GODZILLA DVD (2014)

SYNOPSIS: This spectacular adventure pits Godzilla, the world's most famous monster against malevolent creatures that blostered by humanity's scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence.

MOVIE REVIEW:

The name, Gareth Edwards might not be familiar to many since the Brit only has an indie film, Monsters on his filmography. But Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros are so impressed with his talent and unique vision that Edwards is reportedly given US$160 million budget to revive Toho’s most iconic monster- Godzilla.

With a story by David Callaham (Doom) and Max Borenstein (Seventh Son), Edwards has accomplished what Michael Bay has failed in his trilogy of Transforming-robots, that is to be both entertaining and stimulating. It might not be the most original if you are already a fan of the classic Toho movies yet the filmmakers have put so much heart into the project that you truly embraced every moment on the big screen.

Human characters formed the core of Godzilla as the audience is taken on a journey through the eyes of the Brody family. Brody senior (Bryan Cranston) and his wife both worked at a nuclear plant in Japan. Ignoring Brody’s pleas to investigate strange seismic activity, the plant suddenly collapsed one day causing the death of Mrs Brody. 15 years later, Brody junior, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) now a full-time soldier with the U.S. Army reunites with his estranged father in Japan to investigate the truth and what they found out is that a dangerous Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism (MUTO) is captured in the plant’s ruins instead of an earlier report of an earthquake.

Only an established storyteller such as Spielberg can completely sell us the danger of dinosaurs roaming in a theme park. Edwards probably taking notes out of Spielberg’s book of filmmaking manages to tease and showcase his monstrous stars in quick cuts and plenty of night shots for the entire running time until the last 20 minutes when all hell break loose in San Francisco. If you are familiar with Edwards’ independent project, Monsters, you know the man prefer to build up anticipation and reveal his tricks little by little. This is of course a far different tactic as compared to Pacific Rim, another WB and Legendary collaboration.

With the audiences’ attention being focused on the MUTOs and Godzilla, the various human characters end up being uninteresting and ultimately clichéd. Ken Watanabe plays the obligated Japanese scientist whose only memorable line is “Let them fight”. So what makes him so sure that Godzilla will fight the two MUTOs instead of destroying the world with them? David Strathairn commander role is relegated to a military talking head. Elizabeth Olsen playing Ford’s wife mainly has the phone as her co-star as her onscreen husband is often missing and voluntarily signing up himself to fight the monsters.

The treatment of Godzilla appearances and the boring humans might be appalling to some. However, given the scale and battles are wonderfully mastermind on the whole,Godzilla easily remain a fan favourite for this year summer blockbuster slate. It’s filled with stock characters. It’s loud. It’s full of clichés I agree. Yet who the hell cares when we get to watch Godzilla smashing radiation mutated creatures. Forget about the 1998 version, bring this on anytime. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

MONARCH: Declassified is spilt into three segments, Operation: Lucky Dragon: A vintage film reel about the history of Godzilla, MONARCH: The M.U.T.O. File: Another historical look at the M.U.T.Os and The Godzilla Revelation: A fictional documentary piece on the aftermath of the attacks.

The Legendary Gozilla is spilt into four brief segments. First up is Godzilla: Force of Nature, a 19 minutes feature that mainly explores the CG behind the creation of Godzilla. A Whole New Level of Destruction takes a look at the physical set decoration. Into the Void: The H.A.L.O Jump brings viewers behind the logistic and pre-vis of one of the movie’s key sequences. Ancient Enemy: The M.U.T.O is another short segmenton the design of the creatures.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Godzilla roars in earth-shattering mode and the creatures sound effects in generally are well mixed and deafening aggressive. Explosions also rocked the entire soundstage. As the movie is blanket in darkness often, black levels and images still remain sharp and detailed.  

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee