Want a good monster movie? Stick with Pacific Rim

Rating: 4/10 (13 June 2014)

First of all I should say that in general I am not a "monster movie' fan. I watched Pacific Rim and thought it was just "O.K". However when I heard who was directing Godzilla I got excited. I have great respect for Gareth Edwards and thought that if anyone could make a good American version of Godzilla; he could. And my excitement only grew after reading the awesome reviews for it. Unfortunately after seeing it in theaters with a few friends I have to say that honestly this is the biggest disappointment in theaters of 2014. Now don't misunderstand me, this movie does have its good parts, but they are out-weighed by the negative parts. I'll go through both the positive and negative parts, but in the end you'll just have to decide for yourself.
1. Story 7/10 OK so I want to be clear that the story is not where this movie goes wrong. Without spoiling, the movie has an enjoyable plot. As far as monster movies go this one isn't particularly stupid. It's not exactly "Inception" but its not as basic and straight forward as "Pacific Rim". But what made Pacific Rim good was that it didn't take its self seriously, so it was really enjoyable and could be stupid without pretending to be serious and smart. Even though Godzilla isn't completely stupid it takes itself way to seriously.
2. Visuals 7/10 There's nothing really that wrong with the visual effects in this movieI mean they aren't exactly super original, everyone already knows what Godzilla looks like. All the CGI is pretty decent, the monsters attacking Godzilla aren't exactly exciting, but they are passable. The main thing this movie has going for it in the visuals department is the lighting, the lighting, although pretty unrealistic is very cool looking and stylish, so as far as visuals gono big complaints.
3.Acting/Characters 5/10 This is were I start having problems with the movieThe acting and characters. Now Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a good actor, but the character he portrays is your average good looking muscled but rather bland main character. I really wish that the movie had put some effort to having original and enjoyable characters instead of the cliché lead that they chose. The rest of the characters are just as clichéd as the lead the smart scientistthe doctor for a wife the cute kidnone of them particularly good actors, EXCEPT for Bryan Cranston. I expected his character to be forced in just to sell tickets, but I found that he was the strongest both in acting and in character. In the short time that he is on screen you really feel sympathy for him. Another enjoyable character is that of his Bryan Cranston's character's wife, played by Juliette Binoche. Like Cranston, the short time she is on screen she shows a great performance. Unfortunately aside from the two strong performances, the rest of the characters are cliché and disappointing.
4. Directing/Pacing 3/10 Ahh yes, here we go. This is where this movie really falls apart. Its also the most disappointing part of this movie, as I said before, I really liked Gareth Edwards.
This movie does start off pretty well, Cranston and Binoche really draw you in. But as soon as the first 20 minutes are up the movie completely falls apart. I think that the main problem is it acts as if no one in the audience knows who Godzilla is or what he looks like. So they seem to be building up to make Godzilla's appearance startling and shocking. If I didn't know anything about Godzilla that would have been fine, but even though I have never seen any of the older original Japanese Godzilla's I still know the story of Godzilla and honestly was rather bored by the constant teasing of the monster for the first two acts. When Godzilla finally does fully appear at the last act I snuggled down into my seat ready for some awesome monster on monster battling. But instead of focusing on the monsters, it focused on the things that the lead character was doing around them. This was definitely the most aggravating thing about the movieas soon as the monsters really started throwing punches the camera would cut away. At one point there seemed to finally be an awesome showdownGodzilla and one of the monsters were running toward each otherGodzilla was about to monster punch it in the face when it CUT TO THE MAIN CHARACTER RUNNING ON THE SIDE WALK. As soon as that happened the whole theater let out a groan, a few jears, and several "C'mon man!"'s. The ending is just your average action movie endingpredictable and not really interesting at all.
5. Final Evaluation 5/10
This movie will definitely make some people happy I'm sure. But it doesn't bring anything new or exciting to the table, so I would suggest just stick with Pacific Rim and don't waste your money.