Godzilla

Well, it was sure as hell better than the Roland Emmerich one. 

I shouldn't need to explain Godzilla right? We all know who Godzilla. Even as a kid I knew Godzilla without watching a single movie. This movie changes a few things about Godzilla. First of all, apparently he likes humans? I don't know where this came from. Even in films where Godzilla fought along side humans, it was animalistic and based around a common enemy. This just becomes weird. Why is Godzilla protecting civilians from fire? What part of Godzilla does that? He should be animalistic, terrifying, like we should be worrying about his next move despite his support. It's made only stranger by the films explanation that Godzilla is a balancing force of nature, not a beast out to defend or even attack humans in any way. He simply is. He is a creature that exists, just as we are creatures that exist. I don't understand his motivation to protect people, or even his motivation to fight this "MUTO" monster. Is it solely to hunt? Then what the heck else has it been living on this whole time?

This MUTO feeds on radiation? This movie is trying to be so scientific, are we supposed to believe that radiation can be some strange form of sustenance? I don't know. It's Godzilla, I guess, but this movie tries to put so much emphasis on believability rather than embrace the Godzilla creature it's using that it simply doesn't work anymore. Heck, did you know that the Red Cross released a statement about how to approach a Godzilla attack? It was similar to the CDC zombie outbreak release, more based on general information than the actual idea of a monster attack. But the point is everything about this movie screams attempted believability. There is none. 

A lot of people are complaining about the complete lack of Godzilla and the forced human romance. Generally speaking, neither of these things bothered me. I like when movies take a human approach to unbelievable scenarios, and actually I liked that even though Godzilla wasn't shown for a while, he was only difficult to locate in the oceans, and then was easy to follow. None of this disappearing crap from the Emmerich version still fresh in my mind as a piece of garbage. But what did bother me was a complete lack of acting talent, save Bryan Cranston's amazing performance. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who I admire from his fun and passionate performances in the Kick-Ass films, is suddenly cold and emotionless, with no depth to his character besides the disaster-movie forced father and husband roles. We never learn his desires, we never learn who he is or why he is who he is. And that's annoying, considering we see his entire backstory. It feels poorly structure, a real cop out character. His wife is just as boring, never emoting anything beyond damsel in distress fear. Throw in some scientists that remind me far too much of the ones in MegaShark vs. Giant Octopus, and you have some pretty bland characters. A shame. If there's one place to really let the zany characters shine, it's in a Godzilla movie. Heck, I loved the characters in Pacific Rim.

Godzilla isn't bad. It's definitely better than the Roland Emmerich abomination. But it forgets not only what Godzilla is - a big bad killing machine that serves as a commentary for the fear of nuclear war, as well as a campy sci-fi money maker - but also what Godzilla could be, a cool fictional study on the worst case scenario of human nature and evolution. It isn't really campy enough, and it also isn't serious enough. It's in an awful middle ground, littered with uninteresting characters and a strange interpretation of the beast. I can't help but feel disappointed.

Rank - 1.5/5