Why I Saw It: Legendary Pictures + Big Monsters = Something I'm going to see.
Cast: Do not be fooled, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the "lead" of this movie. By that, I mean he's on the screen the most. The movie almost goes out of its way to not make him a character. I don't know if I should blame Taylor-Johnson for lacking charisma or the script for giving him NOTHING. Brian Cranston, despite being all over the ads, is a supporting character. He tries his best to make something of the character but mostly has to lean into over-acting. Elizabeth Olsen, the talent she is, only gets slop minutes as the damsel in distress. Ken Watanabe has a good sized role that consists of telling everyone they are being idiots. Sally Hawkins has a smaller role that requires her to do nothing but agree with Watanabe. The humans in the movie aren't given much to do, which is not an accident. Godzilla and the Mutos are understandably the focus of the movie.
Plot: I'd hardly call this movie spoiler-y but if there is something to spoil, this is it: Godzilla is a good guy. That means, the plot of the movie is that two monsters start ravaging the earth. Humans keep trying to stop them but only make things worse. Then, Godzilla shows up and handles things. In short, it is exactly what you should expect from a Godzilla movie. From the human perspective though, this is an atrocious script filled with coincidence after coincidence that stack up to an absurd degree. The simple fact that Taylor-Johnson spans continents to be repeatedly in the exact right place is almost too much to handle. That is, if you care about the human element. And that's why the movie may get more mileage with some than others. The movie is about the monsters but is told from the human point of view. If you accept that, then the ridiculous positioning of all the humans is forgivable.
Elephant in the Room: What about Godzilla? I regret not seeing this on a bigger screen. After the success of Pacific Rim last year, I should've known they would do Godzilla, the creature, justice. He (and the other monsters) are BIG. The sense of scale is impressive and the restraint in showing Godzilla is impressive. There's glimpses throughout the movie, but it makes you anxiously wait to see what it can do.
To Sum Things Up:
I can't stress enough that there are two ways to watch this: as a disaster movie or as a monster movie. If you watch this as a disaster movie, which is how it's been sold in the ads (and if you are expecting a lot of Cranston), then I'm not sure how you come away feeling good about this. If you watch this as a monster movie, it's an impressive movie that delivers. Either way, this is a vast improvement over the 1998 Godzilla and does a much better job capturing the spirit of the franchise.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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