The First Movie To Make My Jaw Drop In A Long Time

Rating: 9/10 (15 May 2014)

This has become my favorite movie of the year so far. This is exactly how a monster movie should be. It was realistic, it was intense, it had my jaw on the floor for some scenes.
Let's start with the story. Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) loses his wife (Juliette Binoche) in a giant power plant earthquake but what the public doesn't know is that it wasn't an earthquake at all but a giant cave in where a giant monster known simply as a MUTO has hidden itself in a cocoon for 14 years since that day and is now being hidden away in a fake quarantine zone. Once the monster escapes it's left up to the only other thing big enough, Godzilla, to take it down.
Now I took into account that this is a giant monster movie and for a plot to be something pretty simple like that is perfectly okay with me simply for one reason, the execution of the story is done in a way that I feel as though this is how it would go down if there were giant monsters roaming earth.
Now the acting. Bryan Cranston just kills it in this role. In the scene where his wife died I believed he was truly sad. All around an amazing performance which makes it kind of heartbreaking since he's only in the movie for maybe 20-25 minutes and then just dies leaving us with the rest of the story to be told through his son, Aaron Taylor Johnson. I'll be honest I think I would've liked it better if Cranston had stayed alive and like helped back at the headquarters that was monitoring everything but that's just me. I say this because Aaron's character just feels a little one dimensional to me. Like he didn't have enough character. I cared more about seeing his wife (Elizabeth Olsen) stay alive than him and she's off somewhere hiding while he's risking his life trying to diffuse a bomb to save thousands of people. Elizabeth Olsen does a great job playing the wife in trouble and Ken Watanabe is great as always.
The CGI. I'm just going to run through this one fast because this is something I don't focus on a ton in movies but I was told how amazing the CGI in this was so I knew I'd have to focus on it for this and talk about it. The CGI for the monsters is just beyond incredible, Godzilla just looked all around great and I loved every moment that I got to see him and the MUTOs. Now as for the scenery I felt it was a little lacking, I don't know just when I see those buildings fall apart I had a harder time believing I was actually seeing buildings get destroyed. That's all I really have to say on CGI.
Now for our main man, The King Of Monsters himself. Godzilla. I had a few nitpicks in everything but this guy right here is the reason this movie got a full 10/10 from me. To describe him in one word, Epic. Just all around epic. His grand reveal sent chills down my spine and left my heart racing 10 minutes after the scene had ended. Every time that roar came out I just melted with pure nostalgia and love. This is exactly what I want Godzilla to be. He's not a "hero" he's not an "enemy" he's just an animal trying to take out things he feels threatened by. He didn't attack humans, only if they attacked him and even then it seemed like he didn't purposely try to hurt them. He seemed more scared than angry. I feel he doesn't attack humans simply because well... they're humans. They're no threat to him, they tried to drop nuclear bombs on him and he just walked it off. He fights the MUTOs because they're a threat to him. They want him dead and have the strength to back it up. The fight sequences between Godzilla and the MUTOs are something out of your childhood dreams. He throws these things around into buildings and the second you see his tail turn blue you just get this amazing feeling in your stomach because you know what's coming. ATOMIC BREATH!! Me and my friend saw Godzilla grab the larger MUTO's jaw and we said how we thought he was gonna break it's jaw and it was going to be awesome but what does he do? He freaking uses his laser breath and shoots it down the MUTO's throat until it's head falls off. My jaw was on the floor out of sheer amazement at this sight.
In conclusion Godzilla is a great movie with nice acting, good effects, and one bad ass monster. A definite must see for any Godzilla fan or fan of monster movies.