GODZILLA - Wednesday 21st May 2014

I ventured out with my Movie Buddy last night to my local multiplex to see the next in a very long line of Godzilla movies - this one, another Hollywood offering called, aptly, 'GODZILLA'! Believe it or not this huge lizard like dinosaur type monster is 60 years old this year having first appeared on our cinema screens in 1954 and has since been through 28 incarnations on the big screen . . . more than the James Bond franchise, and older too! Whatever you want to say about old mate Zilla - he has staying power, keeps the crowds coming back for more and still manages to remain fresh - but then at a cost of this latest rendition of US$150M you would certainly hope so!

Directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanbe, Juliette Binoche, Elizabeth Olson and David Strathairn, this film is big on the three protagonist monsters, big on action set pieces, big on death and destruction and big on Uncle Sam flag waving (as these movies usually are!)

With the opening credit montage we are taken back to 1954 to set the scene of atomic testing in the Pacific in the wake of WWII, but this is really a cover up to destroy Godzilla who was seemingly wreaking havoc in that region at that time. The bomb is dropped, big bang, mushroom cloud forms and Godzilla is no more . . .  yeah, right!

Fast forward and we are in 1999 in a Japanese Nuclear Power facility when an unforeseen, unknown, malevolent force causes the meltdown of said facility and widespread destruction, the wholesale leaking of radiation and the death of wife to US Nuclear Physicist Joe Brody (Cranston). The aftermath is that the destroyed plant facility and the island which housed it is quarantined for the nest 25 years or so. Fast forward again to 2014 and Brody Senior remains in Japan but his son, Ford Brody (Taylor-Johnson) now grown up and a Navy Bomb Disposal Expert has just returned home to his own son and wife in San Francisco after a 14 month tour of duty. Dad meanwhile is locked up in Japan for trespassing in the quarantined zone and son Ford has to go release him. Dad though, knows something is not quite right and since the meltdown and loss of his wife Sandra in 1999 (Binoche), has been working to uncover the real truth about what happened that fateful day. Heading back to the quarantined zone with son in tow, the ugly truth is uncovered and then the proverbial brown stuff begins to hit the fan!

We are first invited to get up close and personal to a MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) that has hatched on the nuclear island previously laid to waste and allegedly radioactive so feeding said MUTO and bringing it out of dormancy. This is when is gets ugly and huge destruction, death and mayhem ensue. Needless to say our friend the MUTO is on the hunt for anything radioactive to feed on, plus it's mate that has been holed up in a deep undercover bunker in the Nevada desert - yep, close to Las Vegas! The mayhem and the action then spreads to the Philippines for a short while and then onto Hawaii by which time Godzilla has surfaced from his long period of hibernation and is on the hunt for MUTO and before boy MUTO hooks up with girl MUTO . . . and none of us want that do we? After trashing Hawaii big time, next it's mainland USA and SanFran is right in the path of destruction and the oncoming train wreck that will be Godzilla fighting it out for survival of the fittest with two bad ass MoFo MUTO's!

The rest you can easily piece together - the city skyline of San Francisco is completely trashed as skyscrapers are toppled like kids playing with dominoes, and the Golden Gate Bridge is snapped like it's supported by a spiders web thread! The ground opens up, trains disappear into ravines, planes fall out of the sky, fighter jets are tossed asunder, battleships are cast aside on instant tsunami's and no one and no place is safe! These action set pieces are well handled and executed and the creature effects I thought were well rendered and convincing enough taking you into the heart of the action. Deliberate or not there are moments straight out of 'The Hobbit' and 'Aliens', and it all comes together reasonably well in the end, and I think we all know who will rise victorious and prove to be humanity's saviour! These closing moments when Godzilla rises from the rubble of SanFran down bayside, and disappears slowly into the bay and the vast ocean beyond I thought were just a little too corny, too cheesy when all was said and done . . . but that said, he's been around a long time, fought a few battles, earned his stripes and keeps coming back for more.

See it on the big screen, but you can do without the 3D. Incidentally, my Movie Buddy did not rate this at all, and so we have a difference of opinion. If you like your big budget creature features loud, proud and in your face with all the death and destruction of our cities that go with it - then this will be right up your street! Enjoy the great gargantuan Godzilla giganticness!



-Steve, at Odeon Online-