A Worthy Entry But This God Is Flawed.

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2014)

I have problems with this movie. I wish I could love it, given that we've all heard so much about it finally happening back in 2010. One hour before I went to see it, I watched a 12-minute behind the scenes featurette to see all the talent and effort that went into literally bringing Godzilla to life, only to see him appear roughly 20 minutes throughout a 2 hour movie. Even the villain MUTO (A new American monster) gets a little more screen time in a film that can be summed up thusly:
Act 1. was Fantastic. Arguably the flick feels it was made for those uninitiated to the monster or franchise, and everything you need to know is brought up to scratch in those superb opening credits. Characters are established swiftly, plus a very engaging performance from Bryan Cranston (Who should have also gotten more screen time) and the main villain is established. Act 2. is sadly dull. The military prove futile (In a Godzilla movie who knew?) as we are following lone soldier Ford (Aaron Taylor Johnson) in undoubtedly very atmospheric set pieces, yet boring exposition that kills pacing and skips over the monsters fighting in Hawaii. Also another MUTO arrives, who is larger and is a female planning to reproduce (I would have thought they would like to have strayed as far away from the 1998 film as possible). Act 3. we see monsters finally fighting, and IT IS A SPECTACLE TO BEHOLD. In a day and age where disaster movies like "Transformers" happen, stuff is obviously going to be heavily destroyed without much regard to peoples safety. The amount of debris and smoke rising around these monsters give such a weight to the scope and image, it definitely exceeds what your expectations were. Unfortunately by the end you just wished the movie focused more on these monsters instead of the cut and paste characters.
This is where a level of bias may come into the review, but hear me out. The 1954 movie featured only Godzilla, and small scenes of people's reactions to the devastation he commits. All of this eventually leads to a solution that while simple continues to provide a very strong anti War message. All following sequels eventually had him fighting all manner of creative monsters, and that became everything those movies were built around. Personal preference, but if you're going to have three gorgeously rendered monsters in a movie with such a fantastic climax, chances are that's what people want to see more than the human side of the story. Albeit one that was OK, but got very lost midway.
Aside from the horrible things I've said, this movie has some wonderful acting especially from Cranston & Ken Watanabe. The camera shots were superb, and I'd still say Gareth Edwards was the best choice for this movie. However, it strangely just doesn't feature Godzilla as much as a "Godzilla" movie should, and it all feels more like a sequel to Edwards 2010 flick "Monsters". They'd also probably been better off including another monster, rather than just a larger, female MUTO.
Final Verdict: When all is said and done the story was okay, the set pieces are stunning and when Godzilla showed up, HE SHOWED UP. After a decades absence, the "King of the Monsters" can still bring me back to the joys I had watching it as a child. Hopefully with the success it's having, it will demand a more solid follow up in the future. 7/10.