Godzilla (2014)

Film: Godzilla (2014)
Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston
Director: Gareth Edwards
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

It's sometimes hard for me to judge summer blockbusters, because they don't rely on the same metrics that I am usually finding myself hoping to achieve at the movies.  I'm very much someone who enjoys a thick plot in cinema (for this reason, I should have been an easy convert in the "TV is better than movies" argument, even though I am not really there yet) and want tons of character development (it helps me connect with what's going on on-screen).  Summer blockbusters don't rely on such tropes as a general rule, however-they are more about the gargantuan, the superheroes and giant effects and relatively standard story-telling that gets across the reason for another battle scene.  This should leave me with little choice than to reach for my populist-snobbery and clobber out each major hit of the next few months with little abandon.

The problem for me, though, is that I quite like some summer movies.  Perhaps because my busiest work season is generally in the spring or because this is about the time of year where I realize a couple of my New Year's resolutions have hit the skids (as I've said before, I take NY resolutions very seriously and don't actually abandon all of them throughout the year, but even I hit a spell), I need something where I don't have to think as heavily while at the theaters.  Granted, I hate completely suspending my cranium (I say this quote frequently, but people who say they don't want to think when they go to the movies also are the people who say they don't want to think when they read, watch television, or breathe), but there's something to be said for letting your mind wander, provided there is quality entertainment to be seen on-screen.

(Spoilers Ahead) This is part of the reason why I thoroughly enjoyed Godzilla, the latest in the parade of rehashing every major franchise known to man.  The movie is not groundbreaking (at all), but it's better than a number of other recent reboots.  You can tell this from the rather ingenious opening credits (honestly, and I know this sounds like a dig, but it's not), which were my favorite part of the movie (we saw flashes of old Godzilla pictures and the credits being coded to hide a trace of them...perfectly echoing where the film was about to go).  The movie is a thrill ride, and while it doesn't suffer from some of the terrible instincts of the 1998-Matthew Broderick film, it does have us hold-out for the creature for a while.  We instead get a horrible explosion and the death of one of the major actors in the film (nice to know you, Juliette Binoche), which sets up most of the rest of the plot.

The film is two different things, and one of them is a giant visual spectacle, and here it's a home run.  The film's visual effects may not be as show-stopping as something like Gravity or Avatar (honestly, visual effects have set the bar so high these days that it's difficult for anyone to actually make a new entry in the field), but they work wonderfully in the movie.  They never overwhelm or seem particularly fake, and I loved the way that the story modernizes itself for the new era (people learning about Godzilla far earlier through television or phone rather than having him come unsuspecting from city to city).  One of the ways that I can tell whether a director has put in his "quality points" in a summer blockbuster is the panel of tech teams that he pulls together, and Edwards, nabbing Seamus McGarvey, Alexandre Desplat, and Sharen Davis, amongst others, proved that he did his homework.  The film's technical merits occasionally run a bit on the dark-and-rainy, but as a whole, this is above-the fold blockbuster work.

The same cannot quite be said for the plot or the acting.  The film seems too reliant on cliches, particularly surrounding Bryan Cranston's character of the man-who-lost-his-wife-to-crazy-theories-that-are-100%-correct.  I know and get that part of this is paying homage to Godzilla films of yore, but couldn't we find a better way to make this happen?  Like, say, making it the mother that is tracking down strange tremors?  I also feel like Bryan Cranston, who is admittedly on a bit of a creative role recently, needs to take a break soon-I have had enough Walter White for the past year.   Enjoy your Tony and your inevitable Emmy in September, take a nice vacation, and then come back and win that inevitable biopic Oscar you're gearing for in 2016.

There's really no one who is a stand-out in the cast.  Binoche probably comes the closest, though her screen-time is short; she, more than almost any other actor working in cinema today has a naturalism that comes across onscreen that few other actors can come close to achieving, much less in a Godzilla movie.  David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe, and in particular Sally Hawkins are given thankless characters, and while I'm happy that they got their BMW's from these quick paycheck roles, wouldn't casing less famous actors that you aren't certain are going to live for a while have been a better choice?  Elizabeth Olsen, so good in Martha Marcy Mae Marlene (did no one see that film, because I don't get why this woman isn't getting better and stronger roles?) doesn't quite conform to the "get 'em tiger" girlfriend role, but that's because she so rarely is onscreen.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, however, is onscreen, and I was texting my brother about this...I don't know how I feel about him.  As an actor, I've only seen a couple of roles (and admittedly haven't seen his signature role up-until-now of Kick-Ass), but he leaves me cold onscreen.  His performance is fine, and I kind of dig the whole "sensitive-lost soul" leading man vibe of Generation Y (Johnson, Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, and Logan Lerman all seem to have found this sweet spot), but there should be more connection with the audience.  Also, and I know this is a bit pervy, but what is the point of having someone getting that jacked without exploiting it a bit further with at least one pandering shirtless scene?  I know the new in-thing to say about Zac Efron is that he looks like gay scientists designed him in a lab, but if there are really gay scientists out there making men, they're probably going to look like Aaron Taylor-Johnson.  Just saying.

That said, and I am loathe to state this sentence, if you take the plot-pacing and acting out of the equation, Godzilla is a great, fun summer movie.  And I honestly mean that-see it on the big-screen, kick off what may be a fairly tepid summer season (I'm not really thrilled with what is in-store, are you?), and enjoy the more brainless aspects of cinema.  You work hard-you've earned it.