Decent revival of the famous monster, which has some genuinely excellent special effects and memorable new creatures in the form of the MUTOs... it's more of a MUTO picture than a Godzilla one, with the big G taking an almost supporting role before he comes along and helps raise San Franscisco while fighting two opponents.
Gareth Edwards' style is to give things an air of verisimilitude and film a lot of action in long shots; he also has a major soft spot for helicopters. This means the movie is visually impressive but lacks excitement as many of the big set pieces take place in the distance. It doesn't help that the lead - the dull Aaron Taylor Johnson - spends most of the movie observing action, only getting involved in the end. I wish they'd killed him off and kept alive his father, Bryan Cranston, whose craziness provides some much needed life. Even duller is Elizabeth Olsen as Johnson's wife, who spends the film running up and down corridors escaping rubble - and their kid is even duller than that.
I did like how respectful the film was towards it's Japanese heritage and there are some first rate moments: the initial appearance of the monsters, the death of Juliet Binoche, the Halo jumping sequence, the visuals of a destroyed San Francisco. Some top actors are wasted in bland support roles - Sally Hawkins and Ken Watanabe especially.
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