Godzilla is entertaining fun that leaves you wanting more

You say monsters and some people, a large, vocal portion of them will scream Godzilla.  Having lived in Japan for a couple years I saw some of the old school movies and enjoyed them, but never really understood the cult appeal that the character has.  Hollywood as never really done a good Godzilla movie, until now.  The latest take on Godzilla is the closest to being great yet.  It is a very good, fun summer popcorn movie that audiences 8 and up will enjoy.

What is frustrating about Godzilla is, ironically enough, its lack of Godzilla.  Not since Dressed to Kill has a main character seen so little screen time.   Godzilla doesn’t pull an Angie Dickinson, thankfully.  Once the film takes off and the ancillary monsters come on board Godzilla comes on screen and makes the most of it.

The story is Godzilla is well thought out and makes sense.  It’s odd to say that; given that it’s the story of a large monster that protects humans, even though he’s taller than a skyscraper and kills everything that he steps on.

It starts off in the late 90s in Japan with a nuclear power worker noticing strange seismic patterns.  He goes to work with his wife where she dies in a tragic accident that was started by the patterns.  Forward 15 years and their son, now a bomb disposal expert in the US military returns home.  Dad is still in Japan chasing theories about the accident when he gets arrested going into the zone where it all happened.

From there, the patterns re-appear, government cover ups are exposed, a monster comes forth and destruction on a big scale happens in Japan and then America.

Godzilla is fun.  This is a fun movie I thought to myself about halfway through it.

Muto is the other monster that Godzilla fights.  There is more Muto than Godzilla in the movie.  At first this was frustrating, but it makes sense because even passive movie fans know Godzilla, Muto is less known.  Muto looks like a stink bug with crow bars for arms.

A monster movie with too many monsters is just a B movie with no plot.  A big budget monster movie with not enough monsters may be frustrating, but is ultimately  better than the alternative.

Godzilla is not classic cinema, but it is very fun.  In our screening the audience went crazy when Godzilla went Alicia Silverstone on Muta.  Godzilla’s tail spike turned aqua blue and then he got medieval on him.  Fans of the king of the monsters won’t be disappointed (too much) and casual moviegoers will be pleasantly surprised at Godzilla.  Ranked against last year’s monster epic Pacific Rim, Godzilla is more fun and an overall better movie.  Game on Transformers.

Godzilla is rate PG-13 for large scale mayhem, destruction and creature violence.