Godzilla Review

Grade: D+
One-Liner: We're going to need a better movie.

It's bad when you leave a movie and the nicest thing you can say is that it had a great marketing campaign. This Godzilla remake had an excellent strategy, with a cryptic and memorable trailer and the use of stars like Bryan Cranston, who was front and center during the press tour. Sadly the trailer evoked more awe than the majority of the film and Cranston made his exit in the first 30 minutes.

Taking on the lead role of Cranston's son Ford Brody was Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who you may remember as wannabe superhero Kick Ass. Well, he's grown up, bulked up, and become thoroughly boring and unrelatable. The film spent the first hour hopping from Japan to Hawaii to Las Vegas, showcasing minor destruction as a build up to the final battle in San Francisco. Instead, it should have spent that time building more of an origin story for the monster (or in this case monsters) and an emotional background for the Brody family.

Ford was married to Elle Brody (Elizabeth Olsen) and had a young son named Sam, but the family spent less than five minutes of screen time together and had approximately two phone conversations throughout the course of the movie. Their reunions were more awkward than passionate, and Ford seemed to have more of a link to the random civilians he saved than his own family.

Maybe your argument is that the film is more about Godzilla than the people he affects. So let's talk about this "epic" predator. In this installment, Godzilla is not even the creature responsible for most of the destruction. There are two other giant alien-esque menaces named Mutos terrorizing major cities and hopped up on radiation (though few remember to wear their protective masks when they're around them), and it is Godzilla's job to "restore balance." This included the destruction of major American cities.

As a New Yorker, I was thrilled to see my city unscathed (for once), and became increasingly excited to watch the three monsters rip apart San Francisco. Unfortunately, the director opted to place most of the film's final battle at night, making it much simpler for him, but much less visually appealing for me. The final 20 minutes were filled with a fairly satisfying amount of "Oh shit!" moments, which seemed to quell any doubts the rest of my theater's audience may have had. But for me, it wasn't enough to make up for the exercise in mediocrity that came before it. Can Christopher Nolan direct the next one please?