Warning - this review contains lots of spoilers.
Godzilla is a big movie. Right from the beginning it feels like you're watching something important.
In the first half hour the tension builds up nicely with some eery unexplained phenomena. Some people say they're earthquakes, but we know better and so does scientist Bryan Cranston. He's on top form, and the movie loses a lot when he goes and his son Ford takes over as the lead. Whereas Cranston is obsessed with the conspiracy of what's actually going on, the son doesn't care and just wants to get home to his family, but by a series of tenuous coincidences he repeatedly ends up at the heart of the action. Worse again than Ford is his irritating wife, played by Elizabeth Olsen. There's one scene where Ford phones her and is trying to explain something but keeps getting interrupted by her hysterical blubbering. He looks pretty pissed off at having to wait for her to calm herself down so he can continue, and I felt the same way.
It's revealed that Godzilla has been around for ages, and the nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s were actually failed attempts to blow him up. The major twist in this movie is that there are some other big monsters, who are known as MUTOs. Their story begins when some archaeological team somewhere find a couple of big eggs. One of these contains the first MUTO, who trundles off to Fukushima Power Station (not actually called that) and causes a meltdown. He hangs around at the power station feeding off the radiation. The other one is put in storage and years later bursts out, fully 300 feet high. The two MUTOs try and meet up, for some incestuous breeding, but they have to deal with the ineffective US military and also Godzilla.
I've a few problems with this. How did the second MUTO get so big while being stored in a box? Secondly, why does Godzilla wants to kill the MUTOs?. It's certainly not to eat them. Also, the MUTOs feed on background radiation from the meltdown, but also seem to literally eat nuclear warheads. How do they even know there's radiation in a sealed warhead, unless it's leaking? It's not clear if Godzilla eats radiation; he does have some pretty fierce atomic breath but has no interest in eating the warheads.
Ken Watanabe plays a monster expert who when called upon reveals what the MUTOs and Godzilla are up to. As the movie goes into the endgame there's no need for his explanation, so he's a bit redundant, and just wistfully talks about restoring the balance of nature. That's right, it's an eco thriller. There's a suggestion I think that Godzilla, who is referred to as a God a few times, really is some sort of furious avenger, who kills the MUTOs as they are messing things up. There's one scene where Godzilla's big spines protect some humans and it looks a bit deliberate. So is Godzilla actually not so much a protector of nature, but a protector of humans? A giant green batman in the sea? He certainly has a nice look about him, scary but also quite chunky and lovable, compared to the spiky and nasty MUTOs. I wonder what his BMI is.
When the monsters are fighting at the end it's a bit like Pacific Rim (see our reviews here and here); the fighting is good and solid and lots of fun, but you don't really feel a lot of danger or excitement.
For me the most interesting bits were the scenes shot from the perspective of kids. There's also a few nice quiet bids in the middle where Elizabeth Olsen isn't in it, and the tension slowly cranks up.
Finally, I should mention the most remarkable aspect of the film - the tremendous amount of rumbling. It's nearly constant. There's rumbling during the seismic activity, rumbling when the score is menacing, and lots and lots of rumbling when there's giant fighting. If you watch this at home it's going to sound terrible on your TV.
Overall, a competently handled big budget thriller, but ultimately disappointing. I'd have liked a bit more suspense.
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