Now that is Godzilla!

Rating: 9/10 (25 May 2014)

As a child, one of my first loves was the old Showa Godzilla films of the 60's and 70's. Along with those old Japanese shows featuring dudes who raised their arms to the heavens and became robots to fight creatures or one with a family of rocket people that fought giant monsters. I loved the Godzilla films where Godzilla fought off the bad monsters and though I liked the ones where Godzilla, himself, was the bad guy I always enjoyed him more as the hero. The Hesei era Godzilla films would come along and reestablish the big G as a bad guy; however, as this series went along once again Godzilla would be more of the monster you pulled for as Space Godzilla and Destroyah would have to be dealt with. Then Millenia Godzilla series would be a mixed bag having one where Godzilla was the ultimate evil in "Godzilla, Mothra and King Gidorah: All Out Monster Attack" and another where he is once again a good guy in "Final Wars". Though admittedly I did enjoy watching the evil version kick all three of those monsters butts; however, I did root for the humans to ultimately defeat Godzilla cause he was super evil. So I have to say I like Godzilla more as the hero and that is why I got super excited while others were a bit disappointed by the fact Godzilla was the good guy.
The story has a mishap at a nuclear plant leading to the strange birth of a creature that is a threat to all mankind. Another beast is tracking this creature though and its name is Godzilla! The humans devise a plan to kill both these creatures as well as a female version of the strange creature that feeds on radiation as they wish to get rid of all three in one bang. A scientist who knows of Godzilla, though, tries to tell them that Godzilla may be the key to getting rid of the other two as it wants to hunt these other beasts and take them down!
This Godzilla film did not really have all that big a budget, but they did rather well considering. I also understand why Godzilla was not in this film a whole lot, and it is because of the budget. This film is basically a test to see if Godzilla can succeed. However, all those complaining about the lack of Godzilla, I wonder if they watched all that many Godzilla films? A lot of the Japanese films feature a build up till the end where the fight takes place, so to me it is something very true to the Japanese films. Godzilla is territorial in the later Showa films, in Terror of Mecha Godzilla when Titanisaurus is ravaging the city, Godzilla is seen on the enemies' radar and they comment that Godzilla is coming to fight the other monster. It just felt like a Godzilla film, probably one of the Showa era, which is probably why it totally had me psyched!
So this film was way better than 1998 film which was not a Godzilla film. That one should have been titled something else and I would have said it was an okay monster film, but they just had to call it a Godzilla film which is why I hated it. They did it right here as this Godzilla not only was not killed by missiles, he ignored them! I do hope a sequel is made as I would love to see another Godzilla film done in this world. They do need to bring back Wantanabe's character as he can be like Miki was in the Hesei era. Now that they have established Godzilla once again and if this one is considered a success I am sure a bigger budget will be used in the next film meaning more Godzilla and perhaps another Toho monster? Bring on King Gidorah I say!