Godzilla

During the 1950s, creatures are awaken from the deepest depths. Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) believes that ancient creatures exist that lives in radiation. As the radiation faded from the earth's surface, these creatures retreated to the lower depths. In 1999, miners uncover a vast cavern with a giant skeleton in the Philippines. They also find one of the spores broken open. In Japan at the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant, manager Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) loses his wife in a freak incident. Fifteen years later, Joe is still investigating the incident with the city around the plant quarantined. He is arrested once again for trying to breach the quarantine. His son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has to leave behind his wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) in San Francisco to go pick him up from jail in Japan. Joe convinces Ford who is now a US Navy ordnance disposal officer to join him to go to the plant. They discover that there is no radiation leak. Instead the spore from the Philippines named MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) has settled in the plant sucking up all the radiation.

This is always going to be a great monster movie. The CGI is terrific and Godzilla has a great time smashing things up. That part seems like a no-brainer. I still give director Gareth Edwards credit for doing a great job. He doesn't disappoint. The problem is once again the human story. The beginning is just too long before it gets to a monster. The Joe Brody story doesn't have the bite. In another movie, his story would be a fun mystery. The problem is that the audience knows it's a monster even if it's not Godzilla. So there is no tension from the mystery since it's not really a mystery. The other problem is that Ford just happens to be at the right place in all of those situations. It's a situation that a lesser movie would rely on. I hoped for better. The final problem I have is that the movie cuts away from the monster action time and time again. It's funny the first time but it gets annoying quickly. Despite all the problems, there is still a fun monster movie and lots of stuff get smashed.

I saw the trailers for this a year ago while I attended a screening for Aronofsky's NOAH . I didn't fancy it much . GODZILLA conjures up memories of the big budget blandfest from a decade and a half ago . Just put some CGI on screen and voilà you've a Summer blockbuster . This version did get a very good average rating when it opened , something in the region 8.1 but progressively got lower and it now has a rating of 6.6 indicating something average . To be fair I went in with an open mind and did find myself enjoying things more than I probably expected

The original GODZILLA from 1954 was of a course a Japanese film that used the monster as a metaphor for the bomb . It did quickly abandon this subtext and just became a long running franchise where the titular monster got involved in all sorts of battles with other giant monsters . In its favour Gareth Edwards version of GODZILLA does keep the ethos of this . Radiation is very much to the fore of the story and while Godzilla might not be the hero he's certainly not the villain and this is reserved for "Massive Unidentified Terreistial Organism" a sort of hybrid between a giant praying mantis and a dragon . You know at one point they're going to be meeting in a climatic battle

Of course two hours of giant CGI creatures getting in to a punch up isn't going to resonate with an audience so Edwards includes a very human backdrop as the story takes place through the eyes of serviceman Ford Brody . You got to love that name , it's sounds like a character John Wayne was born to play , a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do , get off your horse and drink your milk etc . It wasn't until I found out after seeing the film that I found out Brody is played by English actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson who I was totally convinced was one hundred per cent Uncle Sam . That said this isn't an actors type of film and I'm speculating that the casting of Cranston and Binoche might have led to the backlash by many people . If you want to see Binoche try not to be blink because you will literally miss her . It's also difficult not to notice that there's a strong streak of manipulation as to how the characters play out . It's also yet another film where a little kid is used in a scene to keep the audiences emotions on tenterhooks

Regardless of this people watch a film like GODZILLA for action set pieces and you can't really fault Edwards for what he's done here . He doesn't have a idiosyncratic quirk to his directorial style and the film does have that kind of Summer blockbuster look but he also previously directed MONSTERS and that movie featured a couple of aliens mating and here the MUTOs have a similar though much more shorter sequence . If you need a film calling for alien reproduction I can see Gareth Edwards being a natural auteur

Scenario 1: If you are going to see this film because you really enjoy classic Godzilla movies and you hope the music and campy theme of those films are represented in this one, you absolutely should go see it. Godzilla here looks much more like the beloved behemoth than it did in the '98 movie, the music hearkens to the classic Japanese overtures of the old Gojira film era, and the camera work has the comically silly nature of Sam Rami's Spiderman series.

Scenario 2: If you are really excited to see a deep, human film with camera angles and writing that really tell a story that is thematically transcendent such as "District 9" and the Korean film "The Host," this is not your film. The script is filled with overtly simplistic rhetoric and one dimensional characters (intentionally,) the scenes somehow manage to have very little tension (even for me, the pilot episodes for most sitcoms seem more tense than Gozilla,) and as stated above, the camera-work is intentionally hammy. It should also be noted that to add a human element, the director overuses children to the point that it ends up feeling very obvious, as though he did it to be intentionally campy.

Scenario 3: If you are one of those people who really just want a fun popcorn flick such as Pacific Rim, with some solidly choreographed action like in the over-the-top bulletfest Battle:LA, I would say proceed with caution. The fight scenes are less intense and more majestic, like any classic monster movie, and as such the human aspect of the combat is relatively insignificant, less so than any other monster movie I've ever seen. There are no little monsters for anyone to shoot at, if that's your thing.

