The boys and I have designated Sunday afternoons as our film afternoons, and we’ve been working through our ever-growing list of films, including the ones Gordon got for his birthday.

One of those was ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ and we decided we’d watch Legendary Pictures ‘MonsterVerse’ films in order, starting with the 2014 ‘Godzilla’.

Growing up in Malaysia, I remember watching a few Godzilla films, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you which ones. Suffice to say, the big guy was well-known even there.

When the boys were much younger, there was a Godzilla animated series that sparked their interest.

After watching the 1998 so-called ‘Godzilla’ film and being left thoroughly underwhelmed at what was basically a dinosaur rampaging through New York, I didn’t insist the boys watch it.

Into their teenage years, as both boys’ interest in anime, manga and most things Japanese grew, Gordon, especially, was drawn into Godzilla’s world.

He’s watched some of the original ‘Toho Studio’ films, including the original 1954 Japanese film. And, as far as I’m concerned, he’s my go-to resource for anything to do with the giant ‘kaiju’.

Over the course of his film history, Godzilla has been a bad guy, a good guy, a father (!) and an eco-warrior. In the 1980s, Toho decided to settle on him being a force of nature who would attack humanity because of their less-than-stellar treatment of the earth but who would also be their ally should a larger threat make itself known.

Gordon and Liam watched the 2014 ‘Godzilla’ with friends in the cinema before watching it a second time with me. Giant monsters need to be seen on the big screen.

The film, a reboot of the franchise, is directed by Gareth Edwards, who was the director of one of my favourite Star Wars films, ‘Rogue One’.

The opening credits is a montage of old film footage that references various atomic tests that had been carried out in the 1950s. In the film, these tests are shown as attempts to kill Godzilla, a prehistoric creature who had been awakened by a submarine accident.

The film proper starts in 1999 in the Philippines where we’re introduced to Dr Ishiro Serizawa, played by Ken Watanabe, and his fellow scientist, Vivienne Graham, played by Sally Hawkins. They work for Monarch, a secretive scientific organisation.

They’re there to investigate a giant skeleton and what appears to be two giant spores. One is still dormant while the other one has hatched.

Although there’s no sign of whatever hatched from the spore, there is a trail, made by something large, that leads to the sea.

The film cuts to the city of Janjira in Japan and the home of nuclear physicist Joe Brody, played by Bryan Cranston, his wife, Sandra, played by Juliette Binoche and their young son, Ford.

Inexplicable seismic activity is affecting the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant where Joe and Sandra work. He sends Sandra and a team of technicians into the reactor to carry out a safety check.

An unexpected tremor breaches the reactor, which results in the plant collapsing and the area left in ruins.

Fifteen years later, we catch up with Ford, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. An explosive disposal officer in the US Navy, he now lives in San Francisco with his wife, Elle, who’s a nurse, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and their son, Sam.

Ford gets a call, informing him his father, Joe, who still lives in Japan, has been arrested for trespassing in Janjira. The area is still cordoned off due to the radioactivity from the destroyed power plant. But Joe keeps returning, looking for – needing – an explanation for that awful event.

Although their relationship has suffered over the years, Ford goes to Japan to help his father and tries to convince him to return with him to America, for the sake of Sam who misses his grandfather.

But Joe can’t help going back to Janjira as he suspects there’s more to the unexplained seismic activity of fifteen years ago, and he wants to retrieve his research notes, which had been left behind when they’d been evacuated on the day of the disaster.

With Ford accompanying him, they sneak back to the city only to discover there is no radioactivity present. They’re captured and taken to the site of the former plant.

There, they meet Dr Serizawa and Dr Graham. And discover there’s so much more to that disaster than their wildest imaginations could have believed possible.

For the remainder of the film, we follow Ford as he desperately tries to return to his family in San Francisco, finding himself continuously caught in the ongoing battle between Godzilla and monsters which have been named ‘MUTOs’, which stands for ‘massive unidentified terrestrial organisms’.

I enjoyed this film more than I thought I would. I liked the way Godzilla is portrayed, as a force to be reckoned, one with great intelligence. And I like his design.

The humans, for the most part, are secondary in this kind of film. There isn’t much in the way of character development.

Ford is our main point-of-view character, almost as if viewing events alongside him anchors the film in the human realm. We see the creatures from a human perspective, as they tower above nearly everything.

Unlike previous Godzilla films, where the military usually come across as panic-stricken, gung-ho types who throw everything and the kitchen sink at Godzilla in a futile attempt to kill him, here, we’re shown the thought processes behind each decision to stop Godzilla and the MUTOs.

There is a definite disaster-film feel in the scenes of citywide destruction, of the perils facing people as they scurry around like ants, desperately trying to get away from what shouldn’t be real in their world.

My favourite character is Dr Serizawa. He sees Godzilla as more than just a rampaging monster and, in trying to get those around him to understand the situation from the creature’s point of view, he comes close to giving Godzilla a voice amongst the humans. Ken Watanabe does a good job in conveying the character’s quiet, dignified frustration.

There have been complaints that, for a Godzilla film, not much is seen of the big guy. Because so much of the film is from Ford’s point of view, most times we only get glimpses of Godzilla and the MUTOs and we don’t see much monster action until the climax of the film. I think that adds to the suspense and mounting tension.

Also, Gordon pointed out, that in the original 1954 Japanese film, Godzilla is hardly seen. The focus is more on the humans and the effect his presence has on them. In that sense, this film is a good reflection of the original though I don’t know if that was Gareth Edwards’ intention.

‘Godzilla’ marks the return of the iconic monster after a ten-year break from the big screen, celebrating his 60th anniversary. It also marks the start for the world of the ‘MonsterVerse’ and is a good addition, I believe, to the catalogue of Godzilla films as a whole.

(All character images from ‘Gojipedia’)

Film Review - 'Godzilla'