Go-Go-Godzilla #30: Godzilla (2014)

Director: Gareth Edwards
Year: 2014
Length: 123 Minutes
Studio: Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros.

The Gist:
The US(?) military(?) organization Monarch investigates monsters of unknown terrestrial origins, or MUTOs (not to be confused with MOTUs, which are He-Man figures). In 1999, near the Philippians they investigate discovery of the bones of the largest MOTU. But that's not all, two massive sacks dangle from the ceiling, one of them already ruptured, leaving a trail to the ocean.  Later, in Japan, nuclear power plant supervisor Joe Brody is very concerned by seismic readings he's been tracking and is advising for a full plant shut down. He thinks he has time. His wife Sandra takes a team to check the core infrastructure for stability, but it's too late. Everything shakes, the core ruptures and to save everyone, it must be sealed Joe loses Sandra and so much more. The factory melts down, an explosion rocks the city, a whole section of Tokyo is rendered uninhabitable. 15 years pass and Joe still wants to know why.

His son, Lieutenant Ford Brody, and explosives expert, has literally just returned home to San Francisco following a tour of duty when he's called to Tokyo to bail his father out of prison, again, for breaching the quarantine zone. Joe points out that the seismic readings leading the the nuclear meltdown are occurring again, he just needs to get into the quarantine to get his data discs to prove to people the correlation. Joe agrees to help him get inside. They discover no radiation in the zone. Joe is baffled. They find what they're looking for but are also found by Monarch security and taken to the power plant where an cocoon, seemingly dormant, is starting to wake up. A creature from the Philippeans came to Tokyo, absorbed the nuclear facility's radiation, and has been gestating for 15 years, and hatches. In the creature's escape, Joe is fatally wounded and Ford is exposed to a world he never knew existed. 

Monarch drops Ford off in Hawaii, but it's the path of the awakened MUTO. The scientists determine that the MUTO awakened as a response to another MUTO that awakened in the Nevada desert, where the other egg from the Philippians was taken (stored in a nuclear waste disposal area). Not only that but a third MUTO, Godzilla (who was thought destroyed in the Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb "test"), has emerged, the scientist guesses, as nature's counterbalance. 

Godzilla and the MUTO from Japan clash in Hawaii. The damage is catastrophic, but the MUTO escapes. Predictions are that the two MUTOs, a male and a female, are slated to meet in San Francisco, with Godzilla tracking them. Ford hitches a ride with the team from the local military and learns they plan to detonate a nuke off the coast of SanFran to try and draw the monsters away from the city, but all efforts to move nuclear ordinance only result in the creatures attacking and stealing the radiation. In the end, all they can really do is let them fight.

San Francisco is the battleground. Godzilla against the two MUTOs who only want to be together and have a gazillion little parasitic MUTO babies (MUTO Babies, they make their dreams come true. MUTO Babies, they'll do the same for you-ooh).  But, the nuke that was intended to be exploded off the coast and stolen by the female MUTO, has a timed detonator. Ford, being his specialty, is part of the task force sent into the kaiju battlefield to disarm the warhead before it destroys San Fran entirely.  

He finds the casing damaged and disarming it is impossible. All he can do is take it to a boat and send it off the shore. Godzilla is triumphant in his battle but falls, close to death. The bomb explodes. Ford, is reunited with his family. Some time later, all the radiation from the explosion off the coast has dissipated, absorbed by Godzilla, and the creature awakens and heads off into the sea.

Godzilla, Friend or Foe:
Friend.

The Samesies:
There are various organizations that come and go throughout the different eras in Godzilla history, that could be compared to Monarch. The main difference being those Godzilla tracking agencies don't tend to be consistent from film-to-film, or are just a subset of the JSDF, instead of their own entity.

Radiation is the kaiju's food. What I wonder is how they sense the radiation of a nuclear bomb before it goes off.

I can't remember if in past Godzilla films how they explain why Godzilla comes to fight other creatures, but it is always implied as instinctual, which holds true here. 

Godzilla's atomic breath is in the film, but used very sparingly here. I think he gets three shots off late in the film. But that final use, where Godzilla pries a MUTO's mouth open an unleashes down the creature's throat is among the best-ever Godzilla moments for me.

The Differences:
The Toho films don't have opening credits, so this is the first Godzilla film (except maybe 1998) with opening credits. And it's magnificent. Basically a series of Monarch redacted documents that track their history of researching MUTOs. It's such an intense information dump, accompanied by a building, pulsating, anxiety-inducing low-horn and strings composition from Alexandre Desplat that may not be as earwormy as Akira Ifukube's original Godzilla theme, but... pretty damn good.

