"Where is Godzilla?" I was wondering the same thing Watanabe

Rating: 6/10 (21 May 2014)

I was a bit unimpressed with the movie. They spent almost an hour totally devoted to setting up the Muto's. That entire time I just assumed that they were setting up Godzilla because why would you devote so much time to anything else that isn't Godzilla in a movie titled Godzilla? Then finally around the halfway point they introduce the title monster, except with much less build up and mystery as the Muto's. They rush through Godzilla's set up with a spoon fed exposition that lasts all but a few minutes in comparison to all of that time spent on the Muto's? Just baffling how misguided the focus was. Then finally we get these two misters to face off and ... oh wait ... instead we are going to cut away to some totally forgettable moment with what ever lame thing Aaron Johnson is doing. It's like having Superman versus Doomsday and instead of showing them fight, we watch Jimmy Olsen running to the roof of a building to get a good picture. True we finally get a pretty good fight at the very end but by that time, it's too little too late.
Passed these issues, of course there's the incredibly boring and one dimensional characters populating this world. Ken Watanabe appeared to be bored and counting the seconds until he could return to his trailer to sleep his entire performance. I wonder if the writers made it a game to think of ridiculous and convenient ways to include Aaron Johnson in every major scene of the movie. I spent the entire time wondering why the hell Elizabeth Olsen was involved at all. The only actor and character to bring any real weight to the movie was Bryan Cranston and he's definitely not as major of a player as the deceiving trailers would have you believe. Now I don't blame the cast for the lame characters. That blame clearly falls on the writing and direction.
There's good effects and a few cool action beats but over all this update felt very misguided. I understand wanting to withhold Godzilla to build the anticipation of his arrival but they mishandled that. Focusing on the Muto's as much as they did just made Godzilla feel less important. Having a balance would have worked but instead the scale was tipped way more towards the Muto's and Aaron Johnson in terms of focus. Godzilla was reduced to a few steps above being a cameo. The first act should have built up Godzilla and finished with his reveal, then have him be perceived as the main threat, only to realize that the real threat are the Muto's. Also Cranston should have been the main character as he easily would have carried the film. The way the film was handled, I just didn't feel much investment and I was bored in general.