Not gonna lie. I was disappointed in the movie

Something Real > - Well my least favorite part was the first half of the movie...with the humans.Some say its the best part but I didnt connect to them at all.Yeah there were a few touching scenes but it wasnt enough.Like I said in my last post I would've made the humans more deep to actually give a shit if they are gonna die or not.

Yeah but lets think about the positive things about it.Godzilla's design in this one was awesome and he was such a badass.The MUTOs were awesome.In short the animals were well made.The fight scenes were good and exciting.This is movie was not so bad if u think a little about it.It didnt throw its best scenes on the screens for their sake and at the beginning and the most important thing is that it didnt insult us fans like the '98 thing (i am not gonna call neither Godzilla nor Zilla).

@Something Real: Thank you for taking the time to read my comments. That's what I derived after going through many of the professional reviews found on Rotten Tomatoes' website and also those of many of my friends' comments on Facebook about the movie.

I found that most of them who weren't Godzilla fans or whose last experience with Godzilla ended off with the 98' version, were impressed with the tonality of Godzilla 2014 and many heaped praise on the impressive graphics. While those who grew up in adoration of being so used to seeing Godzilla smash buildings and terrify humans felt the new movie didn't quite do Godzilla the justice that it truly deserves as far as the storyline is concerned but they too were impressed with the CGI effects.

And to an extent, I could see why people, including @AggressiveKaiju45 felt Godzilla was underwhelming and unimpressive. It really comes down to a matter of perspective and whether we are judging Godzilla in this new movie with a clean slate of mind, or with a feverish pride that refuses to allow anything that would tarnish the majesty of this creature. If I judge this movie with that Godzilla-baggage I've brought along with, then I will say this movie is simply a let-down, but if I judge this movie from a fresh start, it is a good beginning. 

Let me bring out an example to consider. In the scenes where the US military attacked Godzilla with little/no effect, we could see that Godzilla was merely annoyed by the attack but at no time did Godzilla turn his attention towards the humans or obliberate them when he simply could, and instead focused his pursuit on the MUTOs. From a clean perspective, one would think the humans are so insignificant and powerless that Godzilla simply doesn't care about them, which makes Godzilla seem like a God. - Omnipotent and humans are impactless to him.

But from a pride-perspective though, Godzilla has turned so meek that its almost as if he is showing the basic 'courtesy' to humans by wrecking havoc, but not wrecking it so much so that it harms them or destroys them. It's like suddenly Godzilla has this consciousness in him that says humanity deserves to be saved on Earth akin to how God sees humans as an image of himself worthy of preservation, but Godzilla is certainly no human God. And by this consciousness, it all suddenly makes Max Borenstein's story script seem so wrong and absurd, because his theme revolves around the so-called 'Balance of Nature'.

And as far as the "Balance of Nature' theme is concerned, humanity as a whole isn't exactly balancing Nature very well. In fact humanity is wrecking the environment and decimating wildlife in the millions. Surely, Godzilla, in all his entirety and omnipotency should know this tiny little 'ants' to him are wrecking serious havoc to Nature. And to top it off the level of absurdity, humans are extracting nuclear power and leeching onto it. - Which is the very source of Godzilla's survival. If Godzilla is supposed to act on his survival instincts like how an animal would do, then based on this logic, the MUTOs should not just be the target. Humans should equally be targeted because what difference lies between humanity leeching on nuclear power in controlled quantities VS Mutos leeching on them in larger quantities? Its almost as though Godzilla is able to calculate similar to a human to think: " The humans don't pose a threat because they are controlling their nuclear use well, so I'll just sit it out in the ocean depths and do nothing."  If Godzilla is truly acting with his 'animal instincts', shouldnt' he come up and massacre all the humans, keep all that radioactive power for his own enjoyment and think about starting a family like the MUTOs too? How nice that would be. - Ah yes, now we remember this movie script was written by a human, hence the imperfection and absurdity in the storyline.

So when you consider the points I raised above, do you see why as much as many people adore this new Godzilla movie, there are also others who see absurdity and pour scorn on it?

It is a beautiful movie, only if you see less deeper and think less deeper. 

Since we're all being a little honest, I guess I should admit it's partly my fault. It's just that all the hype Gareth bought on me was too good to be true, especially from the trailer. The trailer made him look like he was the devil incarnate of nature, heck what sold me was the dark underlying tone in the trailer. But then in the movie, he seemed docile in comparison, taking care not to damage the boats in his way, not to mention very clumsy. I'm not expecting something similar to the "Expendables" or "Pacific Rim", but he could have been more. Every time he appeared on screen, it would immediately divulge to human characters, making the human drama element overwhelming and quite frankly, annoying (not to mention the human drama wasn't very emotional). Was he even the star of his own movie? Also another thing was that they replaced the closing shot of Godzilla roaring with him and muto fighting. Basically in a nutshell, the trailers and clips exceeded my expectation but the actually movie was far beneath it. 

