True Love

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2014)

A truly powerful monster film. Godzilla is an awesome, satisfying blockbuster made by a "small" director with a great eye for detail, perspective and performance.
The thread that ties everything in the narrative together starts with Bryan Cranston's (Remarkable performance) nuclear physicist Joe Brody, who escapes the nuclear disaster at the start of the film. His wife (Juliette Binoche) dies in an unbelievably devastating scene and he becomes obsessed in the years afterward because he thinks "They" are covering something up. His son (Aaron Taylor Johnson, perfectly serviceable as the human lead) grows up distancing himself from it all, but he's clearly haunted by it. He establishes a family of his own (his wife is played by Elizabeth Olsen, doing a fine job of looking concerned and protective), with a son who misses him dearly when he's away defusing bombs for the military. Anyway, he gets caught up in his dad's pursuit of the conspiracy at the supposed fallout site, and it gets them caught up just as the first MUTO is about to bust loose.
Turns out dad's suspicions were right, and Ford Brody thrusts into the struggle. All he wants to do is get home to his wife and kid, but first coincidence and then duty keep putting him in the monsters' paths. Of course, it all conveniently leads to San Francisco as the military tries to use nukes to lead the MUTOs and Godzilla to the same point offshore, where the human forces intend to nuke them into oblivion. Soon it becomes clear that this is not a good idea — only one nuke detonates offshore at one point, and the forces (led by an appropriately serious David Strathairn) decide to let Godzilla lay the smack down.
And after a mostly patient, masterfully teasing buildup... we get the greatest movie monster battle of all time and it's absolutely brutal and exhilarating. The MUTOs are no pushovers. They give the big guy all he can handle, but Godzilla doesn't mess about.
Don't let all those stories about Godzilla being "elusive" bother you, either. There's plenty Godzilla action, plenty iconic images, plenty awesome fighting moves (Atomic ray! EMPs! Swinging tails!). The movie doesn't blow its load early on, though, and it all pays off spectacularly. It's rousing.