Review: Godzilla Starring Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston @GodzillaMovie #GodzillaMovie

Director Gareth Edwards brings forth an epic rebirth to Toho’s iconic Godzilla. I vaguely remember the  original 1954  version. In Japan, the movie is revered because the storyline is a cautionary tale of the use of nuclear weapons which is why the remakes get such criticism.   This version pits the world’s most famous monster Godzilla against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity’s scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence.

So how does the movie stack up. Not bad. In the original story, Godzilla emerged from the Pacific Ocean, a mutation awakened by nuclear-weapons testing on the Bikini Atoll, underlining Japan’s emotional trauma from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. This movies plays homage to the original but stands on it’s own. I really expected not to like this movie but in the end I actually liked it. Is it perfect, no but so few “action” pictures are.

 

Here are my top 5 reasons for seeing “Godzilla”

1. The cast is top notch that includes Oscar® nominee Ken Watanabe (“The Last Samurai,” “Inception”), Elizabeth Olsen (“Martha Marcy May Marlene”), Oscar® winner Juliette Binoche (“The English Patient,” “Cosmopolis”), and Sally Hawkins (“Blue Jasmine”), with Oscar® nominee David Strathairn (“Good Night, and Good Luck.,” “The Bourne Legacy”) and Bryan Cranston (“Argo,” TV’s “Breaking Bad”). This may not seem important but this is an action picture, so having really good actors elevates the script and the movie.

2. The Roar – what can I say! Even if you have never seen any Godzilla movies, you know about the roar. It’s pretty spectacular. To bring the Roar to life, the sound designers set up a 12 foot high, boulevard wide sound system on a street in the Warner Bros. lot. They blasted the roar through a 100,000 watt speakers lined in an array, that not only rattled pipes and rooftops but could be heard  up to three miles away.

3. The action – There is a lot of action that will keep the fan boys happy. The Halo plunge (you will know when you see it) in the movie is pretty spectacular which speaks to the attention to detail the producers took to ensure it was accurately represented.

4. Lots of twists and turns – I don’t want to include and spoilers but seriously I did not expect some of the turn of the events that happened in the movie.

5. Godzilla – I think in these types of movies, if the monster is not believable, then you get nothing but snickers and criticism. The CGI is amazing and Godzilla is pretty believable.  The filmmakers took great pains to make Godzilla look like Godzilla.  According to the producer Thomas Tull, ” We wanted to bring him into contemporary reality while not steering too far from the classic silhouette tha so many of us grew up with, and Gareth (the director) and the entire team walked that line with passion and inspiration.”

All that said, be forewarned that this is not a movie for younger kids. Godzilla can be scary plus the roar is pretty intense especially if you see it in IMAX. There is also la ot of death and destruction. The movie does show lots of dead people but it’s not a gory depiction.

Finally, just a note to save you some money. I saw it in 3D and IMAX. Don’t waste your money!! It was very loud and I am not sure what 3 D there was during the movie that would warrant you paying extra. My daughter is a 3D fiend also said she kept taking her glasses off and couldn’t figure out what was 3 D.

 

Godzilla trailer:

Disclosure: NYC Single Mom attended a screening to facilitate this review.