A film more man than monster

Rating: 6/10 (17 May 2014)

CONTAINS SPOILERS
An exciting return for Godzilla, which hopefully ushers in a new franchise for the king of monsters - the film plays out at a respectable pace, not too fast and not too slow. With the help of Cranston's riveting acting, the premise sets the scene for what you expect will be a great monster movie with an emotion-driven human element. With frequent teases of Godzilla traversing the seas for a good hour, it's Cranston's powerful display of tragedy that keeps the viewer interested in the human aspect. It's this performance that keeps you content with the film regardless of the fact that you've only been given tiny snippets of the huge beast. This tone sets the viewer up for huge optimism (at least it did me) when you know that surely Godzilla is going to make more frequent appearances in all his glory, and together with Cranston's brilliance you feel this is going to be a film more than just the king of beasts bashing heads but also a powerfully emotive picture of one human's search for truth and redemption.
However, that is unfortunately as far as it gets. The feeling of the film setting you up for such but not delivering. This is all ushered in by the death of Cranston's character roughly 40 minutes into the film. And taking the lead role is now Aaron Taylor Johnson who plays a military bomb expert and the son of Cranston's character. From the moment of Cranston's exit to Johnson's taking lead point you notice a shift from passion to passive. Johnson is unfortunately completely dull and boring. And suddenly in every sense I am reminded of the death of Nicholas Cage's character in Kick Ass leaving Johnson to pilot the rest of the film as lead character. I suddenly didn't care for the human element of the film anymore and was ready to see Godzilla kick some ass! But to my dismay the Godzilla tease continued on for another 40 minutes as Johnson continually gets caught in the fray of illogical coincidences despite his initial intention of returning home to his wife and child. All the while Watanabe serving purely as a plot device to explain the meaning and purpose of Godzilla.
Finally 80 minutes in and we get to see the king in action as he battles other monsters to claim his title as god of monsters. Unfortunately for the remaining 40 minutes of the movie, the battle scenes are way too short with only a couple of really kick ass moments for Godzilla and way too much of Johnson's dull acting (Can directors please stop giving this kid lead roles?!). Overall by the end of the film you don't get the feeling that you've seen Godzilla but rather military bomb man constantly stealing the spotlight. As a personal preference, I feel that Cranston should have survived (why kill off your best actor and the character you spent 20 minutes giving a backstory?) and he and Watanabe strive to defeat Godzilla using science but in the end Cranston is redeemed and moves on from his wife's death as he realises the folly of trying to defeat or control a force of nature (the analogy given to Godzilla by Watanabe). And as it was Godzilla rides off back into sea after defeating the other monsters. Or something along those lines at least!
As a whole, the film is set up strongly but falls incredibly flat with the death of Cranston's character, which as a consequence is not replaced by Godzilla leading the remainder of the film but the boring, uninteresting and sleep-inducing acting of Aaron Taylor Johnson.