TL;DR – It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it hits hard when it hits. 

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this film.

Godzilla Review –

With Monarch: Legacy of Monsters starting to air, my thoughts have been brought back to the MonsterVerse. It was a series of films that never got the easy ride that some others did but could still chart out their cinematic universe one monster battle at a time. There is one film in the series that I have never really engaged with: the film that started it all. Well, given how chiefly it fits into the happening in Monarch, I knew now was the time to fix that oversite finally.   
 
 So to set the scene, after exploring the history around nuclear weapons, we find ourselves in the Philippines in 1999. They were about to start a mine when the ground fell out from underneath, taking 40 miners with them. They didn’t find any uranium but a mammoth skeleton of a long-dead creature and an egg. Worse, it looks like there were meant to be two eggs, and one has been opened. Meanwhile, in Janjira, Japan. Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is concerned about seismic activity near the nuclear power plant when they have a breach as something crashes into the reactor.

Well, this is such an odd duck of a film. You can see all the parts that would eventually be expanded to make the series what it is today. However, it is also very rough around the edges, missing much of the connecting tissue that makes disaster films like this work. You can feel it tug in multiple directions, like it is unsure of what it wants its focus to be. I think the legacy of the 1996 Godzilla was still fresh on everyone’s mind, and they struggled to adapt it to an American audience with that framework.

Where you see this the most is with the human characters. Now, don’t get me wrong, if there is one defining character of the MonsterVerse, it is that it struggles with its human characters, with Godzilla vs. Kong being a chief case study in that. Still, here we actively sideline the interesting characters like Ishirō Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins), who felt like they were added late in the production. When our primary focus, Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Elle Brody (Elizabeth Olsen) spend about 30 seconds of screen time together before going on their way. We get to see a little bit of Ford’s personality going forward, but he is still more of someone who has things happen to him because he is going in the wrong direction.

However, even with all these issues holding it back, it is still a fascinating film because when it hits, it hits hard. It is just shy of one hour into the movie before we see Godzilla (T. J. Storm) in all its glory, but it works because they knew that moment had to sell the film. You can feel the rumble of that reveal, the work on the sound effects to make it shine, and you wish you could have seen this on the big screen all those years ago. Cities get destroyed, planes fall out of the air, and more than anything, you can feel the words “let them fight” echoing from the screen. In these moments, we get some beautiful shots, like the HALO sequence, that make the price of admission worth it just by themselves.

In the end, do we recommend Godzilla? Well, it is still a bit rough around the edges, but when it works, it works. It is a shame that we never got more of Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen in this universe to help give their characters some development. Still, it was a pretty good foundation to launch a series from. If you liked Godzilla, we would recommend to you Kong: Skull Island.    

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.
Have you watched Godzilla?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Godzilla
Directed by – Gareth Edwards
Story by – David Callaham
Screenplay by – Max Borenstein
Based on – Godzilla by Toho Co., Ltd
Music by – Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography by – Seamus McGarvey
Edited by – Bob Ducsay
Production/Distribution Companies – Legendary Pictures, Toho & Warner Bros. Pictures
Starring – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston, T. J. Storm & CJ Adams with Carson Bolde, Richard T. Jones, Russell Hampton, Victor Rasuk Patrick Sabongui, Jared Keeso, Al Sapienza, Brian Markinson, Catherine Lough Haggquist, Jake Cunanan, Warren Takeuchi, Yuki Morita, Ken Yamamura, Hiro Kanagawa & Garry Chalk