Godzilla wasn't all bad, but it had such a potential to be good that having it be mediocre is very disappointing.

Rating: Null/10 (17 June 2014)

CONTAINS SPOILERS! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!
The opening credits are absolute perfection, the intense music and the exciting montage using great 50s style footage got me so hyped up that when the actual movie began it fell flat, it simply couldn't keep up that level.
I know everybody loves Bryan Cranston from his role in Breaking Bad (which admittedly I haven't seen) but I didn't find him particularly amazing as Joe Brody. What bothered me, and felt like a let down, was the introduction of his character, shot as a reveal with tension built up for no true purpose, building around a character that has virtually no screen time. Gareth Edwards repeats this mistake with the introduction of Admiral William Stenz (David Strathairn). All the reveal shots should've been left to our anti-hero Godzilla. The shots that introduce the monster are outstanding, it is in these moments that for once a blockbuster shows creativity in it's filmmaking and is not just a series of computer generated images that look like a video game. Just a side note, why is everything so centered in the middle of the frame nowadays, is it for a 3D purpose? It sacrifices a potentially really nice composition for an IMAX/3D effect that everybody won't get to see. But I'm just raging on 3D here, in the case of Godzilla it's really not that bad. The monster itself is a very nice design, close to the 1954 Godzilla monster (maybe his eyes bothered me a little, but hey I'm just being too picky now) however the MUTO cruelly lacked originality, they look like a mix between Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979), Transformers (Michael Bay) and Starship Troopers (1997). The designers could have done more research and asked themselves how their skin would be if they live so deep in the earth, how would the humidity effect them, etc.
The true disappointment in Godzilla though is the hour or so that we lose watching the incoherent US Army interaction that has been done a million times in this type of movie and is absolutely uninteresting, getting one to wonder if they care for the movie much at all. Instead the focus could have been on the main characters, developing their story, relationships and bonds so they could grow in depth before our eyes, the public would then care about their lives and not wonder if they care or not that they are once again watching the end of the world with the army failing to stop it.
This brings us to the tone of the movie: it never committed to the campy B-movie tone and charming cheesiness of its ancestor or to the intense but yet grotesque end of the world movie with it's "Daddy, will you still be here tomorrow?" tear jerker lines.
The last act is nonetheless enjoyable, it regains the audience interest and almost gets you to forget the hour of mediocrity you just watched. The filmmaking is imaginative, we are involved in the fate of the protagonists, the battle scenes are breath-taking and our long gone interest is piqued again but it's only to get us exited about Godzilla 2 (when I heard about the upcoming sequels I lost faith in humanity, yet again).
Godzilla wasn't all bad, but it had such a potential to be good that having it be mediocre is very disappointing.
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