Review Godzilla film review by KoldWarKid62
Written By KoldWarKid62 on 2014-05-15 20:38:03
I‘ll try to keep this spoiler-free for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.
First off let me say I liked the move; not quite sure I loved it though. I wanted to, but I have a few issues. I do plan on seeing it again at some point.
The positives:
The first MUTO appearance is pretty cool. Well done. All in all I liked the MUTOs.
Godzilla (when you do see him) is awesome. He’s a leading man and he commands the screen.
Because of some reviews I had read, I thought the beginning of the movie would drag, but I thought it moved along at a good clip. The cast was decent on the whole if not underused. ATJ was a bit wooden, but it wasn’t distracting for me.
My main problem was that Godzilla was underused. He doesn’t show up for a while, that’s true, but when he does it’s a spectacular reveal. Then it cuts away to another scene! They used that technique at least two more times at key moments, which I found frustrating. In a movie or story, you need a strong beginning, something in the middle to keep your interest, and then a kick-ass ending. The ending was decent enough but there just weren’t those beginning and middle payoffs for me, Godzilla-wise. I recently watched the ‘64 Mothra vs. Godzilla and that movie has those payoffs in spades. You have his initial appearance/rampage, the American Frontier missile attack, G’s fight with the adult Mothra, the electrical military attack and the finale battle with the larvae Mothras. This was all in 90 min! This movie needed a couple more of those types of scenes.
The MUTOs take up a lot of that screen time. I also felt the monster action was rushed through to a degree, and much of the carnage/destruction seems to take place offscreen! You see things starting to happen, then it cuts to the aftermath.
I’m hoping this does well enough for a sequel or trilogy, because I want to see more of this Godzilla. I thought he was great. Us G-fans will support it, but I don’t know how the general movie-going public will like this. Quite honestly it’s non-fans that will dicate how this does. I saw it in a packed theater and there was no response from anyone at any point in the movie. I thought there would be cheering or clapping at a couple of parts.
I felt that this movie was an opportunity to do this right, and although there are a lot of good things and it’s miles away from the ‘98 version, it may still have been a missed opportunity. I’m hoping I’m wrong.
I was expecting and hoping Gareth would hit this one out of the park, but he got it as far as the warning track for a loud out.
