Look, I have nothing against the 1998 American Godzilla, in fact, I like it as its own movie. As a standalone monster movie, it is ridiculously silly, funny and at the same time entertaining in its own way. But when you watched the original Japanese version, or had a glimpse of it, or even watched Ultraman before, that is not an actual Godzilla, it strayed too far from the original. The 1998 adaptation felt more like Jurassic Park on steroids.
So, when Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers decided to reboot the whole Hollywood adaptation, I had some doubts whether it will succeed or not. But, Gareth Edwards' vision towards the Japanese version with his idea worked well, and rather brilliantly.
The movie is about the devastation of human abuse of the environment and the use of Nuclear based materials and its effects, which is the appearance of monsters of Godzilla. To make matters worse, Godzilla isn't the biggest trouble! Making the army had a torrid time throughout the movie. The brilliance about the new Godzilla is, it felt like Jaws. Godzilla makes the viewers felt terrified and nervous, even when Godzilla is off-screen.
The new Godzilla had some of the finest cast line-up, it has Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Avengers: Age of Ultron), Elizabeth Olsen (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Ken Watanabe (Inception, The Last Samurai), Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle, Breaking Bad).
These actors are some of the most popular and great actors around, and it is paired up with a really decent script. The movie is mostly centred around Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his family (Olsen, Cranston) and of course Godzilla. The movie surprisingly had a really strong human drama to back it up, but the character development is somewhat forgotten halfway through the movie.
The main character of the movie is still the titular character, Godzilla. Gareth Edwards made Godzilla hidden most of the time until the film climax. I like this idea, but moviegoers who prefer the movie come out gunblazing from the first second might not like this. This version of the Godzilla stays true to its Japanese roots, and bigger than the Japanese version. This makes Godzilla feels terrifying, on and off-screen. Beside Godzilla, there are MUTOs in the movie as well
The movie had a really strong visual effects as well. Many of the action set-pieces are well made and well-polished to make it feel believable and exciting. The destructions created by Godzilla are massive and the great visual effects make these destruction much scarier and realistic.
While the visual effects is great, the best part of Godzilla is definitely the audio effects. The movie is loud at the right time with all the actions going on-screen, with the roar of Godzilla the highlight of the audio effects. The audio effects is the best I've heard this year, and it is some of the best I've heard in recent years.
Godzilla is a faithful adaptation to its Japanese counterparts, highlighting the movie's values correctly. It is silly, but believable that makes the movie so entertaining to watch. Despite its strong but stalled human drama, the movie has a decent story to back it up. Gareth Edwards' Godzilla is one of the year's most entertaining movie of year.
Pros: Good visual effects, one of the best audio effects of the year, strong cast and good story, Godzilla is back!
Cons: Character development is somewhat stalled halfway, some silly moments, some viewers might not like the beginning of the film.
Score: 4/5
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