Godzilla has seen several big screen incarnations through the years, though most American audiences will probably never forget (or forgive) the botched big budget 1998 effort by Roland Emmerich, starring Matthew Broderick in an American-ized version of the Toho monster story that was over the top in just about every sense. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood made another attempt at adapting the Toho titan for U.S. audiences. Enter Gareth Edwards, a man who already made a giant monster movie in 2010 called MONSTERS, and for less than a million bucks. That effort became a film festival favorite and a cult hit on home video. I must say it’s admirable that Warner Brothers gave someone like Edwards a chance to take on such a big property, but there’s also no way to know what the end result might be… and the estimated $160 million budget is certainly a big step up for an “independent” auteur like Edwards. Audiences seem very excited for this new take on the giant monster, so does the movie live up to the hype?

Opening with a montage of nuclear testing in the 1950s, the film leads us into a family living in Japan in 1999. The father Joe (Bryan Cranston) and mother Sandra (Juliette Binoche) work at a nuclear plant nearby their home while their son Ford (CJ Adams) goes to school. An incident at the plant ends in tragedy for them. Cut to present day. Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is now grown up and married with his own son. His wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) longs to spend more time with Ford, but he’s unexpectedly called to collect his father, who is being held in Tokyo after spying in places he shouldn’t be. Joe has turned into a conspiracy nut, trying desperately to solve the riddle of the plant disaster all those years ago. Dr. Ichiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) is secretly investigating a mysterious form buried in the ground, which may be connected to the 1999 incident. Eventually Dr. Serizawa meets Joe and Ford, and realizes they may know a little something about this subject, but disaster strikes again, and a horrifying creature is released. When the U.S. military gets involved, the good doctor reveals that nature has a way of keeping balance, and the awakening of this beast may also bring about a formerly dormant foe… called “Godzilla.”

In MONSTERS, Gareth Edwards used the concept of giant monsters as a backdrop for the story, but didn’t really show them until the very end of the film. Some of those sensibilities are present here as well, except in a Godzilla movie you can only get away with that so much. What’s surprising is how much how pulls away from the giant monster battles. The ‘evil’ opposing monster (referred to as “MUTO”) is shown a lot, and at first you might wonder how long into the movie will it be before we actually see the title character. But when Godzilla does finally show up, man oh man is it great. The design of the creature is familiar enough for classic fans to rejoice, but tweaked enough for modern day audiences to get on board with. He looks great, sounds great, and the movements are human-like enough to embody the spirit of the character (which for so many years was, after all, a man in a suit). Some audience members will be frustrated with the way Edwards only shows us the beginning of the battles time and time again, but he definitely makes up for it with the finale.

Some critics have noted the final scenes redeem many of the film’s faults, and I’d say that’s a safe statement to make. So where are the faults? Well, as one might expect with a monster movie, they mostly inhabit the human story. The opening of the film feels a bit rushed, and while Bryan Cranston is a strong enough actor to make an emotional scene resonate with viewers, we could have used a little more depth to his family in the story. Instead, things move at a breakneck pace in the first 30 minutes or so, even once we enter the present day setting. Meeting grown up Ford, having him track down his dad, then figuring out a way to place them among the other key characters in the story is done so quickly it’s a little dizzying. Then, about 45 minutes in, things slow down a bit. The monsters are there, and destruction is happening, but the story itself starts to linger a bit, which at that point is a bit of a welcome change. Perhaps the biggest let down is how little Bryan Cranston is in the movie, especially considering how big of a selling point he’s been in all of the trailers and TV spots. Coming off the heat of BREAKING BAD, it was smart to cast him in a film like this, but a little surprising that he isn’t utilized more. Aaron Taylor-Johnson becomes the true lead, and where in movies like KICK-ASS he successfully plays a goofy high school kid trying to be cool, here he’s a little bland as the military man sort of going through the motions. He’s meant to be our eyes on the action, and take us through the events unfolding, but we never really get attached to him or find him terribly sympathetic. There are attempts to sell us on the relationship divide between him and his wife, but a few phone calls just never drives it home. Elizabeth Olsen, who is capable of being great (see MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE) also feels a little underdeveloped in the movie, never quite seeming worried enough about her husband being so far away from her and their son. In fact all of the human characters never seem to resonate that much. David Strathairn just spouts off disaster scenario dialogue with little impact, and even Ken Watanabe does little more than look amazed at the monsters destroying the world around them. Perhaps the most wasted actor is the great Sally Hawkins as Watanabe’s right hand woman, since she barely has any lines or purpose in the few scenes she’s in. I fear some of the human element not working is likely largely attributed to editing, as I got the sense there was at one point more to these characters, but perhaps too much that would take away from the action.

But hey, we’re not going to see a movie like GODZILLA to see a human story anyway, right? We want to see giant monsters smashing into one another with breathtaking CGI. And you get that, and it’s awesome. There’s some odd character traits with the MUTO monster, such as feeding off of nuclear energy… so in other words, the Army loads up a nuclear warhead, and MUTO just grabs it and eats it. How do you destroy a monster like that?? Oh, yeah, get another giant monster to do it. In some ways making the villain creature impervious to human weapons was actually a rather inspired choice. This thing even has the power to cause an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse), knocking out all electricity within miles. Throughout the middle of the film we actually see more monsters creating destruction than we do actual fights, but it’s all building up to the big finish, which doesn’t disappoint. And I should definitely mention the terrific score by Alexandre Desplat, who is a rather unusual choice for a big production like this – he nails it, the music selections are strong and done with perfection.

To sum up, GODZILLA is a fun ride at the movies, and definitely an improvement over the 1998 American version, but still not quite a perfect film. That said, there’s enough great stuff on display here to make this a movie worth taking in, at least once. One thing Gareth Edwards excels at is creating tension and building a scene to a moment, and there’s more than a few examples of that in the movie, proving he is quite capable as a big budget film director. The very last shot is, quite simply, perfect. I’m not sure the 3D added much to the experience, but the giant IMAX screen sure did. Check it out this weekend and tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

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