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Awesome! I guess I've been a little dubious- a Godzilla movie not made by and set in Japan seems wrong- like a Japanese Superman or American James Bond or Doctor Who.

But I know you and everyone on the this site is known for their excellent taste (BAHAHAHA) so I'm looking forward to checking this out!

A not-so-quick word on the new Godzilla...

After getting the hell away from all media to avoid reviews and spoilers for 48 hours, Saturday afternoon the girls and I headed to the theater to see Godzilla. The fact that there have been no reports of blood running in the streets of Dallas, nor any appearance of my mug shot (for those that have met me at T-Fest) should alert you to my feelings on it.

Did it live up to my every expectation? Of course not; that was an impossible task. Between the fantastic trailers and my enjoyment of my recent screening of Gareth Edwards’ previous giant monster movie Monsters, there was no way to contain myself, try as I did not to let myself get too excited (did I learn nothing from 1998!?)

Did I leave the theater a happy man? Oh, most definitely. In terms of quality and personal enjoyment, I’d say there are only three Godzilla films since 1984 that I liked as much or more than this one. There are a few from the Showa series that I consider better, and a couple others I like more despite their comparative quality, but this one is definitely in the upper echelon of the series.

There will be mild spoilers ahead, so be warned.

One of the strong points is the director’s status as a Godzilla fan, unlike those no-good bastards Devlin and Emmerich. My first confirmation came, surprisingly enough, in the opening credits: one of the producers is Yoshimistu Banno. I’m sure a few of us recognize that name as the man whose one turn in the director’s chair produced possibly the weirdest (and, consequently, one I was obsessed with in my youth) of the Godzilla movies, Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster. Maybe it was mere happenstance, but that seems really unlikely. Further evidence appears throughout. Naming Ken Watanabe’s character “Dr. Serizawa” was a tad obvious (to be fair, non-fans would not have caught it), but having a similar story structure to Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe was not. The Muto show echoes of the Legion insects in their design. A particular building collapse echoes one in Godzilla vs. Mothra. Godzilla uses a finishing move I recall being used in two previous entries, albeit in different circumstances. There's a nod to Godzilla's nickname, "King of the Monsters." Although there was no reprisal of Ifukube’s Godzilla theme or military march, I did catch at least one instance of a musical phrase lifted from a Showa-era movie in the incidental music. I also noted two pretty strong nods to The Return of Godzilla/Godzilla ‘85, which led me to believe Edwards’ first in-theater Godzilla movie may have been that one (turns out he’s two years older than I am, and it was my first, so this seems even more likely in retrospect).

The acting is all right across the board. My favorite character sadly gets whacked not even halfway through, taking the best performer in the movie with him. Luckily, I found the lead character interesting and charismatic enough to have me root for him, even as circumstances got more and more "been there, done that." The human stuff is nothing special and no stranger to cliché or contrived situations, although I felt it was a bit better than that in Pacific Rim. I was never bored during the running time thanks to good pacing.

Let's face it, though: I'm here for the giant monsters, and what I got I loved. The movie doles out the monster stuff carefully, escalating more and more until the end where it’s pretty much mad monster party time. Said monster stuff is well-executed; the giant monsters never move so fast that they seem unrealistic, but instead with movements that make them appear to have the bulk they would. The fighting is the opposite of the stylized combat of Pacific Rim. This makes sense given these are supposed to be animals; and they fight as such (Godzilla’s last attack notwithstanding). No throwing buildings and planes at each other, just tooth, claw, and (in one wonderful instance) tail. Godzilla’s well-established problem with flying foes is even present. The final fight is very entertaining, and I’d put it among the better of its kind. The reveal for the monsters are all very nicely done. I mentioned in my Monsters review that there was a fantastic moment of misdirection leading to a monster reveal. Well, Edwards does it again here, and it’s even better than the last one.

