Having seen the 1998 version – which I wasn’t so happy with – I wasn’t expecting much of this new and most recent tackle at Godzilla. The 2014 film is directed by Gareth Edwards and tars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston. Richard T Jones, Jared Keeso (19.2), Ty Olsson & Gary Chalk have minor roles.
In this reboot the existence of Godzilla and other large creatures have been known since 1954 but have been kept away from the public. In a mine in the Phillippines a colossal skeleton is found in 1999 and two pods are discovered near it; one lying dormant and the other has been hatched. Whatever was in the hatched pod, has crawled it’s way into the ocean and made it’s way to a Nuclear Power Plant in Janjira, Japan and causes a massive radiation breech causing an emergency shutdown. For 15 years the giant winged creature, a MUTO, eats the radioactivity and grows in size until it matures and breaks out. Meanwhile, at a Nevada nuclear waste facility, a second, larger and wingless MUTO, emerges and devastates Las Vegas. The scientists conclude that the second MUTO is female, the two were communicating and will meet to breed. Now, I know what you are thinking but shucks they did not show any giant creature sex – darn it!
Another larger creature, Godzilla an ancient alpha predator, was awakened accidentally in 1954 and initially the US military used nuclear weapons to kill it; it was in vein. As predicted by the scientists who lead Monarch, a project setup to study Godzilla, the large creature will hunt and kill the two MUTO as it in in it’s nature. Much devastation occurs as the MUTO’s destroy parts of Japan, Hawaii and California as San Francisco is where the two MUTO’s meet to form a nest and breed (ofcourse, eventually all extra-ordinary creatures and aliens will converge in the USA) and military forces are deployed with nuclear warheads to stop these creatures. Godzilla battles both creatures and is losing when one of the soldiers destroys the nest, causing the female to rush towards it. This gives Godzilla the edge and it kills the male and rests. The female kills a few soldiers and is about to kill the lead male character when Godzilla grans it and rips it’s head off after spewing radioactive energy inside of it. He then collapses, seemingly dead. The next day, as people rummage through the rubble to find loved ones and get medical aid to the injured, Godzilla suddenly awakens and returns to the ocean, as survivors cheer. He didn’t even stay for a photo op, what a hero!
Now for the human characters: the hero’s mom was killed in the reactor in Japan and his father kept on searching for the truth about the nuclear explosion leading father and son to sneak back into Janjira. They are caught and taken to the test sight where the male creature was kept and as it broke free, the dad died in the melee. The son, a military solider and bomb expert (the coincidences just keep on rolling) joins the military back (he was on leave) and heads back to Hawaii and then San Francisco and is in the team that carried the nuclear devices. He, ofcourse, is the one who burns the nest causing the female MUTO to rush back to it and giving Godzilla the gap he needs to kill the male MUTO. He is also the one at the with the nuclear device on the boat and about to be female MUTO’s dinner when Godzilla attacks again. Son soldier is reunited with his nurse wide and son in the end! Not much to know about the characters other than that!
I found the first half mostly tedious and nothing memorable. We are all hereto watch the giant creatures battle it out. The second half of the film is much better and the special effects are awesome. But that’s all there is to this film. 7 outta 10!