Godzilla, Blu-ray (2014)

by | Sep 8, 2014 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Godzilla, Blu-ray (2014)
 
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche
Director: Gareth Edwards
Studio: Warner Home Video/Legendary [9/16/14] (Blu-ray & DVD discs)
Video: 2.41:1 anamorphic/enhanced 1080p HD color
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1, French or Spanish dubbed with DD 5.1, Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: English SHD, French, Spanish
Extras: “Operation: Lucky Dragon,” “Monarch: The M.U.T.O. File,” “The Godzilla Revelation,” “Godzilla: Force of Nature,” more
Length: 123 minutes
Rating: ***

I understand seeing Godzilla in the 3D IMAX version is quite a trip, but the studio didn’t see fit to send me the 3D Blu-ray even though we are reviewing all the 3D films we can get our hands on, so I have to say this one left me with a “meh” attitude. Perhaps in 3D IMAX it’s more fun.

I’m not a Godzilla fan, though I think I saw the original Japanese movie. The general plot in most of the later ones has been for the king of the monsters to come in later after other lesser monsters have destroyed a whole bunch of things and then battle and kill the other monsters and save the day. This one has an awful lot of filler stuff and I must say I didn’t understand all of it, but basically no monsters are seen for about half the film, then Godzilla, but soon after a couple other bad monsters which I guess are called mutos.  Anyway, they look more evil than Godzilla, and one of them has wings and can fly. And they all live on nuclear radioactive stuff. The story begins with a catastrophe, which everyone thinks is an earthquake, at a Japanese nuclear power plant. Joe’s wife Sandra works with him in the plant and dies of radiation.

Then we move ahead about 15 years and Joe is still pursuing the idea that it wasn’t an earthquake but Godzilla, but nobody will believe him, including his grown son. Then it happens again and this time he is believed, although he soon dies and his grown son (who is the deadest lead in this film, almost ruining it) takes over the effort. A Japanese expert and his assistant are also involved. It is even suggested that the test nuclear blasts in Bikini and elsewhere were not that but actually the U.S. Army trying to kill Godzilla—but it failed to work. The army takes over and wants to destroy Godzilla with a giant nuclear blast, but those who feel Godzilla can save the world protest.

I didn’t understand much of this but first downtown Honolulu and then San Francisco get pretty well torn up by some monsters—not sure which ones. Eventually Godzilla fights the two mutos and kills them and then staggers back to the ocean and jumps in to swim away, leaving San Francisco in ruins.  Those fans who dig monster-on-monster brawls will love this one. There’s certainly plenty of CGI spectacle, though one has to plough thru a good part of the film before it starts. One reviewer described this Godzilla as the love child of an art film and a disaster film.

—John Sunier

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