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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 12 May 2014
This article is a review of GODZILLA.
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“I guess we’re monster hunters now,” Sergeant Tre Morales (Victor Rasuk)
When you are used to Bryan Cranston eviscerating the small screen in BREAKING BAD, hearing him now spout mostly expository dialogue jars worse than the weak plot hampering this latest incarnation, of the giant beast running amok among certain Pacific destinations. Cranston’s Joe Brody even goes as far as to tell his wife, Sandra Brody (Juliette Binoche in a thankless part), “I’m an engineer.” Cheers for the clumsy signpost.
When you are used to Bryan Cranston eviscerating the small screen in BREAKING BAD, hearing him now spout mostly expository dialogue jars worse than the weak plot hampering this latest incarnation, of the giant beast running amok among certain Pacific destinations. Cranston’s Joe Brody even goes as far as to tell his wife, Sandra Brody (Juliette Binoche in a thankless part), “I’m an engineer.” Cheers for the clumsy signpost.
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Redacted credits over 1950s-style archive footage, portraying a nuclear bomb aimed at what looks to be the back of a rather humongous dinosaur, transition to Janjira, Japan, where American engineer Joe and French scientist Sandra are, for some reason, teaching the Japanese how to run a nuclear power plant. (That we’re in 1999 is perhaps a nod to being a year after director Roland Emmerich’s much-derided blockbuster take on Godzilla from 1998?) Watching that structure eventually collapse, from the perspective of Joe’s son Ford in a classroom, is actually one of the strengths of the flick, giving good carnage through clouded or distant perspectives, rather than flooding the screen with in-your-face money shots. By not drawing too much attention, the spectacle is enhanced – a lesson reaching a pinnacle in the masterful CLOVERFIELD, a movie one kept contrasting involuntarily through the runtime to GODZILLA’s detriment. (Soaked in menace, CLOVERFIELD still stands up as one of the great monster movies.) However, having such a power station disintegrate raises questions of tastefulness, considering Fukushima.
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The Philippines, Japan, Hawaii and America take a real beating; not just from the titular creature, who is actually not really a bad dude, but from a couple of M.U.T.O.s (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Objects), which are some sort of mega-parasites that eat nuclear bombs and are laying waste to the world. Cranston booms in that sonorous peril-fuelled voice, as is his want, “It is going to send us back to the Stone Age!” These M.U.T.O.s are actually attempting to hook up to procreate and lay some eggs. Origins of these skyscraper-sized critters are obfuscated in pseudo-jargon and garbled mini-monologues, to the point where one wonders if there is any logic to proceedings.
Similar complaints laid at the feet of PACIFIC RIM are as relevant here:
- Zero characterisation,
- Shambolic storytelling and
- Leaden conversations just there to propel the narrative.
Also, where are the extras? When major cities are being trashed by things large enough to cause seismic anomalies, one wonders where the population is hanging out. Surely, there’d be at least a few doofuses filming, social networking the hell out of the havoc unfurling? Gareth Edwards, director of the magnificent MONSTERS, retains his visual flair but has not brought his sense of place, pace and people.
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