I’m
happy to report I won’t be needing a gift receipt as this latest incarnation of
“Godzilla,” which was directed by Gareth Edwards off of a script from Max Borenstein,
is a quite enjoyable entry into the 60 year-old (!) franchise.
At the
center of the chaos is Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a guy with a tough
name and a tougher job: He disposes of bombs for the US Navy. When he was but a
small boy with a tough name, his mother (Juliette Binoche) was killed in an meltdown
at the Japanese nuclear power plant where both she and Ford’s father, Joe,
(Bryan Cranston) worked.
Joe becomes obsessed with the idea that it was
no accident that killed his wife and that the company that owned the plant is
covering something up.
Eventually,
Joe gets busted trying to sneak into the still-quarantined area around the
plant to search for clues. This forces now-adult Ford to leave his own wife, Elle
(Elizabeth Olsen) and their little boy behind and go get his father out of
jail.
Of
course, Joe immediately goes right back into the quarantine zone – which is
mysteriously not very radioactive – dragging Ford along for the ride and this
time they both get caught.
They’re
taken to the old plant where they meet a scientist who’s been studying strange phenomena
taking place at the plant and beyond for years, Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe). While
there, Joe’s fears are confirmed: The company has been covering something up
and whatever that something is, it’s about to wake up.
From that
point we do the usual monster movie stuff. Cities are destroyed, Ford struggles
to get home to his wife and kid, the military hopes to nuke their problems away
while Dr. Serizawa, who carries around a watch his father gave him which
stopped during the Hiroshima blast, pleads for alternatives.
I’m
hesitant to get into much more detail than that because, at least to me, “Godzilla”
has a few surprises up its gigantic sleeves and that’s a rare thing to pull off
in today’s spoiler-loving world.
So
moving away from the story, the obvious question going in to “Godzilla” was,
will it be better than last year’s “Pacific Rim” – a movie that so lovingly
paid tribute to Godzilla and his giant beastly friends from yesteryear?
Well,
as good as this take on “Godzilla” is, it doesn’t quite manage to surpass “Pacific
Rim.”
Part of
the reason, and part of the problem with “Godzilla,” is there’s just the teeniest,
tiniest bit of giant monster fatigue coming so soon the heels of “Pacific Rim.”
There’s a decent amount of crossover between the two movies in theme, look and
action and so something that may have been a ten last year, maybe it’s down to
an eight or nine this time around.
There’s
one scene in particular in “Godzilla” where something, not saying what, takes
flight. It’s still awesome, but the exact same thing happened last year in “Pacific
Rim” and when I saw it then, I was downright giddy.