Scenario 4: If you are interested in this film because you love the talented work of Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, and/or Aaron Taylor- Johnson (three of my favorite actors) and are excited to see what they bring to the table, you should probably sit this one out. Bryan Cranston's role in this film garners far less screen time than advertised, Ken Watanabe spends literally every second walking through the scenes with the pained expression of someone who just walked in on their parents, and all three of the actors give off the vibe that they are very much aware of how cheesy their lines are. Everyone else's performance was similarly forgettable.

Honestly, I'm a stickler for deep, human storytelling, but I've also had a softspot for the classic, silly fun of many Godzilla movies, including my favorite, Godzilla vs. Destroyah. All told, depending on which camp you fall under, this will be an entirely different movie for you. As Godzilla movies go, I'd give it a B. As darker, more serious monster movies go, I'd give it a D+.

OK, let me start off by saying that the new Godzilla is definitely an entertaining movie and well worth the price of an admission ticket. That is – so long as you go into it with popcorn-level expectations. Now, it has to be said that the bar, since the most recent attempt by Roland Emmerich in 1998 (which was hilarious at best) wasn't set particularly high, to say it nicely. So in all honesty, with today's budget and special effects, it never had a big chance of being that bad. But I have to admit, judging from the trailer – I thought it would be better.

It starts off pretty good. There is proper story build-up and character lay-out. Where we are – what's happening... It's all there. In fact, the story revolving around the main characters is pretty dramatic from the get-go. Death in the family, trauma leading to obsession over finding the truth surrounding the circumstances. Bryan Cranston is impressive as the family father and science guy. He just knows something is up concerning some big beastie and he won't let up until he figures it out. That is – if he gets the chance. Something happens around one third into the movie that is a pivotal turning point in the story. I knew this immediately when it happened and in the end I realised that I had been correct.

From this point on, it's out with the story and in with the action. An almost mind-numbing, pummelling assault of non-stop action. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it's a lot less interesting than it could have been.

Here's the deal: instead of just one Big Monster, they bring in three. One Godzilla, and two huge insect-like creatures that are only designated as MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Object). Seriously, they couldn't come up with a proper name? And instead of Godzilla being the big threat to mankind, the MUTO are. In fact, Godzilla turns out to be the good guy because he's the only one that can defeat these insect creeps. This story line is factor one in the reason that this movie isn't what it could have been. Factor two is the plot point that these creatures all feed on nuclear energy instead of "manburgers". Consequentially, the only real threat they pose is the massive destruction they cause in big cities (and obviously, the human lives that become casualties by default). It's because of this that there is never any real sense of threat or danger. They don't hunt us, they don't care about us. All they want is nuclear energy and a place to breed. What's worse is, these MUTO take screen time and attention away from the monster who's supposed to be the main antagonist and namesake of the movie! It might as well have been called "Big Creepy Insects" instead of "Godzilla"...

In the end, what we're left with is billions of dollars worth of collateral damage and a big-ass monster who's really kind of a nice guy. Weird.

Still, it's certainly not bad. Aaron Taylor- Johnson does his best at looking very serious and all grown up since his Kick-Ass days, although I am certain that this is definitely one of his less compelling roles. The problem is that from the 1/3 turning point that I mentioned, his character becomes very formulaic and cliché. Our hero even shares an intimate moment of eye contact with Godzilla in the end... Aww.

Ken Watanabe spends every moment of his screen time looking shocked and awed... and pretty much nothing else. Juliette Binoche is shamefully underused. I would have loved to have seen more of her. The biggest asset is definitely Bryan Cranston. He's the only one who managed to make his character 3-dimensional and a real human being. He, too, would have definitely deserved a bigger role. In fact, the film probably would have been much better for it.

Visually, everything is very awesome and impressive. The special effects (visual and sound) are top-notch. Every time Godzilla opened his mouth to let out a massive roar, I thought my eardrums were going to pop. It's bone-chilling and very cool. The design of the MUTO is a real treat, they look like giant praying mantises, totally intimidating. The films' SFX really make it worthwhile.

All in all, the story is quite weak and riddled with clichés, though I must say one thing: thank God for the complete lack of obligatory footprints. I was seriously dreading the moment these giant "claw prints in the mud" would appear on screen, but thankfully it never happened. The overall feel and setting of this film is quite dark and threatening, and adding such a cliché would have been really dumb and unnecessary.

I had really hoped that this was going to be the definitive Godzilla movie. Alas, it is not. But I still enjoyed it for what it was and I definitely recommend seeing it for the special effects alone. In any case, 'Gojira' looks awesome.

I rate it 7.5/10.

Finally sat down to watch this movie today. After all the hype it had had it's fair share of great moments but in the end felt something was missing. I'll agree with many that Godzilla wasn't shown as much as he should have and maybe that was what missing or maybe it wasn't. Needless to say even though Godzilla doesn't make many appearances in this movie it still is a rather good movie with a an interesting story line. The best way to go into this movie is to not buy into Hollywood's hype because if you go into it like that you will be disappointed greatly. Overall I was satisfied with Godzilla. Great story, special effects, and even the acting was pretty solid. Worth the 2 hours for sure. Sit back, grab some popcorn and beverage and enjoy!