Too much buildup, but good payoff

Rating: 7/10 (21 September 2014)

I went into this expecting it to be Godzilla terrorizing a city until he is ultimately defeated. It was not what I expected, but that isn't a bad thing. However...
The Bad: The humans get way too much screen time for being largely inconsequential. Most of the characters are incredibly flat, which wouldn't be a problem if they were actually doing something. Flat characters + mindless action = entertainment. However, if they aren't doing a whole lot of action, it bogs the movie down.
The military is largely inept in this movie. They are pretty much a red herring. They make a lot of bad calls, and for some reason don't seem to understand the effect an EMP will have on aircraft. Overall, I wasn't impressed with the humans in this movie.
The star of the movie saw very little screen time.
The Good: The characters played by Brian Canston and Ken Watanabe were incredible, even if one died early and the other saw very little screen time.
The cinematography was excellent.
The final battle between Godzilla and the MUTOs was incredible. For a monster movie, it was realistic in how they moved (slow, lumbering movements) and you could really feel the weight of the creatures in how they acted.
Overall, I think the movie would have been better not with more action, but with less of the other stuff. It felt like a 90 minute movie stretched to 2 hours. Because I liked 75% of it, I'm giving it a 7/10.