I learnt something new about a week ago too. There's a fantastic cinema inside Millennium Point in Birmingham, which was an IMAX. About 2 or 3 years ago they re-branded to The Giant Screen, and I always assumed that it was still an IMAX, but it isn't! I'm equal parts shocked/betrayed/confused about that. So after a confusing chat with friends, we booked at an actual IMAX cinema. I used to love the IMAX at Millennium Point but when they changed it to Giant Screen it was rubbish, went once and never went back again!
I promise to try to keep this as spoiler free as I can, but if you haven't seen Godzilla yet or know much about it, maybe you should check out another page of ours!
Firstly, I can't emphasise how amazing the IMAX experience was, especially for a film like this. Godzilla's roar literally made my seat shake!
There was a lot in this that I didn't understand very well (shut your face Jenna!) but that's probably down to my lack of knowledge on anything Godzilla more than anything else. Also, I had no idea that Godzilla is actually a good guy?! That's where his name comes from I'm guessing...think, Allie, think. Don't worry Allie, there was a lot I didn't understand, mainly because they didn't explain it, the characters just pulled suggestions/ideas out of thin air with no justification and they just happened to be true! As for not knowing that he was a good guy, it depends which version of the film you watch, the 1998 film with Matthew Broderick shows a different perspective.
Honestly, this film was nearly perfect. Godzilla himself? Awesome. The other monsters? Terrifying. The music? Blew me away! It could have definitely done with more action and more of Godzilla himself, but I appreciate that then we would all whine that there wasn't enough of a storyline. I could tell what the Director was trying to do, bring through the human element and make Godzilla almost a supporting character in the background, unfortunately it didn't sit too well with me. They didn't showcase any one characters personality enough to care about the human element so you spent the whole film gagging for more Godzilla action and less of Dr Serizawa staring dumbstruck into the distance, while his sidekick explains why.
I'm completely gutted that Bryan Cranston only had a small role in this, in fact, the first trailer was really misleading in regards to Bryan. I also didn't like Aaron Taylor-Johnson in this. He was great in Kick-Ass but he lacked something in Godzilla. He just didn't seem to care that much if that makes sense? All the characters lacked something I thought, they massively underutilised Bryan Cranston and briefly touched on family issues in the Brody family but never went deep enough for me to care. Does it make sense that this guy, Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) would completely walk out on his father who appears initially to have had some sort of psychotic break but will miss a flight to see his family to help a small child he has never met before?? Yeah that's what I was thinking too, but then I don't think I would have wanted to sacrifice Godzilla screen time to go into more character development.
I loved the film though. I'll be getting it on Blu-Ray when it comes out, and I'm even tempted to watch a previous Godzilla film to fill in the gap. Does anyone have any suggestions?
The idea of focusing on the humans (instead of the monsters) and how they deal with the situation was a good concept but didn't quite do enough for me to enjoy it. The serious nature of the film means that errors in the plotline are massively highlighted where they would have been laughed off in a joke in the 1998 version. I'm just happy that for once my confusion is justified and not just me being thick!
