Official Home for Universal Critic's Reviews Thread

The last 2 weeks I've watched many of the older "serious" Godzilla movies (everything from 1954, heisei & millenium series, I don't really like the showa series...) and in most of the films gozilla has less pure screen time then 20 minutes (except Final Wars).

And it doesn't mean in the new Godzilla that the action starts in the third part. There is thrilling action in the first hour, but more with the MUTOs and stuff. Godzilla comes later in the second half.

In some old Godzilla films there is the human intro & storytelling, later a monster is attacking Japan with first action and destroying scenes and then Godzilla comes out of the ocean and fighting (killing) the other monster in the last part.

So it isn't the first Godzilla with this style not having full action from the beginning on. Most of the movies are made in this way.

I don't worry, I still expect the best Godzilla ever and I am also interested in the plot turns, the MUTO reveal and MUTO action, Bryan Cranston and so on, so I don't need the full load from the first minute and I don't want "bullet-time with crazy camera angles action" like in the transformer series in a godzilla film! That would not fit :)

87 on RT

85% on RT

89% on RT

Metacritic score is slowly going up, from 59 to 61. At least it's green now :) Rotten tomatoes looks promising, rating 7.3/10 (went up from 7/10)

90% on RT

Metacritic - 63

The film seems to be more or less leveling out on Rotten Tomatoes with 90% of the 40 reviews being fresh.  And there's finally a consensus:

"With just enough human drama to anchor the sweeping spectacle of giant monsters smashing everything in sight, Gareth Edwards' Godzilla satisfyingly restores the franchise's fire-breathing glory."

I can basically grasp what the movie will offer based on what is, to me, rather common knowledge or maybe I just follow movies a little too well. The human element in the film as I've heard from multiple sources but nonetheless expected from the onset, will experience some type of drop in momentum or development in favor of what we can all expect to be the final battle between the three monsters near the movie's end. From a writter's perspective I fully understand if that descision was made in order to prevent the human drama from outshining the film's climax, especially with all the fans who could care less for a human driven story in a Godzilla movie.

As far as what people are saying about Aaron's performance being dwarfed by Cranston's, I think that's obvious. Aaron is not a bad actor, however, he plays a military father who comes off as you're average military grunt but with the burdens of his father's obsession and making sure he keeps his family safe because, well, that's his character. Someone as relatable as possible, given the extrodinary circumstances. On the other hand we have Joe Brody, arguably the more important of the two just based on the simple fact that his purpose in the film is much more deeply connected with Godzilla than anyone elses, save for Ken's character of course. That being said, Cranston's character is going to have to be someone who can draw in a certain level of emotion that can be felt from the film's start all the way to it's end.

Joe Brody and Ford Brody stand on two very different paths and I'm glad they do. I want Joe's performance to go beyond the other characters because I think that's what kind of character he is. The one that you think about the most whereas Ford Brody is more akin to Brad Pitt's Gerry in World War Z, a slightly above avergae military father who is played by a amazing actor. In a grounded setting, we need to be reminded that everyone isn't overly dramatic, scritpted with cliche's or even as engadging as you think they should be. Thats reality, not every important character having to put on a stellar performance for the sake of all-star acting, I'm pretty sure theres tropes for that sort of thing. If it's believable than I'll take it. The alternative is a competition of actors all battling to out perform one another in a film that isn't even about something as needless as that, especially a giant monster flick. Lets all remember what we're watching here. This isn't Breaking Bad, the greatest human drama on television, this is a Godzilla movie remade with better story telling, believable actors with heart and visuals to be remembered.

dropped back down to 85%

I'm not going to read any more reviews, positive or negative. I don't want it to influence how I will judge the movie. Even if I consciously tell myself not to be influenced, I can't rule out any subconscious impact. So to guard against that, I'm not going to read any more reviews. Yes, I can do this. Only one day more...

Side-by-side comparison of the two movies:

The Comparator - Godzilla 2014 VS Godzilla 1998

I noticed that the URL adresses for both of the negative reviews seem to say that Bryan Cranston is the star... could it be coincidence that the only two negative reviews (in this thread) were by people who were expecting Joe Brody to be the main character?