Not what i hoped...

Rating: 3/10 (23 May 2014)

My initial gut reaction after seeing the first trailer for Godzilla was one of skepticism and cynicism. Especially after seeing the part showing a bunch of troops getting ready to HALO jump right into monster's location. For me, that was the big warning sign to avoid this movie. Why? Because the last thing you do when there is a giant monster below you destroying a city, is parachute down into the area with nothing but a rifle. To me, this screamed "cheesy excuse to film a dramatic parachute jump into the mouth of madness." In reality, it's lazy writing and as a result, has no impact whatsoever. All I could think is "what an idiotic and suicidal thing to do." Showing a scene like this in the trailer also seems desperate. Seeing it happen in the movie just reinforced this.
For some reason or other (great marketing? Bryan Cranston?) I went against my gut feeling and decided to check this movie out and judge it for myself. I'd read a couple reviews beforehand and many seemed pretty positive. Some critics complained but what movie doesn't have a million critics complaining about something these days? Well... Unfortunately I'm now one of those critics.
It seemed like 2 different movies to me. The first half was actually interesting and did a decent job of building up excitement and providing a back story of where the giant monsters came from and what they wanted. I think one of the major problems with the film was the tempo. It really takes its time in the beginning which is good, but then it stays at that slow pace all the way through to the end and unfortunately the monster action isn't really all that exciting once you see it. Most of the fight scenes are very dark and the MUTOs (massive unidentified terrestrial organisms) look like cheap kids toys from a happy meal. Godzilla is cool but has no personality. He's just a big lumbering cgi lizard with no point to his existence. In the end i had major buyer's remorse. The movie becomes very cliché and predictable and ends up making me yawn and regret the fact that I paid good money and took 2.5 hours of my life to actually watch it. In the end I was very disappointed in the movie and should have watched XMEN instead. I will avoid the inevitable trilogy like the plague. Goes to show sometimes the negative reviews are true...