I thought Godzilla was kind of a fat, couch-potato version. Still, he was the biggest bully around. I was pretty entertained watching the soldiers attack the creatures with small arms fire and rpg’s- futile for anything except an excuse for the creatures to get pissed off 
Yeah, SF would have been a total nuclear wasteland in rf, but I didn’t care.
Oh no, they say he’s got to go go go Godzilla!
Oh no, there goes Tokyo go go Godzilla!
I kept wondering why the military guys kept carrying their rifles. Seemed like useless weight.
That, and whenever they were deploying into the middle of a city, they already had their rifles shouldered in firing position, as if they were expecting these 300-foot tall creatures to somehow sneak up on them without them noticing.
It was all kinds of dumb, and Bryan Cranston was completely wasted, as were Sally Hawkins and Ken Watanabe, who never actually did anything except explain what was happening.
The visuals were cool, though, and it certainly wasn’t played with any sense of camp or irony, which I appreciated.
So it was an entertaining monster movie - not a great film but not bad for what it was aiming for. I’d watch this again before I’d pay to see Transformers 4, for sure.
I wouldn’t say they were wasted. They did fine with the material presented to them. With Bryan Cranston doing what he did so early in the film didn’t mean they wasted him, he did admirably for what they wanted him to do. Same with KW and SH, their characters were written in such a way that they could only do what was presented to them.
The sarcasm of a “What character development?!?” comment (as has been said already) nonwithstanding, I counter with a serious what character development?
The movie didn’t need character development. This wasn’t a movie where people were trying to find themselves or overcome some deep, personal problem. They just needed to do what they needed to do. They needed character motivation, not development; and I think the character motivation was, for the most part, good.
I felt just like I felt when I watched Godzilla movies as a kid. The “people stuff” was tedious and seemed to go on forever and the Monster Stuff was great but too short. I couldn’t believe that they cut away from monster action just as it was about to begin not once but twice!
The ads made this seem like it was a modern version of the original, first, Godzilla but it was actually a remake of the later ones where he is the hero. I was fine with that but I think people are going to go “WTF?”
I hate you all. That was the best monster movie OF ALL TIME.
In my theater, and the theater where my son saw it, there was a particular point in the movie when the entire audience applauded (and I suspect wherever you saw it, too):
When Godzilla radiation breaths one of the MUTO’s down the throat, then tears what’s left of his head off his tattered neck. Of course
Well, and we all applauded when the credits rolled, too.
I loved the tip of the hat to the ‘Japanese kid in a baseball cap.’
The ‘they didn’t notice the huge hole in the side of the mountain in Nevada’ goof bugged me too, but then I remembered I was at a ***Godzilla ***movie and took the stick out of my ass.
I think that was necessary. Nobody goes to a Godzilla movie to root against him anymore; we’re rooting for him. Unless they wanted to play it as a tragedy, Godzilla must prevail. Plus, it makes sequels easier.
I thought it was a lot of fun and recalled the Godzilla I remember from my childhood. I think having less monster action was an improvement over a lot of action movies these days that seem to pound you with it almost continuously. The Transformers flicks always give me a headache.
I think the point was they didn’t get them to do anything interesting. Honestly, the cast for this movie was brilliant, so it was a surprise that they were so wasted.
The only character I really cared about was Bryan Cranston. The opening scenes in the nuclear reactor were great. The movie seemed to go downhill once he was killed off.
I liked the movie, just not as much as I thought I would. The reviews were all glowing, but to be honest, I enjoyed Pacific Rim a whole lot more.
I think wall to wall fighting would have gotten old (See Man of Steel) but I think the happy medium is somewhere between Man of Steel and this movie.
Not sure one needs to spoiler protect a fifty-year-old classic film. To answer the question:
Not that uncommon. Right off the top of my head: Thelma and Louise, Gran Torino, Obe Wonky Nobey…
I wouldn’t say the best of all time, but it’s certainly the best giant monster move made since my birth. 
I actually cheered at that moment, which probably embarrassed my brother*.
Yeah, I wondered at that moment for about an instant. But then I reminded myself of the inverse square law, and went back to enjoying the hell out of myself.
And that’s the part of this movie that actually let me down. Godzilla has to be a tragic figure for it to compare to any version of the 1954 film, at least for me. It was focused on the arc of the monster itself, which sets it apart. This one actually did approach that with the arc of MUTOs, and Godlzilla “hunting” them made a nice approach, even if the treatment at the end was a little jarringly corny.
I somehow felt for the 1954 Godzilla in a way that I’ve never felt for another version. It’s probably can be explained as simply as “He died in that version, scabs. A character can pay no higher price.” We dealt with our problem, and damn the consequences.
Will I watch this Godzilla movie again? Hell yes, I’ll probably pay to see it in the theater again, if I get the time. 10 years from now, it will probably be one of the ones I would go back to again and again. It beats most of the Japanese sequels by a large margin. But when I want to be borderline emotionally devastated by my giant monster movie, I’ll go back to Godjira.
p.s. Thankya to bup for having a well thought-out post for me to hang mine on!
Cranston was chewing scenery here. It’s a Godzilla movie, so I won’t take it seriously, but he has never done worse work than in Godzilla.
Agree with most of your points. The biggest offender, I think, was them “discovering” the giant hole in the Yucca Mountain storage. How would anyone not notice that??
Someone made the comparison to Pacific Rim - I think Pacific Rim was more extreme, in both directions. It had better (and more/longer) fight scenes, but the characters/dialogue/plot was also even worse in PR. Then again, that’s not really what you see a monster movie for, so PR might actually be the better film. Then again, Godzilla lets you see more - all the fight scenes in PR are set underwater and/or at night, making it hard to see what’s going on all the time.
And yeah, Ken Watanabe was completely wasted in the Morgan Freeman “I’m just here to explain the plot” role. I assume they only cast Watanabe over Freeman because they needed someone Japanese for the role?
Like I said above, yes it was ridiculous, but then I heard Adam Savage’s voice in my brain: “Well THERE’S your problem,” and I got over it. It was a fun reveal.
It’s true enough that someone needs to pronounce it “Gojira” at some point during the movie.
Hey, Sarge? Why are we whispering?
I think they were mainly carrying their rifles for the built in flashlights.
Not an unreasonable concern, as it happens, given the number of times in the film someone was surprised to be standing right next to a 300-foot tall creature. Those were some ninja kaiju in that movie.
I am defiantly going to see it in IMAX 3D; and I dare any of you to try and stop me! Heh.
