Movie Review: Godzilla (2014)

After that sad state of affairs in 1998, Godzilla is back for another round.  This time he is bigger and badder than ever before in Gareth Edwards' (Monsters) second directing effort, Godzilla.

The story starts in 1999 with Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad) and his wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche, The English Patient) working in a nuclear plant in Japan.  There is seismic activity that destroys the plant that is explained away as an earthquake.  Joe doesn't buy it because it is not random.  He sees a pattern.  Fifteen years later the "quakes" are happening again and he gets arrested for entering the quarantined zone looking for his old data to compare.  His son, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kick-Ass), who is now in the navy, gets him out of jail and is convinced to go back into the quarantine zone with him.  Here they learn, from Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe, Batman Begins), of a monster referred to as MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), which was the cause of the quakes.  It is headed for the states pursued by another monster, our titular Godzilla.  Ford then joins up with the rest of the military to try to stop these monsters.  Then you get what you all came for, giant monster fight!

This movie, in a way, almost felt like two different movies smashed together.  Edwards tries to give his characters a little depth, and make you care about them.  This was done to great effect in the first act of the movie with Cranston and Binoche.  You really bought their affection for each other and got invested in his struggle to find the truth.  Then there was the second movie, which happened in the third act.  This section gave viewers what they were waiting for with an all out brawl between the monsters.  The characters were still good, but were not given as much to work with as some had in the first act.  The second act tried to bridge these two movies together, and this is where it went into kind of a lull for me.  We follow Ford's journey from Japan to the states.  The problem lies in the fact that Ford was the least interesting character for me.  Aaron Taylor Johnson just seemed a little wooden in this role.  Luckily, this act is redeemed a little with teasing glimpses of the monsters.

So, the acting is great for the most part.  Johnson is the only weak link, but he is still passable.  Cranston and Binoche (who has very little screen time) make you wish they were the protagonists through the whole film.  Watanabe and Elizabeth Olsen also did a fine job with what little they were given to do.

Some of the plot is where you have to kind of turn off your brain and just enjoy the ride, but I'm suspecting most people will have done that just knowing it was a Godzilla movie.  Godzilla himself is supposed to have been around since 1954, but he has been kept a secret.  Seriously, he's the size of a skyscraper.  That is one BIG secret.  Another thing is how stupid the military is portrayed.  They get in the way of fleeing civilians to shoot at these giant monsters with puny little bullets and missiles, doing about as much damage around them as the monsters themselves.  The real fun bit though, is their ultimate plan.  It is established over and over again throughout the movie that these monsters eat radioactive materials, so they come up with the brilliant plan to hit them with a giant nuclear bomb.

The biggest fun is the throwdown at the end.  Godzilla proves he is the baddest monster in town.  Between him and the MUTO's you get your fair share of fighting and destruction.  A lot of the fighting takes place in the evening, but the action is clear and you get a lot of great shots.  The effects are done real well.  The cinematography is also beautiful in this movie.  There is a scene (also shown in the first trailer) where the military does a HALO jump into the thick of it all, and it is quite breathtaking.

The second act lulls a little, and Godzilla himself does take quite some time before he shows up for the first time on screen.  I think these are minor quibbles in the long run.  The story with certain characters makes up for some of this, and Godzilla really does make good use of all of the screen time that he does get, beating up the MUTO's, which themselves are quite cool looking.  Overall, good popcorn summer movie with some character development in the first half that you don't normally see in this type of movie.

Rating: *******--- (7 out of 10)

Memorable Quote:

Serizawa: Let them fight.

A Week of Entertainment - Issue 10

Well, I'm kind of close to renaming this a week of entertainment obituaries.  I get to start on a downer again this week, but I'll try to end on a pretty positive note.


RIP Giger - The man whose nightmares gave us nightmares passed away this week at the age of 74.  H. R. Giger was a Swiss artist known for his dark, surreal artwork.  He has published many books, done album covers, and also worked in film.  To many, he will always be the award winning creator of one of the most iconic terrifying monsters in film history, Alien.  Giger, your vision and creativity have given us all nightmares, and oddly, us horror fans thank you for it.


