More faithful and serious than the 1998 film, but not as entertaining

Rating: 6/10 (10 October 2014)

The 1998 version of "Godzilla" is lambasted to this day because it took too many liberties with the classic behemoth, but if you disregard these changes it's a great giant-creature-attacks-city flick. It was just serious enough, but with an amusing edge. combine that with an interesting cast, a great-looking monster and hundreds of little ones and you have a fabulously entertaining colossal-creature feature.
The problem with the original Godzilla is that he's actually cute. Yes, he's 300-feet high, but he's cute. And that's the case in this 2014 version as well, but that's okay because he's on our side, I think.
The plot revolves around Godzilla taking on a couple of like-size monsters called MUTOs ("Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms") and the destruction of one city after another in Japan, Hawaii and mainland America. While these fights don't occur until the second half of the movie, the CGI is great, as is the all-around filmmaking. There's nothing wrong on this front.
It's the human characters and their story where the film is mediocre. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the main protagonist, Elizabeth Olsen his wife, and Bryan Cranston his father. Also on hand are Ken Watanabe, David Strathairn, Richard T. Jones and Sally Hawkins. These actors are all perfectly competent, but the story-as-written never makes 'em click as interesting characters. As such, they're bland. And, since the first half of the movie is focused on the build-up to the monsters, it's more boring than compelling.
Still, it is Godzilla and there are some memorable disaster-oriented moments.
The film runs 123 minutes and was shot in Honolulu, British Columbia and Nevada.
GRADE: B-