Although I will say this. The way Godzilla himself come out was very good. And while it captured his bestial essence well, it wasn't enough in my opinion. @Talisman does a good job of explaining it.

At last! Finally got to watch Man vs Mutos (feat godzilla)!!!

I went to see it a second time today and it was so much better.The first I guess I didnt like it that much because I wanted just Godzilla + some things I didnt catch and didnt like and really because of this I didnt connect to the human characters but this second time I just went to see a movie not ONLY about Godzilla and I was able to connect with the characters a lot more and then the things that bothered me the first time this time I just accepted them and liked them and that enhanced my experience.In conclusion,go see a second time Godzilla and accept it as a film about some people too not only Godzilla and it will pay off a lot more.My first rate was 3 now its 4/5.Really good.

Hey all first time posting. I saw movie Thursday and waited a few days to post. I let the movie and lead up to it sink in some before deciding to post. A lil background so pleaee excuse the length. I have seen all but one of the eintire Godzilla series. I enjoyed pretyy much all of them to a.degree some more than others. FINAL WARS to me was by far the worst. It just felt like a Power Rangers movie. My faves. DESTORYAH, Godzillas Revenge.  G vs Smog Monster.  VS Biollante  and the first one. I actually saw G vs Megalon whenI was a kid and thought it was kinda hokey. And yes I know I love Godzillas Revenge but hated Megalon.

Leadin in to the movie I also thought that Godzilla was gonna be this bloodbath and carnage film. The trailers surely led us in this direction. At first wuen I saw Muto designs I was ticked. They resemblemed the Gyaos from Gamera and Cloverfield. I loved Cloverfield but was so.ewhat dissapointed that all the viral lead up was not included in movie. But with that film and this one I realized what they were trying to convey. Tbey were trying to show the message from the human and monster side while using the first film to set up a series where they could have both prequel and sequels. 

Im thinking Gareth dropped us right in the middle of something bigger.  He used modern day to show whereGodzilla the species had evolved from many people million years of existence.  If you think about it why didnt Big G go nuts on humanity after we tried to nuke him off the planet.  surely he was annoyed but probably thru evolution just decided to do his own thing and stay away from the pesky humans. Why did he return well this was pretyy simple and alot of people are overlooking this. The Muto was some form of natural enemy to him. Like when the fojnd the bones I the cave I think Serazawa pointed out that thse things were like parasites feeding off godzillas energy as he laid dying and possibly after that Godzillas death.  They only awoke after we helped them . Godzilla knew thru instinct if these two mated the world would be over run with Mutos as we saw in the hundreds of eggs that nuke would have helped spawn. Hence why AJT risked his life to light up the nest.  Im just thinking that Big G didnt try to straight out harm the humans cause it wasnt that important to his future survival as it was to rid the world of the Mutos before they bred.

And just because they didnt show it one can assume many people died because of Big G himself comi g assure you just didnt get to see the total scope of that.

Its setting us up for a sequel or prequel tyoe thing that shows and explains more of the Muto Godzilla relationship and im assuming at least Mothra and who k ows what other monsters I  future movies. Like Destroyah X had mentioned to try and tie uo and include all this in one film would have been a huge mistake. The movie would have been way too rushed and scatterbrained and im guessing we would be questioning why Edwards had tried tbat approach. Im thinking he was thinking at least two to three movies with more reveals and a conclusion in a few films. 

If anyone has watched his movie Monsters you can cleary see the title is misleading. It was us who was ghe monsters and not the animals that were spawned from the crashed probe. I thought back to the scene where the monster was toyung with the jet I the water almost like a play toy for a child.  Then at the scen at the end where they mated. By nature they didnt seem mean but the humans drove them to be agressive. Same theory apllies here to some extent.

In setting up the film this way Edwards hands are not tied moving forward. He has many different directions to go in. I for one am I intrigued to see where he chooses though ai have my own ideas and think this will be 3 or 4 films at most. 

I for one had no issue with Godzillas film time or how he acted. There was more than enough going on I the film to keep me happy till Big G arrived. I thought Female Muto scene with the train was creepy and suspensful. It actually showed a sense of how smart the mutos were. I wont divulge the whole scene.

I thought the final scene was one of the most realistic battles ive ever scene in a kaiju driven movie. Right down to the fatigue and sense of finality show by the combatants. It was even sad for all of them as my son  pointed out.

