Godzilla is great entertainment, but leaves you wanting more (in a bad way)

Rating: 5/10 (17 May 2014)

Godzilla is a bit of mixed bag; there's plenty of good and bad to go around here. In terms action, visual and sound effects, it's definitely worth the price of admission. There's some great monster battle scenes and a few "that was amazing!" moments; make no mistake, the little kid in you will be entertained. The special effects on Godzilla himself are very good, easily the best I've seen to date (though overall the special effects are not as good as Pacific Rim, surprisingly). The depth of 3D really brings him to life on the screen, so seeing it in IMAX 3D is a must. The sound effects however, are outstanding! Some of the best I've ever heard in the theatre and the highlight of the movie for me. There were a few notable occasions where Godzilla roared and the theatre shook! It was very impressive and makes this worth a high end theatre experience. There's also a fantastic sky dive sequence that is beautifully shot with a 2001 A Space Odyssey vibe that will blow your mind (it made the trailer look fantastic), unfortunately it felt slightly out of place as the rest of the movie doesn't quite live up to it.
The main characters are clearly miscast and are just not ready for prime time as their love story fees hallow and forced. This wouldn't be such of a big deal, except that film spends too much time trying to make you care about them (and ultimately fails). Heisenberg, err... I mean Bryan Cranston is serviceable in his role if not very good, unfortunately he doesn't have much screen time. Ken Watanabe is so bad I have to assume it was intentionally so and was a humorous homage to cheesy scientist characters from past Gozilla movies. He also has way too many "stares off into nothing" moments that are really funny. The dialogue was really cheesy and forgettable but I kind of expected that; this is a Godzilla movie after all. The story is nothing more than a formality and it's just used to conveniently put the characters at the right place and time, just as another monster appearance is imminent.
At the end of the movie I wasn't quite satisfied as I wish there was more of Godzilla himself and given that's the whole point of this movie, I have to say I'm slightly disappointed (unlike how I feel after Pacific Rim). Go in with low expectations and you'll have a good time. Am I expecting too much from a giant monster movie? Possibly. But this seems like the rare case where more monster and less focus on weak characters would actually have been a good thing!
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