Godzilla Minus One | Review by: Benjamin Garrett

The Godzilla franchise frequently struggles to find a balance between large scale destruction and compelling human storytelling. No matter how polished the visuals may be, if we don’t care about the people fighting for their lives, we aren’t going to be invested in their stories. Godzilla Minus One is a human drama first, and a monster movie second, resulting in one of the best entries this franchise has seen in its 70 year history.

The film begins in the final days of World War II, following a disgraced kamikaze pilot, trying to find purpose in a life he isn’t meant to still have. What it does quite well is function on its own as a powerful post-war drama, touching on themes of honour and sacrifice. The plot is culturally significant, as so much of it revolves around Japan’s healing period after the war. It’s occasionally melodramatic, but never without meaning. You could honestly replace Godzilla with any other threat, and the impact of this story would resonate just as deeply.

Of course, this is a Godzilla movie, and the king of the monsters does not disappoint, even with limited screen presence. He’s an unstoppable force, and his destructive, animalistic rage is truly terrifying here. This isn’t the over complicated anti-hero Godzilla we’ve seen in the recent American versions. This is a ruthless monster with the singular goal of maximum destruction.

If you go in to this movie expecting the visual polish seen in the American franchise entries, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Those films have budgets more than ten times what this was made for. It took me a bit to adjust to a comparison that really wasn’t fair, but once I did, I found myself in awe of what was achieved for just 15 million dollars. The set pieces are epic, the scale is massive and the level of destruction is staggering.

Godzilla Minus One takes time to develop its human characters and build a story around powerful themes. It might lack the visual polish of its big-budget American counterparts, but a compelling, character driven narrative and earth-shattering scale are well worth that trade-off.

4/5

Review by: Benjamin Garrett

#review

The Mandalorian Season 3 Review

Listen, I love Star Wars. I will always love Star Wars. The original and prequel trilogies were a big part of my childhood, and helped shape my love of cinema. While The Mandalorian isn’t among my favourites in the franchise, I thought it had a promising first season and a significantly stronger season two. Season three had so much potential, but a frustrating lack of focus held it back from greatness. This show’s always had a bit of an identity crisis, but it’s never been as clear as it is here. Does it want to be a procedural-style adventure of the week, or tell an epic, multi-season spanning arc? Season one leaned toward the former, while Season two found a satisfying balance of both. Season three tries to find that balance, but the overarching story it wants to tell is bigger than the few episodes allotted to do so. There are only 8 chapters, some barely over 30 min. That’s a fair...

Boss Level Film Review

Boss Level is a new addition to the time loop genre, with a twist. Ex-special forces officer, Roy Pulver, played by Frank Grillo, relives the same day until he dies. Every day he is hunted by assassins and when killed, he wakes up back in his bed where he started, only to have to try and survive all over again. Roy has no idea why he is stuck in this infinite time loop but he must do what he can to survive, and the longer he survives, the more he uncovers about his particular situation. Unlike most action films that take time to build up, this film gets right into it and offers tons of non-stop combat sequences that would satisfy any lover of action films. Its erratic flow makes for some fun action scenes which come out of nowhere since Roy can expect the assassins to attack at any moment. If you play video games often and have ever been stuck on a level for hours or even days, you know the feeling of having to repeat the same thing over and over again u...

Better Man | Review by: Benjamin Garrett

What at first feels like a CGI gimmick allows Better Man to climb and swing it’s way beyond standard biopic conventions. This larger than life musical is worth a watch even if, like me, you needed to ask “Who the hell is Robbie Williams?”. A pop icon in the UK who didn’t quite make a household name for himself in North America, Robbie Williams bares his life (the good the bad and the drug fueled ugly) in this dazzling account of his rise to fame. Musician biopics often focus too heavily on the creation of the artist’s work, and not enough on the actual artist. Better Man gives audiences a sobering portrait of the man behind the monkey, with his songs placed in pivotal life and career moments to move the narrative forward. This works especially well if you aren’t entirely familiar with Williams’ work, because you won’t find yourself waiting to hear specific needle drops. Instead they flow organically into the story, with gorgeously choreographed musical numbers. And bo...

1st Reviews

Search This Blog