There’s this new term floating around cinema these days, it’s called “Nolanizing”
Nolanizing: “To reinvent a classic franchise by making a film adaptation that’s more appealing to either a modern or adult audience, these adaptations tend to have a dark and mature tone. Term is inspired by director Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, a modern and grounded incarnation on Batman.”
Some successful examples of Nolanizing include Nolan himself
with the Dark Knight trilogy; JJ Abrams with his re-imagining of Star Trek; and
Martin Campbell, Sam Mendes & Daniel Craig with the latest James Bond
films.
Unsuccessful attempts include Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel
(although that one was ok, but could’ve been way better), the Amazing
Spider-Man movies, and that joke of a Robocop remake… Fuck that movie!
Anyways, a promising director named Gareth Edwards is making
the latest attempt at Nolanizing by rebooting the classic Toho monster,
Godzilla. Was this a successful attempt? Or was it a massive, Phantom Menace-esque
letdown? Well, for me, after watching this movie, I would call it a terrific
success! Now let’s get on with this review…
Last year, when I first heard that there would be a new Godzilla movie coming out, my reaction was something like this…
The movie begins with a few dramatic scenes and a slow pace,
and you don’t actually see Godzilla until an hour in at least. It instead
decides to take a page from the book of Jaws and focus on the characters. We
are introduced to the Brody family in 1999, living in Japan with Joe working at
a nuclear power plant with his wife Sandra. After what seemed like an
earthquake, the power plant gets completely destroyed, killing Sandra. 15 years
later, we begin with their son Ford, a soldier returning from over a year of
duty. After a short reunion with his family, he is forced to fly to Japan to
help with Joe, who was arrested near the now quarantined plant. After being
released and trying to convince Ford of some wild conspiracies, they decide to
go to the quarantined zone again. After they’re both arrested, they soon
discover that there is a creature living there… absorbing radiation like it’s a
source of food. This creature awakens and destroys the whole freaking area,
including Joe (RIP Heisenberg).
That leads me to talk about this movie’s climax… my god! The
final 25-30 minutes of film has to be one of the greatest pieces of cinema I’ve
ever seen! The fight between Godzilla and the 2 Mutos is relentless. The final
blows to both Mutos are fucking sick! Big G kills off the flying Muto by using
his tail as a baseball bat and flinging that motherfucker face first into a
building. Then with the Crawling Muto… Fuck… I… Just… I’m fucking speechless
because no words I use can describe how fucking badass that was… He spreads
that bug’s mouth open with his bare hands and breathes atomic breath down his
god damn throat… and then rips his head off! Just… FUCK THAT WAS SO AWESOME!
EAT MY BLUE FIRE, BITCH!
I need a few minutes to calm down from such awesomeness!!!
Here… enjoy these roars…
Okay, I’ve had time to breathe and I’m good now… sooo…
What else did I like about this movie? Well for starters, Godzilla
is actually Godzilla! I know I wrote an article earlier about how making
changes to the source material can be okay, but it’s only okay if the changes
make sense… In the ’98 movie, it didn’t, simple as that. It was refreshing to
see the actual Toho monster in his true form. There are slight changes to the
original design (he’s way more massive, for example) but they fit well here.
The roar might be the greatest roar in film history, I’d put it right up there
with the T-Rex from Jurassic Park… seriously… that roar! Words can’t describe
how awe-inspiring it is. Godzilla is so fucking badass in this movie! Edwards
totally nailed it there!
I have to touch on the camera work here. It is absolutely
gorgeous! It was awesome to be able to actually watch Godzilla and the Mutos
throw down in the climax without any of that shaky-cam crap that Hollywood seems
to be in love with. The shot where Godzilla stands up over the horizon awaiting
a Muto beautifully shows how huge this lizard is. Another beautiful shot shows
the fins on his tail beginning to glow, followed slowly by the rest of the fins
on his back, and then followed by his oh so fucking badass atomic breath! That
is my favourite display of camera work in this whole movie, and that’s saying a
lot given how amazingly well shot this movie is.
The film is very well cast and the characters are solid.
Bryan Cranston does an amazing job with the very few scenes he’s given. Ken
Watanabe’s performance is good and he gives the movie an authoritative
presence. Aaron Taylor-Johnson does a fine job in the lead role, even if his
character is a little too stoic at times… Then again, he’s playing a soldier,
they have a tendency to be very low on the emotional scale. You’re definitely
rooting for him by the end of the movie though… So I guess he made an emotional
connection with the audience somehow.
Oh, and I also liked seeing San Francisco getting completely
obliterated by these monsters. That was unbelievably satisfying to me, being a
Packers fan and all…
Now, with all the praises I have, this movie does have some
major flaws. The problems lie mostly in the film’s tone. For example, I did
feel at times that the movie didn’t know whether it wanted to be a character
driven story, or a full-blown monster movie, or a disaster epic. The shifts in
tone are very frequent and can get pretty wearisome. I think that has most to
do with the story and writing than it did with the direction. I think it would’ve
been better if Frank Darabont wrote all of the human elements instead of just
collaborating. You can clearly see which parts were written by him, and that
can expose some inconsistencies with the characters. So yeah, the awkward tonal
changes are definitely something to be worked on for the sequel (which WILL
happen, who are we kidding?)
Another problem lies with the character development. While
these characters are solid and well acted, you don’t know that much about them.
We know that Ford is soldier who diffuses bombs, we know that his wife Elle is
a nurse, and we know that Dr. Seriwaza’s father died in Hiroshima… but that’s
about it. Once again, that’s something to improve on in the sequel (It’s
happening, get over it). The lack of development didn’t really bug me that much
though, as these characters are well acted, especially for the material they’re
given. I hope this cast returns in the next movie (You know it’s coming).
So yeah, Godzilla does have some big problems. But honestly,
with all of the awesomeness that’s packed into this movie, I can let the issues
slide here. Godzilla is a terrific movie, it’s filled with suspense, has some
great action, the visuals are breathtaking, and the climactic battle might go
down as one of the greatest movie battles of all time! To put it in NSFW terms…
the movie slowly masturbates for an hour and a half, building massive tension
within its nads, and then it spends almost thirty minutes blowing its load all over
the audience’s fucking face! Fuck yeah!
I’m going to give it 9 atomic breaths out of 10… Yes, I
changed my rating system, and it’s just to piss you people off… Don’t like it?
Blow me.
As per the usual, you can use the comment section to either
agree with me or tell me to get out of my parents’ basement… Whatever you want...
- Mad Mike of Metal
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