People are a problem, in real life and in the films. I try and avoid reviews of films I'm going to see but I'd heard a variety of people complaining about the human characters in the new Godzilla. Those who didn't like Godzilla are complaining that the humans had too much screen time and lacked any character development. Both points are valid but it didn't make the slightest bit of difference to my massive amount of enjoyment. The humans serve only to set up the next sequence and yes there is a lot of initial setup but that only makes the pay off so much more rewarding.
The titular creature is kept out of the limelight: glimpsed on television screens, through rain soaked wind screens and up close dwarfing humans in the foreground. Action scenes bravely and brilliantly cut away before the weakness of the effects are exposed and it's this constant teasing that provides much of the joy.
It's amazing that Gareth Edwards has made such a massive film. Taking influences from the Spielberg trinity of Jaws, Close Encounters and Jurassic Park but also legitimising the monster B movie so it feels real and not a fantasy. The film is also spectacularly beautiful and easily one of the best looking films I've seen this year.
The technicalities of the plot may not make sense (it doesn't matter) and the tiny human lives are insignificant (it doesn't matter) but as a summer blockbuster piece of entertainment it's hard to imagine anything that will be bigger.
May 28, 2014 at 09:05PM
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