Entertaining; One-Dimensional Characters

Rating: 7/10 (16 September 2019)

Review:
'Godzilla' is an American monster film directed by Gareth Edwards. The film is a reboot of Toho's Godzilla franchise and is the first film in Legendary's MonsterVerse. Most reviewers are complaining that Godzilla only appears for 10 minutes in the movie. This is true, as the other monsters have more screen time, but most of the film is built on suspense, and in my opinion, it works very well. There is still plenty of chaos and destruction for the action buffs. The action in this this movie is really well done, and they don't over do it with explosions or unnecessary violence, which is shocking.
In the film, a soldier (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) attempts to return to his family while caught in the crossfire of an ancient rivalry between Godzilla and two monsters known as MUTOs.
Its almost futile to talk about the performances in the film because despite the strong cast, the characters are all one-dimensional, and nobody delivers a memorable performance. Bryan Cranston and Juliette Binoche do their best with the little screen time they are given, and the couple of Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen are given the impossible task of creating interesting characters from the uninspiring dialogue. They can't create good chemistry between them either, because the only have two scenes together and are apart for the rest of the film. I didn't like that the story is still very Americanised in the fact that it is a very white cast even though the bulk of the film is in Japan.
Say what you will about the shake cam, or the fact that you don't see the God of Monsters that much. This film is balls to the wall entertaining as it should be being a Summer Blockbuster. It captured my attention instantly and held it for the entire two hours. Sure, the plot is familiar, but anyone who expects a new plot for one of the oldest, most famous monsters ever, is kidding themselves.
Overall, this movie has a good story with very entertaining action scenes. The characters are unfortunately not fleshed out enough to care about what happens to them. The only character in the movie you are rooting for is Godzilla himself.
3.5/5