Godzilla (Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson) Movie Review 

Alonso is spot on.

I am glad Godzilla is different from Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim was devoid of plot, decent acting, character development, or story. The fact that every review I have listened to says that Godzilla is the opposite of Pacific Rim, with respect to these four things, makes me want to see it

I was pissed off by the cut aways from the fighting but overall it was very well crafted, acted (by Bryan) and the CG was incredible. Also was not expecting Godzilla's 'atomic breath'

Caught 'Godzilla' last night in one of the early Thursday showings. For the most part, I came away from this very pleasantly surprised. The action and visuals were top-notch, there were plenty of thrills and tension throughout, and the final 15 minutes were just awesome. I'm still a little unsure whether I'm annoyed at or impressed with Edwards' not really showing much of Big G until the end, and even then with a lot of the cutting away back to the human characters (none of which were interesting or even remotely compelling, save for Bryan Cranston's character who didn't even get much time here). I also did feel that there was some bloat here, possibly with about 10-15 minutes - at the very least - that could have been trimmed out completely for better pacing. But I very much enjoyed the film, and it really redeemed the pathetic 1998 film.

Aaron Taylor Johnson was AMAZING in this movie! Very reserved and subtle performance, reminded me of Michael Keaton's Batman.

Slow burn is great but it DIDN'T deliver in the end. Too much bullshit human story and army stuff and not near enough monster moments!!! The 10% of the film that Godzilla was ACTUALLY in was awesome!! But having to sit through an hour fifty yawnfest before it gets good is a bad move.

I normally like Alonso but that score was balls

Kudos to Alonso for going against the grain and giving this movie the negative review it deserved.

Completely agree with Alonso on this. There's build-up and there's "C'mooooooon. Get to the good stuff already". In act 3 they finally get to good stuff and it's amazing ... when they're not constantly cutting back to the boring ass soldiers running around on the ground. It's like a Call of Duty game with Godzilla fighting in the background. Ugh! At the end of act 3 the fights are properly focused upon and it's INCREDIBLE!!! But I couldn't help but feel like Cersei from Game Of Thrones; "You took too long." Also, when they completely skipped that fight scene at the Hawaiian airport? After all that incredible build up and momentum? WHAT THE FUCK!!!

When Duralde doesn't like a movie it is so annoying to see him nag and blabber. Thank God that others liked this movie and gave him little chance to spit out.

The more I think about Godzilla the more I dislike it

the human story was definitely weak but the camerawork and score were so consistently brilliant that the build up really worked for me. the third act was just jaw-dropping, i really enjoyed this movie. it isn't the masterpiece it could've been but it's still a great movie!

I really thought Aaron Taylor-Johnson was pretty decent. Not understanding the hate.

This movie has to be one of my favorite Godzilla movies ever. Can't even comprehend how that guy could say Godzilla 2000 was better then this.

They sure are serious about breaking down this GODZILLA movie. It's a Godzilla movie!

He smashed through the golden gate bridge. Found it satisfying the stuff outside the monsters, but they were the focus

I'm with Alonso.

Aaron Johnson was terrific. Pacific Rim, Cloverfield, GodZilla are 3 completely different monster movies and i liked 'em all

My biggest problem wasn't the actors. The final fight had some, or three, really awesome scenes but I don't think that justifies cutting to tv screens, kids, or going to a pov shot behind windshield wipers during the monster fight scenes leading up to it. Also, needs more wide shots.

Oh God the captions.

The shots in this film were just sick!!!! Very well thought out planned and executed.

I like how he still hasn't actually seen the fight scenes in Pacific Rim. He has to mention that he saw a shitty 3D showing where it was too dark for him. Pacific Rim is the least confusing in terms of giant things fighting giant things.

No HD? I really enjoy these reviews, I prefer watching them in fullscreen, but not in 360p...

360p? I thought 1080 was standard practice now.

Wow I loved this movie - It was the PERFECT GODZILLA MOVIE... I understood everything in this movie... I was never lost at all. before watching this movie I watched original movie, Rewturn of Godzilla (1985), Godzilla (always will be Zilla to me) and Final Wars...this movie to me was a 9.5/10

Monsters by the same director was made and edited and everything else was done on a mac in the guys bedroom, the total budget was half a million dollars, the Godzilla budget was over 200 times that.

