[Dr Kain]

Godzilla (2014) – In 1998 Sony released an abomination of a movie that was called “Godzilla.” While the movie had some really great effects at the time, the overall results of the movie were less than stellar. It also does not help that the creature called “Godzilla” in that movie never truly resembled the monster everyone knows and loves. That movie was also filled with terrible one liners, dated jokes, and hardly stands the test of time at all. In fact, the only thing the movie had going for it was its hype. As such, it was obvious as to why there would be mass skepticism brought about when Legendary announced they were going to be creating their own Godzilla movie. Thankfully, their take on the king of the monsters is truly one to behold.

The movie’s plot is extremely simplistic and yet, done with care for the monster’s origins in both the world the movie takes place in and in our own reality. If there is one thing Gareth Edwards has proven with this movie, it is that if you care about the original source material enough you can truly create a great experience to go with it. There is also a certain amount of suspense the movie holds to keep the viewer interested without boring them or annoying them.

The characters of the movie are pretty good, even if some of them are underused or seem to have the invincibility shield surrounding them. Bryan Cranston’s character is good while Ken Watanabe plays a scientist named Serizawa and is probably one of the best characters in the movie. It was extremely nice to finally see his talents and acting used in great detail here. Cranston’s son, Ford, is a pretty likable guy but he could have been developed a bit better. His wife, on the other hand, was utterly useless as most females tend to be in the Godzilla universe.

The monsters of the movie were done very well and the new design for Godzilla looks great on screen. He is the biggest incarnation of the monster yet, standing at about 110 meters, which is taller compared to the Heisei Godzilla whose height was 100 meters. The MUTO make for an interesting set of monsters to give Godzilla his motivations. Thankfully, the designs are followed greatly but top notch effects as the CGI never seemed to drop in quality one bit during the movie. In fact, as far as the effects go, despite it being all CGI, they are some of the best the series has ever had, and rightly so.

Some of my favorite scenes cannot be said because of spoilers, but the HALO jump scene from the trailer is truly fantastic to see when you are watching it as part of the movie and it gives great depth to what is transpiring during those moments. The music used in that scene just adds up the tension to it.

If there was anything I needed to complain about it would be the lack of monster action. There is quite a bit of it, but at the same time there is just a tad too little of it. Thankfully the movie is extremely well paced and does a great job at building up the monsters with an added bonus of suspense in the process. It is also one of the few movies in the series to truly treat the story as an anti-nuclear one, mimicking the original’s message. Overall, while there are some nitpicks to the movie, I give it a nice 8/10 as it is one the best Godzilla movies released thus far and I look forward to seeing what Legendary can come up with next in their Godzilla universe.

BTW, there is nothing after or during the credits, so there is no need to stay if you don’t want to.

My favorite scene was the build up of Godzilla's atomic breath attack.