Godzilla 2014

Sorry for the long delay, life kind of got in the way for the most part. As the title says, I recently saw Godzilla 2014. Brent and I were curious to see what it was like, so we went on a Tuesday matinée. We did see it in 3D, despite my usual misgivings. Nothing was huge about the 3D in the movie, in fact I barely remember wearing the glasses. The movie just didn’t fully utilize it. In terms of a classic Godzilla formula, the guys over at Legendary Pictures did a fantastic job. The movie has tension, and builds upon it. Godzilla doesn’t even make his first appearance until half way through. It’s mostly about the new monsters, and the humans affected in their wake.

We also get the see Elizabeth Olsen (A sister of the twins), flex her acting muscles with her on-screen husband and lead, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Both of which we’ll see in Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron as Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver. They also appeared in a cameo as the twins during the credits of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As such, the human story is rather blah for the most part. Since most people are there for the King of the Monsters himself.

The movie also features the awesome Bryan Cranston. Unfortunately his character is killed off before the end and focuses on his character’s son, Ford (Taylor-Johnson). The only reason Cranston is in the movie, is to play a character that has essentially lost everything after the new monsters, known as the M.U.T.O. (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism). The Muto first appears in Japan, where Cranston’s character is working with his wife.

This just happens to be a Nuclear reactor, that the Muto wants to feed off of. The way it works, is that the Muto feed off of the radiation of the nuclear devices and grow stronger. This also comes to its primary weapon, as Godzilla has his Nuclear Firebreath, the Muto have an EMP Wave. One slam of its electric hoof into the ground, and anything within a 10 mile radius is shut down. I don’t want to completely spoil things for anyone, so I’ll leave things there for the mechanics of the movie.

Godzilla’s fight scenes are epic. When we finally get to him battling the Mutos (Spoiler: there’s 2 of them). He is an aging King Of The Monsters, and the movie does some subtle fan service to remind us of previous movies and tropes. The fights are the big pay off to his building. The trailer makes it seem like the humans are battling him; much like it is during the 1998 “Zilla” movie. I like what they did with this movie, I’ve seen my fair share of the classic movies as well as 2000, and I happen to enjoy this one as much as the old ones.

98’s zilla has its charm, albeit not Matthew Broderick. I’m thankful it got a spinoff cartoon series and his character was rewritten to be less annoying. Not to mention the show was Zilla battling other monsters including Mothra. Which was cool to see a cartoon that had actual monster battles.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone whom is a fan of the classic Godzilla movies. Give it a rent, buy it or stream it over Netflix. You won’t be disappointed. This is one a few reviews I’ll be writing over the next day or so. I want to get caught up with my blog, so there will be a few more reviews coming. Also more gaming coverage of Left 4 Dead 2. Before I forget, there will also be E3 impressions from the 5 press conferences. With that I’ll sign off, and work on the rest.