Godzilla (2014)

Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Country: USA / Japan

Movie Review: Gareth Edwards’ version of Godzilla, the Japanese radioactive giant monster, is a rowdy sci-fi adventure thriller that, despite visually crafted, lacks the spirit of other times (Ishiro Honda’s original from 1954 still rocks!). The story begins in Philippines where two scientists are called to investigate an enormous skeleton and two giant eggs found. Shortly afterwards, in Tokyo, a nuclear power plant is destroyed due to an earthquake, killing the wife of the plant supervisor, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), a nuclear engineer who narrowly escaped and doesn’t cope with the explanations given about the accident. According to his theories, an earthquake was improbable since the movement of the Earth registered was consistently patterned and not random. 15 years later Brody’s son, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), returns to Japan to get his father out of the jail for having trespassing the quarantine zone imposed by the authorities. Together with the other two scientists, they will become aware of Godzilla, the king of the monsters, which is threatening humanity. This time Godzilla doesn’t come alone, bringing other destructive ancient creatures with him. The super graphical scenes and importunate score become the core of the movie with artificial battles taking one, or both, of the following formats: monsters vs. humans, and monsters vs. monsters. The technology sophistication soon is transformed in monotony with several repetitions of ideas and lack of substance in a story that tries to call in vain our attention for a threat of our planet and a particular family. Poorly conceived and boring.