My conversation with my wife about seeing “Godzilla” went like this:
Me: “I’ll be home late. I’m going to see Godzilla.”
Her: “You’re going without me?”
Me: “Remember ‘Pacific Rim?’ You said giant monsters are stupid, and made fun of the movie the whole time we watched it.”
Her: “That shows what you know. I want to see ‘Godzilla.’”
Me: “I’ll pick you up.”
Unlike “Pacific Rim,” “Godzilla” has been around since the 50s, when concerns about nuclear annihilation took root in our collective consciousness. “Godzilla” was born of an active imagination, yes, but also of our fears. “If bombs don’t destroy our cities, this creature will,” the movies said.
We no longer fear nuclear war like we once did, but “Godzilla” still has universal appeal, as evidenced by my wife’s interest in seeing the new movie. (I’m talking about someone who’s logged more hours watching the Hallmark Channel than all the major networks combined, and who makes me mute commercials for scary movies.) However, the first attempt at a modern “Godzilla” movie for American viewers, released in 1998, was a catastrophe on par with the wholesale destruction of Tokyo. It’s taken 16 years for someone to get up the nerve to try again, and having seen the final product, I believe the right people were behind the camera. Here are the things my wife and I both liked about the movie, and the one thing we didn’t:
Good: The monsters. In this modern remake, “Godzilla” battles a pair of ancient creatures that feed on radiation. Computer animation has been getting progressively more amazing since Steven Spielberg first wowed us with giant dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park,” but never before have the monsters in a movie had such weight and presence. The combination of skilled animation and quality rendering makes these creatures look and feel as real as anything I have seen on the big screen. More than that, director Gareth Edwards knows how to use an environment to give his monsters scale. If you have an opportunity to see “Godzilla” on an IMAX screen in 3D, do so, for the sheer spectacle of it.
Good: the lack of cheese. If memory serves me correctly, “Godzilla” movies are generally goofy. Maybe this was due to the primitive man-in-a-suit special effects, but the old films are hard to take seriously. Here, the tone is relentlessly heavy. No one cracks a smile - which makes sense, given what the humans are facing - and if anyone cracked a joke, the brass-heavy soundtrack drowned it out. Even the storyline is grimly determined to make sense: if a trio of giant monsters decided to use our major cities as their wrestling ring, this is probably how it would play out. I believe modern audiences prefer realistic action to cheese festivals, so “Godzilla” hits the right notes.
Good: the acting. The movie opens with one of the creatures waking up and destroying a nuclear power plant near Tokyo. The plant supervisor, played by Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad” fame, sends his wife to the core to look for damage after seismic activity rattles the facility. As the trailers reveal, she doesn’t make it. The scene is heartbreaking. Although none of the other actors in the movie are required to do more than gape, or look somber or terrified, Cranston and Juliette Binoche, who plays his wife, do powerful work.
Good: the directing. While many of the shots in the movie suggest Edwards is channeling Spielberg, he puts his personal stamp on the material as well. He knows how to frame and shoot both his diminutive human actors and their larger-than-life-sized costars, and how to choreograph and edit action in a visually captivating way. What impressed me most, though, was his economy of filmmaking. Edwards pulled what he needed out of each scene and moved on before it became boring. He also gave the movie an epic scale without going overboard. I was surprised to see that degree of restraint in a summer blockbuster.
Bad: the lack of the human element. When I thought back on the movie, I realized the humans were essentially window dressing. Nothing anyone does at any point in the movie matters. I suppose this makes sense; nature had to run its course. But why make someone a detonation expert if you’re not going to use him to disarm a bomb? I’m just sayin’...
“Godzilla” is well-executed, entertaining popcorn fare. Like eating popcorn, you might not feel full afterward, but it sure tastes good while you’re shoving it in your mouth.
Three stars out of four. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of destruction, mayhem, and creature violence.