GODZILLA

GODZILLA Review

By Darin Skaggs

     We live in the age of the big movie.  They are filled with special effects of what is impossible without the technology.  They are mostly over two hours long and have some of the biggest stars of the now.  Gareth Edwards’ new film Godzilla has all that and tries to say something about it, maybe to a fault.

     In this look at the Godzilla franchise the story begins in 1999, where a scientific Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins look upon some alien like material that causes the ground to cave in.  This cave travels all the way to Japan where Joe played by Brian Cranston, his wife played by Juliette Binoche and a whole lot of other workers are evacuated from their nuclear plant.  Binoche doesn’t make it out.  The story then goes fifteen years into the future to 2014 where Joe’s son Ford, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, returns to his American home from duty.  He comes home to his wife Elle, played by Elizabeth Olsen and young son.  Soon after returning home he finds his father, who is still in Japan, has gotten into trouble.  He goes to help him and while there they both discover a shut off center of the city that is holding the same type of egg from the beginning of the film.  It hatches and is revealed to be a MUTO, a dangerous monster that feeds on radiation.  From there it is a struggle to stay alive and rid the world of these MUTO.

     As it seems, there is a lot going on in this film.  Godzilla wasn’t even mentioned in the synopsis.  He honestly isn’t in the film that much until the last third.  Some could see this as a problem.  The movie is called Godzilla after all.  The audience is probably asking “Where is Godzilla?” but that is kind of the point of the film.  The threat of the world is never the iconic beast.  It’s the creatures that may or may not be a take on Mothra.  The US army is constantly trying to take down the threat but it is evident pretty early that there is nothing they can do.  It feels like days pass and they clearly haven’t made any progress in exterminating the MUTO.  Then in the middle and then near the end of the story Godzilla comes to save the day, as predicted by Watanabe early on.  And when we do see Godzilla fight it is from the human’s point of view, so we don’t see much until a group of army men have to carry out a mission near the monsters.  It is a gimmick that will upset many audience members but it does work fairly well.

     With not much monster on monster action that only leaves the MUTO just being destructive.  This leads to some of the more on the nose moments.  A lot of the action sequences add an aspect to their story that has some allegory of 9/11.  There is nothing wrong with that, there is a ton of this in recent years.  Some moments work like Jets falling out of the sky because the MUTO’s presence makes technology shut down and other times they are roll your eyes moments like a random kid being separated from his parents due to a disaster that goes nowhere.  This film does not only have allegories for 9/11.  It takes on a lot of tragedies from the last fifteen years.  This includes the Marathon bombing, shootings, Tsunamis and the horrors of war.  This is fine to make allegories for these events that should be explored but it does so much that it is at times overwhelming. 

     Godzilla is a fun movie, excluding dealing with the tragedy of our world.  It has a most satisfying finale.  It doesn’t focus on character too much but that is not the point.  It is not energy fueled but is surely a good time.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 Review

By Darin Skaggs

     A couple of years ago a reboot of Spider-Man films came out.  It was basically a carbon copy of the 2002 Raimi film.  The second one of the reboot has come out and is trying to do its own thing.  It is good that they are branching out but the film tries to do way too much.  This sequel opens during the graduation of Peter Parker, played by Andrew Garfield, but of course Peter is busy being Spider-Man stopping a crazy Paul Giamatti from stealing a whole lot of Plutonium.  He barely makes it to shake his principles hand and accept his diploma.  He then struggles with a bunch of problems including keeping a relationship with Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone, and making money at The Daily Bugle by selling pictures of Spider-Man and a horde of villains that conveniently never show up at the same time. 

     The film tries to become its own thing this time around and because of that fact, fails to compile all the stories it is trying to sell you into a well flowed movie.  In the film Peter is dealing a lot with Gwen.  Also there is the mystery of his father.  Then he sees Harry Osborne’s father has passed and decides to visit him, even though he hasn’t seen this guy for fifteen years or so.  Aunt May is dealing with the death of her husband/Peter’s uncle from the last movie.  The film decides that Peter doesn’t need to do much processing about that death because dealing with the death of Gwen’s father is more important.  Then Harry, who is new to us, is dealing with the inheritance from his father including the Oscorp Company and the deadly disease that killed him.  And hey, if that is not enough there is a man named Max Dillon who no one notices and dies in a bat of electric eels and becomes a super charged super villain named Electro.  There is more, but I’ll save you the trouble.

