Better then everyone said

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2014)

Godzilla
When I first saw the trailer to this movie I thought "This is Bryan Cranston's obligatory summer blockbuster following the success of a TV show role." (Ex. Dominic West in 300, Deirdre Lovejoy in Step Up, Kiefer Sutherland in Phone Booth, Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek Into Darkness, Martin Freeman in The Hobbit) But, to my surprise, once I started watching the movie I realized that he was cast for a good reason, and not just to sell tickets. I thought he did a great job playing a man who is desperate for answers without looking too much like Hiesenburg. (Maybe it's the hair) And that's all I'm going to say about Mr. Cranston. He's not the main focus of the movie so neither is this review. The first two acts of the movie are satisfying. They were more suspense then action, but it worked well. The opening twenty minutes do a great job of establishing conflict and getting us to care about the characters, but they feel under-developed. I don't even remember the main character's name. None of the characters have an arch, but what do you expect from a summer blockbuster about a monster. David Strathairn's character felt displeasingly similar to his role in the Bourne movies. Overall, the acting was believable except for the unnecessary child. Fortunately, the kid wasn't involved that often, so it wasn't a major issue. Godzilla is shown sparingly and that's a good thing. This movie would have gotten really boring if they just presented Godzilla right off the bat instead of leaving an element of mystery to the monster. It was this choice that made the third act good. Not great; but good. The plane jumping scene was awesome but I felt like it was ruined in the trailer. I did like how they used the same music from the trailer. It helped capture the danger and uncertainty of the situation. I thought the monster fights were great, but the same couldn't be said for the parts with just humans in them. Their was one scene that involved gasoline (people who watched the movie know what I'm talking about) that made no sense and left me feeling frustrated. I thought that the cable news parts were annoying and were clearly just used for exposition. The CGI was impressive and there were only three times were it took me out of the story, but all three of them were during quiet moments so I didn't mind too much. My biggest complaint is the way the movie dragged on. I felt like if the last five minutes were cut out, and the end was left to interpretation, then the movie would be that much better. However, Godzilla was still a satisfying film. It was everything I thought it would be plus a little more, and it was able to sustain legitimate tension throughout the second act. I anticipated giving this film a 6/10 but this movie was a little better then I expected. I'm giving Godzilla a 7/10. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting an entertaining summer action movie without superheroes.