Fresh, big, and bold

Rating: 7/10 (7 May 2016)

Following the astronomical failure of the 1998 American Godzilla movie, there was a lot of uneasy feelings surrounding this film. It almost seemed like it was going to make the same mistakes of the 1998 film. It was another American version and Godzilla was CGI again. However this film is, thankfully, dramatically better. One of the biggest reasons for this movies success is in large part due to Gareth Edwards excellent direction. Normally, I'm not the biggest fan of the "boots on the ground" type of cinematography. Where the film is shot almost like a documentary. Most of the shots are only from angles that normal humans would be able to get.
Inside of buildings, up from the street, and on top of skyscrapers. Again, I usually am not a fan of this style but for this film is actually works very well. Since the major threats of the film are three gigantic monsters this technique helps to give you a sense of realism. It makes these huge creatures have a sense of presence and scale.
Being able to see how large these creatures are from a human angle really shows how monstrous they are. While Edwards hasn't shown that he can be a great director yet he has shown with the few films he's made that he understands how to give CG a sense of presence.
Filming them mainly at night or in large cities. My favorite part of the film though is it's sound design. Whether it's the thunderous crashes of the creatures footsteps or the intimidating roars they emit, each sound is unique and well designed. Being able to associate noises with the specific monster further helped them feel like they were actually there.
It was clear that the majority of the film makers time and effort was spent here because the story is pretty eh. It was difficult to get into things when our main character could remarkably go any where the monsters were. Sure he was in the military so a few times it made sense how he could be there.
The problem is the entirety of the story revolves around these creatures. It follows them around to each area they go to. They wreck some stuff and then go somewhere else and repeat. Usually this boring, under developed plot would aggravate me a lot more than it did here.
The main reason it didn't was because it never begs you to care about what was going on. It knows what it is and has fun with it. It gives a reason for it being in the place that it was and then showed you some awesome carnage. Because that's what you paid for right? To see these cool beasts throw down.
Many will argue that the creatures didn't have enough screen time but I thought they were used just right. Showing them to much would have hurt the immersion of the film and to little would have made this very boring. But they were used just enough to make them intimating every time you see them. ​ Obviously this isn't a perfect film. It's thin and sometimes a bit uneven but it's strengths far out weigh its weaknesses. It's fun, big, and bold. It creates a great atmosphere and doesn't beg for you get into the story. This makes it very easy to get sucked into the film and have a blast watching it.