Jason Reviews: Godzilla

Oh man, where to begin here!

Well, for one thing, this review will have some spoilers. So if you don’t want to get spoiled, then don’t read this review until you have seen the film. But, I can give you my brief overtake on Godzilla before I dive into the nitty-gritty stuff below.

In my humble opinion… Godzilla is certainly one for the ages! The story between the human and daikaiju in the film blended/mended in very well and nicely, the visual effects were just awesome, destruction shots were spectacular, kaiju fighting scenes were fantastic, the acting was great, and the story/plot worked out very well. My only little nitpick on it was that the dialog seemed to have jumped or got mixed-up in certain little areas of the film – but overall, it didn’t really affect the film, much like nothing didn’t affect the King of the Monsters.

I went in to this film with some medium expectations, but with it being a little above the medium expectation range. After walking out of that theater, the film definitely reached my expectations, but also extended it further.

I believe that it was well worth the 4 year wait since Kent and I heard of the news that both Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures obtained the rights to Godzilla. This film was one of the main, big reasons why we formed Godzilla Planet (now Planet X Control Room) and the Planet X Control Room Podcast Show in the beginning of April 2010. After the delay of the film’s release from 2012 to 2014, we were on a year hiatus until more news came up and when both Kent and I went to our first G-FEST in 2012 in G-FEST XIX.

But, nonetheless, the trip to get to this day was just amazing, and well worth it, and I thank all of you fans/listeners for sticking with us up to this point! I know that there won’t be as much news now with the film pretty much released at this point, but we will still report on toys, films, television, music, comics, etc. until a possible sequel is announced.

If you want to know of which of the two films are better, between Pacific Rim and Godzilla, I would pick Godzilla over Pacific Rim any day simply because I’ve been a fan of the King of the Monsters for over 20 years and that the story and kaiju scenes were just awesome and spectacular!

Anyways, I’m getting a little off-topic here. So let’s dive into the nitty-gritty stuff which contains spoilers. So if you don’t want to be spoiled, again, do not read the entire review from this point onwards. You have been warned!

=== WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD ===

Before the film begins, I would like to point out that the opening credits was pretty cool, and that I believe that it was kind of a nod to Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla film opening credits. Anywho, the story begins in 1999 in the Philippines where Dr. Ichiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) were summoned by what appears to be a mining manager as the ground underneath his equipment collapsed and created a sinkhole, where the mining manager discovered the giant, ancient bones and what appears to be eggs, with one of them hatched.

This would then lead us into Janjira, Japan where we are met with the Brody family. The young Ford Brody goes to school while both Sandra Brody (Julliette Binoche) and Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) head off to the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant to figure out what’s causing this trimmer pattern. It’s not long after that things start to go hell-in-a-hand-basket when the plant is breached, and we sadly see Joe seeing Sandra on the other side of the metal door as another door closes between them and are then separated. Ford sees the plant collapse in on itself just moments later, and then that’s where we are taken to the present day Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) 15 years later.

Ford arrives home to Elle Brody (Elizabeth Olsen) and Sam Brody (Carson Bolde) after being relieved of duty. The reunion was short-lived as they get a call that Joe was arrested for trespassing into The Q Zone. Ford has no choice but to go to Japan and bailout his father. When reaching Joe’s apartment, all of the walls were covered in newspaper clippings and scientific charts. Anyways, both Joe and Ford have a nice little chit-chat before things start to get uncomfortable as Joe explains to Ford that there was something that the government and the military were hiding something. Joe needed to get to their old home and retrieve several disks that provide enough data that could confirm the evidence he’s conjured up over the years. Joe eventually convinces Ford as they go to The Q Zone to retrieve the disks.

When they arrive, Joe brings out his geiger counter and finds out that the whole Q Zone was really not radioactive at all. They then arrived at there old home and found the disks. While they were finding the disks, there was a fish tank in one of the scenes with Ford that had a name written along side it that read Mothra (in a lot of instances of the film, we get tons of moth/butterfly references, as we see one glimpse of one of the papers hanging on Joe’s apartment walls with a picture of a moth and Serizawa’s research organization called Monarch. So I would bet my bottom dollar that we could potentially see Mothra in the next sequel). As they retrieve the disks, they hear a helicopter which then gets them to start moving out, only to be then detained by military personnel and taken to what use to be the Janjira nuclear power plant. This is where the strange, organic object is located, which the MUTO eventually hatches from it and wreaks havoc on the operation that was trying to study it.

On the next day, Serizawa decides to bring along Joe (who was seriously injured) and Ford to basically brief them on what was really going on. Sadly, though, Joe passes away from the injuries he received before he was briefed. During the briefing, this was where we hear Godzilla’s name mentioned for the first time as Serizawa calls him by his Japanese name, Gojira. After the debriefing, Serizawa sends Ford to the Honolulu airport to be sent back home, only to be confronted again by the MUTO. It is then eventually confronted by Godzilla as he was slowly revealed in all his glory.

