Godzilla '14 Retrospect - Three Years Later
G. H. (Gman)
AdminGodzillaJul-04-2017 12:22 PMAfter picking up the Power Rangers movie on Blu-ray, which is almost improving with every viewing, I had a desire to revisit Edwards' take on Godzilla. I suppose the reason was that I noticed both movies held back on the type of action we expect from these films and dive in to other story facets. The result was not inspiring. Much of this I aired on Twitter last night, but I thought it might be worthwhile to put it all together and post for discussion.
I hadn't seen Godzilla '14 for almost a year, so I was fairly disappointed to see the movie isn't aging very well. I can still enjoy it, but I'm reminded of what another fellow fan I'm usually at odds with said about it in 2014, "In the long run it'll be remembered as a boring movie." The comment isn't without merit, especially in the wake of Godzilla 2 being shot. I simply don't feel a lot of passion or emotion for the film.
It's a movie that's becoming less appealing with time. It's not bad by any means, but less notable in the wake of more Godzilla. Godzilla '14 was all we had after ten years so everyone grasped on to it like it was the Holy Grail. Now we have Shin Godzilla, three anime films on the way, two more sequels coming and likely more... There's simply a lot more to leech onto now. We had a ten year drought, so anything would have seemed like a godsend. But fans no longer have to hail it quite as highly since more is here/coming. As a result, Godzilla '14 has lost some of its standing.
I'm glad we have Godzilla '14, for sure, but the honeymoon period has long since ended. Godzilla's back, but the franchise can do a lot better--And it has done a lot better.
A lot of people, including myself beat a dead horse about the lack of Godzilla, but even IF the fandom agreed that cutting from the title character over and over was a good idea there's still nothing for the movie to fall back on for support. For example, watching Godzilla a few days after the new Power Rangers movie was a particularly polarizing and sobering experience because, while both have a lack of title character(s) action, Godzilla suffers from it a great deal more. My favorite moments in Power Rangers are quieter and somber--The campfire scene. The "I'd trade my life for you," moment. They resonate without action because the characters interact and work so well to create an emotional base the audience connects with. Whereas Ford in Godzilla doesn't interact with enough characters throughout to create a sense of emotion. He inspires no great love for himself or other characters from the audience.
But even if you don't agree with my Power Rangers comparison, as I understand that in of itself is a polarizing film, lets step back into the Godzilla franchise for a moment. Would all of these cutaways in Godzilla '14 have mattered if I had been in love with the characters? I usually cite my favorite Godzilla film as Monster Zero--A movie that has the least amount of Godzilla screen time in the entire series. But no one ever talks about that aspect of the film. No one notices it. It just doesn't matter because Godzilla was used liberally in the time he was on screen and, more importantly, I adore the characters. I watch Monster Zero FOR the characters. They drive the movie. They make the movie churn and bend. They ARE Monster Zero. So had Godzilla '14 made the same cuts, but with a cast I fell in love with and was invested in, this retrospective might be quite different.
I think the most that can be said for Godzilla '14 is it brought the franchise back. (And in terms of my recent viewing I finally found a picture setting for the North American Blu-ray that allows me to actually see what's going on in the film.) Otherwise I find it's stagnating after three years. It's a middling movie with decreasing value and I sincerely hope we get better in the future--But even if we do, it certainly won't help this film's reputation.
