Godzilla: Movie Review

Finally, Hollywood gets the King of the Monsters right this time around. Gareth Edwards' "Godzilla" is visually and audibly astounding on a whole new level. This one made us quiver every single time we saw and heard that iconic roar. The origin story too was as plausible as we could imagine it to be. While "Godzilla" was perfect when it came to its non-human aspects, the film falters when it came to its human touch. A little bit of balance of both could have made this more than perfect and probably an iconic piece in the series.

In 1999, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) discovers irradiated remains of seemingly giant monsters deep underground in the Philippines. Concurrently, a pattern of unnatural quakes strikes Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), a nuclear physiscist at the Janjira Nuclear Plant. The quakes grow stronger and faster and eventually collapses the nuclear plant killing Brody's wife. The collapse makes Janjira an instant ghost town due to radiation. Fifteen years later, Joe is caught trespassing in Janjira. His son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) bails him out but is soon caught up with his dad's obsession on the nuclear plant disaster. For Joe, it was not a natural disaster but created by some unknown creature. As the two explore Janjira, they discover that the town was never irradiated and the plant's location is highly-active with military personnel. Soon, as the same pattern of quakes once again occurs, a true force of nature will be revealed.

Even with all the hype, "Godzilla" surprised us in a lot of ways. Visually, we expected a lot but the film still astounded us with its multitude of effects and styles. There are times were the film takes you right into ground zero and this is where it shines a lot. But what really blew us away were the audio effects. This is probably one of the loudest films we have heard and that roar should be heard to be believed. Story-wise, it was good but not great. What we couldn't understand is how the lead character of Ford Brody is all over the place literally - as in he gets picked out to do significant stuff in every locale he finds himself in and this is where "Godzilla" struggles. This is where the story feels forced and Aaron Taylor-Johnson was very weak as the lead. Worse, the other characters feel left out and they could have added much life if they were given enough screening time. It's actually ironic that the fantastical monsters have believable backgrounds while the humans feel very artificial. Overall though, "Godzilla" is an amazing experience as a monster and disaster film. We recommend watching this in IMAX is you want a visual feast or Dolby Atmos for the best aural experience.

Rating: 4 reels





Why you should watch it:
- Visuals are a treat to behold
- Audio was simply the aspect that surprised us most

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- Humans feel artificial
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson was bad on this one