There were lots of things to dislike about Gareth Edwards' surprisingly slow-paced reincarnation of Toho's most famous monster, Godzilla, though it did succeed in one aspect: the characterisation of Godzilla himself. He could have been written off as just another angry lizard of the giant kind, but - instead - was gifted with something akin to an emotional capacity. Which is another way of saying that Godzilla refused to pigeon-hole its titular character as a straight bad guy, opting instead to have him play mediator. In something of a twist, then, other monsters are poised as the villains of the piece, whilst Godzilla himself - a relic of the nuclear age - wakes up to restore the balance brought on by their anarchy. In the film's climactic final battle, 'Zilla unleashes certain hell in an attempt to save humanity from certain destruction, before slinking off into the ocean with an exhausted expression stuck on his face. We're then treated to a TV headline that asks "King of the Monsters - Savior Of Our City?" Unexpected, but so cool.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
