GODZILLA: Is This The Film Everyone Is Making It Out To Be?

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2014)

For all the people who haven't seen this film I'll just put it simply for you, Godzilla is made up of 3 parts and 3 main characters, 2/3 of each were amazing, 1/3 of each let the film down massively, let me explain.
THE FIRST 1/3 of this film is set in Japan, it explains the origin of the first monster Godzilla must face, and is lead by the amazing Bryan Cranston, who's character in this film is Joe Brody. Both this 1/3rd of the film and Bryan Cranstons character are incredible, Cranston is a formidable actor whom I'm sure you've heard about in Breaking Bad, straight away you get a real feel for the character as he loses his wife and you he shows his acting talent. You really begin to feel for the character. 15 years pass and we find him in the scene where he is talking behind the glass, and again, his acting is incredible and really makes a movie theater go quiet, and right as he really starts to develop his character, what do they do? Kill him off :) this is where the movie starts to lose its credibility.
THE SECOND 1\3rd of this film is where all the bad reviews are being generated from and also where it honestly became the biggest yawn-fest in cinema history, the director of this movie thought it appropriate to let Aaron Taylor-Johnson then lead the rest of this film, this "kick-ass" dead eyed bland actor along with the writer are what made this film bad. Taylor-Johnson's character through a series of very unlikely coincidences just happens to follow each prominent event in the Godzilla time-line. As soon as he becomes the central character in this film, you just lose interest, he simply cannot act. Taylor-Johnson's character's dad dies in front of his eyes, he is lead to believe he has lost his child and wife, he see's these huge monsters up close and is deployed out of a plane right into the middle of a huge monster fight and he does not shed a tear or ever look more than slightly surprised once. So we follow this character through this awful side-line plot filled with random events like a brief relationship with some Asian boy on a train and some army buddy he meets, all so he can get home to his wife and kid, and the director thought that this was way more interesting than the main event, which is the monsters fighting. Every time it looks like something interesting is about to happen the director then cuts back to this stupid actor with his half-assed sideline plot, seriously? come on.
The Final 1/3rd of this film, however, is lead by our main man, GODZILLA! and it is simply awesome! after the director stops teasing us we finally get to see the final battle (which I went to see in imax) and oh my god, it's amazing! a lot of people complain that it's not the same as Pacific Rim but I think that's a good thing, it's a Godzilla movie, and that final battle was way more entertaining than any of the battles in pacific rim (although I love that movie). Apart from the stupid bit where Godzilla gets knocked over from a building, despite tearing through every other building he comes in contact with, it really makes you go silent in the theater and think "holy Sh*t".
Now really this film had the potential to be outstanding, but unfortunately it won't get remembered as a great because of the main portion of this film being so boring, there are several things they should have changed.
Bryan Cranston could and Should have lead this film, killing him off was a dumb idea. Even dumber was casting Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the lead, they should have casted Aaron Paul (Jesse from Breaking Bad) as the lead! hey it'd of been tacky but a damn sight better than the current lead.
They also should have included more monsters and more battles like pacific rim, they had several fights that lead to a huge one at the end, this would have been a better idea, fighting a few smaller monsters then leading up to a huge climax battle at the end, also I didn't really like the look of the other two monsters in the film personally, I think they should have chose different monsters from the old Godzilla movies but hey, that's just my opinion.
Now, I get that the director was trying to make this film similar to Jaws or Alien in that you don't see the beast properly until the end, but the reason of that in those films were because of the limited practical effects and it was compensated by flawless acting and an unbeatable storyline, this film however had neither in the middle portion of the film which is where the director has made his mistake. Pacific Rim shows us that the technology to make these huge scale realistic CGI fights exists and so the makers of this film should have damn-well used it more often!
Overall though, this film was entertaining and I did like it, it's just frustrating because it could have been so much better than what it is, this is just my opinion however and I'm sure some of you who are die-hard fans of the old Godzilla films adored this film because it references the original and is more true to the original films unlike the awful 1998 Godzilla.
I would definitely recommend going to see this movie though and I am very much looking forward to the sequel!