Doesn't even come close to the best monster flicks!

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2014)

'GODZILLA': Four Stars (Out of Five)
Modern American reboot to the immensely popular Japanese monster flick franchise. It's the first 'Godzilla' film in ten years (following 2004's 'GODZILLA: FINAL WARS', which marked the character's 50th anniversary) and only the second 'Godzilla' movie filmed entirely by an American studio (following director Roland Emmerich's 1998 remake). It was directed by Gareth Edwards (who previously directed and wrote the 2010 ultra-low-budget monster flick 'MONSTERS') and written by Max Borenstein and David Callaham (co-writer of 'THE EXPENDABLES'); three other film writers did rewrites but were uncredited (David S. Goyer, Drew Pearce and Frank Darabont). The movie stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche and David Strathairn. It's another origins tale and it also has Godzilla taking on other gigantic creatures. The visuals are great and the kaiju fight scenes are spectacular but the film as a whole is disappointing and mostly a bore!
The story begins in 1999 when two scientists, Dr. Ichiro Serizawa (Watanabe) and Dr. Vivienne Graham (Hawkins), discover two pods in the Philippines (one of which has hatched). We then meet a nuclear physicist, named Joe Brody (Cranston), and his wife Sandra (Binoche), a nuclear regulations consultant, who work at the Janjira Nuclear Plant (near Tokyo). The plant has a meltdown, which kills Sandra, and the disaster is witnessed by their son Ford (CJ Adams) from his school nearby. Everyone in the area is evacuated, while it's quarantined, and fifteen years go by with Joe obsessing over what caused the meltdown. Ford (now played by Taylor-Johnson) is a lieutenant in the United States Navy (and bomb disposal expert). He also now has a wife (Olsen) and son (Carson Bolde) of his own. Joe is constantly being arrested, for investigating his conspiracy theories, and Ford travels to Japan to help him. Once there he reluctantly returns to his old home, with his father, where the two discover a government cover-up (proving Joe was right). They meet Dr. Serizawa and learn that giant monsters (which feed on radiation) have been wrecking havoc all over the world (for many years). A Muto (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) is currently on the loose and Serizawa believes that a monster he's been studying for years, called Godzilla, is the only thing that can stop it.
Monster movie fans often say these movies would be better without any humans in them; I usually disagree but in this case I'd say they're right. None of the people are likable in this film, except for Dr. Serizawa (he has all the best lines and Watanabe gives the only decent performance). Cranston overacts, Taylor-Johnson underacts and everyone else seems almost nonexistent. If you cut all the humans out of the movie it would only be like 25 to 30 minutes long though and having an entire feature length film full of just monsters fighting would be pretty boring as well. The visuals are cool but the tease of never fully showing the fights (or monsters) in their entirety, until the end, really doesn't work. It works in movies like 'MONSTERS' and 'CLOVERFIELD' because in those films the humans are interesting and fun to watch; this is just way too dry, overly long and slowly paced. I think Edwards is a talented director but with all those experienced writers you should be able to expect a much better film than this (a twelve-year-old seriously could have wrote it)! The fight scenes are cool though and the ending is a blast; it's great seeing Godzilla on the big screen and it is better than Emmerich's version. It doesn't even come close to the best monster flicks though (and I'm a huge monster movie fan); Peter Jackson's 'KING KONG' remake and Guillermo del Toro's 'PACIFIC RIM' (from last year) are so much better than this. Del Toro wants to do a crossover though (of this and 'PACIFIC RIM'); now that would be really cool!
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