Godzilla- The monster Re-awakens. Review on Godzilla

Finally, here it is! The most anticipated movie of the summer had a few premieres around the world, and all the reviews I heard have been good. Finally saw it just now on 3D.

The movie run time is 2 hours exactly. The starting half an hour is a bit slow but the movie picks up quickly after that.

The film is directed by Gareth Edwards, whose previous works are the 2010 sci fi film, Monsters. The film stars Aaron Taylor Johnson as Ford Brody who previously starred in the action comedy films kIckass and Kickass 2. The other lead is Ken Watanabe of Inception Fame. The female lead is played by Elizabeth olsen. Brian cranston, from breaking bad, also stars for the first quarter of the film.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

PLOT:

Bryan Cranston does an outstanding job playing a nuclear physicist Joe Brody, who escapes the nuclear disaster at the start of the film. His wife(Juliette Binoche) dies in the nuclear disaster and he becomes obsessed in the years afterward because he thinks "The government" are covering something up.His son, Ford brody, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson, grows up distancing himself from his father and his sad past. He is in the us military, and has a family of his own consisting of his wife, played by Elizabeth olson, and a son who misses him dearly when he's away defusing bombs for the military. Anyway, he gets caught up in his father's pursuit of the conspiracy at the supposed nuclear fallout site, and gets arrested by the authorities at the restricted top secret military base in japan, just as an gigantic monster, or MUTO(massive unidentified terrestrial object) as the film calls it, is about to attack.

Turns out his father's suspicions were right, and Ford Brody is thrust into the struggle. All he wants to do is get home to his wife and kid, but fate and monsters conspire to keep him away from his family.Godzilla makes his appearance only close to the hour mark, and we find out that Godzilla is here to destroy the MUTOs. The story then moves from japan to San Francisco as the military tries to use nukes to lead the MUTOs and Godzilla to the same point offshore, where the human forces intend to blow them to bits. The plan doesn't work out and ultimately, the army realize they have no other choice than let godzilla deal with the MUTOs.

ACTING:

Unfortunately in a sci-fi action movie such as godzilla, the audience doesn't expect much in terms of acting. They are more interested in watching monsters smashing each other up. Brian Cranston and Ken watanabe perform flawlessly with what little material they are given. The rest of the characters are just about average and very forgettable. I was unable to connect emotionally with the lead male and female pair. Aaron taylor's acting is boring and uninspiring and I personally feel he was the wrong choice to play the hero.

CINEMATOGRAPHY:

I felt that this was the best aspect of the movie. The people who worked on this film have taken extreme care in each shot. Every scene is beautifully done. The whole movie has that dark and eerie feeling to it.The audio and soundtrack are also bone chilling. The camerawork, editing and general post production is really great.

So let me give the main things I liked in this movie:

CGI:

The cgi is mind blowing. The city, the destruction, explosions and especially the monsters look real. At no time will you feel that everything being shown onscreen was made using computers.

Camerawork:

So many beautiful shots, and the camera angles and lighting are also outstanding.

Action sequences:

Enough explosions to make any movie goer happy. The scenes where Godzilla fights the other two monsters were done very well.

Brian Cranston:

Movie makers should be giving him a lot more roles, because let me tell you, this guy can act. I dont know where he has been hiding for the past couple of decades, but he has shown himself to be one of the best actors in hollywood now.

Godzilla:

The designers did a great job and Godzilla looks awesome.

Excellent remake:

More often than not, film remakes end up being worse than the originals. But this is not the case in Godzilla. The 2014 version is 10 times better than the old one.

Now to some aspects I didn't like.

There is hardly any character development. People come and go so often throughout the movie that after sometime you stop trying to care about most people and their back stories.

The Movie trailers gave the idea that Brian Cranston was going to be the main character. Unfortunately the film makers kill him after the first half hour. I felt cheated and gutted since I came expecting to see another brilliant performance from him.

In a film named Godzilla, Godzilla only makes an appearance after an hour of the movie has passed and even after that, you only get to see godzilla for about 15 to 20 minutes throughout the entire movie. Also there is little to no explanation about why Godzilla shows up in the first place.

Godzilla somehow ends up being a good guy. Wasn't he supposed to be the end of humanity. Instead this movie turns him into a superhero like figure, who defends the people against other creatures.

The acting and dialogue was average.

Why was this released as 3D? There are hardly any scenes that utilize this aspect, and you will not feel any different if you end up watching this film in 2D. A shame considering such films have huge potential for 3D shots.

This is a good movie for people looking to just have some fun with friends on a weekend. An enjoyable movie for all ages. The first half is a bit slow but the special effects are outstanding and when Godzilla appears, it does true justice to the epic scale, size and proportion of the monsters on screen. And yet, there is something oddly familiar about Godzilla. Those who have seen the original movie will immediately reconnect with that sense of speechlessness and awe they felt when they saw Godzilla in their childhood.This is a fantastic homage to monster movies of yore and is bound to go down as a one of the big hits of 2014. Cheers!