The origins of Godzilla, and any other MUTO, are ascribed to the earliest eras of the Earth, where there was more intense radiation, and as the Earth aged, the radiation dissipated, the MUTO's went deep into the Earth, closer to the core where the radiation is stronger. Man's use of atomic and nuclear weaponry has drawn them to the surface once more. (Of course, Toasty pointed out to me that we learn in Monarch:Legacy of Monsters that they come from another dimension, where the radiation clearly isn't that strong as humans are able to survive their atmosphere). Godzilla emerged after the WWII bombings of Japan, and the Bikini Atoll "test" was an attempt to kill the creature (this is in opposition to the Toho origins in which these incidents are what creates Godzilla...it's a bit of American absolution involved here, instead of explicit criticism)

This is the largest ever Godzilla who typically fluctuated between 55 and 80 meters This one comes in an 108 meters (or 355 feet). It's almost too big, I think, but certainly imposing.

Kaiju only appear in America twice (I think) in the Toho films, and almost all take place in Japan, so for the two big battles to be in Hawaii and California is a pretty drastic shift. But it's just setting, and it certainly doesn't diminish the impact of the fights. 

Anyone worth caring about?

Ford, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson, is our lead character, and also our POV character. He takes us through the different environments like post-meltdown Janjira, the Monarch facility, military transports, the Hawaii encounter, and most importantly the San Fran battle. I'm sure many gripe about turning away from the kaiju battle to see what the humans are doing, and I get that complaint, but this film, both in general and through Ford, you get a sense of the human toll as a result of the kaiju.  

Now, the opening of the film introduces us to Dr. Serizawa and Dr. Graham as played by Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins, respectively, and they are two actors I like a lot, but they're not given much to do beyond exposition. That said, Watanabe does add some real weight to his moment with the admiral after deciding to detonate a nuke off the shore of  San Fran. It doesn't change his mind, but it definitely gives him pause.

The first tragedy of the film is in the second prologue where we lose Juliette Binoche. Her very brief time with Bryan Cranston really sells them as a warm, loving, devoted couple, and we get why he's so gutted by her loss. And then to lose Cranston by the end of the first act is another devastating blow. I feel like there's a mildly better version of this story where Joe survives and he's our POV character in discovering Monarch. But we don't really learn much more about Monarch until the next Godzilla film. 

It's still weird that Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen play a married couple in this film and brother and sister in the MCU less than a year later. Olsen's part is probably the most extraneous, being Ford's motivating factor for getting home, but at the same time, she provides a civilian (as opposed to military) ground level perspective which isn't nothing. 

The Message:
 "Let them fight". In other words, get out of nature's way.  It has its own way of restoring balance.

Rating (out of 5 Zs): ZZZZ
If you're tracking the rankings, yes, that does make it my highest ranked Godzilla film so far. And yes, I like this film better than every Toho Godzilla film I've seen. I mean, I do like many of the suitmation Godzilla films, and find them very entertaining, but this is just a next-level blockbuster for me.  The film teases and teases and teases that the monsters are coming in a very engaging and engrossing way. It delivers an emotional impact that has you invested in the characters while anticipating the arrival of the monsters, and when they do emerge, it's glorious.

Director Edwards is a master of scale, and when you're talking 50 to 100 meter (plus)-sized creatures, you really want to feel that sense of scale. Too often with the Toho films, scale was only felt in perspective of a man in a suit as compared to the toys and models that surrounded them, with a poorly lit painted backdrop of a blue sky. Edwards, at every turn, makes you feel the imposition these creatures have on the world we're used to living in. A 350-foot beast emerging rapidly from the ocean creates a tsunami, and it's an incredible sequence even before the creature surfaces. Its a movie full of "wow"starting with the skeletal remains found in the prologue.

I hadn't watched the film in quite some time, but I think it's geniuinely a favourite movie of mine. G-fan snobs might turn their nose up at it for its lack of practical suits and models, and taking it out of its Japanese setting, and diminishing its messaging, to which I say, fair enough, if that's your thing. But this is much more my thing. I think the only Toho film that measures up to this (and exceeds it) is Godzilla Minus One.

Sleepytime Factor:
None at all. Even in the "military assembling on the bridge" sequence, which is the equivalent of the "tanks on the move" montage in the Showa era, I was still so very engaged.

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My original review

Shin Godzilla is next (and I know Toasty has been holding off his review until I got to this point).