RIP Bendjelloul - It's a sad case when someone falls into deep enough depression to finally commit suicide.  Such is the case of Malik Bendjelloul.  He was 36, just a mere one year older than me.  I can't say much, because I have not seen his only film, the award winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man.  I can say though, that because this film existed, I was introduced to the music of Sixto Rodriguez and you should all introduce yourself to this music as well.


Bataffleck - On to the big, exciting news of the week.  Snyder released the first image of Ben Affleck in the new bat suit, next to the new Batmobile.  I find this kind of exciting anyway, because I kind of like the suit.  It has a real Dark Knight Returns feel to it.  That fits the bill for everything that has come before.  Snyder announced Batman's involvement in his next movie with a quote from said graphic novel.  He has also said that it will be an older, more experienced Batman.  And last, but not least, the current title of versus gives an indication of some sort of beef he has with Superman.  I'm not going to jump on the yea or nay wagon yet, because I haven't seen the movie yet, but I do like the look of the suit.  The Batmobile, doesn't  look too bad either.  It's very reminiscent of Nolan's Tumbler.


Where no man has gone before - It looks like now that Abrams is out of Trek and into Wars, we have a new director for Star Trek 3.  Roberto Orci is boldly going where he has not gone before, directing.  I liked Star Trek Into Darkness and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 a little more than the majority, but I do have to admit that at least in the latter the writing was one of the downfalls.  And this was done by Orci.  He is also responsible for helping write the first to Transformers movies.  Also, not so good story-wise.  Will he prove to be a better director than writer?  Or will it be a double whammy, since he is actually writing it as well?  I don't know, but I guess we'll find out in a few years.  Here's to hoping he doesn't sink this ship.


In your mailbox - And to end on a positive note, we'll talk about an awesome man in Hollywood, Joss Whedon.  I could list all the amazing shows and movies he's done, but you should already be aware of these.  (If not, go look it up and watch his stuff now, have you been living under a rock?)  Well, recently he wrote and produced a new movie called In Your Eyes.  This movie recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.  However, at the same time he was allowing people to stream it online for $5.  As a thank you to fans, he has been randomly selecting people who downloaded his film and sending them gifts in the mail.  Up to a thousand gifts have already been sent out and these include small gifts like a cactus (huh?) to bigger stuff like Apple TVs and X-Box Ones.  And yes, a cynical person could just say that this just a stunt to get his movie known by word of mouth.  I mean I'm telling you about it right now.  But still, how awesome is that?  Whedon rocks!


Until next time......pay it forward.


Weekend top 10 at the box office:
1 - Godzilla (new release) $93.2M
2 - Neighbors $25.1M
3 - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $16.8M
4 - Million Dollar Arm (new release) $10.5M
5 - The Other Woman $6.3M
6 - Heaven is for Real $4.4M
7 - Rio 2 - $3.7M
8 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier $3.7M
9 - Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return $2M
10 - Moms' Night Out $1.8M

A Week of Entertainment - Issue 9

Kind of a slow week, so this will be short.  Mostly just news about cancellations, renewals, and new shows for the 2014-15 television season.  I don't keep up with television as much as I used to (yes, I know there is some great stuff out there right now), too much to watch and too little time.  Before I get started, here's a little trailer for the upcoming Gotham show on FOX....because Batman:





Actually, to tell the truth, it's everything except for Batman that has me interested with this show.  We all know his origins.  If they stay focused on the rise of Jim Gordon, this could be a great new fresh take on the world of Batman.  I think Ben McKenzie will do fine in the role, and I love the choice of Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock.  Here's to hoping!


And that's not all for the comic geek world.  Arrow returns to CW along with The Flash. They also picked up iZombie, which I'm not familiar with. NBC has picked up Constantine.  ABC has renewed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and picked up Agent Carter, to take place in 1946 where the story of the first Captain America movie left off.  And a bunch of other stuff happened in tv news.  Sorry, I love television, but I'm a one-man band on this blog and there's just too much to keep track of in that realm.


Oh, Community was cancelled.  Is that even news anymore?  Doesn't this happen every year, or is it for real this time?


And since there wasn't much to report, here's an interview Hugh Jackman had with himself to promote X-Men: Days of Future Past, just because.


Until next time.....pick up a comic or two to prepare for next fall.


Weekend top 10 at the box office:
1 - Neighbors (new release) $49M
2 - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $35.5M
3 - The Other Woman $9.6M
4 - Heaven is for Real $7.5M
5 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier $5.8M
6 - Rio 2 $5M
7 - Mom's Night Out (new release) $4.3M
8 - Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (new release) $3.7M
9 - Divergent $1.7M
10 - Brick Mansions $1.6M

Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

In 2012 Marc Webb (fitting name) rebooted the Spider-Man franchise to mixed reviews.  Most people were crying "too soon", myself included.  That being said, I liked more than I didn't about that movie.  Now, two years later we get his second effort with The Amazing Spider-Man 2.


This movie takes place some time after the first movie, and Spider-Man is pretty comfortable now with his role as a hero.  However, he's been dating Gwen Stacy, disregarding his promise to her dad to keep away in order to keep her safe.  This sets up Peter Parker's conflict through the film of staying with her because he loves her, or staying away from her because he loves her.  To make protecting her even harder, the big bads start flowing out from Oscorp (the main threat throughout being Electro).


Let's start off with the good this time around.  One of the biggest positives about this movie is the chemistry and interaction between Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield, The Social Network) and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone, The Help).  This is good because they have the most screen time.  I think the fact that they are dating in real life really shined through in this film.  I thought they were great in first movie as well, and only got better.  In ASM1 Garfield did a fine job as Parker/Spider-Man.  So, he was a skater punk instead of a nerd....get over it internet.  They got down the characteristics that I look for in his beginning days, he was really science smart and socially awkward.  He slowly got more confident as he was developing and honing his abilities.  We even got a little of that wise-cracking crime-fighter that I love from the comics.  In ASM2 he's really grown into the role.  We get a lot of the little snarky quips from him while fighting criminals.  And they got rid of one of my biggest problems with his character portrayal in the first movie.  Pardon my French, but he was a real dick to Aunt May (Sally Field, Forrest Gump).  The relationship was much better in this new film.  Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) also did a fine job as Harry Osborne.  He walked that line of a young man on the edge when he is introduced.  He falls off that edge into a downward spiral when he thinks that his old friend Peter has betrayed him.


Another thing to enjoy about this film is the action.  The scenes of Spider-Man web-slinging through the city are quite fun to watch.  And the fight scenes, I thought were quite well choreographed and shot.  That brings me to one of my problems.  Everyone else thought the fights were cool too.  In a couple of the fight scenes, bullets are flying, Electro is shooting electricity everywhere and billboards are falling.  All this time, does anybody run?  No, they just stand there cheering on Spider-Man like it's a giant staged spectator sport.  Luckily, like I said, the fight scenes were quite fun to watch if you could ignore all the other idiot gawkers within the film.


Now, I did really like the core players in this movie.  I even liked Electro (Jamie Foxx, Django Unchained) for the second half of the movie, once his powers were fully realized and he went all bad-ass bad guy.  When he is still nerdy Max Dillon however, it was over the top even for a comic book movie.  I felt like he was doing one of his caricatures from his days on In Living Color.  Paul Giamatti went a little overboard with his Russian accent too.  Luckily we don't see much of him in this film.  Speaking of villains, I do have to admit that I'm not super familiar with any of their backgrounds and origins in the comics.  That being said, I don't know just how far they are deviating in these movies.  All I can say is that I actually like how they are tying them all together.  Sony wants to create a Spider-Man universe with more sequels and off-shoots and I can appreciate that good guys and bad guys alike are all being tied to this central core.


The end of this review is a good place for my biggest complaint about this film, the last 5 minutes or so.  No spoilers.  I'll simply say, I did not care for it.  I really wish I could go into all the things that were wrong with those last few minutes, but of course that would be too spoilery.  My wife was on the same page, and as we drove away from the theater we came up with a solution.  We brainstormed our own ending (which didn't actually deviate much from what you see before the last five minutes), and pretended the actual ending didn't happen.


In conclusion, were there problems with this film?  Yes, but I think the good slightly outweighed the bad.  This movie is, as the title suggests, centered around Spider-Man himself, and I think Garfield does a great job.  Take the Raimi films off the shrine for two seconds and just enjoy this movie for what it is.  It's a fun little ride.


Rating: *******--- (7 out of 10)


Memorable Quote:
Peter: I was cleaning the chimney.
Aunt May: We don't have a chimney.
Peter: Whaaaaat?

A Week of Entertainment - Issue 8

To all my ones of readers out there, yes, this is a day late.  It was a good, but exhausting weekend so I chose sleep last night.  So, now, on with the show.


RIP Hoskins - And yet another sad loss in Hollywood.  Bob Hoskins was another one of those actors that could put any movie up a notch.  His first real breakout role was in the 1980 hit The Long Good Friday.  I have not seen this one yet.  I'll have to put that on "the list".  Of course I, along with many other people, will always know him for his role as the toon hating, alcoholic detective Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.  As for a film that may have gone under the radar a little, he did Mrs. Henderson Presents back in 2005 with Dame Judi Dench that I found quite enjoyable as well.  He had recently retired after being diagnosed with Parkinson's two years ago.  He died at the age of 71 from pneumonia.


Make Mine Marvel - And what's a week of news without a little Marvel in the mix.  Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada talked a little about the upcoming Netflix series.  Those would be Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones.  Daredevil is being cast right now, and it is confirmed that each of these series will be released in their entirety for binge watching as they are subsequently finished.  Also, they are taking a more gritty approach to the "street-level noir side of the Marvel Universe" with these series.  I think this new approach will be interesting to watch unfold.  Even if they don't throw any of these characters into the movies, these new series evolving into the Defenders mini-series could be a fun event to follow through the streets of Hell's Kitchen.


Hello, What Have We Here? - In another branch of Disney, the core cast list has been officially announced for Star Wars: Episode VII.  I probably don't have to say much about this, because there is no way you live outside of a cave without having heard it already 8 million times the day it was announced.  Newcomers include John Boyega (Attack the Block), Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver ("Girls"), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings trilogy), Domhnall Gleeson (About Time) and Max von Sydow (The Exorcist).  Of course the exciting news is the returning cast.  Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker.  For returning cast, we're just missing the smooth talking Lando Calrissian.  It seems he must have gotten confused when he signed on for Dancing With the Stars instead of Star Wars.  All in all, it's an interesting cast.  With Kasdan writing and J.J. behind the wheel, I'd say we can at least be cautiously optimistic at this point.





Oh No! There Goes Tokyo! - I don't know what it is about this movie, but I am excited to see it.  It is my second most anticipated movie of 2014.  Let's hope it lives up to my expectations as much as The Winter Soldier did.  The above trailer is one that was just released this week and is also an exception to the rule for a little problem I have.  Trailers are giving too much away these days.  The one above included.  Before, there were hints that there would be a second monster in Godzilla.  Now they've flat out shown it to us.  I say this is the exception because somehow this new trailer only increased my anticipation.  That is not usually the case.  Trailers used to be one of my favorite things about going to the movies.  You see a little glimpse of what you can look forward to a couple weeks or months after the movie you are about to sit through.  Now, there is no anticipation.  Most trailers give away key plot points and even the twist in some movies.  Then you walk away thinking you don't really need to see that one at all.  Please Hollywood, bring back the shorter trailers.  Make me look forward to them in theater again, instead of looking at my watch wondering when they are going to end and the movie begin. (If you need any tips, look no further than Christopher Nolan)  And please Hollywood, make Godzilla be a good movie!


Stone vs. Fallon - For bit of fun to end the night I'm including the following video.  Partly because of the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 this past weekend.  Partly because I have a major crush on Emma Stone.  And partly because, basically, it's awesome and you should watch it.  Yes, I realize that first statement will deter a lot of you, but this clip really has nothing to do with the movie other than the actress.  I will not be seeing the movie until tomorrow night and am avoiding reviews until I write my own, but man, have I seen some unfavorable mentions in the headlines.  I will reserve judgment though and hope the majority of the critics are wrong.  In the meantime, here is Emma Stone vs. Jimmy Fallon in an epic lip-sync battle.





That about does it for me.  Have a fantastic day everyone!


Until next time.....if you can't stand the heat, get out of Hell's Kitchen!


Weekend top 10 at the box office:
1 - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (new release) $91.6M
2 - The Other Woman $14.4M
3 - Heaven Is For Real $8.6M
4 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier $7.8M
5 - Rio 2 $7.7M
6 - Brick Mansions $3.7M
7 - Divergent $2.2M
8 - The Quiet Ones $2M
9 - The Grand Budapest Hotel $1.8M
10 - God's Not Dead $1.8M