movie 17/90 – Godzilla (2014)

I watched the old Japanese Godzilla movies on VCP when I was 11 or 12. My older cousins who were teens and cool, were into foreign cinema, though had no fucking clue nuances the movie was trying to make. Naturally. And I loved the movie as a kid. It was tad scary but it was fun.

Fun fact – I was shit scared of everything when I was a child. Up until 12, I slept with night light on. I cried when here of a movie got slapped during a fight. Violence scared me. Horror? Forget it. I remember going to watch a hindi movie that Anil Kapoor in it and three quarters the movie down the line there is an action sequence. I was so upset that my parents had to bring me back home and I cried the whole way back. He got punched a few times or something. Something shifted around age 12. I was beginning to feel okay. And by 15, it was immune. Godzilla was a monster movie that precariously stood on the precipice of being scary both visually and metaphorically. Not that I understood the latter. I eased into the world of monsters and other scary stuff with these movies.

But it was fascinating especially when one of my cousins friend who was very very cool told me about the techniques of filming employed during that time. It got me hooked to these old movies. The movie got remade in the 90s. It was alright.

But this one. Now this one is supremely well shot, makes godzilla what it is and has no performative nonsense to its name. It’s a decent story for the involved humans but it’s a great CGI fest that’s rarely troublesome for the eyes. There is this scene where the soldiers fall from helicopters with redflare. Its beautiful, iconic and entirely haunting. It’s a fairly straightforward storyline but it’s a movie where we root for godzilla.

Rating: – something to watch with friends with lot of chatter going on the side. Cause there are moments of lull that no one cares for. We are all here for godzilla fights and mayhem.