It is human tendency that we watch movies in which actors we’ve seen elsewhere have starred. Or run behind the sequel to a franchise that inspired more than a shake and a nod in the past. The same pulled me to the theatre a couple days back to watch Godzilla. Bryan Cranston was a narcotic to a great percentage of the youth and the not-so-young alike, for five seasons of what turned out to be the greatest TV series known to man – Breaking Bad. Plus, the ’98 thriller Godzilla (now better known as the old one) scared me for nights on end, having seen it when I was a mere Halfling.
I am sorry to say, but the film fell way below the standards its trailer had set for itself. Seeing Cranston on screen again was a marvel in itself. However, watching him play a pathetic, crazy scientist for the LONGEST time was nothing short of depressing. Don’t get me wrong. He has portrayed his character to be the craziest man alive. Not only that, he takes you through his desolation and exile like you’ve lived it for yourself. What pinches you is seeing “The one who knocks” be brought down to his knees in a role he needn’t have played. Other than noting a couple readings and telling his son (another character the movie could’ve gone on without) something he could’ve passed on himself, his role in the movie is to merely advertise it.
Next up: Godzilla. The biggest, baddest dinosaur ever known comes ALIVE in this movie. The animation, graphics and whatnot simply bring this Lord of Beasts before you in the most frightening and simply awesome of ways. So much so that it quite literally revs you up for action scenes you know MUST happen. What’s disappointing is that two or three of these are wasted on the people running around and away from the Reptile. Allow me to explain this misuse and utter waste of the audience’s time in greater detail. We see Godzilla in the middle of a highly populated city, hoping to see buildings plummet, fires break wild and babies being trapped inside someplace with a hot mom screaming for help. None of this happens for an eternity and a half. Instead, we are shown a part of the terrifying scene on a news channel on someone’s television set. In bits and pieces.
If that wasn’t frustrating enough, you are taken through a twist in the original story that takes a couple ages for them to get through. The one Japanese guy pulls at the cliché that everyone from Anime World wants nothing more than a giant dinosaur to fight, fight, fight. And a surprising number of obvious “coincidences” leave nothing to the imagination.
All in all, the fight scene at the end is the DIE FOR but would have been a decent ten minute video on YouTube as well. For free. GodZilla is Not really worth a Sunday afternoon. I find the need to add that this only has me more sceptical of the upcoming X-Men movie.
And that’s the bottom line.
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