Seeing the movie a second time, knowing what to expect, helps to clear up some of the unanswered questions that audiences may have missed the first time around. I don't know what that says about the movie being good or bad, but I WANTED to see it again, and it filled in some gaps for me, which then made me enjoy the film even more the second time.

I loved this film. I came out happy :D Every piece worked perfectly for me, even the human side of the story. So Good! props to Gareth Edwards and Legendary for taking the risk. Thanks.

I like how they portrayed Godzilla as more of a giant predator not a giant lizard who's only want is to destroy a city. The monsters were more like animals

I loved Godzilla!! I'm glad they held back the fighting and showing too much. I didnt wanna watch another man of steel movie. Less equals more. So worth seeing. Cant wait to see more films.

the movie was shit. The trailer was fucking awesome, it made out as though the brilliant BRYAN CRANSTON was going to be the central character, not that he'd die a quarter of the way into the movie. ATJ and his wife and kids were boring as fuck. There was almost no actual GODZILLA in the movie at all, I don't care if you thought it was an intended "slow burn" sort of thing, there should've been a hell of a lot more godzilla action in there.

Alonso never admits he like a movie!!

I pretty sure the budget on this was 1,500 times higher than Monsters - that budget was 100,000 dollars

i just want to go on the record and say i really like Aaron Taylor in this. i havent seen him in much so i was really happy with his role. Elizabeth Olsen was also great! she makes me that much more excited for Avengers 2 ps. i like Mark Wahlberg and i'm looking forward to the new transformers

Humans haven't transitionally been well developed characters in Godzilla movies.

Saw this in a theater. Had a great time, but...the main character had the charisma of a bowl of cold oatmeal. That really hurts the movie. Don't really care about him in the least. The ending really pissed me off. There is no way you get a megaton class nuclear bomb to minimum safe distance from the city on a boat in 13 minutes, and you don't pluck a barely conscious guy off said boat in a helicopter and get to minimum safe distance in 5 minutes. I know, it is a monster movie and you have to suspend your sense of implausibility, blah blah. There is no reason though to have the timing be so impossible. Could easily insert a line or two of dialogue saying that have to get the bomb on the boat and away by a certain time to get it to a safe distance, and then you still have the tension. Hell, you could keep cutting to close ups of the timer as they were getting it to the pier and on the boat to heighten that tension. You don't need to have impossible time frames to make it tense. A small quibble I know, but just seems lazy to me.

I have friends like Alonso and they always make things less fun if they don't absolutely love what we're doing

Alonso doesn't like a movie? NOOooooOOOOooooo

A big problem I had with this movie was how non threatening to humans they made Godzilla so quickly. That like zapped all tension and mystery behind him.

Alonso is spot on for this movie. I watched it last night and it's exactly how I felt. Missed opportunity, oh well.

I had read Alonso's critic before watching the video and I knew he was going to be a party pooper.

I can't really say that I'm disappointed because it's not like I really look forward to these kinds of movies but this one sure seemed to have more going on from the trailers. And it is a cut above visually and stylistically, but it's a shame that the human element is so underdeveloped. Everyone pretty much is a stock character, more or less, and I'm underwhelmed by the fact that the "essence" - should you call it - of what Godzilla is is gone. It was originally a symbol for nuclear warfare and its outcomes, but here it's just shit getting destroyed. The Japanese culture is mostly undercut as well. Now, the stuff getting destroyed does look pretty good thanks to the use of dust, lighting, and dulled colors, but that isn't really used a ton. When it is used, it looks great, but that's not a lot. It's not like I'm angry that the titular monster isn't here a ton, I'm more upset that Bryan Cranston is here for about 17 minutes total and Aaron Taylor-Johnson doesn't have much to do. Also, a better tone could have been a bit better, since it was pretty self-serious even when characters were saying a ton of ridiculous things and acting completely distraught over it. I never went "WHOA!" or anything; I mostly appreciated the technical aspects of it, but when it wasn't aesthetically pleasing, it got to be a bit boring. 6/10, okay, average, one thumb down, etc.

Whats up with the low res on this? Uploading problem?

