I am a fan of Godzilla in many of his incarnations. Gojira is one of my favorite films of all time, yet I also find myself reaching for Godzilla’s Revenge on the DVD shelf, as well as keeping a copy of James Stokoe’s “Half Century War” close by. What has always appealed to me about the best Godzilla media is how reflective it is of the times it was created. In the time of Gojira, the nuclear bomb (which had changed the course of Japanese history forever) was what allowed the film to make its impact. By the 70s, Japan had become a technological giant with a robust economy, and so the integration of Mecha-Godzilla and other robotic characters became integral to the mythology.
And so, when updating Godzilla to the modern day, one must ask: how will this film reflect today? What about 2014 will be integrated into the Godzilla mythos? Find out in this spoiler-free review of the film.
The story focuses on Aaron Taylor Johnson, a soldier who grew up at least partially in Japan, raised by parents who work in a nuclear power plant. Now a grown man, he is an expert at diffusing bombs, and gets home from time in the Middle East only to be called back to Japan to bail his father (Bryan Cranston) out of jail. From there, well, Godzilla happens.
The opening credits of the film do a very nice job of showing that Godzilla is not ignoring the nuclear roots of the story. In fact, the first third of the film keeps the split atom at the center of the story. Instead of the bomb being the delivery system for the nuclear threat, the nuclear power plant is the source of the threat, reflecting the Fukushima Daiichi tragedy of 2011.
It is at the nuclear power plant that the real theme of the film emerges: parents and their children. Throughout the entire film, we see parents using their children as inspiration for what they do, and in turn, we see children dedicating their lives to causes/beliefs that their parents instilled in them – or, sometimes, because they don’t want to be like their parents.
Coming from the parenting theme, the idea of protecting the young is paramount. In fact, there were a few times throughout the film that I felt physically uncomfortable because of the peril children were put into – my fatherhood instinct was kicking in all over the place – and that human element was utilized far more effectively than I expected, especially in the first half of the film.
The first forty five minutes or so of the movie barely even touches on the kaiju. Sure, because we bought a ticket to Godzilla, we have an idea of why certain things are happening, but the film takes a lot of time to establish the human characters as important, and tries to show the stakes of the film before we dive too deep into the action.
Once said action picks up in the second half, the visuals get ramped up to a seriously impressive level, and we get some of the best kaiju action ever presented on screen. Director Gareth Edwards does a really good job of presenting the destruction in different ways than have previously been used. The clearest footage we get of the first few action set pieces are seen via news broadcasts watched by characters in the film. This film also doesn’t shy away from the reality (and boy do I hate using that word when talking about a Godzilla movie) of what a city would look like when being destroyed by giant monsters – dark and full of clouds of debris.
There are moments of classic Godzilla action, yes, but the film makes you work to get there and, to me, they make those scenes more worthwhile. Presenting each scene as a human journey that gets derailed by monsters is a much more effective technique for crafting a competent film than just having Godzilla on the same ol’ beach/jungle set breathing atomic fire at weird sea creatures.
Just about every article on this film has compared it to the 1998 Godzilla, directed by Roland Emmerich. While there is some connective tissue between the two films, this film seems more focused on both the human and the kaiju than that film, and many of the complaints against it seem to not be relevant here, except for one: again, the main action in the film takes place far away from Japan. While there is certainly a tie to the Japanese roots of the story, especially through Ken Watanabe’s character, bringing the story to the United States serves no real storytelling purpose, and is clearly done because the studio believes people won’t see a film set in a foreign country with foreign actors in it.
Continued belowThis is especially foolish because the actors in the film, while all quite good, are really not stars. I don’t think anyone was lining up to see the film because of David Strathairn, excellent though he may be, and I think a well made Godzilla movie set in Japan would be just as popular. Godzilla is one of Japan’s most well known cultural exports, and to literally export him from the country in the film seems to be an unnecessary move.
The other major complaint I have with the film is that it tries to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to Godzilla himself. The film seems to want a giant, fearsome creature that doesn’t really need to be feared, outside of collateral damage caused by his appearance in your city. I don’t want to say any more than that, but I think that the film would have been better served by having a monster with no real motive, rather than what is presented here. (I apologize for being intentionally cagey, but I want people to experience the film as freshly as possible.)
The film touches on a few pieces of 2014 life in a way not dissimilar to the ways that earlier films reflected their times. Through various circumstances, it is very hard for characters to communicate with each other due to various circumstances, which is so foreign to most of the audience, who have to be reminded to turn their cell phones off before a film. There is also a healthy dose of anti-scientific rhetoric, all done in the name of “national security,” which should sound some alarms as well. And like so many actions films of the past 13 years, there is the visual connection to September 11th, seeing buildings crumble and dust clouds hover over a city. This story does feel strangely post-9/11, but more in terms of the military approach, the visuals, and the soldier yearning to get home after a (too long) deployment overseas.
Overall, this is a welcome addition to the Godzilla canon, and a really fun way to spend a few hours in a chilly theater with some popcorn and soda. Visually the film is stunning, with some great character moments and a few chill-inducing moments. I hope that this film is successful enough that, every 2 or 3 years, we can get another chapter in this series. There is one big Easter Egg in particular that could lead to a sequel that fans would go bananas over (pay attention when Taylor-Johnson and Cranston return to their home). Hopefully, this is the start of another classic run of Godzilla films – and if not, it is still a hell of a ride.
