Godzilla Reviews

The film is a very good one, the characters are somewhat interesting and the special effects are excellent. And plus, is a Godzilla movie with realistic tones that are very well executed. The bridge scene with Godzilla was the best part of the movie, it was very awesome because everything was completely terrifying in a cool way. Although the film lacked some more monster fighting and it could have a better Soundtrack. I give it a 8/10

Excellent special effects but the film was over-long, especially in the build-up to the main events, and Godzilla was reduced to being a supporting character in his own film. Also, I felt that several of the leading actors were under-used, especially Juliette Binoche and Bryan Cranston. Disappointing.

Of course I had to see this. Godzilla is a legend and I hear this is how the previous American remake should have been. I am one of the ones who despite everything actually enjoyed the first remake. It was cheesy, but I was entertained. Anyways I am sure I will love this one even more. It's intense and tragic at times. It takes itself more seriously than the previous remake. I like the beginning where they put Godzilla in videos of the past that made it seem like it was actually a part of history. I was a little disappointed with how little we actually got to see Godzilla. I do like how they had more than one monster though. The destruction and chaos was awesome. I kept wondering if the dog survived though. The ending was awesome. I hope if they make a sequel that it shows way more Godzilla. I do like that they made the characters full though. Too many movies these days focus more on just the carnage without getting too personal with the characters. This was definitely worth the wait.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I'd need a full review to properly describe this one, so consider this the abridged version. :)
Most of the time, I'm against American remakes, but I think, considering what a betrayal the last American Godzilla was, they really didn't have a choice with this one. And thankfully, this movie completely blows the 1998 version out of the water, creating an affectionate tribute to the whole franchise. (I'm guessing; I've only seen the original, and my knowledge of the rest of the series comes from Cinemassacre's Godzillathon.) For example, they mention that Godzilla and other monsters have been feeding and growing on radiation, which presumably refers to the other monsters in the series. It never forgets, however, that Godzilla will leave destruction in his wake.
The human characters are boring, and they take up so much of the movie that that can be a little disappointing. But the story, and the plan they devise, still consistently held my interest.
But the final monster battle was definitely the highlight. :) In particular, when Godzilla actually unleashes his trademark atomic breath, it was all I could do to keep from crying out, "YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"
I didn't like how Godzilla's head looks disproportionately small – which could be where all this "bloated Godzilla" stuff came from.
In short, while I could have used a little more focus on the monsters, I was still more than satisfied with what I got. Just don't let the trailer fool you: it's nowhere near as grim and serious as the original.

My rating: 80%

Judge me if you want, but Gareth Edwards’s new take on Godzilla may just be my favorite summer 2014 blockbuster. This version of Godzilla does not make the same mistakes that 1998 abomination did; instead, it defers and refers to Ishiro Honda’s masterpiece. 2014 also just so happens to be the 60th anniversary of the original film, so it was probably in the best interest to attach itself to that film, however elliptically it goes about it. But what lingers in mind about this version of Godzilla are the same things which makes the original a still vibrant and intelligent monster movie – a focus on man’s helplessness in the face of ecological forces greater than us, the folly of our nuclear weapons, the possibly misplaced security we have in our military-industrial complex. This is a summer blockbuster with a bit of brains and consequences for its scenes of violence and destruction.

Compare Godzilla’s almost poetic scenes of carnage and half-viewed chaos to the meaningless spectacle of The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s many problems into sharper contrast. After having viewed Spider-Man, I could barely tell you what any of the action scenes looked like or why they mattered (except for one at the very end), because they, largely, didn’t truly matter or advance the story. Godzilla does not operate under this system of more is more, preferring instead to take plenty of time in-between to develop a quiet unease, slowly building us up to the last thirty minutes in which Godzilla and the two other creatures have it out across San Francisco.

