A film
review by James Berardinelli, for ReelViews.net.
Godzilla is the ultimate culmination of the who cares about plot summer movie. A
loose remake of the 1954 classic
Japanese monster movie, Godzilla, King of
the Monsters (which is itself pretty thin in the story department), Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's big- budget
lizard-stomps-Manhattan disaster flick has been written with the brain dead in
mind. The script isn't just dumbed down,
it's lobotomized. Godzilla lives and dies on special effects alone.
Presumably,
the primary target group for this film is teenage boys, the demographic most
likely to shell out $7 repeatedly to see the same images of monster-instigated
carnage. That's not to say that females and other age groups are immune to the
special effects seduction; they're just not as readily susceptible. This is the
third straight movie in a row where Emmerich and Devlin have demonstrated that
a mastery of computer-generated visuals is far more important for making money
than the ability to write and direct for actors. Stargate was a financial success. Independence Day was a runaway hit. And, with Godzilla already drowning in hype and merchandising tie-ins before
it even opens, it's virtually guaranteed at least $100 million. Nice numbers
for a film that could have been penned by a not-too-precocious grade school
kid.
Godzilla isn't completely without merit,
although it is close. There's a certain visceral thrill inherent in watching
the giant lizard rip his way through Manhattan, but it wears off quickly.
Frankly, while the special effects are competent, they're not all that
stunning. There's nothing new here; it's Jurassic
Park meets Aliens, with a little Independence Day thrown in for bad
measure. Maybe it will require George Lucas and his new Star Wars movie to take computer-generated visuals to the next
level. Godzilla never really pushes
the envelope, preferring to remain within a comfort zone. The imagination of
monster movies like King Kong has
been replaced by a crass, formulaic approach which disallows creativity. (How
disturbing is it to know that Godzilla
has been chosen to close the 51st Cannes Film Festival?)
Worst of
all, Godzilla isn't even exciting.
With the possible exception of a mildly enjoyable car chase near the end, there
isn't a sequence in this film that raises the pulse. Even the scenes with
dozens of aircraft attacking the monster are so devoid of tension and suspense
that they are yawn-provoking. Independence
Day may have been dumb, but it was full of adrenaline moments capable of getting the audience involved in the
action. In this aspect of its production, as in so many others, Godzilla is lacking. Actually, part of
the problem is that we're never sure who we're supposed to be rooting for: the
green monster with an attitude or the paper-thin humans trying to stop him.
The
plot, such as it is, can be summed up rather simply. After sinking a few ships
and leaving some footprints on tropical islands, Godzilla shows up in the Big
Apple. He does some of the usual tourist things: stops by Madison Square
Garden, visits the Chrysler Building, goes on a walk through Central Park, and
takes the subway. In the process, he knocks over a few buildings and steps on
countless cabs, but he never has trouble with traffic jams. On hand to stop him
is an elite U.S. army unit, led by a slightly less-arrogant-than-usual military
man (Kevin Dunn) and a biologist
named Nick Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick),
who has a theory about Godzilla. In his opinion, the big guy is actually a
lizard grown to enormous proportions as a result of the radiation given off by
French atomic bomb tests in the South Pacific. In Nick's words, Godzilla is a mutated aberration... An incipient creature?
The first of its kind. As luck would have it, Nick's old girlfriend, Audrey
(Maria Pitillo), is a reporter based
at a New York TV station. Along with her cameraman friend, Animal (Hank Azaria), she decides to follow
Nick around as he trails Godzilla. Then, just when the military has rejected
Nick's theory about why Godzilla is in New York, a member of the French Secret
Service (Jean Reno) recruits him for
a special assignment.
Instead
of stomping around Tokyo this time, Godzilla has chosen New York City.
Unfortunately, Manhattan has been destroyed so many times in recent disaster
movies (Independence Day, Deep Impact,
Armageddon) that it's becoming boring. The whole tradition of monsters roaming
around the city started with King Kong,
but the big ape was only about 30 feet tall. He could climb the Empire State
Building. At ten times that height, Godzilla would be more likely to knock it
over.
Godzilla contains a few lame attempts at
humor. There's an ongoing feud between Animal and his wife that plays like
sit-com material, an unfunny and repetitive gag about how no one can pronounce
Nick's last name properly, and a rather tame attack on film critics Roger Ebert
and Gene Siskel. Both of the popular personalities have alter egos in the film:
Ebert, the mayor of New York, is
played by Michael Lerner, and Gene (Lorry Goldman) is his campaign manager. Ebert's re-election slogan
is, not surprisingly, Thumbs Up for New
York. The Siskel/Ebert stuff is amusing the first time it's used, but,
after a while, it grows tiresome. And, although the characters don't serve any real purpose, they keep popping up.
Godzilla is saddled with an unimpressive
cast. This is largely because Emmerich doesn't want to risk a human performance
upstaging his lizard. That's not to say that Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno
aren't capable of good performances (both have done their share of solid acting
in the past), but they aren't A-list names. Then again, considering the quality
of the writing, even Pacino and DeNiro would have been hard-pressed to shine.
Maria Pitillo (Dear God) plays the
love interest and Hank Azaria (Great
Expectations) is on hand to present what is supposed to be comic relief.
Ultimately,
it doesn't really matter what I (or any other critic, for that matter) have to
say about the movie. TriStar has assumed that Godzilla, like all self-proclaimed summer event motion pictures, is
pretty much critic-proof. It may also be word-of-mouth-proof. Those who want to
see the movie will see it no matter what I write or their friends say. So, when
I go on record to assert that Godzilla
is one of the most idiotic blockbuster movies of all time, it's like spitting
into the wind. Emmerich and Devlin are master illusionists, waving their wands
and mesmerizing audiences with their smoke and mirrors. It's probably too much
to hope that someday, movie- goers will wake up and realize that they've been
had. [Berardinelli's rating: * 1/2 out of 4]
Labels: action, sci-fi, thriller
Labels: action, sci-fi, thriller
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