After the battle between Godzilla and the MUTO, Ford run into a group of military personnel and decides to join up with them and the plan to get rid of the monsters. Serizawa and Vivienne were trying to figure out the patterns of the trimmer sounds, which they eventually figure out that it was actually a mating call to another MUTO that was housed at the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Area. The military went to the waste facility to destroy it, but were too late as the other MUTO escapes and wreaks havoc onto Las Vegas.

We see Ford join a group that was hauling some nuclear warheads by train and were heading to San Francisco to use them as bait to lure the monsters out into the ocean and detonate them in order to destroy the MUTOs and Godzilla. However, their plan is shattered as the MUTO destroys the train and gobbles down the nuclear warheads. However, one warhead was sparred and the military takes it and flies it via helicopter into San Francisco where it’s put onto a boat.

However, Godzilla arrives and rises from the ocean next to the Golden Gate Bridge where he gets bombarded by a mirage of missiles and cannons from the warships, only to be undamaged by the explosive impacts and goes right through the bridge like nothing. The flying MUTO comes in and uses its EMP attack, disabling power in the city and jets that were flying in the area, as they fall into the bay and the MUTO then dives right into the boat that was carrying the warhead and retrieves it. the flying MUTO meets up with the much larger, female MUTO and gives the warhead to it – the warhead is eventually used as a food for when baby MUTOs are hatched. Godzilla soon rises from the bay and starts picking a fight with the two MUTOs.

Ford, along with Serizawa, Vivienne, Admiral William Stenz (David Stratharim), and other military men, devise a plan to do a Halo jump to go an extract and disarm the nuclear warhead from the MUTO nest and then executed the plan. As they reach the nest, they weren’t able to get the detonator device on the warhead opened in order it to get it disarmed, Ford and a handful of military men dismantle the warhead and take it with them and get out of the nest. Ford stays behind a bit to destroy the MUTO nest.

During the kaiju fighting, the MUTOs were starting to get a upper-hand on Godzilla, but were interrupted as their nest was destroyed by Ford. The female MUTO spots Ford and was about to kill Ford, until Godzilla interferes and distracts the female MUTO as they then continue their fight. The two MUTOs were really getting the upper-hand on Godzilla for the majority of the battle, until we see the money-shot where we see Godzilla’s dorsal fins lighting up that blue glow and blasting his infamous Atomic Ray at the female MUTO and tail-whips the male MUTO into a building where the MUTO gets impaled and killed. The little victory lasts only for a moment till the huge building collapses onto Godzilla, and knocking him down to the ground. This is where we get a nice moment between Ford and Godzilla, where Godzilla looks at Ford before going unconscious and is shrouded by smoke and debris. Ford then catches up with the military squad at the harbor to take the nuke warhead out to sea by boat – however, only to be confronted by the female MUTO.

The squad fire upon the female MUTO and basically distract it while Ford gets on the boat and to set sail out to the ocean – but, the squad was easily killed off by the female MUTO. The female then uses its EMP attack to shut-off the boats motor in order to retrieve the warhead. As the female was about to get the nuke, Godzilla bites the female MUTO’s left shoulder and drags it away from the boat. Godzilla then pries the female’s mouth open and blasts his Atomic Ray down the MUTO’s throat, killing the female and dismembers its head in the process as well. Godzilla’s victory was again short-lived as he then falls to the ground. Ford then travels on the boat, crossing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and pretty much thinking that this would be his last moments. However, he’s rescued and eventually sent to a camp in a stadium where he’s eventually reunited by his son, Sam and Elle.

Serizawa and Vivienne walk through the rubble of what was San Francisco and see Godzilla lying on the ground, thinking that he may have died, only to find out that he’s very much alive. Ford, Sam and Elle see Godzilla on the stadium’s big screen (the news station broadcasting it had a headline with “King of the Monsters: Savior of Our City?”, which was pretty cool) as he ventures back into the ocean.

*****

Godzilla is an amazing film and the best one I’ve seen in theaters so far (I’ve seen him twice in theaters, not including this new one). I think that this film will quickly become one of my all-time, if not, my all-time favorite Godzilla film along with Godzilla 1985 (aka The Return of Godzilla). As I stated earlier before going into the spoiled-filled synopsis, both the human and kaiju stories blended in very well and the kaiju fighting scenes were excellent. My one little gripe on this film was that some of the dialog kind of jumps and seemed a bit confusing in some specific areas, mainly the part where Joe and Sandra were talking about Joe’s birthday before heading to the Janjira power plant early in the film. That part seemed to be the only confusing area as they were talking about his birthday, then talked about something else, then somehow got back into talking about Joe’s birthday.

Other than that, Godzilla is a film that will truly be an instant classic among fans and really a great edition to the Franchise. Gareth Edwards and the crew that worked on this film did a phenomenal job, and hope that a lot of them return for a potential sequel (I mean come on, there’s eventually going to be a sequel here. It’s a given fact).

Overall, the visuals, fights and story were excellent. It was great to see Godzilla back on the silver screen for the first time since Godzilla 2000 in October 2000. I really can’t wait to see what Gareth and the crew will do next for a sequel, which we could easily guess that we’ll see Mothra in it after I mentioned about the easter eggs referencing the giant moth. But, go see the film right away and often as much as you can, it’s really worth it!

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