I can close my eyes and remember the first appearance of the MUTOs, or Godzilla’s first full reveal, or the teases of the large protruding scales on his back breaking the waves. Edwards smartly rolls them out in waves, recalling the reoccurring visual of seismic activity. A scene which features American troopers parachuting down in a desperate attempt to annihilate all three of the monsters with a nuclear warhead is featured in the trailers, but they don’t do the full scenes majesty any justice. As we fall back towards earth, we glimpse everything from their point-of-view, so we can only glimpse in tiny detail the destruction and violence that these monsters are leveling upon the city. Edwards has put humans and humanity back into the spectacle, borrowing this trick from the original Godzilla. (The segment that sticks with me the most about the original is a frantic woman’s screams to her children to remain calm in the face of death, for they shall reunite with their father.)

Granted, much like the original, this version of Godzilla is thin on fully realized characters, but Edwards has also assembled a tony cast to deliver this material. Bryan Cranston, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, and David Strathairn have little to do, but they bring their distinct personalities to these archetypes and sell the hell out of the material. Ken Watanabe fares better as man who has spent his entire life obsessing over the prospect that Godzilla may exist, and is the lone voice in the film who will say aloud that we are powerless to stop him, no more than ants to him.

Those going in expecting an outlandish star presence in the central role will be sorely disappointed. In a less intelligent film, the lead role would go to a Tom Cruise or Will Smith type, an actor who has built his career on being extraordinary. They would entire the frame and all of our fears about survival would fade away, because we know that they’re capable of leading us toward salvation, get the girl, and land a few trailer-worthy quotables. Aaron Taylor-Johnson gives a solid performance, but he doesn’t have leading man charisma, which makes his everyman character more believable. He also establishes a nice rapport and believable relationship with Elizabeth Olsen in their brief scenes together.

And I will concede that Godzilla does have its fair share of stupid plot points and dumb images, but that is common territory for a big summer popcorn film. But how many of those other films will be this somber? Godzilla positions us as ineffective to the magisterial strength and frightening indifference that natural disasters cause. This Godzilla picks right up where the original’s atomic anxiety left off, and adds in fresher doomsday potentialities – climate change imagery, pursuit of new weaponry, the search of the God particle. What other film would feature an image of men falling from the sky like heaven crying red tears, and then end the film with a shot that’s both menacing and serene? There is no triumph here, only a reminder that we’re not as big and powerful as we think we are. Before a prehistoric beast, we are but helpless and hopeless gnats.

In 1998, we got a terrible remake of 'Godzilla', it had a poor script, poor acting and not enough good scares! Fortunately, this version is a comeback!

Way better than the 1998 remake, 'Godzilla' takes a new approach in Japan and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson! It has marvellous looking sets but also the script contains many plotholes like why is Godzilla helping the humans and defeating the monsters? There's also the fact that Aaron Johnson looked too young to be playing a father but at least he gave a good performance! 'Godzilla' was a little disappointing but I still liked it!

Godzilla is back, and has been directed by newcomer Gareth Edwards. The movie also stars Bryan Cranston, and Aaron Taylor Johnson. Let me tell you right off, the movie was epic. I thought from the first minute to the final act the movie had me on the edge of my seat, I thought I had a heart attack because the suspense is so gripping. So let's do what I usually do in reviews and go through the categories and see how they match up.

ACTING-I thought the acting was good, I have no idea why everyone was complaining about it. Cranston was on his game and killed it in the movie. I was able to feel his emotion and almost teared up in some of his parts. I thought Kick-Ass, I mean Aaron Taylor Johnson, was good. I thought he had emotion, unlike what other people thought. He didn't have that Ryan Gosling awkward stare, I also felt for his character a lot. Maybe it's because I am getting married but I really connected with his character. Also Ken Watanabe had some cool lines, that with any other actor would have sounded corny, but I thought he delivered the lines well

SCRIPT- The script was okay, it wasn't Inception or Fight Club, but it was good enough to keep me interested. Some of the lines were a little corny, like when they first showed Godzilla, it was "we call him...Godzilla" I thought, I have heard that before. I didn't like in the script how Godzilla was introduced, it was like oh Godzilla is here and he's just been sleeping. I thought they could have introduced Godzilla a little better. Also the introduction of the MUTOs was awesome! It was amazing! The monsters looked amazing, I wont give too much away about their plot, but it was just awesome how they introduced them.

