Two sides to this

Rating: 7/10 (20 September 2014)

If I were to judge the monster movie or just the human story (though I'd have to divide the first part, more like an intro to the movie and the rest of the "human" sob-story - pun intended) it would get two different ratings. Now the old Godzilla movies might not have cared too much about the humans themselves it was more about the monster. And in a way the movie pay tribute to that. Actually, anything involving the "monsters" is done with the utmost respect to the history of the "franchise" (not sure if that's what they'd call it in Japan, but let's stick with that, why don't we).
But when it comes to the human story, especially anything absent Bryan Cranston (who does ramp it up a bit, but never truly fails to convey and convince in his role) and maybe our Japanese go-to guy (though he does have some lines that might make you cringe), the rest is absolute nonsense ... and not in a good way. Too many clichés, too many lightweight and not fleshed out characters, that kind of take the wind out of the movie. Fortunately not entirely, because you can rely on the action and CG to ramp it up a notch.
For some it's a case of too little too late, when it comes to the actual "star" of the movie, but I liked it just the way it was. You don't have to have him there every second of the movie ... if you feel differently though, you'll be more than disappointed