After the last Hollywood interpretation of the world’s greatest monster, not many knew what to expect of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla. Fans will be excited to know, however, that the newest addition to Toho’s legacy is a complete home run!
The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ford Brody, the son to Bryan Cranston’s Joe. Elizabeth Olsen plays Johnson’s wife, Elle. Ken Watanabe also makes an appearance as Dr. Ichiro Serizawa. Cranston starts the movie off by introducing viewers to the research his team is doing in Japan about twenty years before the film’s plot occurs. He and his wife both work as researchers at a secret Japanese facility and on his birthday, a disaster occurs with said facility being completely destroyed and Cranston losing his wife in the process. Their young son Ford is heartbroken.
The entire area is marked off as radioactive and becomes closed off to the public, meanwhile Cranston spends the next twenty years trying to learn more information about seismic readings that occurred just before the accident happened. His son meanwhile has joined the army and has a family of his own in America now. Ford eventually travels back to Japan to bail his father out of jail when similar seismic quakes occur just like the ones from twenty years ago. They both get caught in the restricted zone and havoc erupts when a M.U.T.O./Muto (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) hatches out of an enormous slab of rock being inspected by researchers. The Muto destroys everything in its path and there’s only one being on the planet capable of bringing it down, Godzilla.
The rest of the film portrays the battles between the famed green gargantuan and more than one Muto. The action sequences are well done and faithful Godzilla fans will be extremely pleased that this film stayed very true to the original mythos of the monster. From his skin all the way to his teeth and tail, this is the Godzilla that became famous over the last half of the twentieth century. When he finally shoots flame out of his mouth the entire theater burst into applause. It was that good.
Overall as a film it does a good job in staying faithful to the original material while also introducing it to a modern audience in 2014. The CGI was crystal clear and a strong musical score accompanied it. Godzilla delivers big on all fronts and is an absolutely must see film for 2014.
Godzilla is playing now in theaters nationwide.
