Godzilla is the king of the monsters

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2014)

My judgment is 8, a vote that I think to be very high. But it isn't a 8 of those you leave the cinema and run for the streets screaming masterpiece. It' a thoughtful 8.
The movie worth this high vote for different reasons.
The photography. Edwards continues to demonstrate, after Monsters, that he has an excellent eye. Firtst appearance of Godzilla is a bomb. Images that escapes, details of parts of the body, all seen in a human perspective, that is the normal way to make this kind of movie, and all involves, linearly, in some static total shots of many seconds, with an incredible calm for a monster movies, in which are shown the monsters to fight. As it was the reality. With attention to the details and one of the most incredible CGI of ever. "400 calci", one of the best Italian sites which speak about cinema, says that this is the future. I agree. The use of the music. Magic. The courage not to follow the the trend of the moment of the monster movies, giving to Godzilla a deserved drammatic atmosphere. The end. Godzilla doesn't die - maybe doesn't matter, but this made me happy, after the '98 Godzilla, in this one I was already resigned to see he die – but it's and end, not an open end. Yeah, there can be sequels, but you don't go home having that impression, like other movies in which you immediately understand that they have left space to another movie. The idea to put other monsters in the movie, cause humans are too small to impress Godzilla. Moreover, there are different scenes that are spectacular. The launch of the paratroopers from an absurd height, so video game style. The scenes in which Godzilla appears from the smoke, especially the one in which you see the blue light and only after you understand what is happening. The slam with the tail to kill the male muto. And the blue flame thrower straight into the guts of the female muto. And, more in general, all the fight scenes in San Francisco, are well done. I like to see skyscrapers go down like sand.
However, there are details that made me suffer to decide if I really liked the movie or not.
The "human" plot. It's true that have to be only a boundary, necessary to understand how much big is Godzilla compared to us humans but it works well until the appearance of the first muto, than decreases attractiveness. Characters are poorly characterized and highly stereotyped. They became unnecessary and pedantic to the story. Absurdly they were better characterized in the '98. I understand that the "tone" of the story is completely different this time, and I like it, but it was possible to work more to make less flat some character. The change of perspective, or even of scene, that there is more than one time during the fights, contribute to relate the human vision with the monster world, and, maybe, to make more dramatic the story, but I hated it. Godzilla isn't a film like Pacific Rim, okay, and also if I would have liked more fightings, I can understand the choice to make to put a few, but, damn, at least when they are fighting let me enjoy the show. The military "butwhaat". They are a lot, one for all. You have a train which is transporting a nuclear warhead. The only thing that you have to verify is that a monster big like a city and not so fast as to escape from your drones won't intercept the train. What's happen, obviously? True that in the action there are always some "butwhaat", but here they are really big, at least in my opinion.
At the end, however, I appreciated the movie, and if I didn't go out from the cinema singing for joy, probably is because the dark and dramatic atmosphere worked well. Sincerely, I expected a typical American movie, with jokes and all the rest. It wasn't so. It was something more deep and less commercial. Probably, knowing the director, I would have expected something like that. It isn't a masterpiece, it could be better under different points of view, but has a reason for being. And deserves its 8. Pershaps.