... What? This movie is not based on a comic book?
Well, technically no, but there have been several adaptations of Godzilla into comic medium so I guess it kinda counts (whatever, I just wanted to talk about it, you can't stop me).
Anyway, let's talk about the background of this movie as usual. As some of you may already know, this is actually the second american adaptation of the King of the Monsters, the first one being the 1998 film with the same name.
The current movie directed by Gareth Edwards, is also a reboot and doesn't have any relation with the previous film. Why you may ask? Because, the first film was critically panned by both reviewers and fans due to its unfaithful interpretation of the source material since it mostly focused on a cast of characters that nobody cared about and some even hated them while Godzilla was not exactly greatly portrayed either since it lacked the kind of impact that a creature like that should have. Think Michael Bay's Transformers in the form of a monster movie.
But I digress, let's talk about the film in question, does it represent correctly one of the most relevant Japanese icons?
Actually, I would say it does and does it excellently... when it's focused on Godzilla.
The story is about a family man who had to behold a nuclear reaction in Japan where he and his family resided that sadly took her wife's life. Now, fifteen years later, his son and him will have once again to face the same kind of disaster again which is caused for no other thing than the awakening of monsters.
It's a pretty simply premise but one that actually works since the focus should be in the build-up to the introduction of Godzilla and the rest of the monsters and the road to that point it's pretty well done. There's a lot of suspense being created until the arrival of that moment and it's developed really carefully, so much that you can't help but be invested into the story and every scene it delivers.
Aside from the ones concentrated on the human characters.
First things first, the best member of the cast is without a doubt, Joe Brody played by Bryan Cranston. This is one of my favorite actors in any medium, he's able to sell you into any scene where he plays, even despite that we barely knew anything about him and his family, you can completely believe his suffering after the loss of his wife and his complete obssesion that came after it.
Which created a complete disappointment when it turned out that he was not the main character at all.
No, the main character is his son, For Brody played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I won't say why Cranston doesn't become the focus since I don't want to spoil the movie but let's just say they missed a huge opportunity by not making him the protagonist, he would have made the human factor much stronger and more enjoyable.
Taylor-Johnson instead, there's nothing particularly bad about his performance but it's pretty bland. You can't care about his character at all since there's no charm into it, nor the fate of his family for that matter since there wasn't such a strong connection. In fact, I would say that Cranston did a better job at creating a connection to his family than Taylor-Johnson.
The rest of the cast is not really impressive either. Ken Watanabe is pretty good in fact, but he doesn't have really that much of a character for this movie and serves mostly as exposition.
Then again, it's all about the monsters right?! And this movie certainly delivers in that front.
This is probably one of my favorite designs of Godzilla ever and I have seen a lot of his Japanese movies. It's pretty believable and the battles against the other monsters are fantastically portrayed, it just such a brutal an epic fight.
My favorite moments were when Godzilla used one of his signature attacks against the creatures, beautiful moments.
Overall, I would say that despite of some problems with the characters, this is one of the best monster movies recently. You need to go check it out if you're interested in the genre.
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario