Godzilla is pretty important to a lot of people. It basically symbolizes everything in B movies, bad props, Japanese, horrible acting and stupid plots. But it was giant monsters fighting! That's all you needed when Godzilla came out! I missed the golden age of Godzilla but luckily my mom didn't and I was able to see a few of the movies. Unfortunately the only time I saw it was when I was 3, so I had no comprehension of the plot and didn't realize how s***ty the story was, but again, it was monsters fighting! That's all you need to entertain a 3 year old.
Anyway a few years later a Godzilla remake was made and universally panned by critics. Why? Well the Godzilla we fell in love with was a hero, he fought other monsters and saved the world. The movie these guys remade was the original, which was actually a metaphor for the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The sequels had Godzilla become a good guy, possible a metaphor for how America and japan became allies after the war, but somewhere along the line they were just making sequels for the money.
Maybe that's why Godzilla bombed, it had no major disaster that caused mass hysteria to feed off of. I mean, cloverfield feed of the threat of war and disorganization caused by 9/11, but Godzilla had nothing.
Anyway I actually watched this as a kid and fell in love with the movie, though it really isn't Godzilla. No other monster top fight no giant death beam no super tech to destroy the monster, just a giant lizard in Manhattan. Honestly I think this movie would have gone a bit better if it was called something else, monstro perhaps. So don't expect a Godzilla movie, just a monster movie.
The movie starts with a Japanese oil tanker being attacked by zilla, then going to one of the survivors being question by a strange man.
The movie then cuts to Dr. Nick catopolus our main character. He works in the Chernobyl exclusion zone to study the effects of radiation on local wildlife. On a rainy day the US military flies in to retrieve Dr.Totopolus for their new mission, to study the monster that destroyed the tanker. They go to Jamaica to investigate the tanker. They deduce that the creature is a lizard mutated by fallout from nuclear tests, and that it's headed for Manhattan.
Zilla reaches Manhattan and goes on a rampage. Here we meet Audrey, the former love interest of nick. Audrey is an aspiring journalist who sees the monster attack as a way of getting a job as a reporter, or even an anchor. We also meet victor, who along with being the husband of her best friend, is a camera man for the same news station Audrey works for.
After zilla attacks the city Manhattan is evacuated but Audrey steals the press pass of her boss and manages to stay in the city. Victor is also staying in the city, as he caught footage of the monster and was suppose to do all coverage of the incident for the news station.
The military makes several attempts to kill Godzilla but to no avail. Audrey manages to find nick and the two catch up on their past. While she's there Nick finds out from a blood sample that Godzilla is pregnant, and it produces asexually. Audrey notices a tape in nick's tent and takes it for her news station.
The tape is shown on the news and because of it nick is kicked off the military team, before telling Audrey he wants nothing to do with her.
The plot splits into three paths from here. The first path follows Nick as he encounters members of the french secret service who are...on vacation? They never explain why the agents are here but I imagine it's to make sure that Godzilla is destroyed. There's probably a group of soviets somewhere in the city. Nonetheless the french believe Nick's theory that a nest of Godzilla eggs in somewhere in the city and want him to help them destroy the eggs.
The second plot follows Audrey and victor trying to find evidence of the nest to win back the trust of Nick. The third plot line follows the military as they try to destroy Godzilla.
I want go into detail but the plot lines kinda converge in the end of the movie. So is it Godzilla? No not really. Godzilla has no death fire, he doesn't stand and fight, hell he's not even green. So your not getting the re-imagining of the first movie you wanted when you went into this movie, that's cloverfield. So it's not Godzilla, but is it still good? Well let's go through this.
The acting is pretty lackluster. Nick, played by Mathew Broderick, doesn't seem to have his heart in it. He's bland and uninteresting, he's a pushover and doesn't seem to try. And still I kinda liked his character, maybe he was trying to make him bland, and if so good job. Audrey shouts and annoys me every scene she's in, and her best friend is even worse. Think Peg from married with children but without all the funny. Her husband Victor on the other hand is probably my favorite. His character goes out of his way to capture the monster on tape and in doing so gets a head of his career. He risks his life to save his idiot wife's idiot friend and help her fix her issues, and despite being a walking stereotype, Hank Azaria does a good job of acting.
So the acting is adequate, how about the plot? Well it's your standard affair for an American monster movie. But the plot line near the end of destroying the next is pretty interesting, and makes the plot a bit more original. Plus, while msot people probably thought the ending was cheesy, I still tear up a little bit when I see it.
So yeah. This definitely isn't a re-imagining of Godzilla, but it is a pretty nice American monster flick. plus i really like the ending song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWeAtLr8bX4&feature=player_embedded
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