     The film simply has too much going on.  It needed to pick about half the story lines and focus on those.  Then it would flow better and not have to be constantly catching up with itself with all the plot points.  Though, it doesn’t flow well the movie has very good individual scenes.  The director Marc Webb, whose only other films included the previous Spider-Man film and (500) Days of Summer, is very good at scenes of emotional rawness and human connection.  There are several scenes where you can tell Peter and Gwen really do like and care about each other.  There is a wonderful scene with Peter and Aunt May as well.  His first film (500) Days had many moments similar to this that worked just as well.

     This is a superhero film so that means there will be action.  Some of these scenes work.  The first one is a highlight, but for all the others are about fifty/fifty.  The fight with Harry is a weak fight but works due to decisions in the script.  Characters are uneven a lot of the time as well.  Peter and Gwen are grounded in reality having real conversations about life, but then Max/Electro is the nerd character straight out of a Nickelodeon sitcom.  Then sometimes Electro is a good villain, particularly the break in to Oscorp, and you wonder why he wasn’t as effective in previous scenes.

     The film as a whole is a mess.  It is a bad movie with good parts.  With all the superior superhero movies to choose from, you can probably steer clear of this one.

Darin Takes On The Classics: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

NO BODY PUTS MOVIE IN A CORNER

By Darin Skaggs

    Many say that Jaws started off the summer Blockbuster. Others say X-Men brought fourth this wave of superhero films and it is clear that The Blair Witch Project is responsible for the pile up of the “found footage” genre. Fortunately, this film is not like most from the genre. This film is scary, effective and actually believable.

       The film, as said, is told as a found footage movie following Heather, Josh and Mike; three inspiring filmmakers that are making a documentary with their home bought, hand held camera about the legend of the Blair Witch. The whole film being shot with an actual hand held. The film starts with interviews from towns people and some scenes of the three just goofing around which makes you feel it is grounded in reality. They then set out into the woods to find whatever they can to prove the Blair Witch is more than just an old wise tale.

        The film is told like a ghost story you would hear around a camp fire. It starts in the woods, not much happens, then boom, the end comes and hits you like a ton of bricks. This is a film that takes its time with the fear. It could be viewed as boring or too slow. When the gang is in the woods it takes a while for anything to happen. That is not a compliant, the film builds the tension so well, even when nothing is happening, you feel scared for them and a large sense of dread of what is to come. Actually, we see nothing happen pretty much the whole film. The most terrifying moments happen with the sounds coming from the distant or outside of the tent, mostly happening at night. The most chilling visuals come from a set up in the woods of organized sticks that may or may not be of the Blair Witch and a log the group can not seem to escape. There is no jump scare nor is the witch finally revealed. It is all left up to the imagination which makes it even more scary.

          It is not just what we hear and imagine that makes the film terrifying, the performances of the freighted filmmakers affects the sense of terror. Heather Donahue, who is mostly behind the camera in the film, has to act with her voice. The voice acting all around is great as it builds to frustrated talking to helpless screams for help. Heather, along with her costars Josh Leonard and Mike Williams, get the point across to make it feel like they are all friends even by the end when they are sick of each other.

         The ending for this film is brilliant. At this point, Josh has disappeared but we still hear his screams in the distant. Heather and Mike are desperately looking for him and eventually come across a house. Heather is crying making the scene more and more tense. Mike vanishes as well, so Heather heads downstairs. For a brief second we see Mike standing in the corner, the camera drops and the movie ends. The brilliance of the film is we don’t see anything, at all. There is no conclusion or closure at all. Like any good ghost story, the supernatural force wins, the victims all die and the fable is unanswered. It is a film that, again like Jaws but with water, begs you not to go in the woods. The film started an overload of found footage films but you can't blame it for that. This one is truly scary and is one of the best horror films of all time.