I think we need to let time and space decide how this movie and its future entries are viewed. Im thinking with yhe second and most likely third film all those who were dissapointed will get what they are looking for.

I didnt like that a bunch of cool things in the trailers were left out. Including the giant millipede or whate er the hell it was.  I also wasnt fond of Brian Cranston's only because you cant include him in any sequels and honestly if Edwards stays true to this movie you suddenly cant go back to say 2001 and have another monster show up. That in my eyes would take away the credibility of the first movie and Edwards grand visions. . Ill trust him here. Ive waited years for Clovefield answers im sure we will get them much sooner than that with Big G.

A few final thoughts. Take from it what you will but we all at least fohnd someyhing we liked from the film and lets hope it gets better from here.

I also would love to know if the rumored Mothra and Muto scene after crsdits kn some countries was true because it would lay a very cool scenario for a prequel sequel.

I will stop here and expound any thoughts further after any comments.

I will say two final thoughts. 

First I am thinking I may be only person on planet who caught someyhing absolutely hilarious going on in the background during one short scene. I laughed my butt off in the theater and everyone kinda stared at me. If u didnt look close and realize what you were seeing I csn see how it was missed but no review or discussion has mentioned it yet. Im actually gonna see film again before I bring it up. But if what I saw was actually what I tjought I saw Gareth put someyhing totally funny amusing and some what of a tribute to all those goofy Godzilla movies from years past. And no its not whats written on the sign.

Brings me to my final though I think we all know whose showing up in the next film. Not one but twoeaster eggs definately set that up. And lossibly a third egg.

Thats all for now. Great forum great discussion

There were definitely elements of the movie I found disappointing. However, I wouldn't say I was 'disappointed' in the movie. That's going too far. The good DEFINITELY outweighed the bad to create what for me, was my favorite Godzilla movie I've ever seen. 

Major Disappointments:

1. The script/story. It was a very 'let's get from point A to point B so the monsters can fight' sort of set up. It lacked the depth of what was advertised in the trailers. There were no character arcs (characters who changed over the course of the story). They NEED a better screenwriter for the next one, no doubt. 

However.....the script/story was still way more solid that MOST Godzilla movies. So as a Godzilla movie goes, it was still top notch. As a general movie, it was below average, although not necessarily poor.

2. Aaron Taylor-Johnson: He was bad. Like just bad. I know the script didn't give him much to work with, but that's not an excuse, because the script was thin for almost ALL the characters, but the other actors made it work. The emotional depth and layers that Sally Hawkins or Elizabeth Olsen pulled off with their characters was exponentially greater than what Johnson pulled off with his.

In fact, with Johnson's character being a specialist and NOT doing very much physically in his role, I almost wish he had just traded places with Elizabeth Olsen in character. (Well most ideally, I wish he had been re-cast altogether...but failing that....) Olsen could have delivered a lot more depth to the role, and still would have believable in the stunts....since less face it....there weren't that many. Women are allowed in the military after all in non-combat roles, which was what Johnson's role was. And then Johnson's flat acting as a male nurse wouldn't have hurt the movie as much because he wouldn't have been in it as much. 

However....bad as Johnson was, again, it was cheesy or embarassingly bad. It's not something I would be afraid to show my friends if they were sober like most Godzilla acting performances are. So again, as a Godzilla movie, this was still awesome :-)

3......nothing. Really nothing. Everything else about the movie I either really enjoyed (like the effects, the monster battles, the cinematography, etc)....or was more of a nitpick, rather than a disappoint. 

Nitpicks:

1. The score. Eh....it had a couple of highlights, but otherwise was pretty bland. Didn't hurt the movie though. It never detracted from a scene. It just didn't enhance many scenes either. 

2. The human response....it either lacked urgency or was irrational too much of the time. But the characters were still believable, even if some of their decisions were kind of silly. As opposed to the over the top, outlandish, implausible crap they've tried in previous Godzilla movies, this most recent movie seemed totally rational. 

3. A little more explanation....I do wish they would have explained a little bit more....Not a whole lot more. I don't like a movie where everything is blatantly, obvious, repeated, and in your face. I like subtle information delivery. But this movie was scating the line of just pure non-information delivery in a 'shaddup and just watch da movie' sort of way, where just a little bit more info would have raised the stakes of many scenes.

Like if they explained how Godzilla's atomich breath worked and/or what the drawback was, it would have added more to the scenes where he used it, rather than him just arbitrarily having the ability all of a sudden. When he just picks it up out of the 'blue' (ha I liked my pun) like that, then the audience is left with the "Well why the hell didn't you just do that out of the gate???" feeling....but eh...its still just a nitpick for me.

