My Review: Godzilla (8/10)

"The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in their control and not the other way around. Let them fight."

Godzilla is by far the best film of 2014 in the visual department thanks to some stunning special effects and beautiful cinematography. It is different from last year's Pacific Rim in that you get far less action scenes and much more teases. Some people had a problem with this, but I loved this approach from director Gareth Edwards allowing the tension to slowly build and not making this just one giant battle sequence after another. What didn't work for me in Pacific Rim, worked perfectly for me in Godzilla because I got exactly what I wanted. The human drama might have been weak, but it was enough to engage me and make me care for them as destruction was heading their way. Some may argue that a film about Godzilla should focus on the monster and not just have it on screen for a mere 10 minutes, but I disagree because without seeing him, his presence is felt throughout the film. We may not have gotten the full scale monster that we were expecting at the beginning, but the way Edwards teased the audience by showing just small parts of Godzilla or the path of destruction it left behind was enough to engage me and leave me wanting more. By doing so, Edwards kept the audience engaged and slowly built some memorable and gripping climactic scenes towards the end. It is what other great films like Jaws, Jurassic Park, or even Alien have done, and Edwards inspired by them borrowed those elements and directed a remarkable blockbuster film. If you thought that Godzilla should be on screen for almost the entirety of the film in order for it to be the true star, than you were mistaken because even though it isn't on screen much, its psychological presence is felt throughout the film turning it into the real star. This argument reminded me of Hitchcock's Rebecca which was a film that centered on the title character without ever showing her once on screen, but her presence dominated every single scene just like Godzilla does here. Godzilla's presence is felt throughout the entire movie and that is what distinguishes this film from Roland Emmerich's 1998 version which may have had more monster on screen, but with disastrous results.

Ever since Ishiro Honda directed the original 1954 film, Godzilla has remained the king of all monsters in cinema. After an impressive debut in 2010 with his small indie film, Monsters, director Gareth Edwards was given a much bigger monster to work with. With a larger budget and an all-star cast, Edwards had a heavy load on his shoulders, but he delivered. The screenplay co-written by Max Borenstein and Dave Callaham may be the weakest link in the film, but it works nonetheless. The film opens by introducing us to Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) who is responsible for the security at a Japanese reactor plant. His wife, Sandra (Juliette Binoche) also works at the plant and their young son, Ford (CJ Adams) studies at a nearby school. Joe has been picking up some strange signals after a series of quakes had affected the region, but his officials refuse to allow him to shut down the plant. What appears to be a big earthquake ends up destroying the plant and Joe is forced to shut it down leaving his wife and hundreds of workers underground contaminated by the nuclear reactor's leak. Fifteen years later we see Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) all grown up returning to San Francisco from his military service to his wife, Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and his young son, Sam (Carson Bolde). Elle receives a call from Japan that night, and it's the police who claim to have arrested Joe for invading private property. Ford has to travel to Japan to bail his father out of jail and convince him to come back home with him, but what they end up discovering there will change their lives forever.

I really enjoyed the performance from Bryan Cranston (after the success of Breaking Bad, I don't think there is anyone who doesn't like this guy) and I thought he gave the film a powerful dramatic narrative. Aaron Taylor-Johnson may not have what it takes for the lead role, but he delivered. The best dramatic moments took place during the beginning of the film and they were enough to keep me interested in what was going on. I really thought Elizabeth Olsen, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn, and Ken Watanabe were all underused. They are all talented actors and should have been given stronger characters, but they all felt like cardboard cutout characters. Watanabe's character especially didn't seem to serve no other purpose in the film than to inform the audience and explain what was going on. The human drama along with the screenplay didn't work as well, but the spectacular visuals and great action scenes carried this film a long way. The score by Alexandre Desplat is also spectacular and helped set the tone of the film. The final 15 minutes of the film are gripping and there are also several memorable scenes like the one that takes place in Hawaii or the HALO parachute jump scene. I'm not one usually blown away by CGI, but this time I was really impressed with Godzilla. This isn't a perfect film, it has many flaws, but it works way better than other recent disaster or monster related films.

