Enter Godzilla
The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in their control and not the other way around.
While this is actually a quote from the trailer, and the movie, it is also the thematic message of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla.
Edwards’ previous feature film was an almost meditative Monsters, which was shot with a tiny crew on location in Central America and Texas. He then spent the next year doing all the post production, including inserting the monsters, in his basement.
This time, Edwards didn’t need to use his basement.
You can see the same reverence for nature in Godzilla, but there are also some great fight scenes. With planes and trains and boats and …but I’m getting ahead of myself.
The story is told through the eyes of the Brody family. Brayn Cranston plays Joe Brody, who, with his wife, Sandra Brody (played by Juliette Binoche), work at a nuclear power facility in Japan. There is a leak, which sets off the first round of disasters.
The film then jumps ahead fifteen years where Brody’s son, Ford, (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is returning home from a fourteen month tour of duty to see his wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and son Sam (Carson Bold). His trip home gets cut short because the US Embassy in Japan called about his father, who was charged with trespassing at the site of the reactor where he once worked. This brings father and son back to Japan in time for the first reveal.
Edwards knows his lore, and there are scenes that call back to many previous Godzilla incarnations. What is unexpected in a monster movie, is the clear motivations by all the parties. Joe Brody is trying to solve a mystery. Ford unwillingly takes on his father’s mission with a promise to do what needs to be done, including trying to get back home. American Admiral William Stenz just wants to protect the public. Dr. Ichiro Serizawa is part of MONARCH, an organization that watches and studies MUTOs. Even the non-human characters have clear goals.
The first half of the film sets the foundation for the various plot lines, and, using smoke and fog, flirts with showing us what we came to see. The second half of the film delivers on that tease. Radiation, electromagnetic pulses, nuclear bombs, HALO insertions from 30,000 feet, and destruction in Japan, Hawaii, Nevada, and San Francisco (much of which was actually shot in British Columbia) – this is truly a monster movie.
Edwards was at yesterday’s 7pm Toronto screening. He said that when Godzilla appears, he hoped that the audience would cheer. And we did.
