Godzilla (2014) Review

With Godzilla vs Kong set to come out in the near future, I thought it was about time I re-watched the films in the monsters universe so far and that is starting with the film Godzilla and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees the world under attack by ancient monsters when one comes out of hiding to set back the balance of the universe. 

Main Character 

Lets get onto the character that the film is named after and that is Godzilla and he is awesome in the film. His look is so cool and I just love how large they made him, he is so big and the film does a great job in showing the scale of the character and just how epic he is despite the lack of screen time. Now onto the main human character, who despite the lying trailers is actually Aaron Taylor Johnson and I thought he was really bad in this film. I like him as an actor but this just wasn't a role for him and this character was so boring. He is a generic army guy and I never grew to care about him at all in the role. 

Supporting Characters

Now onto the character the trailer made out was the main character and that is Bryan Cranston. I love Cranston, he is an acting juggernaut and he acts rings around everybody in this film, in the first 15 minutes he delivers a tremendous performance and really makes you care about his character. It is just such a shame he isn't in the film that much and the studio lied to people to try and convince them that Walter White vs Godzilla was going to happen but it doesn't. Ken Watanabe and David Strathairn play roles in the film and I have chucked them together because they are both fine in their roles but there isn't too much depth to them and despite giving decent performances you just want a bit more. The Great Elizabeth Olsen plays Taylor Johnson's wife and I didn't really like her in the film, I just feel like she is a weak character and wastes such a great actress. I mean I also found it weird seeing Quicksilver & Scarlett Witch married and that probably affected it a bit. 

Story

The story has some interesting things to it, especially when it focuses on Cranston's character as he really provides the emotion for the film. You learn a bit about the origins of Godzilla and the monsters and that is done pretty well as a good introducing point for this new universe being built up. But this story just didn't get me invested in the vast amount of the characters, its hard when world ending things are happening when you don't care about the people. Also this film in particular hides Godzilla for way too long, I get the idea but we needed more Godzilla in a film called Godzilla. 

Script

The script has some decent dramatic dialogue and shock to hear that Cranston delivers the best of it. But this an incredibly sombre film and is incredibly heavy for a film that sees a giant lizard fighting other creatures. I'm not asking for a comedy but maybe something to lighten the mood a bit during the film. 

Style 

The style of this film has some truly jaw droppingly amazing moment, Godzilla and the other monsters all look fantastic and are on a larger then life scale which leads to a final battle that is of epic proportions and really delivers on spectacle. The issue is and I am not sure if it is just me but I found this film to be lit very darkly, I knew cool things were happening but I couldn't see plenty of it and that infuriated me even more. 

Overall

Overall, I actually think this is an average film. Every time I watch this film I enjoy it less and I now realised that this isn't a particularly great film and I actually think this doesn't do Godzilla justice so maybe give it a skip. 

Rating - 5/10