Technical assessment: 3
Moral assessment: 3
CINEMA rating: V14
MTRCB rating: PG
Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga)
is a Paleobiologist working for Monarch — an organization studying giant
creatures called Titans who are believed to have dominated the earth in the
beginning of history. She uses the Orca — a device she and her husband designed
to tame and control them — when a Titan larva named Mothra is born. Alan Jonah
(Charles Dance) and his group of eco terrorists seemingly kidnap Emma and her
12-year old daughter Madison, allowing Mothra to escape and cocoon herself
elsewhere. Meanwhile Monarch scientists enlist the help of Dr. Mark (Kyle
Chandler), Emma’s ex-husband and an animal behaviorist to save them. However,
they discover that Emma is manipulating the Monarch to help Jonah awaken the
Titans so that the earth can be healed and recover from all the human abuses.
They awaken the three-headed Monster Zero who begins a killing rampage instead
of their expected results. Emma awakens another Titan Rodan in the hopes of
defeating Monster Zero, revealed to be Ghidorah. Rodan is subdued and submits
to Ghidorah. He awakens other Titans and proceeds to terraform earth.
Meanwhile, Mothra emerges from her cocoon and teams up with Godzilla to stop
the Titans from wiping out humanity. Emma realizes the error of her ways and
joins the Godzilla battle against the Titans.
The story is nothing new — selected
people becoming heroes willing to die to save humanity. We’ve seen this plot
from Marvel to Harry Potter to all the young adult books turned into movies. So
for another of this type to stand out, it needs not only to be visually
spectacular on all levels built on experiences that resonate humanity in so
many facets. You throw in family and relationship, you throw in unimaginable
struggles towards an inspiring victory, you throw in laughs, tears, gasps, and
shrieks. Godzilla tried to do all these but ended up with a convoluted
narrative coupled with daft storytelling. The constant booming scoring and
continuous big CGI fights do not drown the lack of cohesiveness in the scenes.
Overall, the movie is more of a mere spectacle. Not even the honorable attempt
to talk about symbiotic co-existence or balance in nature strikes any chord.
Amidst the massive
destruction that peppers the movie, little acts of heroism can be seen. Young
Madison puts her life at risk so that humanity gets a chance to survive, Dr. Mark
Russell sets aside his personal feelings to save his family, Mothra sacrifices
herself so Godzilla can defeat Ghidorah, and Dr. Emma throws herself in the
path of danger once she realizes her mistake. So many other unnamed characters
made sacrificial choices along the way. Heroism is in everyone. It does not
need grand gestures with fireworks and an orchestra blaring. It only needs
genuine desire to do good for the sake of someone else.
Pushing it a little further,
the film echoes some Christian ideas of good and evil with the monsters symbolling
images familiar to us (three-headed monsters overlooking the fiery hell or
Godzilla dying and rising up to saver humanity). While it might not be the best
movie to illustrate certain aspects of our faith, if the younger ones enjoy
this genre, might as well start a conversation so the afternoon is not totally
wasted. — PMF
DIRECTOR: Michael Dougherty; LEAD CAST:
Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown, Charles Dance, Ken Watanabe,
Sally Hawkins; PRODUCER: Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Brian Rogers; SCREENWRITER and STORY: Michael Dougherty,
Zach Shields; BASED ON: Godzilla, King Ghidora, Mortha, Rodan;
MUSIC: Bear McCreary; CINEMATOGRAPHY: Lawrence Sher; EDITED BY: Roger Barton,
Richard Pearson, Bob Ducsay; GENRE: Sci-Fi Action; COUNTRY: USA;
LANGUAGE: English RUNNING TIME: 132 minutes