Review of Godzilla (2014) by Urillusion — 15 May 2014

As a lifelong, 30+ year fan of everything Godzilla, I can not help but feel disappointed in what we have been presented after 5 years of anticipation and Hype.

First of all, Godzilla himself is glorious! The MUTOs look great, but I am still unsure of exactly they are supposed to be. They are imaginative yes, but I am unsure how such an alien creature can be a product of prehistoric radiation. They could have used some color or markings as well to make them look more natural.

The battle scene (notice no plural, because there is only one battle that you see more than a glimpse of) is fantastic, and is the only part worthy of the Godzilla name. His breath weapon was a bit underwhelming, but solid for an attempt at a realistic version.

The introduction of Godzilla is very lackluster. He just sort of shows up, and we track him moving along for almost an hour in the water. He finally makes his big entrance in Hawaii, only to disappear within seconds of exposure, literally. They should have really gave the audience more at the airport battle.

There is no terror in the eyes of the people witnessing this. The few shots that they attempted this, the extras looked like they were running for the catering truck for lunch. No horror, no urgency, no giant foot coming down within inches of a terrified populace. Godzilla did not spank us for our arrogance, not once; the MUTOs tried, but they were more concerned for with one another. When it comes to the Monsters' interactions with humanity, they were just doing their own thing that happened to be in the middle of a city.

Notice how first and foremost, this review has contained the monsters. Not so with this movie. They build up this story with the help of Brian Cranston for almost an hour until the writers decide "Okay... his job is done" and the rest of the movie just continues as if he never existed. His son Ford certainly doesn't care. Note to the writers: If you want the audience to invest in a character, don't make them almost pointless. It seems that this movie just tried to force character driven drama so bad, that they just shoved it in where ever they could, and forgot to include GODZILLA! If you think the big man had enough screen time, I have no idea why you watch Godzilla movies in the first place. I can understand a dramatic build to the reveal, but that was not a dramatic reveal. That was 60 minutes of build - to 30 seconds of Godzilla - to another 40 minute build to the actual part of the movie worth watching. One can argue that "it worked in cloverfield", but cloverfield was much more suspense driven from a POV that was built for the long reveal. This is the best 20 minute Godzilla movie ever hidden deep within 100 minutes of something else.

This movie could of, and SHOULD of been leaps and bounds better. So much potential wasted on trying to force drama. The awesomeness that was the creature Godzilla should have been more than a cameo in his own movie. I don't need tons more... Just a secondary battle in the second act, and a bit more instrument of destruction as his motivation. I can't help but feel like this lack of substance stems from the novice writer and director.