Running with the Big Dog
I�ve loved Godzilla since his name was Gojira. (Typical. A guy goes to Hollywood and the first thing they do is change your name). So when a new movie was announced to come out fifty years after the original, I was both excited and fearful. Everyone remembers the questionable quality of the 1998 version.
This combination of dread and excitement carried me through the theater doors. We saw the film in Enhanced 3-D and it was definitely worth the extra couple of bucks. The only IMAX performance was 45 minutes away.
For the first half an hour, I was in monster-movie heaven. All the elements were in place. Then, subtly at first but with ever-increasing speed, the movie threw away all its potential to be great, relying instead on children in jeopardy, foolish coincidences, and emotional shorthand. It also wasted the potential of some really fine actors.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
Now, usually I try hard not to give too much away. But when discussing Godzilla 2014 it is unusually difficult. The simple pluralization of a word gives away the plot. So you are WARNED!
The movie looks amazing. The monsters are well-done (see that plural�sorry!) and Godzilla is as awe-inspiring as he well-should be. They�ve subtly altered his face to give him some expression, though without anthropomorphizing the big guy. He�s a little less lizard-like, this time. The creatures he fights are less realistic. They have a robotic appearance for creatures that are supposed to be from �Before the Dawn of Time!� The destruction of buildings looks as real as news footage from a war-zone. And some of the explanations, while brief, are coherent and practicable enough to keep your disbelief suspended. There�s a brilliant HALO sequence, shot as though through goggles, that gives you a �you are there� feeling that will undoubtedly be copied again and again.
Where they missed the boat was in the emotional connection the audience needs to feel for the characters. Once we lose the focus of the core crazy-dad/sober-son conflict, we are left with a lot of people running around in circles and we, the audience, have no real grasp of who they are besides a two-word description. The Admiral. The Scientist. The Hero. The Hero�s Wife. We don�t know these people, ergo we don�t much care about them. There are some wonderful actors here � David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins � and they are given *nothing* to do but look worried or stalwart. Bryan Cranston was given a chance to emote and he does his usual stand-out job as a man on the edge. Elizabeth Olson also emotes but in a hysterical, cry-on-cue kind of way. I never bought her as a wife and mother afraid of losing all she loves, nor was she given any opportunity to be a believable nurse. They had her pushing a gurney and standing by an ambulance in scrubs. This does not a nurse make.
The majority of the movie is given over to Aaron Taylor-Johnson as our hero and our lens. I�ve seen him in other things (Kick Ass 1 and 2) and he made a stronger impression than he does in the entire Godzilla movie. He sees things that would make any person stand in amazement and he remains almost expressionless. An occasional tear in his eye is the extent of his emotion in this film. He�s Odysseus trying to get back to Penelope but he shows little passion for his quest and expects her just to wait around for him in the midst of disaster until he can manage to show up. He can wander through a hell-scape and make it look like he�s just trying to find an open fast-food joint.
The writers also cheat in their attempts to make us feel something besides �whoa� at a set-piece. They do this by adding a child (again with no characterization) in the forefront of every disaster. A tsunami scene has a golden-haired girl for no good reason except for her father to snatch her up and run away. Same with the attack on Honolulu. Our hero is saddled with a temporarily lost boy for no reason except to save him. This �trick� is also used during a big set piece on the Golden Gate Bridge. They even stoop to the �dog in jeopardy� at one point. By the way, if you are going to write a character being responsible for a child, how about not having that character completely disappear when the child is in danger?
Furthermore, if you are going to have monsters fighting, then for heaven�s sake, show us the fight. Don�t cut away. Don�t lose it in the smoke. We came to see monsters. So not showing us monsters in favor of one-note acting was not a good choice. There are so many flat performances in this movie that I have to blame the director. There�s no way these fine actors chose of their own accord to turn in such simplistic characterizations.