My Review: Inception (10/10)

¨Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange. ¨

Inception is one of the reasons I love movies so much. This is a really intelligent and smart film that never fails to entertain with amazing visuals, good action sequences, and an excellent cast. Christopher Nolan is without a doubt the best director in Hollywood right now. Nolan`s worse reviewed film is The Prestige and that movie was brilliant so that is saying a lot about a director who seems to turn everything he touches into gold. He revived the Batman franchise making it more realistic and believable and made an even better sequel. The Dark Knight was a character driven film that studied the psychological consequences behind each action, Inception is a very different kind of movie that focuses more on the storytelling than on the characters themselves. When Nolan was approached by the studio to try to make it in 3D, he declined saying he wanted the audience to focus on the storytelling and not be distracted. 3D serves for movies that don`t have a smart plot and only want to focus on the visuals, however Inception works so well and the visuals are so amazing that they are better than anything I have seen on 3D (yes including Avatar). Even so, the special effects aren`t the reason why this film is so engaging. The reason people want to see this over and over again is because Nolan has written a smart plot which took him more than 10 years to write. It is a movie with several layers and depths, a film that you won`t want to take your eyes off the screen for even a second, it engages you from the very beginning and draws you into it, it is like a maze you need to solve. In a summer full of remakes and sequels it was really good to see something so refreshing and original, the best film I have seen since Nolan`s The Dark Knight.

Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobbs, a fugitive who can`t return to the States to visit his kids because of an incident that isn`t explained until halfway through the film. He specializes in retrieving hidden secrets from the subconscious of people`s minds and he does this by invading their dreams. While he is extracting secrets from Saito (Ken Watanabe), a millionaire who owns an oil company, something goes wrong and he fails to get all the information he needed. Saito then convinces Cobbs to work for him and he promises him that if he does this one job he will fix his situation in the United States so that he can reunite with his kids again.  This time instead of extracting a secret, Saito wants Cobbs to plant an idea on someone`s mind, in other words he wants him to perform inception. Cobb`s partner, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), says that inception is impossible and that it can`t be done because the victim will know that the idea never came from him, but Cobbs says that it`s possible. In order to perform inception on Saito`s corporate rival Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), heir of his deceased father`s oil empire, Cobbs needs to assemble a team. First he finds a young architect named Ariadne (Ellen Page) who is in charge of creating the world in which the dream takes place in, next he hires Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a chemist who can create the most powerful sedatives to keep his subjects asleep, and finally he hires Eames (Tom Hardy), an expert in impersonating people. Together they have to try to perform the difficult task of inception, but Cobbs has been having trouble keeping his personal issues outside of the dream world and his dead wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), keeps on invading the dream world and putting the entire mission in danger.

The cast is excellent, but the film really isn`t character driven, we are drawn more by the story and the many layers we have to uncover. Nolan has created a maze and we are the one`s who have to pay close attention in order to understand the plot. While Cobb teaches Ariadne how the dream world works, Nolan is actually using Page`s character to explain to us the complexities of this world he created. It is like in The Matrix where Fishburne`s character explained everything to Neo. This is the most original sci-fi film I have seen since The Matrix and I loved every second of this movie. The two and a half hours fly by and the ending leaves you wanting to watch the film a second time. In a time in which Hollywood is running out of fresh ideas, Nolan comes in to bring a refreshing film. When Cobbs tells Ariadne to ¨never recreate places from your memory. Always imagine new places!,¨ it is like Nolan is trying to tell screenwriters to come up with fresh ideas and recreate new things. The story isn`t the only refreshing thing about this film. The visuals are also extraordinary and the action sequences are breathtaking. It is exciting to see how Ariadne begins creating the dream world, and the action scene where Arthur fights off the guards in a gravity free hotel is amazing. This is a movie you must see. The best of the year and as good as The Dark Knight was.

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