Epic

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 2014)

Ever since an American production of a Godzilla movie was announced in the 2000's, I was hyped. Though the first attempt in 1998 was pretty bad, the production showed some promise. From there to now, I've been slowly growing more excited for the movie. After seeing it, I have to say that I was very satisfied.
The story focuses more on the human characters rather than Godzilla himself, which I think is perfectly fine. Edwards develops them a lot like his other film, Monsters. Like Monsters, it works pretty well. Easily the best character in the movie is Bryan Cranston's Joe Brody, a mad scientist who is desperate to prove to everyone that the "accident" that killed his wife in the 1999 nuclear powerplant disaster was not an accident and was in fact, another monster. Cranston throws a ton of emotion, and we really feel for him. Aaron Taylor Johnson plays his son, Ford Brody, a stoic bomb defuser who is desperately trying to track down the monster. Even though I said he was stoic, it manages to work, as he goes through some hard events, and in order to get through them and do his job, swallowing his emotions would be the best bet to get through the situation. Ken Wantanabe is good as Serizawa and the rest of the characters are well acted.
But let's face it though, we came here to see the king himself, Godzilla. In my opinion, he does not disappoint at all. His CGI is great, his roar is awesome on the big screen (make sure to see it in IMAX), and he has all the powers of the Japanese Godzilla. (and by all of them, I mean all of them). He's slowly teased through out the movie, which is also great. It is certainly better than just giving him to you and have the whole hour be just him. As shown in the trailers, there are two other monsters in here. They both look really cool, and put up a decent fight against Godzilla.
The rest of the VFX are top notch. The sets look really nice, and the action is great. The cinematography shows a ton of human POV (sort of like Cloverfield, but with a steady camera), as well as some classic Kaiju film shots. The score is definitely big, but only a few tracks are memorable. The rest just seem meh.
Even with a few minor flaws, Godzilla will please a ton of Godzilla fans and can be just as well enjoyed by regular movie goers. I would recommend seeing it a few times on the big screen since you won't get the same feeling on a home TV.