Expected More

Rating: 4/10 (3 March 2015)

Did not see the massive overly hype from Godzilla as the fans did not expect. The failure to coherently tie-in the nuclear allegory literally kills the film from the get go. The audience is treated to a vague flashback to a Fukushima-like event which sparks a series of events that ultimately leads Joe Brody (Brian Cranston) to set off on his own personal quest to find answers to these mysterious questions that had huge ramifications on his own family as well. The problem here - despite some interesting references to the "truth" behind a series of Eisenhower-era atomic tests in the Pacfic - over time, there never really is any clear link between the nuclear story and the evolution of Godzilla and other similar monsters.
Towards the conclusion of the film we're treated to hours of human interaction that is poorly developed. Audiences are introduced to an endless series of new characters such as Joe's son, Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson - in a performance that was as vague and boring as most of the film), his wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and Admiral Stenz (David Strathairn - clearly just collecting a paycheck) - and yet it's hard to care about any of them. All this because any time we get a glimpse of their motivations, the movie swings to the next ludicrous crisis and the actors are left to fill brain dead roles in yet another Hollywood disaster movie.The expectations for several monster love fans for the film can differ however, what we witnessed was something that could have been fixed perhaps with a better more interesting script.