Social Icons

Godzilla (2014)



Godzilla (2014)




7/10



Starring
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Ken Watanabe
Elizabeth Olsen
Juliette Binoche


Directed by Gareth Edwards

This is a fine movie that blends human drama with the thrill of monster-vs-monster action as Godzilla takes on two gigantic creatures that feed on radiation. The monsters, called MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms), are looking to breed. No matter how hard humans try to stop them, the situation only becomes more tragic, pushing the entire human race to the brink of extinction.

The writers and director focused more on the tragic events surrounding these monsters than on the monsters themselves, which, to me, was the selling point of the movie. Godzilla saving the day happens in the background, but it’s still a sight to see as he battles these creatures, nearly getting himself killed in the process.

Godzilla is a fire-breathing anti-hero monster whose main goal is to destroy other monsters like him. You could argue that he has a selfish motive—wanting to be the only one of his kind—since he attacks the MUTOs because they’re planning to mate. Or, like the scientists in the movie, you could see him as nature’s way of maintaining balance between humans and monsters.

The Godzilla franchise has been running between Japan and the USA since 1954 and holds a Guinness World Record as the longest continuously running movie franchise. This film is a modern retelling of Godzilla’s origin story.

The movie starts with clips of nuclear explosions and experiments dating back to 1954. In 1999, a tremor breaches a nuclear reactor, causing Joe Brody to lose his wife. Fifteen years later, Joe is obsessed with uncovering the truth about what happened in 1999 and travels to Japan to investigate. His son, Ford, now a Naval officer, joins him to help. They’re detained and taken to an underground facility beneath the reactor where Joe’s wife died. There, they discover the government has been hiding a pod, from which a winged creature emerges—a creature that seems unstoppable.

There’s much more to this story than what I’ve shared here, so I recommend you go see the movie for yourself and experience the excitement it delivers.

Since this is what Universal is planning to use to create their MonsterVerse, it will be nice to see how it started and how far they can go. I for one thing the MonsterVerse idea may not go as smoothly as they hopped. I think it will be best to make these movies independently, instead of trying to link them all together.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Disclaimer

All images featured on this site are the property of their respective copyright owners. They are used solely for illustrative and commentary purposes under fair use principles. This site is a personal blog, unaffiliated with or endorsed by any copyright holders. If you are the copyright owner of an image featured here and wish to have it removed, please contact me directly, and I will address your request promptly.