Decent monster action flick as long as you know what to expect

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2014)

I should start by saying that I have not seen many of the original Godzilla films, but I have seen some. That being said, this movie definitely seems to aspire to the feel of the originals: Godzilla goes into town and fights monster of the day, causing property damage and untold number of casualties before swimming off into the sunset. If that is what you expect, that is what you'll get. The "villain" monsters cause plenty enough destruction on their own, too. Like Battle: L.A. this movie will give you plenty of action and flash the U.S. military's muscle, but doesn't spend a whole lot of time on developing 3 dimensional characters and their motivations. This is in part due to the focus on the monsters, but the two dimensional characters get a lot more screen time than the Kaiju doing battle.
The big name actors advertised, as said before, seem downplayed in comparison. Bryan Cranston (in his short screen time) seems to again fit into the role of a brilliant scientist caught up in an obsession that destroys his personal life and relationship with his family. It was hard not to see him as Walter White, but that's a role that's going to stick with him for a long time. Ken Wantanabe was quiet for much of the film, internalizing much that might have been beneficial for us to hear, such as how he started to revere the creature known as "Gojira". Being a recent returning veteran I can identify somewhat with the protagonist, but I concede that his character wasn't much beyond that "hat".
The main complaint I have with the film is its tone. The movie was very serious for a throwback to campy giant monster movies. There wasn't a remotely funny or "light" scene to balance the drama and destruction until the end of the final showdown. Additionally, the imagery of certain scenes borrowed from several real life disasters. The attack at the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant was evocative of the Japanese quake and Fukushima disaster (with a touch of Chernobyl for the aftermath years later). The attack on Hawaii borrows a very specific tale from the Indonesia tsunami, namely when a young girl noticed receding water and knew it meant a tsunami would follow, giving the people around her enough time to flee to high ground. Lastly, the aftermath of the final fight. You can't tell me the firefighters tearing through the grey rubble wasn't inspired by the rescue efforts after 9/11.
Lastly, I have some minor technical and plot complaints. For many of the questions I had, the movie made an effort to answer them in some way. The excuse plot devices may have been weak, but at least they addressed it. What I didn't care for was some of the science behind the radiation. For one, radioactivity isn't some juice canned up in missiles and reactors that can be "sucked out". The monsters would either have to feed on the solid metal plutonium, or ingest the rays emitted by the fuel source, simultaneously bathing any humans near by in lethal doses (people took off their protective equipment far too frequently in the movie without checking local readings). The one time we see a dosimeter in the Japanese exclusion zone, it reads zero. Radiation is never zero. It may be minuscule and perfectly safe, but never absent, although I understand they probably did it for simplicity's sake since the average moviegoer probably doesn't understand that bananas, granite counter-tops, and being a frequent flier increase your annual radiation dosage. Regarding the creatures' affinity for radiation, radiotrophs are a real thing, as discovered in fungi growing in the Chernobyl reactor room. The question is then what role do Godzilla and the Mutos' predatory functions play in their evolutionary path? Godzilla is never seen eating the MUTOs, just fighting them. Does the radiation sustain him, their meat, or both? What do the MUTOs eat? At one point they are called parasites, but we never see them doing anything parasitic other than eating our radiation. A final minor issue: Yucca Mountain is West of Las Vegas. Why would the female break out of Yucca, swing East to cause havoc, then turn back west to reunite with her mate?
Despite these flaws, a decent film as long as all you're going in to see is Godzilla and friends wrecking stuff while mankind feebly tries to intervene. I enjoyed it, and if you don't know much about nuclear physics or have a decent suspension of disbelief, this movie can entertain you. Just don't expect huge plot twists, deep characters, or Walter White using science to kill giant monsters.