Dir. Gareth Edwards
Reviewed by Matt ‘Kaiju’ Adcock
Read the newspaper version of this review over at: The Gazette
“You're hiding something out there! And it is going to send us back to the Stone Age! God help us all...”
When will we puny humans learn eh?
Radioactive material (and weapons in particular) are going to cause problems somewhere down the line – be it radiation pollution / sickness, total world-wide nuclear destruction or ‘just’ a massive mutant monster or three…
This new version of Godzilla is big budget and machine tooled to be a huge crowd-pleasing blockbuster but also strives to be faithful to the Toho Co. series of Godzilla films. And for the first hour Brit Director Gareth ‘Monsters’ Edwards delivers the prerequisite build up in fine style – right from the classy scene setting credits – if you’re a fan of monster films you’ll be immediately smiling at the clever fan boy service.
"iconic silhouette"
We get a great prologue where nuclear scientist Joe Brody (Bryan ‘Breaking Bad’ Cranston) faces an unexplainable disaster at a Japanese nuclear power plant where he works – losing a loved one which is an emotional depth charge that ripples throughout the rest of the film.
Fast-forward 15 years and his son Ford (Aaron ‘Kick-Ass’ Taylor-Johnson) is a Lieutenant in the US Navy, still troubled by the earlier events as well as his dad’s inability to stop digging behind official explanations. Elizabeth Olsen is on hand as Ford’s wife – but isn’t tasked with much more than looking good and getting into minor peril.
The star here though are the creatures (yes more than one) who dominate every second that they are on screen – Godzilla himself is resplendent, surely the definitive icon look of the creature for some time to come as the ‘Alpha Predator’. When the monsters go at it in full city wrecking mode it is just jaw dropping to witness and makes up for the slightly forgettable human storylines.
"it's there - somewhere..."
This Godzilla movie is a beast of two halves – slow burn build up which then flips into heavy duty action and whilst the transition between the two is a bit clunky – all you’ll go away thinking about will be the sight of a 350ft force of nature smashing all in it’s path.
Is this a classic – not really, but it is a valiant and respectful reimagining that would be a good starting point for a sequel… Personally I’d be up for a Kind Kong / Godzilla rematch!!
"we might have a problem here..."
Out of a potential 5 you have to go with a Darkmatters:
ööö1/2
(3.5 - the 'god' monster is back)
Awesomeness öööö – some memorable monstrous moments
Laughs öö – some mirth
Horror öö – not too grim as monsters go...
Babes öö – Olsen looks good in scrubs
Spiritual Enlightenment öö - Kaiju render humans redundant
Recommended Hashtags: #Kaiju-bilation
"shock and awe"
1 comment:
This is a movie of tremendous visual daring, magnificent special-effects work and surprising moral gravity.
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