So I finally saw Godzilla (2014).
Aaaaaand........ I'm mixed.
Subjectively, as a fan of the Toho films, I loved it. I though it captured the spirit of those films perfectly, and was a really enjoyable throwback to those films. Much moreso than the 1998 attempt, which failed in every regard.
Objectively, however, I think it did fail in one of its most important areas. It failed to make the human characters interesting and truly engaging outside of their base story. The characters where there..... but that was kind of it.
I REALLY wanted to love Ford, and I was able to love Cranston as his dad for what little we got. But jeez..... he did so little really. In fact, I'm having a hard time remember if he even spoke more than one or two lines per scene in each scene following the first act.
And yeah...... I can see why people said we didn't get enough of Goji. We really didn't until the third act. And this is a problem when, as mentiomed before, the main human character fails to engage.
And god damn it did it frustrate me for them to keep starting a fight between Godzilla and the MUTOs, and then jump cut to the aftermath, or a long period after the fight. That said...... what fighting we did get was ****ing phenomonal. That was as Godzilla as it could get.
Overall...... I give it an 7.9/10.
It was close to being a 10, but the flaws I mentioned brought it down. That said, I think its faithfulness to the Toho spirit and style of storytelling overpowered the flaws it had. Because, ultimately, that's what I went into this movie for; a modern, american update on Toho's Godzilla. And it was done so well in that regard that, IMO, you could almost reshoot/remake this Toho style, with japanese actors, and it would feel about the same.
t:
