Analyzing the mixed reactions (All the Spoilers)

Hello all,

By now, it should come as no surprise when I say that the reception of this movie is mixed, with passionate people on both sides duking it out. What I wanted to do was look at some of the major complaints and talk about them. I'm NOT here to say if anyone is right or wrong, I just want to analyse and get your opinions on some things. (I'm not going to say my opinion of the movie, this is not a review)

1. Not enough Godzilla:

This one is easy to understand. Everyone thought Godzilla was going to be the star of the show, and he was but not like you would think. He was much more like the T-Rex was the star of the Jurassic Park. The MUTO's (raptors) got much more screen time, but Godzilla stole the show. He owned every scene he was in, and using him sparingly worked and here is why. They made EVERY shot count. If half of the battle was boring or bland, it would not have worked, but the final showdown was exactly what it should have been, and every shot counted.

2. Cranston:

He kicks it, early. The first time I watched the movie, I did not like it one bit, but the second time I watched the movie, it did not bother me nearly as much, and here's why. He had nothing to do. He played his role, and died. I had to take off my Cranston colored glasses to see this, but he would have nothing to do for the rest of the movie. He had a largely similar role to Watanabe (a character that I felt was almost criminally underutilized). Splitting the scientist roll up between the two of them would have diminished each character to a point of uselessness. One scientist/kaiju expert was enough. Watanabe's roll was too small as is, imagine if he had to share it with Cranston. Sorry, but it was one or the other, and if I had to choose one for this movie, it’s Watanabe. I get why people were upset about this though, but more on that later.

3. Aaron Taylor-Johnson:

This is one I agree with. Not that he is a bad actor (because I thought he played the part well) but because the part was boring. I'm sorry, but he does not break the standard military man role in any way. I actually liked every OTHER character in the entire movie, except him. It would have been better if it had focused more on Olsen (I thought she did very well) or Watanabe/Hawkins. They were more interesting, and stole the scenes they were in.

4. Boring:

Okay, I don't get this one, at all. Sorry, but I don't see it. Between the MUTO's and Godzilla there is plenty of action to go around. I've tried to understand this argument, but I can't. UNLESS you are only entertained by monsters fighting monsters, which time wise, there is not a whole lot. But action as a whole, there is plenty of.

5. Military not being involved enough:

This one I kind of understand, the military is what is supposed to fight these things. They keep us safe, so to speak. However, the military fighting Godzilla seems silly and futile to me. Should they try, sure, should they have ANY impact on the Big Guy, nope. That would be like the military having an effect on a hurricane, ain't going to happen. On a side note, while it looked cool and all, I thought it was silly that some of the most expensive ships in the world were floating right above Godzilla on the way to San Fran, what if he decided to get some sun?

Now, to get back to why I understand most of these complaints. I understand them because I believe that the marketing campaign, while effective, was very misleading about the movie. The tone in the trailers was different than the movie, and Godzilla himself was portrayed as the Big-Bad. The movie wasn't THAT dark (not as much as 54'), and Godzilla was kind of a hero. He still killed thousands of people, but in the end he definitely played the role of incidental hero. The trailers also featured WAY too much Cranston, and almost no ATJ. Why, because one is hot off of one of the most acclaimed TV shows in history, and the other isn't. Good for marketing, bad for post release. I feel that, while not outright lying, the marketing was misleading. For this reason, I understand most of the complaints.