Godzilla (2014) - This Is Serious!

★★★★☆

Funny that when I first saw the poster for ‘Godzilla’, I didn’t see a monster destroying a city. I saw a lonely soul being destroyed in a city of fear and desperation instead. But I was wrong either way.

To clear some of your wonders, I think I have to drop you a heads-up here: Godzilla is No dinosaur though it looks like one. Yes, it’s an ancient giant creature, far much older than dinosaurs as said, but while dinosaurs eat veggies or flesh, Godzilla doesn’t. He (could be a she, I don’t’ know, let’s presume it’s a he here) sucks up Earth’s radiation to live and reproduce. So he’s not there to tear apart buildings and stomp on people just for fun. He’s up there for a very serious purpose that’s after all not well explained, and so not convincing enough.

I’ve got to give a thumbs-up to Director Gareth Edwards, who first gained fame for his low-budget indie sci-fi ‘Monsters’ that looks weird but no trash to me actually, for choosing to take a rather realistic approach to this half-a-century-old franchise. ‘Godzilla’ is like a decent commercial film with a slight touch of indie filmmaking. It’s indeed a spectacular in terms of magnificent visual and sound effects, a well paced and told story, and exceptional camera work that allows you to best experience how its’ really like to be under the nose of very powerful frightening creatures like that. Frankly, my jaw dropped many times watching this film in the cinema. Unlike those preposterous messy fights in blockbusters like ‘Transformers’ or stuff, the Director intentionally leaves some of the invasions and head-to-head fights to our own imaginations, and shows only the aftermath instead of details of how it’s caused. But he does save one for us in the end that some complain about being too simple and easy, but to me, it’s extraordinary.

‘Godzilla’ could’ve been a classic if only the reason why Godzilla attacks had been more than just that he wants to make a balance between the eat and eaten, and it hadn’t ended like that so awkward and sudden. It’s nevertheless, more than just good. It makes us humble by putting us up against fearsome forces of nature and monsters, and realize how ridiculous it is to be full of ourselves all the time as we’re in fact nothing but a bed of fleas that could be shaken off in a blink of an eye by Mother Nature!