Welcome back, readers. Years ago, amid a sea of monster cinema there rose, above all, one true king of kaiju. His reign was great and varied, spanning several decades, almost 30 movies, and who knows how much spinoff material. The rabid acclaim that followed in its wake opened Americans up to a treasure trove of Japanese media, complete with giant robots, gritty cyberpunk action, magical girls that transform by getting naked, and poor dubbing jobs (yeah, Astro Boy and Kurosawa probably helped too). Who was this king, you ask? It was Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
Sadly, all reigns must come to an end, and often they’re killed off by some joke of a usurper. Who was this usurper in the case of Gojira, you ask? Well, they would tell you they went in with the best intentions, but it was all for naught:
While the Godzilla movies trudged onward in Japan, it’s been too long since we’ve had a decent monster flick in the States (the last good one I remember is Japanese import Godzilla 2000, and I am no fan of Cloverfield). But in December 2013, the first teaser trailer for the 2014 American reboot was released, and it seemed like we were finally about to witness the return of the king (sorry Tolkien). But how does Godzilla 2014 measure up to old Goji, really? Is it any good?
Yes. A resounding yes. Review over. Okay, not really. You guys probably wanna know why I liked this Gahdziller movie; that’s why you’re here, right? But be careful what you wish for, because I’ve got a LOT to say about this one. A lot.
Godzilla 2014 opens with a cryptic credits roll that actually reveals more about the movie than it lets on, but at first is just an eerie mood-setter. It then doesn’t follow up with anything that shows actual monsters. Instead, the first scene depicts a helicopter touching down in a mine in the Philippines in 1999. It struck me immediately – and some other reviewers apparently – that this and other scenes were taken right out of the Jurassic Park playbook. A lot of the first act looks like the 1993 smash hit; I think the studio intentionally called upon the spirit of the old god of blockbuster-era creature features.
They do it again in the first on-screen MUTO attack at the Janjira nuclear plant, which, with its fantastic light and camera effects, looks like the famous T-Rex breakout scene in Jurassic Park. This was a great callback, but I found the Philippines scene and others like it especially effective in building the tension leading up to the actual reveals of the respective monsters (three of ’em). That leads me to my main point: the other biggest strength is the movie’s restraint, by a frequent use of human-centric scenes and more sparing use of special effects.
As I’m sure many other reviews have said, you don’t see Godzilla until around two-thirds of the way into the movie, and even the first MUTO not until the end of the first half hour or so. The movie holds back on depicting monsters or monster-to-monster combat (even the footage of Godzilla and co. destroying cities is fairly scarce), first because it builds tension as mentioned, but also because it means we’re not worn on the monsters by the end; seeing them always remains fresh and fun.
This speaks directly to an issue of many modern blockbusters: too much CGI and too much spectacle right out the gates – they pull all the stops so fast that nothing is exciting anymore before long. Godzilla 2014 is not a CGI-fest; it uses CGI, but those effects are implemented strictly as needed – no more and no less. The overuse of computer graphics and other effects in movies over the last decade has really soured audiences on them; it just doesn’t look all that special or dazzle us, and a lot of times just makes everything look more artificial (my girlfriend once fittingly described the Star Wars prequels as seeming “like a video game”). Godzilla 2014 insists on craftiness and creativity, which keeps the viewer engaged because it seems actually more real than if they had merely relied on a computer to generate all the “non-actor stuff” and just left it at that.
But there’s more to it than that. The human-centered scenes, especially those in the first act, are a bit cringeworthy at times and oftentimes kinda dull, yet that’s perfectly okay. Of course you need a human emotional component to set the basis for why we care about the characters, and you need scientists to explain in technobabble why all the science fiction stuff is happening, so on and so forth. That’s all a necessary part of any blockbuster, as Jurassic Park recognized, even if all people really want is to see giant monsters battle. But then because of all that explaining and building up to the big moment, this weakness works entirely to the movie’s favor.
By “stalling,” Godzilla 2014 forces the viewer to wait. Seeing very little of the monsters helps build excitement, which gets bottled up until it’s set to burst. You’re keeping it in for so much of the movie that by the time Godzilla lets out his famous roar for the first time, you can barely contain yourself. And then even when they’re revealed, due to the relative lack of full-on kaiju footage and much greater focus on humans at most points, the movie has you begging for more. It translates into a healthy balance between explosive CGI action and the movie’s other elements, which is sorely missing from modern blockbusters.
Godzilla 2014 is also really strong in terms of mood-setting and other subtle show-don’t-tell elements. The rarity of the creatures actually appearing on-screen and their sparseness when they do – especially in the scene right after the one in the teaser trailer above – magnifies the perceived immensity of the beasts. The score for this movie was awesome as well – mostly brooding and ominous, and always in the right places. As a friend put it, the score “seemed to accentuate the action instead of just accompany[ing] it.” The post-nuclear city Janjira, although created by CGI, is gorgeous, and contains easter eggs that will no doubt become important in sequels. For instance (SPOILERS), the main character’s childhood bedroom contains an empty glass case, as one would use to keep fish or reptiles, or maybe an insect. The fading label on the side without broken glass says “Mothra.”
At its core, sure, Godzilla is just a movie about giant monsters fighting each other, but the way they get there is a cautionary tale about nuclear weapons (same as its 1954 progenitor) and about messing with the forces of nature. The moral of the story may not be so obvious up front, but at least it isn’t expressed in ways that feel shoehorned or pseudo-intellectual. I liked that they tried not to be mindless, unlike the Transformers franchise or other cash cow “blockbusters.” Of course it’s no psychological thinker or emotive, intelligent drama, but that doesn’t make it mindless. I dunno, this was the hardest part of the review to articulate; just watch Jurassic Park to see what I mean.
In a time when blockbusters are failing left and right and nobody seems to know what went wrong, Godzilla 2014 shows Hollywood how a blockbuster looks when it’s done right. It’s seriously the best blockbuster action film I’ve seen in years, and it’s because a good blockbuster can’t just be some mindless action flick built to play on cheap emotions. Contrary to what a lot of people (and Hollywood) seem to believe, a good blockbuster has to either make you think or make you feel something genuinely and legitimately. Jurassic Park posited that life always finds a way, Star Wars that hope can be found even in the darkest times, and Lord of the Rings showed how a small person can humble the world. I tip my hat to Legendary and Warner Bros. for wising up to the lesson of a good blockbuster.
I give Godzilla 2014 an 8.5 out of 10 for being a smash hit that’s certainly not perfect, but filled with enough excitement to drive itself for however much of the way it falls short. Thanks for reading you guys; perhaps some other time I’ll go more in-depth about why I don’t like most blockbusters today, but how it can be done right. See you next week.
Hopped on Pop 
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