To make a long premise short, simple and spoiler free (for the most part), two giant egg shaped pods that have been discovered by scientists have suddenly hatched releasing two monsters to destroy the world and populate it with its babies (Anyone thinking of the plot point to America's last attempt at making a "Godzilla" movie?). Luckily, Godzilla is traveling across the world to fight the two monsters and save the world. Meanwhile, you have a Military explosive ordnance disposal technician played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson who is trying to stop the monsters as he tries to get back to his wife and kid; and you have two scientists that want to study Godzilla, while an army leader played by David Strathairn wants the monsters destroyed. A decent plot; it's great to see Godzilla fight not one, but two monsters in the first installment of the reboot instead of one, or rehashing the same plot from the 1954 film and 1998 film (well for the most part); and actually the plot point taken from the 98 film is actually done well here if not great.
Remember in the 98 film how the monster looked nothing like Godzilla and didn't really carry the traditional Godzilla characteristics? America redeems that huge failure thanks to the help from Toho. Every single scene you see Godzilla is an epic win. It not only has the same Toho design, but the CGI is actually incredible. Yeah, personally I prefer the rubber suit, but that doesn't stop me from being blown away at how incredible the CGI for Godzilla is. Godzilla also makes an incredible entrance in this film. Remember in the 98 film when the monster doesn't create so much as a tidal wave as it enters and leaves the water? In this film, we get a Tsunami in Hawaii knowing that Godzilla has come to shore, and when we finally see it and hear its trademark roar, well let me just say that the audience in my first viewing of the film went crackers! As you may have guessed, his epic trademark roar is back, and instead of Godzilla just blowing on cars like he did in the 98 film, America decided to give him back his blue atomic breath, and every time he breathes it out is overwhelmingly epic! So yeah, America finally gave Godzilla the respect that he deserves. However, with getting Godzilla right, the film sadly does have many major flaws. First off, Godzilla isn't really the star of this film. The film's main stars are his enemies and the humans. Godzilla is just a build up monster like the shark from "JAWS" or the Alien in "Alien". While I like the idea that the film is building up to Godzilla, sadly the scenes without Godzilla is where the film falls flat.
The monsters that Godzilla has to fight are called the M.U.T.O.S. and while the M.U.T.O.S. have some cool abilities such as being able to fly; feed off of nuclear waste; can reproduce to populate the world full of their species; and have electromagnetic pulse, I don't think they were as awesome or a match for our main monster Godzilla. The designs for these creatures aren't that creative or cool in the least; both M.U.T.O.S. look and act the same except for the fact that the male can fly, while the female just has a giant glowing ball sack; and they're not even scary. There's no thrill, suspense, surprises, or tension with these monsters, they're basically just creatures waiting to get their asses kicked by Godzilla. Oh, and those moments where we're supposed to think that the M.U.T.O.S. have defeated Godzilla, let's be honest, they're not going to kill off an iconic film franchise monster in his first film of the new American reboot. Even if they did, we know that deep down inside, he will resurrect in the next film. What really infuriates me about the film is we barely get to see any fights between Godzilla and the M.U.T.O.S.. When Godzilla and one of the M.U.T.O.S. meet up for the first time, instead of getting a cool fight scene, it immediately cuts to the aftermath of the fight. When one of the M.U.T.O.S. arrives in Las Vegas to destroy it, we again cut to the aftermath of the creature's arrival. So basically, whenever the film builds up to a fight or what looks to be an awesome sequence of pure destruction, the film decides to cut those awesome scenes out and give us more dialogue from the human characters talking about what happened. We are here to see Godzilla fight and destroy stuff, we're not here to see people on screen talk about it, let us the audience witness it! To be fair, there are a little cool and awesome scenes like the Tsunami, Godzilla at the Golden Gate Bridge, and the final fight, but with that said, it still doesn't stop the fact that the film at many occasions cheats the audience into thinking that they're going to see something awesome and cool.
Another huge flaw that the film suffers is the characters. In the original 1954 film, we had likable and interesting characters that were well acted; in this film sadly, we get bland characters that are not well acted. I honestly didn't care for any of these characters since they are so bland and boring, and the actors themselves don't really give a good dramatic or memorable performance. Aaron Taylor-Johnson as our hero has hardly any personality and as the film progresses, he just becomes less and less interesting and more and more bland. His wife played by Elizabeth Olson, and his son played by Carson Bolde, are just as bland, lifeless, and badly acted as our hero is. Brayan Cranston as our main character's father, to his credit, he tries to act dramatic, but it sadly still comes off as a dull and poorly exaggerated performance that's forgettable. The two scientists played by Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins and the Military sergeant played by David Strathairn, to be honest I wish they were the human stars of the film. I'm not saying their characters or performances are good, but if the film just had the scientists and the sergeant argue whether they should destroy the monsters or let them fight as we see Godzilla and the M.U.T.O.S. fight each other and destroy stuff, this film would have been more entertaining, and probably would have given us room for more fights and destruction.
While this new American adaptation of Godzilla has redeemed itself from its last horribly failed attempt by giving Godzilla the respect that he deserves and making him awesome in every scene he's in, the film still fails at giving us a creative, scary and tough opponent for Godzilla to fight; interesting characters; and closes the door on plenty of opportunities that can lead to something cool and epic. If the film gave us at least better human characters that are not only well acted, but have interesting and likable personalities, then maybe I would give the film a higher rating. All I can say is, America got the monster Godzilla right, now let's hope that they give us better human characters; a cool, creative, scary and challenging monster for Godzilla to fight; and more action, or at least not cheat the audience into thinking that they're going to get some action, in the planed sequel.
RATING 2/5
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