Review: Godzilla

Summer movies are a species unto themselves. They are unapologetically escapist fluff that are seemingly immune to straightforward film criticism. Still, all escapist movies must be either one of two things: so bad or stupid that it becomes funny or simply entertaining. Is Godzilla bad or stupid? No. Is it entertaining? Sometimes.

Let's get the plot out of the way: Godzilla in New York. That's it. Yes, the ground trembles, buildings crumble, people run. And it's up to a heroic quartet to stop the creature from finding a nesting place for his eggs (the mutated creature is asexual). The quartet is comprised of scientist Nick Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), his former college sweetheart and plucky aspiring reporter Audrey (Maria Pitillo), intrepid cameraman Animal (the always entertaining Hank Azaria), and a mysterious Frenchman named Philippe Roache (Jean Reno). Will the quartet survive? Or will they only be for the creature's consumption?

Much of the film's first half is foreplay for Godzilla's entrance. The star does not disappoint. Designed by Patrick Tatopoulos, Godzilla bears little resemblance to the cumbersome destroyer in the Japanese films, and it shouldn't. Advanced technology has afforded us a superbly agile creature, stalking a metropolis with surprising grace. However, the creature would have been more breathtaking if it wasn't such an obvious hybrid of the creature in the Alien films and the Jurassic Park dinosaurs.

The screenplay, fashioned by director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin, appropriates from those films as well as Independence Day, Emmerich and Devlin's previous collaboration. Indeed, a good way to pass the time during the film's many lulls is to guess which film the filmmakers are pilfering ideas from. The eggs are from Aliens; the Godzilla swimming underwater from Alien: Resurrection; the vicious babies from The Lost World; a gaping hole in the Met Life Building and the needle of the Chrysler Building in pieces recall the Statue of Liberty's face floating in the water in Independence Day.

Godzilla has several good scenes during the slow going first half; most notably, Godzilla running down a fighter plane. However, the film does not hit its stride until the quartet is trapped inside Madison Square Garden, which is filled to the rafters with eggs about to hatch. Finally, the film offers us the action and suspense that it should have started off with.

Godzilla

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Written by: Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Maria Pitillo, Jean Reno, Hank Azaria