Fundamental lack of storytelling -- big disappointment.

Rating: 3/10 (16 September 2014)

I'm a hard core Godzilla and kaiju fan. I had hoped this movie would be at least passable. And it isn't, due to a basic lack of storytelling. It's boring. You don't care about the characters. The "Muto" monsters are insipid -- who has ever heard of these before? What do they have to do with anything, anyway?! The computer special effects you've seen before, over and over. Half the movie takes place at night and it's difficult to see anything, really. That gets plain old annoying after a while. Fancier and fancier special effects DO NOT ADD ANYTHING to a movie.
There's a lack of suspense from start to finish. The movie drags. I wish they'd take all the money they waste on special effects and hire a couple of decent writers, you know. I'm fine with old-school special effects and guys in monster suits crushing models. But TELL A DECENT STORY. It's as if they tried to make a cake out of just frosting and fluff and there's no cake underneath it.
It just is not that difficult to tell a basic story. This is like shooting darts and somebody makes such a bad shot it misses the dartboard entirely. I would have loved for this movie to be even halfway decent, I was looking forward to it so much.
I did very, VERY much like Elizabeth Olsen, who is a real babe. Just gorgeous. Strong screen presence. She can act.
How do you blow something like this? The details of the production don't matter, but how could you manage to not deliver the basic elements of a story. Watch some old Ultraman episodes from the 1960s. Zero budget, but they told a story and had characters you cared about. This version of Godzilla just doesn't get it. Very unfortunate.
Learn how to tell a story! I'm not asking for the Moon.