In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum, Uh, Now, Eventually you do plan to have Godzilla in your Godzilla movie right, “Hello?”
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“Godzilla” takes another shot at remaking the giant, city smashing lizard, after 1998s overhyped Matthew Broderick vehicle. This time Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor- Johnson take over the human roles as a family at the center of the epic monster on monster action. And at the end of the day we all know why we brave the sticky slabs of theater floor for a movie like this, right? That’s right. Giant monsters beating the ever living snot out of each other. So does this new Godzilla deliver in that respect? Well, maybe, but lets break it down.
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There’s certainly some good stuff here to mention first, for one, the actors do a pretty decent job with some mediocre material. Yes, the dialogue is the typical summer blockbuster schlock, but Cranston and crew do seem to take to it with a real fervency and investment Which gives the relationships more oomph than you might expect. I also thought director Gareth Edwards did a pretty good job of honoring the original 1954 version with a decent understanding of the formula that made those earlier movies so much fun, and the heart behind Godzilla’s core motivations and meaning. And yes, the monster fights are flat out awesome. The effects are beautiful, the action is intense and some of the prehistoric pugilism is downright brutal in its impact, emphasizing the brute force of what a battle like that would feel like. Those moments of lizard on lizard warfare really are the best thing about the movie, which is why its so frustrating that it takes so long to get there and that it’s such a small part of the movie..
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Now, back in the “man in suit” days keeping these moments few and far between probably made sense, for budget reasons if nothing else. But today, we expect action movies to take hold of us and not let go. This movie, however, takes a much more leisurely pace through our journey with only the occasional tease of what might be to come. In fact, and lets call it the worst thing, Godzilla himself is barely a player in the movie until the end, with his enemies, The Mutos, being introduced first and taking up most of our attention. And though I think the human relationships occasional work as emotion builders, I’m not sure why it matters in a movie like this where the humans are relegated primarily to spectators in a battle they really can’t play much of a role in, even when they try, which leaves any time we spend focusing on them feeling almost unnecessary.
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At the end of the day, “Godzilla” succeeds in bringing us some intense monster fighting monster eye candy. But those sporadic moments are separated by too much exposition and stalled momentum to amount to much more than a lumbering B-
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