The King Has Returned

Godzilla

So I guess I will start this review off with a question. Is a film considered a remake if the same film has been remade more than a few times? Think about it for me and let me know.

For 15 years, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) has tried to uncover what really happened to the nuclear power plant that he was overseeing in Japan. Feeling responsible for the death of his wife and hundreds of other people he has spent countless hours piecing together clues. His son, however, has moved on and made something of himself. But when Joe is detained in Tokyo for trespassing, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) must try to convince his father to come back to the states. What ends up as a simple trip turns out to be something more than either man ever imagined.

Godzilla turns out to be more of a character driven film. Where other monster films are more about the destruction and the monster itself, this film focuses a lot more on our choices as human beings. Even with an absurd reason for the emergence of Godzilla and creatures like him, the cast sells it. This is mainly done by Ken Watanabe who plays a scientist and know-it-all on things Godzilla. Because Watanabe delivers his lines so convincingly, the audience with left with no choice but to accept whatever he says.  Of course there is the King of Monsters himself, Godzilla, who thankfully, looks like his normal self. The 1998 version of making Godzilla look like a mix of a T-Rex and a velociraptor was appalling.

The only real problem that I have with the film is that it brings the human element too much into the film. The film, in a way, uses Godzilla as a back drop. What I mean by this is that we see very little of the monsters fighting and most of what we see is news coverage of what is going on. The action scenes are more of the aftershocks of destruction created by the monsters.  Now that I think of it, the film tries to create a happy medium between Cloverfield and the previous Godzilla films.  This works to an extent, but it just leaves the audience wanting more of the title character and less of the human characters.

I definitely suggest this film to anyone who likes monster films and to those people virgins to the monster genre. It was a well-directed film and the cast does a great job.

Verdict: Watch In Theatres