This is a sin practiced by MANY Godzilla movies....where he either doesn't use his atomic breath when he should....or he uses it all the damn time and the fights get boring. If he's going to use it in a limited manner, why don't we have some concrete limitations so makes more sense???? Still, nothing wrong with the breath in this movie that isn't also wrong in other films. And this breath looked SOOO Amazing, and the way he used it....almost completely forgiven for the lack of explanation in my book. 

4. Godzilla the Anti-hero/hero??? I'm ok with any role Godzilla plays in a film. I understand that the Japanese won't like it as much because he was more 'just an animal' than a 'metaphor' in the film, but that doesn't personally bother me. That being said, animal, metaphor, hero, villian, anti-hero, whatever way you're gonna portray him, it should be consistent I think. This movie didn't 100% make its up its mind on whether or not Godzilla was a hero or anti-hero. They seemed to be leaning on anti-hero for the most part, but then had some weird stuff happen (like the golden gate bridge scene) which made me feel like they weren't quite committing to that. Not a huge problem, but more consistency would be appreciated in the next film. I do generally prefer anti-hero portrayals of Godzilla over other types, but a true anti-hero needs to be a little darker/harsher/objectively apathetic than what this one was.

So yeah, that's everything. If they get a better script writer, recast Johnson, get better music, add maybe 10-30 minutes of world creating explanations + scenes where they find out why so it's not all just conference room dialogue exposition, define Godzilla's status a little more, and make the humans just a little smarter/more realistic, then this movie is damn near perfect for me. The Batman Begins of Godzilla movies :-)

By itself, taking as it is, the movie got close. As it stands, it's just the Dredd of Godzilla movies. Still pretty damn good...and my favorite one of the franchise to date.

***Not to confuse favorite with best....the 1954 film is still the best....but it's boring for me to personally watch....this new movie though I enjoyed watching more than I've ever enjoyed a Godzilla movie....so favorite is the term I will use***

CLOVERFIELD - i have to agree with u.This Godzilla is different from all the other Godzilla movies and I enjoyed the movie a second time because the first time I think like all I expected Godzilla to tear sh*t up and I wanted to see ONLY the big G thats why I was disappointed.As u said though the title of the movie is misleading just like the title of Monsters yeah...and this time I connected to the people and I thought there was some poetry at the end when Godzilla and Ford are just falling down because their just exhausted.One because he doesnt want to get annihilated by the MUTOs because as u said if those little eggs would've evolved,the planet and humanity would've been fu*ked by the MUTOs and Ford because he is just trying to get back home to his wife.

MADISON - I respect ur opinion and I also think if Johnson was a little bit more emotional it would've been great because he is the lead character but I personally liked him.There was one scene where it proved that his character had to be closed emotionally so he did his job.Hes still a good actor so I wouldn't blame him too much.And yeah the score by Alexandre Desplat sometimes was perfect while other times wasnt.

Hello everyone. This is my first post, and I know I'm about three years too late, but I've only just found this site today.... Anyway, I would like to give my own review on this movie, hopefully I don't make too many people mad for essentially necro-posting.

Anyway, I watched this movie when it came out in theaters, I was hyped as hell as I've been a big Godzilla fan since I was about 10 years old when I saw the original Godzilla King of the Monsters on Scifi. From there it just snowballed I've seen just about all of the original movies from Showa to the Millennium series save for one, and that's only because I haven't been able to find it.

Now when I went into this movie as I said before I was hyped as hell. What little they showed of Godzilla in the trailers confirmed that this creature at least looked like Godzilla, it had the roar, and the whole nine yards.

When I watched the first half of it, I instantly was hooked, Bryan Cranston gave an amazing performance, and I thought they were going to follow him all the way on that train. (Imagine my disappointment) Now mind you I have never watched an episode of breaking bad a day in my life so when I saw Cranston  I thought he was just one amazing actor. And I was hooked through the whole first half of the movie as it followed his character from the death of the wife to the reveal of the Muto. I was less enthralled with the guy that played Kick-Ass' performance, and honestly felt him to be really boring, but I digress.

As the movie progressed, the build up was perfect they gave you little snips, and nods to Godzilla. When it got to the reveal it was perfect, you watch him come out of the ocean, you don't quiet see him a first, then you get little more bites, and glimpses as he strolls down the road towards the muto on the Hawaiian island.