MISC- Like I said the suspense was throughout the movie and it kept me going and interested. Of course the one complaint people had was not enough Godzilla, all I can say is go watch all the other TUHO movies and comeback to me, because he is not in it much its all about the build up and they Edwards defiantly built it up. Sure it was a little different than the other movies, but I enjoyed it because the movie was able to keep me interested.

All in all the movie kicked ass. The acting was good and I was able to connect with the characters. The MUTOs looked awesome and their fight scene with the king was crazy and I wont tell you what Godzilla does but its awesome and better than a dropkick. The script was a little corny but most Godzilla movies are. Plus the ending is just great. Go see it, don't listen to the complainers, and go in and enjoy the heck out of the movie. "We call him...Godzilla"

My childhood was unforgettable. I saw some good monster movies like 'Jurassic Park', 'Anaconda' et cetera. Those times were just the beginning of CGI technology. The lots of effort have been made to give a best quality movie compared to present time. I can say the 90s were the turning point for movie productions in term of 'everything can be possible'. So then came the graphic movies like 'The Lord of the Rings', 'Harry Potter' series, followed by 'King Kong' 'Pacific Rim' and finally, now, this newest version of 'Godzilla' movie.

You know I had expected this movie a lot, after all it is one of my favourite movie characters ever since '98. Excited after seeing first teaser. But I was little unhappy over model of Godzilla, which was more outdated. I mean the blueprint for creating monster was borrowed from '54 version. Which was originally a man with costume performed stunts then later played it on a big screen where actors performed their act in front of it. Now everything is different, we got the technology, then why should choose fat one rather update it with fine anatomical structure. Because usually water animals won't be a fat one. That is why '98 Godzilla looked so perfect with slim and long legs just like an enlarged version of Iguana. Other than not redesigned 3D model, the Godzilla was presented awesomely on the screen with the great visual effects and sounds mixing. I loved to witness it on a large silver screen, it was stunning.

The movie began with a few opening credits and a decent story till forwarded all the way to later 15 years. The boring portions started. Wanted for something to happen somewhere, but had no luck. It only teased me with some sudden loud noises and briskly camera panning away from the characters just what the monster appeared from nowhere, but it didn't. I think the human story and monster's did not synch in with a clean perfect one movie. Humans and monsters were completely parted. At least collision between them would have been very interested, just like the car and helicopter chase in the '98 version.

All the human characters were very weak including army general, the protagonist and his silly mission. I wanted a gutsy person like Stephen Lang, who was excellent in 'Avatar' as a lieutenant colonel. You gonna love the graphic side of the movie, but this story badly misses the rockstar characters like one from Ron Perlman for 'Pacific Rim' and Jean Reno for '98 'Godzilla'. Aaron Johnson was good, but not good enough to handle whole movie himself. The inclusion of another couple of well know actors would have helped better in my opinion. Maybe the surprise entries are kept for a sequel, I guess.

Like any other Godzilla fan, I fought for my ticket that I booked a day earlier and saw on the first day itself. Actually, I enjoyed a lot this movie, but it will never be my favourite Monster movie. 'Favourite' and 'good entertainer' are two different categories. All the good entertainers are not my favourite. Though I cherished this film in a few scenes. Most importantly, this movie making opportunity was landed on the pair of a good hand. I liked 'Monsters', the director shown his caliber in that low budget high quality movie. So I had faith in him, but the thing was he's a documentary style movie maker. I was wondering how this commercial movie gonna shape up. Well, he proved that he can pull the trigger of the bazooka as well. It was visible that he was given freedom to make his way, at least in the majority of the movie.

Let them fight.

