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[Green Goblin]

Right, so I just got outta the theater.  Was it the absolutely ball-bustingly fantastic?  Ehhhhhhh.....no.  But it was still pretty damn good.  


This movie focuses on the perspective of what it's like to be as a human on the ground level when all this shit's going down.  You see on of the other monsters in the distance wrecking shit from the perspective of tourists and everyone's panicking.  Then you see Godzilla's foot land about 30 feet away from you in your peripheral vision and everyone just gets ominously quiet.  So Malcom's dad, Kickass and fake Ra's Al Ghul lead the narrative on where these things are coming from and what we can do to stop creatures that for all intents and purposes have a bigger claim to the planet than we do.  In this interpretation, they are basically older than prehistoria and evolved to survive off of primordial earth's radiation.  When radiation levels dropped, they went to the depths of the ocean or deep underground, getting what radiation they can from the Earth's core and staying in a relatively dormant state.  Not quite airtight, scientifically, but it's enough to give me suspension of disbelief.  Bryan Cranston plays Joseph Brody, a father who's in charge of safety at a Nuclear Plant in Japan that suffers a meltdown and he becomes obsessed with attempting to find out exactly what happened.  Aaron Johnson plays his adult son, Ford Brody, attempting to get his dad to let it go.  They have a bit of good father-son clashing that seems believable as Joseph attempts to show his Ford that not all is as it seems and that the area of the meltdown is being sealed off, despite the fact that there's no radiation in the air.  The company doing the sealing is called Monarch, led by Ken Watanabi's Ichiro Serizawa, who has a bit of an obsession with these beasts.  Of them, the one most known and studied (since the 1960's apparently) would be the apex predator, Godzilla.  The other creatures (who are NOT based on existing Godzilla canon, but still well-rounded enough in their own right) are called MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) and are somewhat parasitic in nature, seeking out anything radioactive (including other radioactive creatures) and essentially leeching them dry while in their passive state.  While they're not quite as hulking of a presence as the King of the Monsters himself, they're still quite a force to be reckoned with, as they give off EMPs which disrupt all electronic devices wherever they go (and it also doesn't hurt that they resemble what the Cloverfield monster wants to be when it grows up).
The camera lingers on the damage done when these MUTOs appear and throw down, leaving terrible devastation in their wake.  Military attempting to rescue civilians, people trying to find lost loved ones in the scramble and plenty of people just straight up dying on camera.  Basically like Metropolis after Man of Steel, only more fitting since it's involving monsters and not a walking Jesus metaphor.  It's clear that we're outgunned and the military has a hard time just trying to keep up with them as they basically home in on anything generationg enough radioactive activity and consume it.  The movie does sag a bit in the middle, but it never becomes a chore to watch.  There's enough going on one screen to keep you occupied until the third act, which actually starts off with a bit of a Lovecraftian style.  Having parachuters drop down into the city, parting through the storm clouds only to see the darkened sillouettes of these hulking monstrocities going blow-for-blow with red fiery lighting gives off the feeling a bit like "staring into the abyss" and looking at the Old Gods in all their horror.  I'm happy to report that when Godzilla starts fighting, it's just a sight to behold.  I don't want to spoil too much of the fights but when things start to glow blue, you know that shit just got real.
I think the way we're gonna look at this is that Pacific Rim is the giant monster movie you want if you want a fun ride.  Godzilla is basically a disaster movie that just so happens to have its disasters be gigantic ancient monsters from the depths.  And I'd say that it's fitting, given that Godzilla's narrative is about the dangers that manking brings upon itself by creating devastation on the planet, with the planet finally getting tired of our shit and starts punching back.  

On a scale, I'd give it an 8 out of 10.  Worth the price of admission (and see it in 3D, if you can).   

[DarkJuno]

Saw it. Liked it. Still not perfect and I felt that they cut away from Godzilla throwing down way too often, but the "filler" stuff of human interaction and whatnot that's usually just there in Godzilla movies was good enough in this one, not once did I ever get annoyed and comment about how I didn't care about any of these people because I kinda did. If nothing else, the movie absolutely gets what Godzilla is, he's not some animal or enemy to find and kill, he's absolutely a force of nature and it's really our own fault we're in his way. I loved how he didn't give a damn about all the little puny humans running around him, and even gives a courtesy of not just plowing through aircraft carrier while he swims (though if you're in his wake, it's your problem, not his). Even when he does get notably annoyed at all the tanks shooting at him, he doesn't really lash back as much as does the equivalent of getting up and going inside from the patio to get away from mosquitoes, in this case the screen door is the Golden Gate Bridge and he doesn't so much open it as much as he walks through it. Maybe it wasn't intentional but it honestly looked like he was trying to figure out a way to get around or under it, and he only tore it down the middle because the military forced him to find the quickest way through ASAP. 

 

Not all of these are spoilers, but just in case.....

 

Spoiler

 

Got really annoyed at how every time it looked like he was about to throw down it would cut to a different scene or just end though. It was effective each time (going to Brody's son seeing the silent news report of Godzilla swatting at the male MUTO, the shelter's doors shutting just as he bites down on the latter, Godzilla tackling the female effectively off stage) but all together it got annoying, though the pay-off of the end fight was definitely neat. While I had a huge smile on my face once I saw those spines start glowing and knew what was coming, I kinda wish they had used that as the kill on the male MUTO, but having Godzilla effortlessly just swat him to death with a flick of his tail onto the tower was definitely neat, and I suppose it made the female's death by the Atomic Breath that much more awesome. While it was effective to show the fights from a human's perspective, part of me still wishes they kept some shots from the monster's point of view just so we could see everything - for all of the TF movies' jumping around, they at last showed you Optimus in full view as he spun like a top down the thoroughfare in Chicago murdering Decepticons left and right effortlessly.

 

I did like how while they gave him a good fight, ultimately Godzilla did just stomp both down kinda easily, and glad they kept his Wolverine-would-be-jealous healing factor as he gets up now orse for wear at the end.

 

Too bad Papa Brody died, I really wish he had stuck around, but Cranston's performance was actually pretty good - over the top, yeah, but let's be honest, most of us would be just like that in a situation with all those multiple emotions taking a hold of us at one time. Everyone else was just fine and perfectly believable, if not all that three dimensional, but not entirely flat either. 

 

 

I'm just worried it's not "awesome" enough in the eyes of the general public to be successful enough, but I appreciate that it treats itself as seriously as the very first movie did and does so without falling into becoming a parody about it.

[Veteran]

I was sceptical but the reviews have been positive and with it being 20 years since I was in a cinema watching Jurassic Zilla, it really makes me want to see this one.