Godzilla is one of the most visually stunning films I have ever seen. 

 

Monster films are viewed as the late night movie tradition: a movie that is half-interesting, sometimes gory with pretty lame effects. Not really able to stimulate any major parts of personal artistic recognition. Godzilla does not fit the stereotype. It is an awesome, epic portrayal of everyone’s favourite radioactive beast, and boy is it impressive. So why did it falter?

 

I was so excited about this film. The teaser trailer was intriguing, and the cast was great. For the first hour or so I believed that it was going to finish being a four or five star film, but alas it would not be so.

 

This version of Godzilla is set in modern day, but starts off about fifteen years ago with Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) losing his wife, and Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) losing his mother (Juliette Binoche), to a nuclear catastrophe. Obsessed with finding the truth of what actually happened, sparked by some suspicious observations on the day of the disaster, Joe drags Ford back to Japan to find the truth. 

 

From the start I did find the soundtrack annoying. Some of the score was really too melodramatic for the tone, which was frustrating because it seemed that this version was already turning into the monster B-movie stereotypical style already. Luckily, I only noticed this at the beginning of the film; the rest of the score was fine. The beginning montage with the credits rolling across the screen is really impressive: footage of real nuclear archives has been edited to show hints of something big lurking in the watery distance. This is edited very realistically, so you really get immersed into the story from the beginning. If you block out the annoying super dramatic soundtrack, that is. Hmph.

 

The CGI is literally breath-taking. I gasped. This is a film where atmospheric tension is used extensively; you keep receiving hints of the monster but don’t see it properly until later on. This teasing technique really benefits the movie as it then focuses on the characters so you can root for them more, and it also makes the moment when you do see ‘Fatzilla’ (you’ll understand if you see the film) properly really, really cool.

 

The sound effects for Godzilla and his parasitic buddies send chills down your spine, so this film is something that should be seen in a cinema with a good sound system. My local Cineworld (in High Wycombe) has a great sound system, and you really can tell the difference: it adds greatly to the already tense atmosphere. Although don’t see it in 3D, because although it isn’t made worse by this, it isn’t bettered either so you’d be better off to save the extra couple of quid and just see it in 2D.

 

Bryan Cranston is brilliant as always. Although it is strange to see Heisenberg with hair again, like it was in Drive. He is an actor who has an amazingly versatile talent, and gives the best hysterical performance I have seen this year. Last year’s was Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips, but Heisenberg was a pretty close second in Breaking Bad, along with Aaron Paul’s Jesse. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (local boy, also from High Wycombe) is also pretty good: excellent as a soldier, but not great as a father. He never seems to have any true concern for the state of his family through this whole scenario, which when he is soldiering I can understand, but when he is not I find pretty difficult to relate to him. Also what the hell was Sally Hawkins doing in this film? I normally really like her as an actor, but in Godzilla she just starts off looking serious and concerned, quickly evolves into a chronic worrier and then disappears? What was the point? Did she have a heart attack? Apart from that, I think the script is pretty spot on. The human narrative, and the story behind the mortal characters in the movie really stuck out to me as very interesting: also a reason why this is miles above other monster films.

 

My favourite scene was an epic battle, halfway through the film with Godzilla beasting it out at Hawaii airport. This is the first time we see him properly. There’s also a poignant reference to Hiroshima, making an important statement about how humans seem to always believe nature is their responsibility and something that must be controlled, when really it is the other way round. The action is pretty much flawless and very intense, but some action fatigue does begin to set in nearer the end of the film. The ending is pants. Which is really disappointing as there was so much promise elsewhere, but the incredible effects and generally great script is what keeps Godzilla successful. Don’t wait until it comes out on DVD; go and find the biggest screen near to you and watch the first summer blockbuster.