A huge step up from previous American efforts, Godzilla has its problems but the King of the Monsters is not one of them.

After a meltdown at the nuclear power plant takes his wife 15 years ago, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) thinks the seismic activity that caused it might be happening again. This leads to his arrest in Japan and his son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) to have to bail him out. Joe talks Ford into breaking into the quarantine zone to retrieve data and they find that things are not as they appear. Another arrest later and they find themselves in the site of the old nuclear facility now run by Dr Ichiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) right as the secret they have been hiding gets loose and starts ruining shit. Things go from bad to worse when they realize the monster, dubbed a MUTO by the military, is trying to communicate with another of its kind and another third thing, that Dr Serizawa calls Godzilla, is moving to intercept them.

When you make a movie like this, there is a balancing act that has to happen to keep it from just being a movie about a monster destroying the city while at the same time not overdoing it with the human drama when the real draw is the monster. This version of Godzilla doesn’t quite pull that balance off as it sticks too close to the human characters and strays into frustrating territory in moments where all you really want to see is destruction. The balance isn’t tipped so far it kills the movie but by the time we get to the third act, I want far fewer reaction shots from Elizabeth Olsen and far more shots of kaiju stomping mayhem. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself.

The pacing of the movie is deliberate and slow burns its way into showing the first monster with fairly solid foundations and emotional framework. This might irritate audience members who just want to get to the monsters but the Godzilla films have largely been rooted in both literal and emotional fallout from nuclear weapons and testing and setting all of that up in the beginning throws some pseudo science at us and provides context outside of ‘holy shit it’s Gojira!’ The pacing doesn’t really change even as the plot picks up steam and stays grounded in Ford trying to get home to his wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and son (Carson Bolde). This isn’t to say that there is no action or that nothing happens. Plenty happens and you’ve seen a bunch of kaiju goodness before Godzilla pops out of the water. I would have liked to have seen a bit more focus put on Godzilla once this happens though as the movie keeps teasing him long after he should be front and center.

I liked a lot of what director Gareth Edwards did early on with doling out teases here and there and doing things like cutting away to see the action on the news but at a certain point I really just wanted to hold on the monsters more. Because the monsters were pretty amazing and all of that worked really, really well. It might sound like I didn’t like this very much but I thought it was awesome and delivers on the promise of monster destruction. There is a lot surrounding that to wade through but Godzilla looks awesome and looks like he is really there taking up the space and moving as he should. There is none of the 1998 bullshit here and Godzilla looks like Godzilla.

The MUOs looked pretty cool if maybe too derivative of the monster from Cloverfield and Super 8, but ultimately they are worthy opponents for Godzilla and gives him something to do outside just tearing a city up while the military throws useless bullets at him. There is still plenty of that but it is nice to see that there is a better reason for shit to be destroyed than essentially just because.

Another balancing act that a movie like this has to perform is the line between cheesiness and seriousness. Here the movie is much more sure footed and, while the whole concept is cheesy and silly to begin with, the characters take it very seriously and there is not a nod and wink with corny jokes thrown (see: Godzilla 1998). There is some dialogue that is a bit on the goofy side and some fan service here and there but for the most part, once you except that you are seeing giant monsters fighting, the whole thing is very sincere. I really like that because it grounds the movie while still feeling fun.

The performances in the movie were fine. No one is winning any awards for acting here but no one does anything to mess it up. Aaron Taylor-Johnson handles action sequences well and is believable enough. Bryan Cranston doesn’t stretch much here but handles emotional moments like a champ. Elizabeth Olsen is capable and emotes a lot which is what she is supposed to do here and Ken Watanabe pulls off reverence for Godzilla without coming across as too cheesy. That is the best thing that everyone does here is that they all do a good job of taking it seriously without any winks to the audience.

As an aside, there were some people around me at the theater who were scoffing and making loud comments about how stupid the movie was and this really bothered me. First of all, shut the fuck up. That is the number one.  I didn’t pay $10 to hear jackasses do MST3K badly. Second of all, what exactly did you expect? If the scoffing were for pacing issues or silliness with the science stuff then fair enough (although seriously, shut the fuck up) but don’t fling your hands in the air like you just can’t believe that a giant lizard monster is tromping through the city. That is the whole deal here. Don’t scoff and act like it is stupid when Godzilla breathes fire. That is a thing he does. Why are you at a Godzilla movie if you are going to be incredulous that Godzilla is in it doing Godzilla shit? If you are going to get bent out of shape about stuff like that then don’t go see a Godzilla movie.

Conclusion [8.0 out of 10]

This new version of Godzilla is not perfect but it is pretty awesome and if you want to see giant monsters fight then you are going to get what you want. I kind of wish one of the MUTOs looked like the Godzilla from the 1998 movie so this one could stomp him into oblivion because it did that much better of a job at Godzillaing than that one. Still, if you are expecting a super fast paced action movie that is grounded in hard reality then this shouldn’t even be  consideration. People should know what they are going to get with a movie like this and if you go in expecting not to see a giant lizard monster destroying shit and fighting other monsters then frankly you are kind of an idiot. Just know that this takes its time and stumbles a bit but delievers the Godzilla goods when it is all said and done.