An adequate monster movie that feels curiously characterless - a shame considering its impressive pedigree where director and cast are concerned.

Rating: 5/10 (19 May 2014)

In all likelihood, this brand-new incarnation of Godzilla would have been met with far fewer expectations if director Gareth Edwards had never made Monsters. Edwards' ultra-indie, incredibly well-crafted creature feature - in which he magicked up creepy monsters and special effects on his own computer - served as so impressive a calling card that he was drafted in to breathe new life into this giant monster who hails from Japan. So great was Monsters that Edwards managed to amass a stunningly credible cast as well, from Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston through to indie darlings Sally Hawkins and David Straithairn. Alas, Edwards' Godzilla falls quite far short of the mark. Ultimately, there's neither enough story nor enough monster to keep the film going for as long as it does.
Ostensibly, the plot intends to focus on its human elements, and that works well enough at the beginning. We follow Dr. Ichiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and his assistant Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) into a cavern propped up by the age-worn bones of an ancient creature. So we know that something else is at work when the Japanese nuclear power plant overseen by Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) suffers a catastrophic meltdown. Joe loses his beloved wife (Juliette Binoche) in the accident, and effectively loses his son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) as well.
Flash-forward fifteen years, and Ford is now an explosive ordinance officer - he detonates bombs - with a wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and son of his own. He's healed from the loss of his mom, or so you think, when he's forced to return to Japan to bail Joe out of prison. His father, you see, has remained obsessed for years with figuring out the real cause of the nuclear meltdown. And, as it turns out, the secret to that mystery is about to burst forth from the seas...
It's evident with every frame what Edwards is trying to do: develop real, believable human stakes that can lend weight to the monstrous carnage to be wrought by Godzilla and the Mutos - giant, bug-like creatures that first emerge to lay waste upon Earth. Serizawa and Graham search for motivation and make appeals on Godzilla's behalf; Ford must reconcile himself with the loss that transformed his father and his own life; Godzilla is the solution and not the problem. So on and so forth.
But the resulting movie frequently gets lost within its uneven, uninspiring script. The humans to whom we're introduced barely have any depth to speak of, the most egregious offender being Elle - she seems to exist merely to look devastated and/or scream helplessly in the tumultous streets of San Diego. Cranston does some pretty incredible work with what little he's given, but his screen-time is, unfortunately, limited. Taylor-Johnson looks good and occasionally elevates his material, but - especially in the second half of the film - is forced to lumber from action sequence to action sequence, barely registering as a fully-realised entity once the monsters have taken centre stage.
Just as unfortunate is the rendering of the monsters in Godzilla: not in a visual effects sense, but as characters. The titular beast barely gets a look-in. Even when all form of monster mayhem is unleashed in the second half of the movie, he's quite literally the supporting player in his own starring vehicle - and we're not just talking about playing second fiddle to the human cast. Godzilla stalks broodily in the wake of the Mutos, who effectively sideline the monster whose very name is in the title of the film. He looks great and moves well, but it's hard to care all that much when his appearances are as relatively fleeting as they are.
It's not that Godzilla is a complete mess; it isn't. It's perfectly watchable, there are some super-cool action sequences, and Edwards - as befitting his own not-so-secret past as a Godzilla junkie - laces the film with in-jokes and references that will please those well-schooled in the giant monster's lore and backstory. But that can't quite salvage the film from what it turns out to be: a competent if not particularly compelling monster movie, one which occasionally demonstrates but largely lacks the bite, energy and charisma of Edwards' debut feature film.