The 20th Century King of The Monsters gets a 21st Century reboot

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2014)

GODZILLA (2014) *** Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Juliette Binoche, Richard T. Jones, Victor Rasuk, Carson Bolde, CJ Adams. The 20th Century King of The Monsters gets a 21st Century reboot with the gigantic lizard reawakened along with some other surprises in filmmaker Gareth Edwards frequently rewarding, but long-winded reimagining. While its blue-chip cast is largely wasted (sorry Cranston, Hawkins and Binoche), and in spite of its far-too-long-in-expository chatty screenplay by Max Borenstein and Dave Callaham, Edwards manages the monster mash in the final act to be relatively worthy of its ticket price in IMAX 3-D (the only way to see it). The CGI holds up even if there are echoes of CLOVERFIELD's creature design and Edwards' reliance in playing peek-a-boo like he did in his fairly deceptive MONSTERS. While it eschews the ethos of a man-in-a-rubber suit demolishing a miniature set it still echoes the classic film's strong Atomic age messing with Mother Nature underpinnings.