3.5 stars out of 5
My memories of the 1998 Godzilla are pretty shaky. Too slick and ultimately underwhelming? There was that annoying Puff Daddy/Zeppelin song during the end credits. Was David Strathairn in it? No?
Well, he’s in this one. As is Bryan “Breaking Something-or-Other” Cranston, and Juliette Binoche, and Sally Hawkins. But these “quality actors” are really just window dressing, because we all know who the real star is: Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Who?? No, I’m kidding. But even the relatively unknown human leads—Johnson and Elizabeth Olson—can’t hold a candle to the big man himself, Gojira. (And holding a candle to him will really have no effect whatsoever.)
Our story begins in 1999, but we soon flash-forward to the present day. (Unfortunately, hair and makeup forgot to age Cranston, Hawkins, or Ken Watanabe.) There are weird tremors in Japan—this is a Godzilla movie, after all.
And it’s a good one. This is clearly plotted (if not ingeniously so) and built to appeal to both Asian and American audiences. (We travel from Tokyo, to Hawaii, to San Francisco.) Sure, there is techno-military mumbo-jumbo dialogue, but Strathairn and friends can deliver it with straight faces. There are a couple of very random moments. Why is the U.S. Navy in charge of an investigation in Japan? And there’s a little Japanese kid that the screenwriter very suddenly loses interest in.
But the tension builds effectively, and about an hour in we finally get a glimpse of Godzilla. Oh, but he’s not alone: There are two M.U.T.O.s — Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms. They are giant mantis-like things, and they are nasty. And when they finally get to fight with Godzilla, it is kind of awesome. Really well choreographed, well shot, and basically, pretty freaking cool.
I paid two extra bucks for 3-D and I think it was worth it—made me feel like I was watching something important. A heavy score adds to that too. And they play the Hiroshima card again. But what can I say? This was a real good time at the movies, which could’ve turned out much more stupid than it did.
Jack Silbert, curator