Godzilla Tomatometer watch

quote:

---

Edwards’ Godzilla takes place in three separate time periods: the 1950’s (in which the U.S. Navy discovers the last surviving member (Godzilla) of an ancient radioactive amphibious species surviving under the waters near the Marshall Islands and metes out a failed attempt to kill it with nuclear weapons), the 1990’s (in which a nuclear disaster dispatches the mother, actress Juliette Binoche, of star Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character, ‘Brody,’ and later his father as well, a scientist portrayed by Bryan ‘Breaking Bad’ Cranston) and in 2014 (in which the appearance of creatures known as ‘M.U.T.O’ [Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms] appear, which in turn elicits the return of Godzilla himself from the depths of the ocean).

It’s simple in metaphor for nuclear proliferation having unintended results (as the original Godzilla was for the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings). It’s relatively clean (in that it eschews many of the, let’s be honest, ‘cheesy’ narratives of many of the Godzilla films which preceded it). And while Edwards draws out audience expectation in the reveal of the character of Godzilla for nearly an hour (he holds dear to the tried and true approach of such films as Alien, Jaws, etc.), when Godzilla hits, it really hits. And it hits hard.

---