Roars of approval for return of “Godzilla”

Monster movie lovers rejoice! While no longer a part of the cult low­-budget foam-­suit stomping lizard vs. monster madness, “Godzilla” has done the franchise well.

The franchise was long due for a remake, considering the last US film was made in 1998. “Godzilla”, directed by Gareth Edwards makes a remarkable addition to the series.

The plot rings true to the monster’s roots, giving homage to how it originally started as a metaphor for nuclear weapons and the destruction that could be brought along with them. The film follows Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), a husband to Elle (Elizabeth Olsen). Elle and Joe experience a disaster while at work at the nuclear reactor.

Having lost Elle in the mysterious accident, Joe is left with his son, Ford (Aaron Taylor­-Johnson), who rejects his father’s suspicions about the event. When they turn out to be true, Ford joins the military in an attempt to rescue the world from two monsters who are craving radiation. Godzilla returns to aid the human survival.

The plot is not one the movie’s strongest points. It is a very shallow story, concentrating solely on giving the monster the same name recognition that it used to have, and not just when you were huddled in your friend’s basement watching old monster movies on VHS unbeknownst to your other friends, who would totally make fun of you for watching them in the first place.

This “Godzilla” is more concerned with giving the monster the same awe effect that seeing a man stomp around in a lizard suit used to bring us. Only now, we have CGI.

The movie is filmed beautifully. While in the theater, the first time the classic Godzilla screech is sounded, there was applause throughout the room. Sweet. Another round of applause when it showed its face. Radical. This is what this movie is about, appealing to a market that has been largely unattended to. The beauty of the images shown on the big screen make this movie worthy of attendance. The way Godzilla moves and writhes, or the pulsating fossilized MUTO (just watch it already) is artfully and wonderfully done.

The movie has a PG-13 rating due to its adventurous nature and semi­violent battle scenes. However, the movie is suitable for younger children as well.

Seeing Godzilla re­imagined in this form, albeit a little bigger than the lizard we’re used to, is hopefully going to be an image ingrained in the chronicles of remakes. As “Twilight” did to the vampire genre, we hope “Godzilla” will do the monster movie genre. However, unlike “Twilight” and its numerous spinoffs, we would definitely go see every “Godzilla” spinoff that we could.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10

–May 15, 2014–