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Kevin Michael Vance
Writer - Portland, Oregon
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Title: GODZILLA
Director: Gareth Edwards
Year: 2014
Reviewed: November 05, 2014
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Birthday Cake-Second Highest Rating |
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Admittedly, I was not a huge fan of the movie, "Godzilla". And this does not come with any sort of preconceived baggage on my part. I really don't have any love or hate for the original Japanese movies. They are, in my humble opinion, fun in an extremely campy sense, but as far as cinema goes, I can take them or leave them.
SPOILERS ABOUND! READ FURTHER AT YOUR OWN RISK!
"Godzilla" the movie for me falls flat. Firstly, they kill off Bryan Cranston's character in the first 20 minutes of the film. His character's journey was literally the only journey worth following. Whomever or however it was decided to kill him off is beyond me. When you have an actor of Cranston's caliber you keep him on screen as long as possible; in fact, you're probably better off just putting him in every scene. After which, were left following the combat-tread of Aaron Taylor-Johnston's character; whom I've liked ever since "Kick Ass", but whose story arc pales in comparison to Cranston's. Weird decisions.
Secondly, I found the story to be quite honestly stupid. In the military's infinite wisdom they decide to bomb a monster who eats radioactive material with -- you guessed it! -- a nuclear warhead. That's like throwing a giant head of cabbage at a monster bunny, or slabs of butt steak to Cerberus. (Maybe they thought the monster would feed, and then get sleepy). Then there was something downright irritating watching soldiers continually firing 5.56 rounds at two giant monsters. Made about as much sense as taking a water gun to an ACTUAL fire fight.
Thirdly, there was no humor of any kind. The whole film was played way too straight. All I wanted was to hear one of the soldiers shout out something like, "big, giant, lizard monsters! Who knew!" Something. The whole premise lent itself to a dash of humor, and with out even a dash, here and there, the film was emotionally stunted, flat, and just plain dull.
Kill off a great actor in the first act, no humor when dealing with a giant lizard that shoots blue flame and a giant moth that eats radioactive material, and from me you get a BIRTHDAY CAKE review.
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