Not One Of The Best Kaiju Movies... But a Legendary One At That

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2014)

Im no stranger to the Gojira franchise. I've seen some, if not most, of the devastation Godzilla has caused in the history of cinema. And the '98 disaster did not miss my eyes either. Truthfully, last years Pacific Rim had my raised my expectations, to the point where I was hoping there'd be a boss fight every 20 minutes. That flame inside me was somehow snuffed when the movie turned out to be quite the opposite. The movie is like the canon fodder for its own climax. Despite the movie showing imminent clash of the monsters, there is nothing that intense up till the interval.
But the way it builds up the tensions, the way it presents the iconic kaiju and of course the carnage that ensues, that alone made me confident that the post-interval would be a complete blast. And till the end the movie is guaranteed to entertain even the hard-to-please fans. 'This Godzilla' indeed has a better future, I thought.
Sure, it annoyed every movie-goer to see the first boss-battle as a third-person through a news footage, but that gets compensated post interval. The only reason it gets a deduction is because it truly isn't the protagonist. In His own movie. But isn't that what cliffhanger movies and games have been doing for more than a decade? And further more, since Toho disowned Zilla'98, making this the first American Godzilla, isn't the first of every monster franchise presenting things in a slow and steady way. But thats not saying much, given the fact that Aaron Johnson gets a bigger piece of the pie. We get to see his character right from childhood from the beginning to where he's married with a 5yr old son. This is the part that annoys me in every monster movie (except Pacific Rim), the human guy, actually the supporting actor gets to be the protagonist while the Main guy/protag/antagonist gets demoted.
Despite all these nuances, you still get the visual treat as you witness the largest Gojira to date in all his glory. His war cry, his desperation, his cries of pain, of anger and of victory is completely out of the world, as are also complemented by his facial expression. Clearly it wins over us, gaining lost fans in the way and placing a mark through time. Im all good for sequels and congrats to the team behind its creation.