Review: Godzilla

                                                    'Godzilla' Is Truly The Dinosaur's Roar

                         Very rarely do we ever have blockbuster films that are filmed with artistic merit. Some of the few that I can think of are Nolan's Batman films. So, in my mind, Godzilla not only serves as a delicious piece of cinematic junk food, but serves like healthy apples as well as it takes two concepts that are like apples and oranges and successfully molds them together.

                          Story:

                         Godzilla follows a man named Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who leaves his wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and son to pick up his father Joe (Bryan Cranston) in Japan who tries to uncover the truth behind a radiation incident that occurred years ago. Along the way, both Ford and Joe, along with the world, find themselves up against a man-made creature known as Godzilla who tries to fight off radiation-induced creatures known as MUTO. 

                         What I Liked About It:

                        One thing that I liked was just how the film just what happens when man messes around with nature. That kind of theme may have been dealt with before in films like Splice, Planet of the Apes, and Jurassic Park, but it is dealt with differently here as it showcases the dangers of radiation. Not only that, but since the MUTO are the result of man tempering with nature, but Godzilla fighting off these creatures almost feels like God correcting nature's mistakes since Godzilla is almost a god-like creature. Speaking of which, I really liked the way Godzilla looked and the different MUTO creatures as well. 

                         The film even seems like it focuses more on the beasts themselves than the human characters. To me, that makes sense because it is obviously difficult to relate to a giant lizard. But shearing its focus on these creatures fighting each other makes things interesting and really plays upon the whole "God vs. nature" conflict present. Honestly, when I saw the first trailer of this film, I was so intrigued because they didn't really give us an idea of what the film was about which made we want to see more and now that I saw the film, I was surprised by how the story went and I really loved it. 

                           What I Didn't Like About It:

                          I'll be honest here. One minor complaint I have is that even though the film has human characters for the audience to try and relate to, the characters aren't fully realized. But as I said, the focus isn't really on them, it is more on the creatures themselves, which gives the film almost a realistic documentary feel as we are mainly watching this god-like creature trying to right the wrongs created by nature. I'm just curious as to what will happen with Godzilla in the sequel because they already announced that there will be one.

                           Consensus:

                          Overall, Godzilla is a rather artistic popcorn flick with a true old school monster movie feel. This one I would highly recommend you see in theaters and I would even say see it in 3-D. It would be worth the extra 3.50 or 4.00 for the glasses. Whether you like action flick or monster movies or not at all, I would still say give this a watch. You might be in for quite a 'roaring' surprise.

Grade: A-