Godzilla

Ok, so this is hardly obscure, it's the biggest opening movie so far in 2014, but it's still Godzilla and I remember when it was rare as hell to see them in the theater, so I say it qualifies lol.

Of course the biggest fear most people had was that any non Japanese film starring The Big G would be as big a mess as the 1998 film. Granted I didn't hate it as much as most people and think it would have been better received if it hadn't tried to pass itself off as a Godzilla film, but it was a colossal disappointment. This probably wasn't helped by the choice of director, Gareth Edwards. His previous film, 2010's “Monsters” is a great film, but it's also his only feature and was made for pocket change. Could he handle a $160 million dollar blockbuster? Even Peter Jackson hadn't made that big a leap, having at least done “The Frighteners” to get familiar with studio work before taking on LOTR.

Thankfully, Gareth proves to be more than up to the task and delivers a film that mixes the original film's buildup and suspense with the kaiju battles of the later films while avoiding the pro wrestling inspired silliness that marked the film's low points.

One of the main complaints about the film is that it's slow to start, and at first I was actually in agreement with those complaints. But as the film went on it became obvious that starting off focusing on the human characters pays off and you actually care about them and their fate.

The film starts with a presentation that gives a quick background to the situation, which is somewhat different from the Toho version but still close. It also begins in the same way as the original, (and by that I mean the Japanese “Gojira”, not the recut American version), slowly with just suggestions and brief glimpses among the character’s being built up. The destruction of the nuclear plant is impressive on both the emotional and visual levels, but even then the creature is kept entirely off screen.

It's a good half hour until we see the MUTO, and that is a spectacular sequence well worth the build up as it hatches from a giant cocoon and lays waste to all around. Godzilla himself doesn't make a full appearance until nearly an hour in, and when it does it is spectacular and at that point the action kicks in and doesn't stop till the end.

This time around the creatures are a mix of CGI and motion capture and it is some of the best CGI I've ever seen. They look real and imposing, move like they have actual mass and weight and are very convincing. A special mention has to be given to Godzilla's fire breath, although badly underused, the effect is stunning looking more like lightning than fire.

On the down side, at times it seems our hero has a knack for coincidentally being in the right place at the right time and it starts to feel a bit forced towards the end of the film. Also the cast is fairly small which goes a bit against establishing the scope of the events.

So while not all it could have been, Godzilla is still a damn good way to spend a couple of hours and highly recommended.

Godzilla (2014) Trailer