Godzilla makes Pacific Rim feels like a masterpiece

Rating: 5/10 (15 May 2014)

This is quite a visually stunning film - the huge vistas of mayhem and destruction is a young kid's wet dream. The stars of the film are definitely the monsters. Lots of money shots. That's it... for the nice stuff about it.
I couldn't wrap my head around the heavy-handed, joyless storytelling. What happened to B-grade fun? Why so serious?!? I think the only light spot is seeing a few firemen kicking down a Nevada hotel door to Elvis' Devil in Disguise, but I choked down my uneasy giggles because I doubt anybody in the cinema got it. IMHO the director, Gareth Edwards got the monster element gleefully down but completely neglected the human element. This is a shame because I thought his debut, Monsters (2010) was an outstandingly balanced drama and the fantastic. I have no doubt he got the "Gojira" job because of it. The humans here barely registered a presence beyond the crazy one, the screaming one, the gung-ho one, the running one, the brooding scientist that no one bothers with but still keeps around for some alternative voice. I find all the big-named characters very cardboard-y and lifeless. It also didn't help that the story is so fatiguing with so much overbearing self- importance. Comparing this to last year's Pacific Rim, it makes Pac Rim feels like a masterpiece.