Let's Go Out To The Movies: Godzilla (2014)

Alo Party Peoples.



What do you think of when you hear the words "serious science fiction"? I think of stuff like Watchmen, Gattaca, or the 21st century Battlestar Galactica. This usually doesn't have to do with how strictly it adheres to actual science. Galactica has commonplace faster than light travel for example, and Watchmen has a immortal glowing blue man that makes enough lithium for electric cars to be commonplace in the U.S. by 1985, but I still consider them serious science fiction. Why? It's because of how seriously they present themselves, and also because they dare to aim higher. Watchmen and Galactica take themselves very seriously, and they play with big abstract ideas. The Adam West Batman show or Doctor Who on the other hand, don't take themselves that seriously. Neither approach is inherently superior, but those that take the somber road tend to get more critical respect.

What you probably think of when Godzilla is brought up.

Case in point, Japanese monster movies usually aren't considered high art. You probably think of stuff like this when Godzilla is brought up. It probably comes as a shock that a studio would try for a dark somber reboot of it. Believe it or not, this is actually a return to form. The original 1954 Gojira was actually a serious genre piece using the monster as an allegory for the atomic bomb from a uniquely Japanese perspective. Japan is the only country to have been on the receiving end of a nuclear attack. They had first hand experience of the horror such a weapon unleashes.

No matter how much you've prepared for invasion, or how strong nationalistic verve is among your citizenry, it cannot be stopped. It's practically a force of nature, and thus so is the monster. SF Debris did an excellent analysis of the 1954 film, which you should go watch later. Needless to say, Toho abandoned that track for Godzilla pretty quickly, which led to the franchise's dominant image in the United States. Said image being low budget schlock primarily made for younger audiences.

How is the attempt to return to form/remake the franchise's image in the West/displace the memory of the 1998 Roland Emmerich film? For one it's had a rather misleading ad campaign. All the trailers and promos for this movie have been selling it as a dark somber disaster movie, that just happens to have Godzilla in it, centered on ex-Breaking Bad lead Bryan Cranston. In actuality, it's more like someone took the template of Showa-era Godzilla, decided to take it seriously, gave it an actual budget, and Cranston is barely in the movie.

In 1999 an unexplained event levels a nuclear plant in Japan, and the area is sealed off under quarantine. Bryan Cranston is playing a former official at the plant who lost his wife in the disaster. He's convinced that it wasn't a meltdown, instead he believes that it was actually a giant monster. He's right of course, but he's killed when said monster breaks out of containment. Handing the leading man reins over to Aaron Tyler-Johnston as his son who is an explosives disposal officer for the US Army which is tracking the beast. Said beast is not Godzilla by the way, it's a several million year old MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) which is bee-lining for San Francisco to find it's mate. Since the monsters live off of radioactive material, our other focal character is Ken Wanatabe as a Japanese scientist trying to keep the Army from using the nuclear option to deal with it. Instead he want's them to let Godzilla, who is now also a millions of years old beast, deal with it because he was these thing's natural predator back in the day.

I couldn't find a decent looking picture from the
actual movie, but the tie-in figure is fair
approximation.

The movie looks amazing. Godzilla has never looked better, sure the CG will probably age quickly, but this is definitely a step up from a guy in a suit stepping on toys. As for the other kaiju, they don't look bad, but it feels like someone just borrowed the aesthetic from Pacific Rim. These filmmakers do know how to use suspense well, the monsters don't really show up for quite a while, and for the first 70 minutes we only really get glimpses of them. I mean, the characters aren't especially compelling, so you aren't in that much suspense, but it's all shot beautifully.

It's almost a disappointment that Cranston is barely in this, he's good in his part, and I guessed from the trailer that the drama would come from him being unable to accept the existence of something like Godzilla. I like the idea of a blockbuster where people's worldview is broken by the existence of the fantastic.* Instead, like I said, it's a less schlock-y version of Godzilla with an actual budget, and Aaron Tyler-Johnston is just utterly unremarkable as the lead.

Go ahead and see it. It's a well constructed disaster movie. If nothing else, it shows that you can take material like this seriously without looking like a complete fool.

Have a nice day.

Greg.B

*On that note, the Man of Steel sequel should have a scene establishing a First Contact Memorial where Metropolis once stood.