Rating of
2.5/4
dated and preachy, but still fun
Looneymanthegreat - wrote on 04/16/13
I never thought I would accuse a monster movie of being preachy, but Godzilla has forced my hand. The movie was a Japanese film (I’ve never seen the American version, I’ve only seen the original Japanese release) that was released in the years after world war 2 when Japan was still recovering from the bombings that happened there. Godzilla tries to have a message about weapons of mass destruction and there effect on the world, a noble effort to say the least, but when one takes on such a heavy handed topic it is best to do so without being quite so stupid.
That’s really the main problem with this movie, it paints the nuclear crisis in terms of black and white, and I imagine that it’s easy to think of it in those terms when half your country has been blown to hell, but for a white guy in the modern day U.S.A. I know it’s more complicated then that.
As for the effects, they’re pretty good for the time period. I personally prefer the effects in King Kong a movie that came out nearly two decades earlier. But it still looks impressive, and it’s easy to see Godzilla as a giant dinosaur instead of a guy in a rubber suit and that’s all that is really required.
I honestly don’t mind this movie as much as I let on. The sequences of with Godzilla and his attacks are all a lot of fun, as is the build up to his appearance, which is done with wonderful drama and suspense. It’s a must see for fans of classic cinema, or monster movies, I just wish they hadn’t had such a clumsy message.
