Film review: Godzilla
Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. That is exactly what the scientist character (because there has to be one) in this latest update of the Godzilla tale is afraid of. Said scientist, whose name doesn’t matter, is played by the stalwart of Japanese/Hollywood crossover, Ken Watanabe, and our empathy lies entirely with him as his very simple but rational warning is that the creatures wreaking havoc get their energy from radioactive material, and nuking them would be rather pointless.
Rear Admiral William Stenz (David Strathairn) – whose negativity we are first made aware of when he is introduced by a camera hovering behind his back as he barks out orders to his team at the controls before he finally turns around to face us – doesn’t share the scientist’s opinion and prepares the launch codes. Such intrigue pales in comparison with the actual threat civilization faces, but perhaps we should no longer expect those in power, much less those on the ground, to take science all that seriously, even when it is flagrantly obvious what disaster awaits anyone who ignores the facts.
The scales fall from the eyes of a young lieutenant named Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), whose father was in charge of a nuclear plant in Japan that allegedly had a meltdown 15 years earlier, an incident in which Ford’s mother was killed. Taylor-Johnson continues to stun in every film he appears, effortlessly transforming into characters we can like even when they ought to be rather forgettable.
To read the full review, visit The Prague Post. Godzilla is currently on wide release in Bulgaria.
(Still of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Godzilla. Photo by Kimberley French – © 2013 – Legendary Pictures Productions LLC & Warner Bros Entertainment Inc.)
