pros and cons
+ great monster action
+ nails the spirit of Godzilla
+ is surprisingly faithful to the series legacy
+ Cranston is great
+ Godzilla gives the best performance (he's very expressive, and his expression is almost always "I am so fucking angry")
+ almost a Lovecraftian movie
- wastes its female cast members
- seriously, you got Elizabeth Olsen as the female lead and had her do nothing but look scared/loving? C'mon.
- most of the rest of the cast is a bit bland (in a monster movie, oh no, who ever heard of such a thing?)
- holds out on its very best action until the climax (not really a flaw, but this seems to bother a lot of people)
- monsters lack overtly metaphorical reason for their existence (its there, but rather buried).
I really liked it, but I'm a Kaiju genre nerd. I had no reason to expect that a big studio mega-budget blockbuster would end up being a faithful entry in the Godzilla cannon, but I was pretty damn glad that it was. Many people don't seem to like the slow build that happens until you get a really good spoiler (click to show/hide)
monster vs. monster fight
so you should really already know if you'll like it before you go in. If you have any affection towards that big, scaly dude with the bad breath, you'll probably like this in kind. If you want The Raid, but with a giant, world destroying lizard, you'll be dissapointed.
its so absurd. So, so, so absurd. Even for a Godzilla film.
Every time I watch it I find new things to admire/hate. I can't believe it took until my fifth rewatch or so to notice the Nazi-ish uniforms the good guys wear on their downtime. Also, Don Frye as the white guy Chewbacca who seems unnatural at everything is pretty damn entertaining.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-_W6wHt0F4
also, I'm not backing down from the Lovecraftian-ish angle.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Godzilla is namedropped as an actual ancient god at one point. Godzilla and mutos have been essentially immortal and already once destroyed all life on the planet, they've been resting uneasily for eons since until their reawakening.
the Godzilla nerd in me is pumped that this film is doing so well, and will likely kick off a franchise. Holy crap, I now live in a world where there's going to be more Kaiju films coming at some point, that its not a dead genre anymore. That feels good.
It would be even better if they put some of the weirder monsters in the next installment. Biollante would fit in well in 'grim-dark-grounded' Godzilla.
Just got back from the movie and it was pretty okay. Not anything amazing and too slow in parts, but I was really into it when it mattered.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Godzilla wasting that female Rodan-thing with his atomic breath brought a tear to my eye. :lawd