Poor Godzilla. He's always been a big, misunderstood overgrown radioactive nuclear powered lizard death machine. Stuck in a world he never made, wandering through cities never built for him and occasionally having to put the smack down on a chump monster needing an attitude adjustment. Only very few humans seem to appreciate the good he sometimes does, even if to him, it is mostly turf guarding.
Back in 1954, Japanese film company Toho Studios brought Godzilla to the public. Spawned out of their very understandable nuclear nightmares. With many sequels and remakes on the board now, the big G is clearly entrenched in global culture. And, like the big beast himself, count on a return.
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The latest is Godzilla (2014), written by Gareth Edwards. Edward's first feature was a low budget very different giant monster movie which showed his serious chops as a filmmaker. Monsters was an indie film treat in 2010, showing Gareth Edwards as one of a crop of young, up coming filmmakers who love genre storytelling and who has a unique voice he wants to contribute to the storytelling body. So the suited powers that be showing themselves to be a bit more enlightened nowadays (and smelling a bargain when they sniff it), hired Edwards and put him on board Godzilla.
Bryan Cranston was finishing up Breaking Bad at the time, firmly establishing credibility as an actor after his performance as Walter White. Apparently the studios pursued him with a serious abandon and he played coy, turning them down. He says the script finally convinced him to come on board, but I'm guessing a serious paycheck did as well. Not that his part was a walk on check cashing. Playing an obsessed, troubled engineer propelled by grief, though a short part, was not lacking in dramatic gravitas. He did play the hell out of it. The rest of the film, we follow his adult son who is an officer in the US Navy and an trained bomb technician.
The other important actor is Ken Watanabe, who plays a scientist who has been tracking Godzilla since 1954 and is the closest any of them have to an expert on this anomaly that has cropped up in their midst. His role is mostly restraining the gun toting military types, who are fortunately played as serious professionals, rather than overly dramatic heavies like is often done in films like this. Which is one of the things that really helps bring up this film.
Finally, there's Godzilla himself. Much has been made about his relatively little screen time. And yeah, you want more of the Big G doing his thing. But...he looks so good, sounds so good and is awesome in action when he is there...this being the first film back, I'm ok with it. I love the fact that it is a faithful update, the creature and his abilities are true to what filmmakers expect, yet take advantage of modern special effects capability. Especially when he finally cuts loose with that "radioactive breath", it looks like what it is, pretty much a plasma blast. Oh yeah, and I like the bad monsters, the Mutos, better than most, it would seem.
It is what it is, and you like sfx driven films with monsters duking it out or don't. The actors bring their game, but it really isn't their show. They are there to react to the visuals and the circumstances. They do.
Oh yeah, Elisabeth Olsen was there, and she does the human role. But I was intrigued enough by her presence and ability that I'm really looking forward to her Scarlet Witch in Avengers-Age of Ultron.
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