Must agree this is the best version according to the appearance of the monster. So the credits must go to all the members of special effects and visual effects team. No doubt stunts were breathtaking. It was a 2 hour movie, in that first half was dragged with human drama that I did not like much. It was drifting away from the main picture. So I was lucky in the exact beginning of the second half where the 'king of the monsters' appears in front of us completely with a huge roar. There's another flying monster in the movie called Muto. This second hour is all about them fighting each other. In a couple of the scenes I was totally disappointed where the fights between them were smartly concealed other than showing us through cable news channels and in few other tricky ways. Well, they saved it for the final battle. I guess it was a little late, but in some way it convinces us to satisfy after a long wait.

During the final battle something did not look good. I thought Godzilla was an animal, suddenly he becomes very intelligent and uses his fire-breath in a particular position to defeat his enemy. That's not at all, walking back to the sea was kind of looked like a Disney's fairy tale concept. Because monsters should behave like one not like one of a Marvel's superhero who concerns for human safety. That is the portion made me think like is it a children's movie? Because I just saw it till the end without aware. That small mistake was one of a drawback in the movie. They desperately wanted it for a sequel and so they did it without harming humans around.

Again the digital 3D was wasted with this movie. It was shot as a regular and converted into digital 3D. There was none pop-outs throughout. Okay, fine, that's not a big deal, but in most of the parts depth of the visuals were weaker, almost plain with too much darker background. I would say there's nothing special offers in this digital 3D version of the movie. Since it is made as a one we must prefer 3D over regular for somewhat better result to get.

There's a generation gap, fighting over different version won't change anything. My favourite version will remain the same and so yours and others. The purpose of all versions is to entertain the audience and so it does. As far now my review was mixed respond with a bit slides toward the negative side. In one line to say what's the wrong with this movie is that human portion of the story was a big letdown, though the vfx tried its best to lift is as much it can.

Overall, I believe repeat viewing this movie won't help us to love it. The first impression is the best, if you got it, then fine, if not, so you must be either '98 or '54 version fan. If you are a Godzilla fan then it is a must see movie whether you like it or not. Put all your faith and take a chance, who knows you may like it better than me.

7.5/10

Eventually, I'm surprised that I was expecting something more from this flick. The point is that it was not bad at all and definitely miles better than the previous version directed by Roland Emmerich but it was still nothing really amazing though. Basically, I was rather fooled by the awesome marketing campaign (they made some really impressive posters) and their convincing trailer. Still, it was far from being a failure. Indeed, it was pretty neat that they went back to the roots and started the story in Japan. I also always appreciate it when they kill some major actors right from the start (Indeed, Juliette Binoche didn't last more than 5 minutes and they got rid off of Bryan Cranston within 30 minutes). The main issue is how can you build up a compelling story with an invincible monster like Godzilla? I mean, with the Hulk, you have at least Bruce Banner to root for but, here, you have nothing much to connect with. At least, he looked awesome but, honestly, he didn’t much have much to do. The way they tried to put Aaron Taylor-Johnson in every single locations where those monsters were active was also rather awkward and he had the rather thankless job of being a rather useless main character who just stands there and watch the mayhem with us. To conclude, it was not bad and rather entertaining but I can’t say I was really blown away by the whole thing though.

Over the last few months, the newest Godzilla reboot has been generating a lot of steam, thanks to some marvelous trailers. It's not outlandish to call Godzilla the most hyped film of the year so far. But the funny thing about this, is that it will only appeal to a very specific group. I suspect most mainstream audiences will be disappointed by this reboot. Some will find it laughably bad. But if you find yourself in this film's (very small) target audience, then the hype will have all been worth it. Indeed, I find myself in that camp. Long live Godzilla!

Ford Brody has just returned from serving in the U.S. Navy, when he gets a phone call that his father has been arrested for trespassing in a quarantined area in Japan. Ford travels there to pick his father up, though his father is convinced that the Japanese scientists are hiding some mammoth secret. Needless to say, Ford's father proves correct. The scientists have been in possession of a MUTO, a large flying beast, and now it has escaped! But of course, there is a larger beast that makes his grand appearance later...

