Godzilla blows you out of the water with his atomic fire but his presence is diluted by the lackluster acting of his co-stars and Gareth Edward's long-winded storytelling.

Rating: 6/10 (15 May 2014)

To put simply, this movie is about 45 minutes too long. I find that it's less about Godzilla and more about the sappy life of Ford Brody(honestly, they couldn't possibly think up a whiter name than that). Of course the writers had to give us a reason to empathise with the protagonist but an hour of long-winded storytelling is just fluff in an otherwise epic journey to take down the monsters.
The saving grace was the CGI for Godzilla himself. The beast was simply amazing and the final kill shot with his atomic fire breath was especially breathtaking. The audience at my theatre were on their feet clapping(although I wasn't sure if it's because it signaled the end of a monstrously long movie or because of the thrill of the kill or perhaps just a little bit of both.) On another note, this particular incarnation of Godzilla is a mere shadow of its original and reverses his role from Japan's crippling fear of all things nuclear post the atrocities of Hiroshima to one of a dubious saviour(Ken's character states that Gojira is feeding but at the end of the film, he doesn't even bother to eat his catch giving the audience the impression that he is in fact an altruistic prehistoric nuclear beast).
Bryan Cranston's acting was top notch but I was disappointed that he exited the movie so soon. I was honestly hoping for a father-son duo taking down the prehistoric beasts with a mix of pseudo-science peppered throughout the movie by Bryan and a good olé' shoot-em-up by Aaron. The lead however, played by Aaron Taylor wasn't up to the task. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is just a poor-man's Chris Evans. They look the same, they walk the same, they even kinda talk the same. But Aaron simply lacks the charisma for a leading role here.
All in all, this movie was watchable if you ignore the first hour or so. But the ultimate draw here is still Godzilla himself and he does not disappoint. A good way to spend a lazy afternoon but not for much else.
PS Ken Watanabe's "Gojira" is absolutely hilarious. I have absolutely no idea if it was intentional. But he sure stuck to it.