Not your typical blockbuster but a true Godzilla movie

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 2014)

It's been 60 years since Godzilla first appeared on screen and since then, everyone knows his name. Now after over 30 movies and less than half of them being good, we can add another to the positive column.
Godzilla works for multiple reasons. The first being that director Gareth Edwards truly understood the character and knew how to capitalize his time on screen. I've seen a lot of people complaining about there not being enough Godzilla but it's become pretty clear that those people have never seen a Godzilla movie before except maybe the bad 1998 version. Godzilla has and always will be about people. Granted, most of the human stories in the movie aren't very good and this one is no exception. It's decent enough as the pure spectacle is enough to carry the film. Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen don't have memorable characters. I'd say Elizabeth Olsen was especially wasted in her role and Aaron Taylor Johnson was just a bland solider. Bryan Cranston was really the only one with a more fleshed out character. Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins were interesting but Watanabe had too many scenes where he just stared off for no apparent reason.
Now for the good stuff, everything else. The movie is beautifully shot. Most of the action is seen from the character's points of view which really brings together the scale of the whole film. Slight spoiler, there is another monster in this film that Godzilla has to fight. For the most part, you don't see that happen until the end and it's that sole reason that a lot of people are let down but what they don't understand is that if they showed them fighting halfway through the movie, the ending fight wouldn't feel as big as it did. The final fight is probably the greatest choreographed Godzilla fight ever on screen. You get the classic tail whip and homage's to past movies. The slow burn fire breath scene is an amazing revelation and I can only imagine a kid's first time reaction to it. The ending kill is also fantastic. You think one things going to happen, and then something else completely different happens and it becomes the best Godzilla kill ever.
The movie isn't as completely grim as the trailers would make you believe. There was a scene where a dog runs away from a tidal wave that reminded me of Independence Day and there's even a scene where Godzilla sighs. Plus you get an old school man in suit style CGI fight that works extremely well. People who don't really watch Godzilla movies probably don't even notice it which shows the adoration Gareth Edwards put into this movie. This wasn't just a simple cash in. This was a fan making a movie about something they loved growing up and knocking it out of the park. This movie is different from the constant ADD action blockbusters that we've grown accustomed to over the years and it's fantastic.