Review of Godzilla (2014) by Hotelcentral — 22 Jan 2020

As the first thirty or forty minutes of Godzilla (2014) played out, I thought this was going to be a pretty good film, maybe even a really good film. Cranston is intense and the story moves right along. I was very engaged. Only then, things happen. Basically, the military takes over the film and from then on it's boom bang bam. And I am left with certain complaints:

1) Let's put the SWAT team on the roof of a hotel so they have a clear line of fire because bullets out of assault rifles are really going to have an big impact on a monster the size of a small skyscraper.

2) So, we've got these helicopters, and they're packed with machine-guns, but let's fly in real real close so the even the monster with no wings has an even chance of reaching out and knocking the helicopters out of the sky.

3) We need to keep a close eye on Godzilla as he swims across the sea, because who knows if he's a good monster or a bad monster. So let's sail our aircraft carrier like 200 yards away from Godzilla's tail, even though Godzilla might sink the carrier just by brushing against it accidentally.

4) So we've got all these giant monsters popping up and threatening to destroy civilization but for some reason one of our main characters never catches an announcement via TV, radio or cell phone, like, hey y'all, if you're in the military report to your command immediately because it's a code red ultra emergency.

5) OK, like, we tried nuking Godzilla, or something, way back when, and that didn't work, and apparently we still haven't asked the question: "How could that not work?" And despite not asking that question we're still pretty darn sure that another nuke, just bigger and badder, is almost certainly going to work. Because, I guess, just the fact that you survived a nuclear blast doesn't mean you can do it again.

6) An Abrams tank can sit on the San Francisco shoreline and shoot targets at the far end of the Golden Gate Bridge but let's run those tanks out onto the bridge so they'll get a better view of monsters standing in the water beside the bridge. Sure, the tanks might go for a swim but what are you gonna do?

7) To judge by the closing credits it appears like the entire US Department of Defense provided technical advice on the making of the film so you'd probably be justified in assuming that everything in the film concerning the military is absolutely 100% accurate and correct. Well, maybe not.

On the whole this is not a bad entry into the giant monsters attacking civilization film genre, but it could've been a lot better. I mean it's almost like they had one set of writers and directors for the Bryan Cranston part of the film, and the B Team handled the rest of the film. Or maybe the C Team. You decide.