Not quite serious enough, not quite silly enough

Rating: 6/10 (10 May 2015)

Version I saw: UK cinema release (subtitled)
Actors: 6/10
Plot/script: 6/10
Photography/visual style: 7/10
Music/score: 6/10
Overall: 6/10
With 28 main sequence films, several spin-offs and numerous appearances in other media, the Godzilla franchise is formidable. In 1998, Hollywood tried to get in on the action under the helm of big, dumb blockbuster specialist Roland Emmerich, and while the result is routinely derided by one and all, it made a comfortable profit.
Now, they have tried again, with inexperienced indie director Gareth Edwards. He has enjoyed a remarkable career trajectory since his micro-budget film Monsters won praise from a variety of sources. Before the dust had settled from Godzilla's landing, it was announced that he had been given charge of the first of several new stand-alone Star Wars films which will sit alongside JJ Abrams' main trilogy.
The stars come from the indie world too. Aaron Taylor-Johnson broke through with British drama Nowhere Boy (which I thoroughly recommend), and continued the trend by starring as the unlikely hero Kick-Ass. Elizabeth Olsen's early success was trailer park drama Martha Marcy May Marlene. More recently, both have cemented their status as rising stars by appearing as super-powered brother and sister Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
There is something a bit... cynical, though, about the placement of their characters in Godzilla. ATJ is Ford Brody, a former soldier and war veteran, while Olsen is his wife Elle, a nurse. Both are, I gather, professions that are practically shortcuts to instant sympathy in large parts of the American audience. This is edging on being a problem for me, because in Britain at least, military people have no such rosy glow about them, and especially since what are widely regarded as massively misjudged campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Anyway, to top it all off, they also have photogenic child Sam (Carson Bolde).
I don't know why it bothered me. It's certainly no more egregious than any number of other blockbusters. It doesn't feel any more blatant, either in the moment or looking back. It isn't even that big a problem: throughout most of the film, I was more amused than offended. "Of course they are," I found myself thinking. "It's almost as if they don't trust a skyscraper-sized lizard monster to cement audience sympathy."
Godzilla has always been as much a character in his movies as a plot device, though. He has personality, motivations, even emotions of a sort. Taken over the series as a whole, he has friends and allies too.
This makes the character design extremely important, and Edwards and his team did a good job in this aspect. Yes, he is a bit wider around the waist than traditional portrayals, but calling him 'fat' is really a cheap shot, and not that important to the film either. And he looks fantastic. All the special effects work is excellent, in fact. Really top notch. It's not quite up there with Avatar, Gravity or Interstellar, but not far off, and putting such outlandish monsters firmly into an everyday context while still carrying the audience is quite a feat to pull off.
The themes are the thing though. The best Godzilla films I have seen are either ridiculously daft, or deeply allegorical, and not that subtle about it either. This Godzilla film's themes are understated, and slightly troubling: it seems to say that nature can handle itself, and protect us as we heedlessly harm the planet. I wanted metaphors a lot more blatant than this, and preferably better thought out.
By sacrificing the message, they move closer to the silly, spectacular model of Gojira films, but for my money, don't get close enough. It's a halfway house, and not successful enough at blending those two modes to raise it to the next level.