Godzilla Review (2014) (English)
Movie review by Zulfiqar
Now, we have another monster movie. It is Godzilla and it is an epic. I use it not as a present tense but as a universal truth. Japanese creation of this monster was an epic and it caused a slew of movies to be released under same name and what not. The legend was made. Now, the fascination with the creature remains and the fodder for big bucks is on.
An attempt was made in 1998 and it was met with perfect disaster. It gained a raspberry too if it serves my memory. Years after, another attempt is duty bound to be stabbed. The era of the movies is always evolving. We are living now in the era of compact scripts, intermingled stories and non-linear screenplays and obviously, much evolved sfx. The latest edtion yet again suffers.
It suffers from many points. Story-wise, I couldn’t point anything wrong. There are many novel concepts. Nuclear radiation as a fodder for the monster, a good wheeze. I mean, at least I haven’t heard of it. And survival of the fittest and territorial wars, good concepts used very rightly. Let me debrief the story. I would be very brief. Godzilla is a monster last sighted eons ago, it wades in the oceans and is probably a creature of result, nuclear result that is. When the movie starts, it is but a myth. And somewhere other place, two gigantic eggs hatch and 30 feet creatures are left to be free. One is female and the other is male. Female carries a beehive of eggs, to be fertilized by the male. And if it does, you will be having a total ruckus at hand. What do the nations do? They try to exterminate them. But, it is beyond their scope. Enters Godzilla, oblivious to it, it is the hope for populations and govts rout for the monster, so that in it’s territorial war, it may end the couple. And obviously it does at the end.
The movie needs a minimal script, probably. But as is the latest craze, you have some meaningful writing in the first half. All good, but a monster movie is all about execution. And for me it was just exhaustion.
There is a lot of fascination in the modern world with moving cameras and grimmer, darker tones. Moving cameras may work and probably, they do many times. But in Godzilla, they made me really tired. I was really vexed by handheld movements. Along with that, the dark back ground never helps. Dark tone of the movie should have limits. It has become the latest craze, but it shouldn’t be obscuring what we need to see. It was like watching in a dark cave. It is not so easy on the mind to concentrate. Exhaustion is more to the audience than the performers. Like in Jaws, Godzilla is introduced very late in the movie, but it doesn’t have its moments. There is no lasting impression of the beast in any scene. The villainous insects look very artificial and less intimidating. There are certainly a few worthy moments, like the train sequence, but they are really very few. I would love to comment on sfx, if they would have been a little clear. The final battling scene was stuporous. There is a lot of confusion, regarding which is the good beast and which is the bad one. They roar, grumble and maul with mayhem. There is no assistance for the audience to make it clear and interesting. Having just been under the harrow of the first half action, featuring the just hatched beasts, we are wary for another energy sapping and tedious action sequence and that’s what we get.
Quite a few big names are there too. “Breaking bad” star Bryan Cranston, that great mammoth actor, is faded in a role of shorter timed sacrificial father. ‘Kick ass’ star Aaron Taylor Johnson has a very miniature role. He is the hero with very rare heroic moments. Elizabeth Olsen fresh from ‘Oldboy’ is a pain suppressing young mother and as expected in a movie made with motives of sfx work, she is too washed out.
There is a sort of mild puzzlement in me. Why is that whenever Godzilla is seen, it is either at nights, or when the climate is cloudy. Does it’s voyages affect the clouds? If there is a valid reason behind the climate shifts, then one can concede to the same type of atmospheric imagery, which is seen in the 98 version. If it isn’t, isn’t it variety we are craving for? It would have helped probably if the makers were generous enough to show us the beast in broad daylight with a well mounted camera making the necessary movements, rather than hiding it behind the cinematic obscurity. It is refined than its predecessor, but there are lot more pitfalls to cover.
An attempt was made in 1998 and it was met with perfect disaster. It gained a raspberry too if it serves my memory. Years after, another attempt is duty bound to be stabbed. The era of the movies is always evolving. We are living now in the era of compact scripts, intermingled stories and non-linear screenplays and obviously, much evolved sfx. The latest edtion yet again suffers.
It suffers from many points. Story-wise, I couldn’t point anything wrong. There are many novel concepts. Nuclear radiation as a fodder for the monster, a good wheeze. I mean, at least I haven’t heard of it. And survival of the fittest and territorial wars, good concepts used very rightly. Let me debrief the story. I would be very brief. Godzilla is a monster last sighted eons ago, it wades in the oceans and is probably a creature of result, nuclear result that is. When the movie starts, it is but a myth. And somewhere other place, two gigantic eggs hatch and 30 feet creatures are left to be free. One is female and the other is male. Female carries a beehive of eggs, to be fertilized by the male. And if it does, you will be having a total ruckus at hand. What do the nations do? They try to exterminate them. But, it is beyond their scope. Enters Godzilla, oblivious to it, it is the hope for populations and govts rout for the monster, so that in it’s territorial war, it may end the couple. And obviously it does at the end.
The movie needs a minimal script, probably. But as is the latest craze, you have some meaningful writing in the first half. All good, but a monster movie is all about execution. And for me it was just exhaustion.
There is a lot of fascination in the modern world with moving cameras and grimmer, darker tones. Moving cameras may work and probably, they do many times. But in Godzilla, they made me really tired. I was really vexed by handheld movements. Along with that, the dark back ground never helps. Dark tone of the movie should have limits. It has become the latest craze, but it shouldn’t be obscuring what we need to see. It was like watching in a dark cave. It is not so easy on the mind to concentrate. Exhaustion is more to the audience than the performers. Like in Jaws, Godzilla is introduced very late in the movie, but it doesn’t have its moments. There is no lasting impression of the beast in any scene. The villainous insects look very artificial and less intimidating. There are certainly a few worthy moments, like the train sequence, but they are really very few. I would love to comment on sfx, if they would have been a little clear. The final battling scene was stuporous. There is a lot of confusion, regarding which is the good beast and which is the bad one. They roar, grumble and maul with mayhem. There is no assistance for the audience to make it clear and interesting. Having just been under the harrow of the first half action, featuring the just hatched beasts, we are wary for another energy sapping and tedious action sequence and that’s what we get.
Quite a few big names are there too. “Breaking bad” star Bryan Cranston, that great mammoth actor, is faded in a role of shorter timed sacrificial father. ‘Kick ass’ star Aaron Taylor Johnson has a very miniature role. He is the hero with very rare heroic moments. Elizabeth Olsen fresh from ‘Oldboy’ is a pain suppressing young mother and as expected in a movie made with motives of sfx work, she is too washed out.
There is a sort of mild puzzlement in me. Why is that whenever Godzilla is seen, it is either at nights, or when the climate is cloudy. Does it’s voyages affect the clouds? If there is a valid reason behind the climate shifts, then one can concede to the same type of atmospheric imagery, which is seen in the 98 version. If it isn’t, isn’t it variety we are craving for? It would have helped probably if the makers were generous enough to show us the beast in broad daylight with a well mounted camera making the necessary movements, rather than hiding it behind the cinematic obscurity. It is refined than its predecessor, but there are lot more pitfalls to cover.
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