To be honest, I agree with the Rotten Tomatoes guy when he said only the monster moments were good and the human aspects were boring except for one fact. The whole Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olson scenes were boring, The Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, etc. scenes were actually more interesting.

Why do people in the media always act like they know what they're talking about with Godzilla? I heard one guy say it's been ages since Godzilla had a movie with another monster, now this guy says it has the best Godzilla action in decades. Godzilla: Final Wars. The last Toho Godzilla movie, released just 10 years ago, featured Godzilla fighting with/alongside pretty much every other Kaiju in the business. Plus it was one of the only Godzilla movies to replace all the obligatory scenes of humans talking and running, with humans having their own crazy action-sequences. Don't ever try and tell me that this movie topped THAT in terms of fulfilling action.

two of the Panel didn't see 'Monsters' !

actually now after seeing the film ..i agree with alonso..film was at best above average...first 15 minutes ..last 30 minutes and godzilla,s intro were the good parts ..rest of the film was really really average

How did Mankiewicz miss Godzilla walking through the Golden Gate Bridge?

You guys are old(except the lady) please go home and watch some Black & White classics. Seriously Godzilla is such an AWESOME movie. I give it a 9,5/10 everything works perfect the Story, Action, Direction, CGI etc

They should have cut the movie hours from 2hrs to 1.5hrs. And should have focused more story on the two doctors and godzilla. It should have been great.

I think it suffered from trying to make overly serious when by nature it should be a bit camp and fun, the problem is that after dark knight so many blockbusters think they have to be overly serious and can't pull it off

I agree with Matt on this entirely. The movie wasn't perfect, but how dramatically compelling can you make a human story in a MONSTER film?! When I first heard of this movie being remade I had very small expectations. My first question was how could they make this interesting past Godzilla destroying cities and fighting monsters. I felt they did well though! I wasn't ever bored with this movie and every time Godzilla did appear, I was really satisfied and it only got better and I only wanted more! People would have ripped this movie to shreds if they really spent time making this complex human drama in-between what's supposed to be a big, fun, action film. It would have been disjointed. I had plenty to keep me entertained and waiting for more Godzilla when he wasn't on the screen. That there I believe to be the challenge.

I perfectly agree with Matt on his review. Slow pace, less action but makes you care about Godzilla more. Good cast all the way around. 8.5/10 for me. This is a notch behind Winter Soldier for me but better than Amazing Spider-Man 2 in terms of movies this year... And yes go see this in 3D!!!

The explanations in the movie were super easy to follow and clear I understood it all perfectly.. I don't understand their confusion with the movie..

sounds like Pacific Rim with less monster battles

Alonzo hates everything.

I'm not that old. I don't even have my license yet and I know that I miss the old old movies with two guys in suits fighting in complete day light. If you're going to have the monsters fight I would like to see it. I think the best look I got was when godzilla breathed fire. If someone would pay me 1 million dollars to say I like the movie I could not do it. I thought it sucked!

I'm not understanding the hatred for AJ and Olsen's characters. They were portraying regular, decent, middle class people; a Navy EOD technician and an RN in a downtown hospital in a major city. People like that tend to not be hysterical or given to overstated bursts of emotion, since the way they conduct themselves has very real consequences in the real world. Which probably explains why the professional opinion-givers hated it, I suppose.

Alanso is spot on. This movie was a mess. I didn't hate it but man did they get a lot wrong

New found respect for Alonso. This movie was not good.

This was a very, very enjoyable film -- and really delivered the goods -- BUT...the human element was poor. As the crew noted here, the acting was very...BAD. With the notable exception of Bryan Cranston, and he was killed off less than halfway through the movie, I just didn't give a fuck about anyone here. Also, when will they ever make a monster movie and leave out the "separated family but don't worry they'll reunite at the end" cliche? It's truly old and worn out. Now, all that said...I saw it in IMAX 3D and absolutely don't regret a single penny or a single second spent.

I enjoyed the movie very much, but I do wish the more scenes with Godzilla and the Mutos. Maybe in the sequel

The female was waiting for the mail to come of age

If this movie had an A list star instead of Kick Ass, the downtime or time spent prepping counter strikes would have gone down easier. .JMHO.

lets just all agree that atomic breath down a monsters throat while being preyed open by godzillas arms is easily #1 kill of the year for 2014 cinema

christy looks like Melonie Scott Thomas...from Y & R

The scores aren't really showing on the screen. They are too low.

never understood why reviews include trailers especially after the movie has been wide released. everyone has seen the trailers before the movie came out.