It is important, and I mean very important, to walk into Godzilla with the right expectations. Based on the trailers, one would expect Godzilla to be a more gritty and intense experience than say, Jurassic Park. And while it can be perceived that way, Godzilla is ultimately an homage to the Hollywood b-movie, which Godzilla shares its roots in. As a result, there are some scenes that very over-the-top, and even silly, but it's all part of the fun. Unfortunately, I suspect this will fly over the heads of many mainstream audiences.

Godzilla's b-movie mannerisms elicited chuckles at the screening I attended. In fact, an unexpected use of one of Godzilla's signature moves was met with uproarious laughter. Indeed, I was among those laughing, though I wonder how many of us realized we were supposed to be laughing with the movie, and not at the movie.

Is this a flaw of the film itself? That its intentions as a modern b-movie (though obviously, with a larger budget) is not defined clearly enough? I think this is more a problem with the marketing than anything. Audiences are expecting something more realistic. Though surely anyone walking into a film starring a giant lizard should know better than to expect absolute realism! If nothing else, the vintage feel of the delightful main titles should have given audiences a big enough hint.

Homages aside, Godzilla still packs a lot of fantastic bits that don't require b-movie know-how to enjoy. The special effects for instance, are breath-taking at times. There's a lot of build-up before the big reveal of Godzilla himself, but the tantalizing flashes we see of the beast here and there are enough to keep out attention. There are some shots in this film that are nothing short of mesmerizing. While the b-movie fun may disappoint some movie-goers, no one could possibly be disappointed by Godzilla himself. If one has trouble defining the word "spectacle," Godzilla is the antidote.

The interesting thing about the monsters in this film (Godzilla and MUTO), is that they are so abnormally large (Godzilla is taller than most sky scrapers), that they cannot target individual pedestrians. Indeed, we rarely see humans get eaten, because these monsters are too huge for that. Consequently, the monsters evoke less a feeling of terror or suspense, but rather, one of awe and excitement.

Unfortunately, like any creature-feature, it's occasionally slowed down by the less interesting humans. With the exception of Bryan Cranston's character (who is actually in much less of the film than the trailers would tell you), everybody is without personality. And unfortunately, the script tends to falter during these portions too. Still, no one comes to a film like Godzilla expecting strong characters or a strong script. They are preferred qualities, but when a film continues to dazzle you with eye-candy and Godzilla-madness, some flaws can be forgiven.

The actors do the best they can with half-baked characters. Aaron-Taylor Johnson is wooden in his performance in the lead (likely the reason he was not shown in any of the trailers), and so is Elizabeth Olsen in a much smaller role as Ford's wife (likely the reason she was not shown in any of the trailers). Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa has nothing to do in his role, but occasionally deliver exposition. Bryan Cranston is the clear stand-out, though he also possesses the unfair advantage of portraying the only character with a personality.

Alexandre Desplat's score is as loud and bombastic as any blockbuster score. And yet, it has melody. It has intelligence. And unlike Zimmer's disastrous Amazing Spider-Man 2, Desplat's score actually utilizes an orchestra! (So did Zimmer's, but how can you tell with the electric guitar and the dub-step in your face at all times?) Like the film itself, Desplat allows himself many homages to the classic b-movie, while also providing a score that is universally enjoyable. It is melodic, and yet, appropriately thrilling. Desplat has never scored a movie quite like this, but he has succeeded admirably.

Godzilla will not appeal to everyone. Only those that know exactly what they're in for will enjoy Godzilla to its fullest extent. It is essential to appreciate and understand Godzilla's b-movie sensibilities. If nothing else, audiences will be amazed by the stunning visuals. And how refreshing it is to see a movie that ends without unresolved story threads and un-learned secrets, and instead, just ends while it's ahead (I'm looking at you, Amazing Spider-Man franchise). It's unlikely that Godzilla will require the fanbase that one might have suspected 3 or 4 months ago. But it has the trimmings of a cult-classic.