Godzilla (2014)

To be honest it wasn't the fact that Godzilla was being remade that I was bothered about, it was that Monsters (2010) director Gareth Edwards was making it.  Monsters is easily one of the more interesting, atmospheric and thought-provoking sci-fi films of recent years (along with the superb District 9, 2009), and the guerilla seat of the pants production made it all the more impressive.

One of the key themes of Monsters is that nature should be allowed to take its course, and none of the creatures are naturally aggressive; it is only when humans attack them that they retaliate.  In one of the final scenes, two monsters are engaged in a display of courtship, and the two main characters (the only two characters!) appreciate how beautiful these beasts actually are.  This idea of nature being left alone is revisited in Godzilla, eloquently put by Ken Watanabe's character: "The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in their control, and not the other way around".

And herein lies a flaw in the film.  Laudable as it is to let nature get on with it, this translates into Godzilla and his antagonists having an almighty smack down in the middle of San Francisco, destroying half the city (a contractual obligation in these sorts of movies nowadays it seems) and all the human characters are completely inconsequential.  The military have plans involving nukes, but are frustrated at every turn; and though a human element is introduced as (having just watched his father die) soldier Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is trying to get home to his wife (Elizabeth Olson) and son; but it's all fairly banal.

This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it, because I really did.  Gareth Edwards is a creative director and there were several stylish moments that had no particular reason to be, they just serve to enhance the film.  He also manages to create a sense of tension on several occasions, even though we essentially know how things are going to pan out.  Consider the scene where Ford Brody and the other marines are HALO jumping; we see the character’s claustrophobic eye view through the mask, seeing only snippets of the monster and the devastation below, all the time hearing only his breathing.  Simple, yet effectively done.  Rather than do his own cinematography, this time Edwards managed to secure the services of Seamus McGarvey (Atonement, 2007; Avengers, 2012), and consequently the film looks suitably atmospheric; nicely contrasting the dusty orange glows of a city being destroyed with the bright clear lines of the military installations.  Adding to the atmosphere is a pretty great score from Alexandre Desplat, which is suitably big and thumping.

I also really liked the traditional design of Godzilla, reminiscent of the 50s and 60s Japanese movies and indeed the cartoon I remember watching when I was a kid.  I also like the design of the two MUTOs, I thought they were very much like the Klendathu “Bugs” from Starship Troopers.  There is therefore much to enjoy and celebrate in Godzilla, not least that Gareth Edwards demonstrates that Britain continues to produce some excellent directors; and the fact that the human element is rather inconsequential (other than a mechanism for us to witness the events) isn’t enough to reduce the impact of this Gojira.  But, well, you know, that’s just, like, er, my opinion, man.

Letters from our Fathers/Flags of Iwo Jima (2006/2007)

Both Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima tell the story of the battle for Iwo Jima, a small island to the south of Japan. It is 1945 and Iwo Jima is a strategic island because the Americans want to use it as a staging post for attacking mainland Japan. Flags of our Fathers tells the story from the American point of view; the capture of the island and the raising of the American flag on the top of the hill. A photo was taken, and the picture became an iconic image of the war, and as such was used to generate much needed revenue for the war effort from the American public. Three of the remaining soldiers who were in the photo were taken back to the US and paraded around the country to help raise the money; except that one of them wasn’t in the photo! The film follows the stories of these three soldiers, as well as the fighting on the island that led to the raising of the flag and the death of the other soldiers in the photo.

Letters from Iwo Jima tells the story from the Japanese point of view, the awful conditions of the soldiers and their desperation to defend the island. The story is told through the eyes of a foot soldier Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) and General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe). The soldiers regularly write letters home, but of course once the fighting starts no more letters are delivered. However, as one of the few survivors, Saigo manages to bury a bag of the letters before he is captured. In true Saving Private Ryan style, the film begins in the present day, where we see some historians digging in the caves in Iwo Jima and unearthing something; at the end of the film we flip back to present day and the bag of letters that Saigo buried is unearthed.

FOOFs is much more of a spectacle than LFIJ, and this makes sense in that the three soldiers are paraded around the USA, making speeches, taking part in naff re-creations of the flag-raising, and generally being wined & dined as heroes. In this way, the film is almost a celebration of war. Of course the soldiers don’t feel like heroes, and the film is concerned with them fighting their demons; losing friends on the battlefield, struggling with an alcohol problem (Ira Hayes; played by Adam Beach), or not even being in the photo!