Then you get the big reveal with that powerful roar, and then we get to the part that made me almost walk out of the damn theater. Now as I said I have watched nearly all of the Godzilla movies, and they always have this basic formula. Dividing the movie into sections the first section is always the boring human plot starts and expositions, then you get the build up to what you'd call round one of two for the monster fights. Then when the monsters are both revealed you get a small scuffle between the two which either ends in a draw, or with one, or the other getting beaten to the point they need to make a tactical retreat. Then you get the third section which is usually where the human plot points and story arcs get wrapped up, for the most part.

And then you get the big finale which is just the two monsters bashing heads. Godzilla going all out to fight off the big bad, or in the case of when Mothra was part of the story, getting his ass kicked. Then any remaining human elements were wrapped up, and Godzilla swims off into the sea.

THIS DID NOT HAPPEN THERE!

Instead it cut away from what should've been a great first fight, that could have helped establish a few things. It also could've made the human element a bit more interesting, we'd get a first round fight with Godzilla facing the male muto, maybe firing off a round of his atomic breath, which would have then been analyzed by the humans for any potential weaknesses between the two. We fans of the classics would've gotten a good first round fight, and the rest could've gotten something to help immerse them into the human element a bit more.

Instead what we got was a bunch of cut-a-ways throughout the entire damn movie. To me it felt like the whole damn thing was just one big teaser trailer. The human element after Cranston's character was killed was just boring as shit, which to be fair most of the time was always boring in Godzilla movies save for Final Wars. (In my opinion!)

As many people commented on here, Godzilla never felt like the badass force of nature that the movie kept trying to hype up for him to be. Instead as many pointed out here and I agree he just seemed like the gentle giant defender. As if Gareth had taken cues from the HannaBarbara Godzilla cartoon series and mashed them in.

And then came the second disappointment for me with this movie. When we finally do get to see the damn monsters duke it out, we only get to see 25% of the actual fight, because the movie seems to think that we give a shit about their plot involving a nuclear bomb, especially after it had already been established that the monsters feed on high levels of nuclear energy to survive. Which I highly doubt any military would be so dense as to think "These guys feed on nuclear energy, why, we'll just use their food source as a way to kill them by...over feeding them?"  This plot was seriously ill conceived and seriously lacking in any intelligent thought.

And then we come to the third disappointment and the second thing that almost caused me to walk out of the theater. (Truth be told had I not taken my younger brother along I most likely would have walked out after they cut away from the first fight.) And this was the atomic breath, the build up was once again beautiful, his tail glows the power surges up his dorsal fins. A low humming noise is heard as the beam charges, you watch him hold his head back as if he were taking in a breath and you expect to see this big explosion of energy...instead you see a blue wisp of smoke.... That thing looked weak as fuck, instead of it being this big powerful beam of energy that blasts the Muto 1,000 miles away it looks like it causes it some mild friggen irritation. As if Godzilla were just giving it a first degree burn like putting a lizard's heat rock on someone's bare skin. It's hot, mildly annoying, but doesn't do any real damage apart from some minimal discomfort.

The fight itself was to the film's credit, with the exception of the cut-a-ways to the human plot, wasn't too bad over all, it actually felt like a Godzilla flick, mind you this was like the early Showa Godzilla where it didn't seem as if he was as matured a fighter as he became in the later Godzilla movies. So I'm not sure if that's what Edwards was going for, or what, but it still didn't seem to have the same oomf as even the later Showa series, never mind the Heisa, and Millennium series.

Finally we got to the movies, to me, only saving grace. The kiss of death scene. That was the only thing that was even remotely cool about this movie watching Godzilla rip the monster's jaws apart and just dumping its atomic wisp into the kaiju's throat. But it would've been so much cooler if they would've beefed up the damn beam to the status of GMK, or Final Wars.

In short the movie was a big disappointment to me personally with only two saving graces. One being Bryan Cranston, and the second being the kiss of death scene. You didn't see Godzilla nearly enough, and he didn't seem to be anywhere near as powerful a force of nature as he should have been instead it felt like I was watching a movie featuring Godzookie from the HannaBarara cartoon series. He blew smoke rings and was virtually in-effective in a fight.

I just watched it. Over all I liked it but wanted more.

1. It seemed like a long time before Godzilla appeared and when it did, I saw its leg. I expected more chaos. 

2. I hated the military small arms fire against something bigger than most buildings. 

3. I wanted more monster screen time.

4. I wanted Godzilla to go after the nuclear facility (humans) and not just focus on the monsters. Humans deserved wrath more than the monsters imo.

The rest was really good. The noises the creatures made were original and creepy- sort of mechanical in a way. 

Godzilla and the creatures looked great- just wanted to see more.

Whew. Digging up relics here.