Just a big old softie
Godzilla (12a) Running time 123 minutes Rating:PPPP
As with many creatures, human or otherwise, the following statement often holds true – give them a bit of instant fame and it will surely go to their head. Take Godzilla for instance. When he (a gender assumption) first appeared on the silver screen in a 1954 Japanese film famous for its wobbly skyscrapers, he was a mere 150 feet tall and weighed – give or take – 300 tons. Some 28 films later and old Goddo has swelled up something terrible. He is roughly (not having a tape measure long enough) 450 feet tall, weighs in at 90,000 tons and has breathe that would melt steel. The latest Godzilla, mind you, is a bit of a softy when it comes to humankind. Unlike previous outings, where he knocked Tokyo about a bit, in this version of the classic Atomic Age frightener, he’s come to like people, but really takes against a couple of other monsters – MUTOs. When humans disturb the MUTO creatures in their underground lair, Godzilla, directed by first-timer Gareth Edwards, is summoned from the deep to adjust the balance of nature. This he does, by knocking seven bells out of the MUTO – who resemble gnats but much, much bigger. Human hero introduced to the tale is young Navy SEAL Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who is on the scene when mysterious underground vibrations cause a nuclear incident. It brings tragedy to his family and his father, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston, who plays Walter White in Breaking Bad) grows ever more paranoid when no-one believes his ideas on the cause of the disaster. Later, Brody is in Hawaii helping to guide a consignment of nuclear bombs planned to bring security to the planet and as the inevitable good-v-evil tale unfolds the audience is treated to spectacular scenes depicting the ruination of San Francisco as Godzilla joins the attempts to rescue Mankind. ‘Godzilla’ satisfies fans of the genre with many memorable scenes. One worth mentioning has to be when a Special Forces squad is ‘halo’ parachuted onto the ruined city to try to retrieve a nuclear bomb, all done to music reminiscent of that used by director Stanley Kubrick in the iconic movie 2001, A Space Odyssey, when astronauts descend into the Moon crater to confront the Monolith for the first time. ‘Absolutely brilliant’ is the only description for it. So this is undeniably a monster movie wherein most of its $160m budget went on computer- generated special effects, yet there are no half-measure deliveries on the part of the actors, which helps reinforce the storyline in an otherwise preposterous tale. Typical of previous Godzilla movies, this is latest offering is great fun if you like this kind of thing, and spectacular effects alone are well worth a look. Fun for the whole family, and ideal for a half-term outing.
