Welcome back Stinkers! As you know, this year was the release of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, a buddy cop movie with King Kong and Godzilla as the main stars once again. So, I have decided to go back through the Monster-Verse starting with Gareth Edward’s, Godzilla.
Gareth Edwards
I just have to hand it to the director, and the rest of the team behind this. I ended up really enjoying this. Something that I think the movie did really well was capturing size and scale. I was immersed into the madness that was Godzilla. But there wasn’t really a lot of that Godzilla madness to enjoy. For a movie simply titled Godzilla, it had an astonishing amount of no Godzilla. Now you still have other action apart from Godzilla, but it will never be the same as the grand Godzilla. But, with the intense, suspenseful scenes, they succeed in being able to give chills down your spine. On top of that you have a jaw dropping fight at the end that acted like the icing on the cake. But not everyone likes icing. It was just too bad there was little to no Godzilla. Now something that the Godzilla X Kong movies fail at doing is covering the humans. They were able to develop these characters so well for me here, it made me tear up within the first 10 minutes. The cast in here is great! I loved Bryan Cranston in here. I honestly think that like Godzilla, we could’ve had more Bryan Cranston. I think he really tied the movie together, but his runtime wasn’t that big. I really loved the way that he delivered his dialogue and the emotion into this film. The father-son relationship in here was great, as well as all of the family moments in here. I thought that they were either really heart warming, or really heartbreaking. I think Aaron Taylor Johnson was pretty good in here. I liked the simple character development of family. Whether it was with his dad or with his wife and son. And that’s about it for my overall thoughts. So now what I would like to do is go back through those thoughts, and further elaborate on them and even go into spoiler territory. So, you have been warned.
Godzilla Action
Now let’s talk about the main man himself. Or who should be the main man, Godzilla. Now like I said he was barely in here. Especially for a movie simply called Godzilla. I mean it took so long for us to see a full body shot of Godzilla. Now putting the lack of Godzilla aside. I really enjoyed the action scenes we got. Like I said, Gareth Edwards did so well with displaying size and scale. Whenever Godzilla was on screen or even just nearby. He was menacing, and scary, and I was really put into the perspective and the fear of the people. The immersion in here is unreal. Let’s take that big final fight. You had two different perspectives. Godzilla and the Mutos, and the people. I was immersed in both. You had the fight between Godzilla and the Mudos. Where even my dad pointed out that it was like a WWE tag team match. And in my opinion, if your Monster-Verse movie has a WWE match, then it has succeeded. And when Godzilla blasted the Atomic Breath into the Muto’s mouth, to just then toss his head aside like it was nothing. That there also just proved how menacing Godzilla is. At the end of the movie too, it shows how much heart that Godzilla has. In a way he has built a bit more trust into the humans, and this is the start of him, being pretty much the protector of the surface. And even better for the humans because he just proved how capable he is by blasting the Mudo’s head like it was nothing. Now I want to elaborate again about my big disappointment with the movie. Where was Godzilla?? This was not a Godzilla movie. And with one great fight at the very end, isn’t going to make the lack of Godzilla up. So, as a Kaiju movie, it was not good at all. It wouldn’t even be classified as a Kaiju movie. But judging the movie alone, it was enjoyable. You had people like Bryan Cranston delivering some of the best emotional scenes, and the suspense that happens in the movie. I would say it is really good. Like when Aaron Taylor Johnson’s character is on the train with the kid, you already had a bit of suspense about whether he will make it to his flight, especially whether the kid would make it back to his parents or not. But when the stomps of Godzilla and the Mutos can be heard, and Johnson’s character looks out the window and sees the giant Muto. That was the type of stuff I enjoyed about the movie. But at the end of the day, this isn’t a Godzilla movie, and the really good suspense, and the action scene doesn’t make up for it.
The Characters
Now I mentioned that Bryan Cranston was able to deliver some of the best emotional scenes that I’ve seen in a minute. And I really wish he had more screen time in here. I think his death was rushed, and I never really had a good time to process that. And if it didn’t rush his death and gave you time to process it. You could’ve had a death where I cried for him, and it would’ve probably been a scene where it made the movie just a bit better for me. But, instead of crying and sobbing for his death, I was like aw man that’s too bad. The ingredients were certainly there. I just think the character would’ve benefited from more screen time, and a less rushed death. If there were just more scenes like when he is held in confinement, and we got more of his mind that works on a different level, we could’ve had a really solid character with great depth to him. In a way you could say that about some of the other characters. It feels like we might’ve even focused on the wrong guy. Bryan Cranston was a lot more interesting, compared to Aaron Taylor Johnson. The movie got me hooked on Cranston’s character, but not exactly Johnson’s. And I believe that’s not really a good thing, when you don’t get attached to the main character, but you do to a side character that gets killed off way too early. I saw this one youtuber, Chris Stuckman, say that it would’ve been cool if there was more of a father son bond throughout the film, and I have to agree with that. It would’ve allowed us to get attached to the main character more, it would’ve left more breathing room whenever they would eventually kill him off. Because I think they just played that move a bit early.
That being said, I do think the movie has a bit of a focus issue. I think that the father-son relationship in there was great, but since Cranston left a bit too early. And without him, the movie kind of loses focus, and I don’t really get as attached with Johnson’s character. So, since the strings have cut loose, the movie loses some of that emotion for me. And like I’ve said, some cool action doesn’t make up for that. In fact I kind of liked Olsen’s character, and her son in this more. One thing that was cool about Johnson’s character was that he had a bit of a connection with Godzilla. You could even argue that it was personal for him. Because when they were in Japan when he was a kid, the Muto was pretty much the one that killed his mom, the Muto for sure, killed his dad. So, with Godzilla putting a stop to the Mutos, I would say he pretty much brought closure to Johnson’s character.
Godzilla V.S.Mutos
Speaking of the Mutos, they’re a pretty interesting villain. You had mama Muto, and Papa Muto, and I would say these were pretty solid antagonists. There wasn’t really much explanation for them in the film. Really the most we got was that the Mutos were awakened, and Godzilla is jealous that he isn’t the only Kaiju around anymore. Like I said, the director, Gareth Edwards, was really good at capturing scale and putting us in the view of the people. He wasn’t just able to put suspense through Godzilla, but also through the Mutos. I felt every impact that Godzilla made, and I felt every impact the Mutos made. I did enjoy how they were able to install more fear, then Godzilla. Godzilla was the savior of cities, the Mutos were the destroyers of cities.
That is going to be it for my review of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla. This review might be shorter than usual, but this movie didn’t have much for me to talk about. I think the only mistake that the movie had was killing off Bryan Cranston way too early. Bryan Cranston should’ve honestly been a vocal point of the Monster-Verse. Gareth Edwards did a superb job on putting fear in the movie, putting you in the perspective of the people. For that I am going to give the movie a 6.5/10, it was a super enjoyable watch, and I would honestly watch it again. Now thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read my review. So, until next time stinkers! Bye bye.