The effects are quite good; the CG is well-done, and the city-smashing is great. There’s a surprising death toll, and I don’t just mean in the usually-unacknowledged “there’s no way all those buildings are evacuated” manner we’re used to. Some things happen that would lead to a horrific body count, and we’re witness to them. This could make it a bit intense for younger viewers (the Hawaii scenes in particular), as could some of the vicious monster fighting.

Everyone at the showing seemed to have enjoyed it, and I know not everyone could’ve been a Godzilla fan. Okay, one meathead derided it in a general sense as he left, but since he 1. Gave no actual reasons outside of general insults and 2. Was the guy who wouldn’t stop shifting and moving his legs for the first half an hour, fuck him and his opinion.

Fellow giant monster fan Chelsea loved it. Non-fans Dara and her mom...also really liked it. *insert "Rocky" theme here* I'm definitely recommending this, warts and all. I will probably see it a second time, this time in the fancy-schmancy 3-D whatever version (saw it unadorned, mostly because it was cheaper and I also figured there would be less people seeing that version), just for the hell of it.

I am a very happy kaiju fan.

I guess I'll throw in my two cents, coming from an almost completely cold-start. This was the first film I'd seen theatrically since PIRANHA 3D (which I still wish I hadn't seen), and it's probably the last new release I'll see theatrically (since they've switched to digital projection, the image and sound are just terrible). I know nothing about the men who made the picture, and went in with no expectations.

Having said that, I was impressed.

The film was a nice throwback to the 80's films, although Godzilla was handled less menacingly. I was actually quite impressed to see the big blue dinosaur got to play the hero (as I'd have figured the very notion too old-fashioned/hokey/fun for a modern Hollywood movie) and he looks like nothing so much as a great big guard dog. That's pretty cool.

Actually, the film played against modern Hollywood in several ways. While there was a conspiracy, it wasn't one plotted for just for the sake of being evil. The Army was shown to be full of actual humans instead of killing robots. Atomic weapons were handled fairly realistically, which is always unlikely! Most importantly, the film was actually upbeat. The previews were rather nasty and mean, but the film itself isn't anything like that. They actually opted for a happy ending, another thing that Red Hollywood seems to think is a major no-no for a genre film. Thanks, Legendary, that was much appreciated.

I also liked the fact that they made a movie which dealt with atomic weapons and wasn't there just to push an anti-nuke agenda. In fact, the film had almost no political content, which is just miraculous.

All in all, I'd venture it was the best Godzilla movie since 1989. Not a spectacular achievement, but certainly a good movie. Could have been a half-hour shorter, though (but then, that's something you can say about most modern movies).

Saw it last night, I liked it a lot but can't say I loved it. Guess I'm weird but I thought the last few Toho films: 'Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla', 'Giant Monsters All Out Attack', and 'Tokyo SOS' were better films- or at least I liked them better.

Kudos to the movie for starting out in Japan even if things did move to Hawaii and the US mainland.

Nevertheless I will be picking it up when it comes out on DVD.

The wife and I saw it last night, and I quite liked it. We both thought the pacing was a little ponderous. It took a loooooooong time for big G to show up. And there was more than one occasion where I almost yelled out, "Oh, come ON!" when a big fight was starting and they cut to the people. Don't care about Lt. Badass, the Naval bomb expert who rides with the Army and can do a perfect HALO jump (buh?!). More monster, less human.

Still, it was a lot of fun. Also, when Godzilla had finally had enough and had decided to really start kicking ass was a beautiful scene. Having "Gonna Fly Now" playing in the background wouldn't have been out of place. That got a cheer from me as much as his first roar did, especially since he waited so long to do that, I was worried it wasn't going to be included.

There's a lot of good here. From the work on MUTO, to the casting (more than one, "Hey, that guy!" moments). I'm also mildly amused at how Godzilla himself looked. He was kind of... bloated. It almost looks like, at times, they were trying to make the CG look like... a guy in a rubber suit. It's the damnedest thing.

While I think I liked Pacific Rim more (Giant Robots + Kaiju > Just Kaiju), this was still a lot of fun.