Godzilla - he's back, but I wish we saw more of him!!

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2014)

so, for any die hard Godzilla fan who starts off by saying that all Godzilla movies only have a limited space of time where Godzilla is on screen - I completely agree. I have seen around 20 Godzilla movies, and I have to say, on the whole, I LIKED this movie.
Bryan Cranston is awesome in this movie, his dominance of the first act of the film makes the human drama very compelling and emotional, and I really buy into it and am entertained by it. I completely disagree with the move to kill him off as he was a great character, and could have carried this movie on his own. Having seen it for a second time, I'm not as critical of the other actors as I originally was, and I appreciate that whilst they have done much better work, the guys were up to scratch, and I feel maybe that the slightly one dimensional element to the characters is almost like a homage to the older Godzilla movies, which is what i felt like this movie essentially was. The movie does well to capture all the elements of Godzilla's character - the antagonist, the anti-hero, and the protagonist - where he goes through all these stages in that order, and the final scene where he lets off that roar, with the eyes of the world on him, being labelled the king of the monsters, is very satisfying. He looks completely amazing, the effects on Godzilla are second to none, and it is almost like he is actually there. The soundtrack for the movie is great and executed very well, to fit the movies tone, and I was quite happy with the suspenseful build up to the 3rd act, if the the 2nd act involving the destruction of the cities wasn't almost entirely OFF SCREEN I would have been even happier.
I WANTED TO SEE MORE OF GODZILLA. YES, THE ORIGINAL HAS HIM IN IT FOR 20 MINUTES OR SO, BUT THAT MOVIE WAS ALSO 96 MINUTES LONG, THIS MOVIE WAS 123. Godzilla has about the same screen time as he did in the original, and it simply is not enough for you to feel 100% satisfied with the film, I would have been much happier to see him fighting the MUTO's leading up to the grand finale, and I don't think it would have taken away from the final battle at all. Furthermore, the MUTO's are not very original, and their sole purpose in the movie are to be Godzilla's sparring partners, and nothing more. Their design is very boring, and although I appreciate Legendary did not have the rights to any other Toho monsters, I feel as though they could have come up with something better than what they did, the kaiju of pacific rim were even better than this pair of parasites.
In this movie there are 2 instances where they give you Mothra easter eggs, so I would be really happy if for the sequels they manage to get Mothra in there, that would be awesome. I also feel like there is no need in the sequel to hide Godzilla from us for so long, so perhaps Edwards will steer away from that move. There's so many angles they could take the sequel in, so I'm very excited to see what they do. I'd be happy to see Ken Watanabe return, but with better lines, and I am not fussed either way if Aaron Taylor-Johnson appears, but if he does, make him more interesting. The overall representation of Godzilla is definitely this movies highlight, he starts off as this ''god'' of pure destruction, only to become the de-facto answer to the problem of the MUTO's, and to be hailed as a Saviour in the closing minutes - a great evolution that tributes well to the original series in one movie, whilst making him look stunning and more realistic at the same time.
Overall, the great things about this movie are Cranston, Godzilla's look, feel, as well as action, the soundtrack, and the apocalyptic tone, and the potential for a really awesome sequel. It's downfall are its continuous teasing, killing Cranston off, and the design of the MUTO's.