Totally unrelated to Godzilla but I've been looking for an old WTF review of a movie that I know I watched last fall but it's completely gone. I checked everywhere! Does WTF delete videos that don't get much views or that are old, like preening their vids?? I've tried to watch the videos in a playlist like I used to (like a playlist with all 779 vids, all their content in one place) but I can't get that anymore. Can anyone help me out, does anyone know anything about this? Much appreciated!

There's a lot of things that this film does wrong but the stuff it gets right is super on point and blew me away in places, I also like the fact that Godzilla looks really similar to the original Godzilla in texture and the score was great too bringing subtle Japanese nuances in when they could easily go for the overpowering 'bwams'

Have you guys seen Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)? If this movie is half as entertaining as that one, I'll be surprised.

Godzilla has it's moments (the parachute scene!!!), but Monsters is by far the better, more complete movie. Of course, Monsters did not come with the baggage of expectations.

I'm really surprise Ben like the film.

Can someone explain to me how a movie goes into profit. This is my understanding, dont know if its correct..... using Godzilla as an example.... if a movie costs $160 million, they probably spend the same or more on advertising.... total approx $360 million. Once the movie reaches that total, anything over that, do the movie studios collect 50%. This has been bugging me for a while now,lol... i hope someone can set the record straight for me.... thanks.

They spent $160 million dollars, and they spent it on big name actors and special effects, but the script always seems like an afterthought in this kinds of movies. Duralde mentioned David Mamet in this review, why couldn't they hire someone of his caliber to write the script? Is it that difficult to get talented writers in a room for a week and come up with interesting characters with interesting dialogue?

This movie was good but it felt like mutos vs soldiers not godzilla vs mutos

Too little Bryan

i highly beg to differ on your character beef, i loved the charecters and if godzilla wasnt on screen the movie was plot and character development and the charecters were great, relateable, and heroic in my opinion

Actually to be fair today is Saturday and it's 72% on Rotten Tomato, and knowing Rotten Tomato, probably lower by the end of the week. Why? Major let down, mix review. 1) Misleading trailer, promise lots of Bryan and Godzilla and fail to deliver all 2) Boring human story which eat most the movie. 3) Kill off Breaking Bad Bryan Craston and replace him with the most boring Kick Ass, heck even Kick Ass has more personality than this military dude. Honestly, how would you feel if you order a steak and they give you a burger, cause this is how this movie felt.

for once I completely agree with Alonso

I thought Aaron Johnson was fine. I didn't have any problem with his acting. I went in this movie expecting it to be rather mediocre. But I came out pleasantly surprised. It's a fun popcorn flick. Very well directed. Gareth Edwards did a great job. I liked his previous movie Monsters, a lot. Never should have doubted him. Best performance in the movie is given by Bryan Cranston. Too bad he's not in the movie that much.

No stream =/

They should have named this movie Mewtwo, because they were in the movie way more than Godzilla.

The lack of character development was a big problem, imho. Aaron Taylor's acting was really poor (perhaps it's not all his fault, the writing was bad). He finally sees that his dad was right all along, and never gave up on his dead mother, and continued to fight for his mom. What's his reaction? "Oh. I guess you were right dad." Seriously?! Most people would feel much more regret, and appologize (in the most loving way possible) to their father for never giving up. But it's not just him, most characters other than Cranston were pretty under developed. If you are going to hold off for epic scenes until the end, you better have good writing. My 2 cents.

I almost fell asleep during first 40 minutes.

Now down to 73% on the tomatometer.

The character development was fine for this type of film. The human characters are not supposed to be vastly deep or fleshed out. The main point of them existing in this film, same goes for the human element in general, is to show "hey, look, the fact of the matter is humans can't do anything to stop this nor even deal with this. At this point, it's all about trying to survive and limit casualties." You're supposed to go "wow, that gun isn't doing anything" and "wow, if he dies nothing really changes" because one of the underlying messages in this film--as well as the past Godzilla films--is that humans do not control nature, they are at its mercy and nature will go on without them if they're gone. Humans might pry and influence it, but nature will always win and always have it's balance adhered to.

