Critics rating: 2 STARS*

Cast: Bryan Lee Cranston, Aaron Perry Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Juliette Binoche, David Russell Strathairn, Sally Cecilia Hawkins, Cameron John “CJ” Adams, Brian Markinson, Richard Timothy Jones,  

Direction: Gareth Edwards.

Written By: David Callaham.

Produced: Toho Co..Ltd, Warner Bros.Entertainment, Legendary Pictures.
 
Duration: 123 minutes.

Good Guy Gojira

This movie is absolutely bizarre. I cannot believe I specially asked my office to let me review this movie. Not only was I expecting a serious film with some pre historic badassery but also for it to kick its predecessor’s butt. It disappointed me on both fronts.

One question for the Godzilla producers, “What were you smoking?”

One of the bothersome aspects of this movie is that all the people of American Naval forces act so nonchalant about the fact that a prehistoric, gargantuan, island of a monster is passive to their presence and the battleships that are flanking him and Godzilla chooses to attack only its original prey – an equally enormous EMP blast producing spider like creature and its smaller aerial counterpart.

Despite great production value one cannot appreciate the film as it completely lacks the basics of good storytelling. The climax is so predictable that I wonder that the filmmaker Gareth Edwards even considered it. The film feels like it tries to blend in too many aspects of sci-fi, alien invasion and pre historic beasts into one and the combination though could be spectacular wasn’t done justice to.

 

The most exciting moments for everyone else in the theatre seemed to be when Ken Watanabe’s character would say Gojira in his Japanese accent.

The VFX teams at Moving Picture Company and Double Negative have done a good job and some of the scenes will have you on the edge of the seat banging your fists against the armrest as Godzilla brilliantly performs a kiss of the death on one of his enemies by breathing blue fire straight down it’s throat.

Legendary Pictures haven’t got it right with respect to the buildup scenes before the revelation of the monsters as the unveiling leaves you unimpressed. Even the final showdown between Godzilla and the alien-spider couple could have been a lot more exciting and it just wasn’t. A bad way to spend $160 million dollars I must say.

Overall the predictability of the storyline just kills off all the awesomeness and leaves you disappointed. Do go for this film if you want to watch a dinosaur with a conscience.

Spoiler Alert: Gojira dies.