LFIJ is far less a celebration than a depiction of the grim reality of war; constantly eating weed soup, backbreaking work digging tunnels, and the desperation of the soldiery when it is clear they can’t win. What is interesting is the common ground to the films; the fighting. The conflict is gruesome, relentless and confusing on both sides, and all of the battle scenes are essentially black & white. There is some vague colour but it is very mute; the only full colour coming from gunfire and explosions, serving to highlight the terror. In this way the cinematography is fantastic, beautifully framed shots, including some really cool pilot-cam moments from the American fighter planes.

The most poignant scene of both films is a moment in LFIJ, when having captured an American soldier who subsequently dies from his wounds, General Kuribayashi reads out a letter that the GI received from his mother. All of the surrounding Japanese soldiers are amazed at the ordinary content of the letter. One of the soldiers remarks that his mother tells him about the same kind of things from back home. At this moment it hits the soldiers that the enemy are just people too.

I did enjoy both films. The direction by Clint Eastwood is solid, the cast are great in both films, and the look of the films is excellent. I think I was just a bit under-awed by them. Clint’s films are so often tremendous that I expected more “Wow” from the movies. They are both very well made films, no doubt, I just wasn’t amazed by them.

Inception (2010)

I had seen Inception at the cinema last year when it was released, but I had forgotten how good I thought it was. Now don’t get me wrong, I like the odd summer blockbuster. I have recently enjoyed Super 8, Cowboys and Aliens, and I’m looking forward to ROTPOTA; but Inception is a brilliant tonic to the usual fayre that we are used to digesting in the summer months. Christopher Nolan actually forces us to pay attention, think, and then apply what we have learned. We are introduced (whether we know it or not) to the concept of Lucid Dreaming; the idea that we can control our dreams, and in this case to dream within a dream. To an extent we are left questioning whether what we see is real; rather like The Matrix. What sort of a blockbuster is this? A ruddy good ‘un, that’s what!

Cobb (DiCaprio) and his associates Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Ariadne (Ellen Page), and Eames (Tom Hardy) are mercenaries who enter people’s dreams to steal information (short version!). The film centres around a job to plant an idea into someone’s mind, a process called inception. In this case the target is Robert Fischer (Cilian Murphy), son of a powerful businessman (Pete Postlethwaite) who is on his deathbed. The man who has commissioned this job is Saito (Ken Watanabe), a businessman in competition with the Fischers, who wants Robert to dissolve his father’s entire company. This is the idea that must be planted into Robert Fischer’s mind.

To try and explain the subtleties and nuances of entering people’s dreams, what happens at each level of dreaming, and the story arc of the main character Cobb, is far too ambitious. If you have already seen the film then you know what happens; and if you haven’t, then trying to explain it will just be far too confusing. Suffice to say, you should definitely see it. Christopher Nolan has crafted a very involved, somewhat complicated, thought-provoking, yet very stylish and accessible film. The central idea that this group can enter peoples dreams to steal information is one of those simple ideas that, with a few tweaks, is just brilliant (I’m thinking also of the game “Portal”, and “Blink”, one of the episodes of Dr Who).

The cast is all great. I think Ellen Page got a bit of stick for coming across as being a bit stupid and just being there for the exposition. I think this is unfounded; she is perfectly good, and let’s face it, someone had to be there to help the exposition. She was also good as the one person who stood up to DiCaprio’s character, as she was the only one who saw the danger that his unconscious posed to the operation. DiCaprio once again demonstrates his ability to lead a film, from his action packed introduction to the heartbreaking climax of his story. Tom Hardy is very smooth as the brains of the operation as much as anything, and Gordon-Levitt demonstrates that he can do action just as well as he can be a pretty boy.

Added to this are some fantastic special effects. Arthur’s fight in the hotel corridor is absolutely brilliant; not to mention Ariadne remodelling the Paris cityscape. Cobb’s limbo world also looks amazing, helped enormously by some wonderful cinematography from Wally Pfister (who seems to be a Chris Nolan favourite). The score from Hans Zimmer is also top notch, as they tend to be.



So, a blockbuster that’s a break from the norm, definitely; the best film of 2010, most probably. Great cast, great idea, great story, amazing special effects and wonderful music. Overall, a pretty brilliant film.