Completely with Alonso on this one! I don't mind at all that Godzilla has 26 minutes of screen time. But when he shows up in the first 2/3rds of the film it's just too much teasing with no real satisfaction at all until the last 20 minutes. A good 2 or 3 times they build up to his big reveal and then cut away as the fight starts. Really? Just pissed me off after the 3rd time. More importantly, for the other 2 hours of the film show me something engaging. There isn't a thing including a conversation, action sequence, or anything except for maybe Walter White's performance that made me feel anything. Yet we follow these characters around for 2 hours doing a bunch of nothing and frankly there isn't a scene with them that I care to see again. This is NOT the case with movies like The Raid 2 or Captain America where there are a ton of scenes worth seeing over again be it action, character development, plot reveals, etc. Anyway, this was a well made film but honestly I probably would have been more entertained with a 1 hour cut of Godzilla and truly relevant scenes and little more.

The nuclear weapon wasnt a nuclear weapon it gave of some. to lure it, but the explosion was just a huge explosion. I rather enjoyed Amazing Spiderman 2, thought the Acting in that was amazing. Dont agree it was dull. The original Godzilla (1954) had huge burn until Godzilla seriously turned up. Godzilla is always the focus though, it did have a lot of deep character stuff. But the point is, we are helpless and insignificant before it and just meant to watch. I loved the sound in it, loads of people died in it and you got a nice panoramic via the news reports about it. But I could of liked a bit more focus on the death and destruction wrought by the creatures.

I literally never agree with Alonso haha

I paid to see a monster movie. Bait and switch is not equivalent with more drama. I felt the same way I felt in the first Hulk movie, where they tried to wrap a superhero movie in a movie about a man with daddy issues. The daddy issues didn't make Hulk better. It only made it longer. The director didn't respect the genre. That said, I liked Godzilla, but at points I felt like all the human elements it were pointless.

Considering the fact that if the MUTOS were left to their own devices San Francisco would've been a wasteland of radioactivity and a feeding ground for baby MUTOS, I would say Godzilla saved the city. And humanity.

2014 was way better than Godzilla 2000....

Godzilla was a pretty good film overall, but it DID fall short of being something special because they focused too much on characters nobody cared about. Godzilla has never been about the human characters, and I don't pay money to watch a Godzilla film to see the human characters. The movie also takes itself WAY too seriously. Godzilla has always been just a little bit campy, without going too far. Sorry, but I'm not as enthused about this film as most people seem to be. Most of the movie felt like more of a teaser about what WAS going to happen, than what really ended up happening. Again, it was a decent film, but it could have been so much better if they simply gave us MORE Godzilla, and LESS of these other characters. One last thing, Godzilla was TOO FUCKING BIG!!!! They need to scale him down just a bit. He was NEVER that large, and it takes away from the connection with the audience when he dwarfs skyscrapers.

Godzilla is annoyingly underrated movie. It seems people either loved it or hated it which is cool but it is a good, well made movie at the end of the day.

I guess after a trailer like that I could never be completely satisfied. However, overall it was a great film.

My opinion about the movie I just saw yesterday can be summed up in the words of Jeff Goldblum. " Now tell me at some point you are actually going to have Dinosaurs on your Dinosaur tour...Hello" And the guy in white is correct...maybe for the first time ever if you are going to have a build up and not show Godzillia for 45 minutes or it actually felt longer then at least have a good story with good acting. And I think the overly serious tone harshly conflicts with the fact that its a story about a Giant T Rex fighting a Giant Moth. I mean since that cannot be serious the first 40 minutes of them attempting to get us to care about dramatic loss and paranoia of PTSD (which was not even done well) is completely pointless. And it prevented them from making jokes and making it a funny movie. There should have been no reason why I should have been eagerly wanting it to end but thats what happened. The only thing good about the movie was the look of Godzillia and you can get that from watching the trailer. Save your money and time.

8.5/10 for me .. if godzilla have been on screen more then 9/10

I can't wait to see this in imax

Matt Atchity makes the only valid points.