Weightless Deaths
Chances are that if you saw the trailer for Godzilla, you were under the impression that Bryan Cranston’s character would act as a vessel to drive the human element of the plot, essentially acting as the main character. After all, he is the one adamantly under the impression that there is a conspiracy being hidden, and that scientists around him know more than they’re letting on. With that in mind, it felt that one half of the movie would contain ungodly amounts of destruction, while the other half would consist of Bryan Cranston acting his butt off and digging deep for the truth in order to provide some substance to the carnage.
Aside from the fact that his character is completely overblown and made out to look like a lunatic with his conspiracy theories – he is seriously no more insane than those that have a new theory every day regarding the attacks on 9/11 – he is ultimately someone who is easy to root for. The untimely and tragic death of his wife consumes him, driving him to the brink of madness in hopes of uncovering what was covered up as a natural disaster. It’s a noble motivation.
As the movie approaches the 20 minute mark, however, you begin to notice that pretty much all of his scenes from the trailers have come and gone, and that the writers are setting things up for yet another tragic death. First off, this already makes two major deaths within the first act of the movie, but because we haven’t even gotten to know and understand these characters, what should be emotional and impactful deaths hold almost no weight or consequence whatsoever. It just comes across as the writers killing off characters to set up the most basic redemption plot for the son, whom wrote his father off as a crazy old lunatic.
Going that route is fine, but Bryan Cranston is seriously the only actor with a personality in the film (Aaron Taylor-Johnson is so lifeless and bland that he comes across as a silent protagonist in your standard military-based first-person shooter video game). Knowing that none of the other characters would be able to carry the movie, it’s even more baffling that Bryan Cranston was killed off so early on.
