonist.
Austin: 8.0/10
Godzilla is a pretty decent movie, built on some classic characters. The story itself is completely different from the original movie, but I liked this one more. The plot is entertaining, and I loved the idea of Godzilla as a protagonist as opposed to an antagonist. There is more meaning to the plot, and it is action-packed.
I really enjoyed the fact that this plot is science-driven, and I could imagine it happening for real. The setup as to how Godzilla and the other creatures exist was plausible enough that it keeps your mind turning. The plot hinges on these creatures and the great visual effects add to the entertainment value of the movie. The speed of the plot was slow at times, and I really felt this movie didn’t need to be 2 hours. We either needed more plot, or less movie, to make this a quality watch, but instead, it felt overstretched.
The characters are pretty decent, but I thought the acting made them better than the writers did. Ford is an interesting character that fits into an archetype at the beginning of the movie, and I didn’t really expect that to change. It was a welcome surprise to see his character arc shift and grow as the movie progresses. Although the movie gets a sequel, we don’t see the same human characters return. It may be good for the film series to progress in a new direction, but I’m not convinced the characters will be any stronger.
The only downside to this movie has gotta be the fact that it is so so slow at times. For an action-packed movie with a pretty decent plot, the slow moments kinda caught me off guard. I didn’t expect to be bored at any point, but it did happen a few times. The dialogue wasn’t always fantastic, but it did the job and didn’t take from the movie.
With the upcoming release of Godzilla Vs. Kong, this movie is definitely one worth checking out beforehand. I loved the direction they took with this movie, compared to previous renditions, but I still think there was a lot that could have been done better.
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