You�re probably going to see this movie no matter what. Enjoy the big set-pieces, enjoy the technical achievements but don�t look for anything else. The emotional connection that makes a film a cult-classic and worthy of repeated viewings is not to be found here.
This combination of dread and excitement carried me through the theater doors. We saw the film in Enhanced 3-D and it was definitely worth the extra couple of bucks. The only IMAX performance was 45 minutes away.
For the first half an hour, I was in monster-movie heaven. All the elements were in place. Then, subtly at first but with ever-increasing speed, the movie threw away all its potential to be great, relying instead on children in jeopardy, foolish coincidences, and emotional shorthand. It also wasted the potential of some really fine actors.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
Now, usually I try hard not to give too much away. But when discussing Godzilla 2014 it is unusually difficult. The simple pluralization of a word gives away the plot. So you are WARNED!
The movie looks amazing. The monsters are well-done (see that plural�sorry!) and Godzilla is as awe-inspiring as he well-should be. They�ve subtly altered his face to give him some expression, though without anthropomorphizing the big guy. He�s a little less lizard-like, this time. The creatures he fights are less realistic. They have a robotic appearance for creatures that are supposed to be from �Before the Dawn of Time!� The destruction of buildings looks as real as news footage from a war-zone. And some of the explanations, while brief, are coherent and practicable enough to keep your disbelief suspended. There�s a brilliant HALO sequence, shot as though through goggles, that gives you a �you are there� feeling that will undoubtedly be copied again and again.
Where they missed the boat was in the emotional connection the audience needs to feel for the characters. Once we lose the focus of the core crazy-dad/sober-son conflict, we are left with a lot of people running around in circles and we, the audience, have no real grasp of who they are besides a two-word description. The Admiral. The Scientist. The Hero. The Hero�s Wife. We don�t know these people, ergo we don�t much care about them. There are some wonderful actors here � David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins � and they are given *nothing* to do but look worried or stalwart. Bryan Cranston was given a chance to emote and he does his usual stand-out job as a man on the edge. Elizabeth Olson also emotes but in a hysterical, cry-on-cue kind of way. I never bought her as a wife and mother afraid of losing all she loves, nor was she given any opportunity to be a believable nurse. They had her pushing a gurney and standing by an ambulance in scrubs. This does not a nurse make.
The majority of the movie is given over to Aaron Taylor-Johnson as our hero and our lens. I�ve seen him in other things (Kick Ass 1 and 2) and he made a stronger impression than he does in the entire Godzilla movie. He sees things that would make any person stand in amazement and he remains almost expressionless. An occasional tear in his eye is the extent of his emotion in this film. He�s Odysseus trying to get back to Penelope but he shows little passion for his quest and expects her just to wait around for him in the midst of disaster until he can manage to show up. He can wander through a hell-scape and make it look like he�s just trying to find an open fast-food joint.
The writers also cheat in their attempts to make us feel something besides �whoa� at a set-piece. They do this by adding a child (again with no characterization) in the forefront of every disaster. A tsunami scene has a golden-haired girl for no good reason except for her father to snatch her up and run away. Same with the attack on Honolulu. Our hero is saddled with a temporarily lost boy for no reason except to save him. This �trick� is also used during a big set piece on the Golden Gate Bridge. They even stoop to the �dog in jeopardy� at one point. By the way, if you are going to write a character being responsible for a child, how about not having that character completely disappear when the child is in danger?
Furthermore, if you are going to have monsters fighting, then for heaven�s sake, show us the fight. Don�t cut away. Don�t lose it in the smoke. We came to see monsters. So not showing us monsters in favor of one-note acting was not a good choice. There are so many flat performances in this movie that I have to blame the director. There�s no way these fine actors chose of their own accord to turn in such simplistic characterizations.
You�re probably going to see this movie no matter what. Enjoy the big set-pieces, enjoy the technical achievements but don�t look for anything else. The emotional connection that makes a film a cult-classic and worthy of repeated viewings is not to be found here.
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