Movie Review: Godzilla

God-zee-rah!

Sorry...couldn't help myself. :D

Historically speaking, I haven't really been a fan of Godzilla, mostly from general disinterest and the cheesiness of the classic Godzillas. But after watching a couple commercials for Godzilla (2014), I figured I'd give it a try. I ended up going last Thursday night in a nearly sold out theater, which was a prime example of why Godzilla had the biggest opening weekend so far in 2014, beating out Captain America: Winter Soldier. However,despite its apparent popularity, when I checked it on Rotten Tomatoes, I was surprised to find it only had a 73% rating on the Tomatometer. Admittedly I found that to be a surprisingly low grade.

My brother complained that the commercials for Godzilla gave away too much of the movie, which does seem to be a growing problem - putting the best parts of the movie in the commercials, particularly for comedies. For heaven sakes, don't get him started on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug! :) For Godzilla, I think he was right and wrong at the same time. They probably should have shown less of Godzilla himself, to add to the suspense of seeing him for the first time. But otherwise they didn't end up give too much of the story away - which was halfway decent, by the way.

There are some good twists in the movie, so I don't want to give too many details. The short, spoiler-free version is that Bryan Cranston plays Joe Brody, the father of Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who is married to Elle (Elizabeth Olson). People are dumb and bad decisions are made...if I've learned anything from SciFi, it's that you don't try to nuke the terrifying monsters (that and never let AI become self-aware). There is also a giant monster called Godzilla...and large chunks of Las Vegas, San Francisco and some Japanese city are pretty much obliterated.

I do think this is one of those movies that will lose something on a smaller, home screen...so if you're at all interested in seeing Godzilla, I would recommend going while it is in theater. It's a perfect movie to see on a $5 Tuesday! :)

Enjoy and happy Tuesday!



~ Katie