Godzilla (2014)

It seems there was a lot of criticism aimed at the Godzilla film regarding the use of the titular character as I discovered whilst reading up on the film after watching it last night. Everyone seemed to slate it due to the limited screen time Godzilla, the creature, actually got. I sort of agree, and also very much so find myself disagreeing too.

This film teases us for the best part of two hours, and it does so masterfully. There are some incredibly well shot scenes where Godzilla appears in some of the best and most memorable entrances a giant monster could have – a foot lands in front of a screaming crowd, silencing them, or he is slowly lit up by flares fired from a rooftop – and then it cuts away, leaving you desperately wanting to see more. There are at least three of these jaw dropping entrances before we even get to see him fight, and it means that when we do finally get to see him in action it feels all the more bad-ass. The fights between Godzilla and the MUTO's are short and quick, mostly seen from an up close human perspective or incredibly far away, so we can see these giants battle it out amongst sky scrapers. This choice means that we never lose that sense of scale or size that makes this film so visually impressive. Action fatigue fails to set in because of the restraint the film shows, and it ends leaving you desperately wanting more in the best possible way.

However, if you can't get behind the build up and anticipation, you aren't going to get a lot from this film. Bryan Cranston doesn't get the screen time he deserves, despite playing the most fleshed out character and being the best actor in the cast by a long margin. The main human characters, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen are pretty forgettable, but they are serviceable as the emotional hook of the film and work well enough with the suitably simplistic story for it not to matter a great deal. The film moves at a good enough pace to keep things fresh, with the teases of Godzilla mentioned earlier keeping you interested enough in the story for it to matter when the finale rolls around.

This film is by no means a master class in story telling or even a good lesson in writing characters, but it was never meant to be. Godzilla is all about spectacle, scope and a surprising amount of restraint, and it achieves this in an age of cinema where audiences are expected to get bored if ten minutes pass without an action scene. This film treats you like an adult, with enough patience to sit still and shut up and allow the film to tease you – and if you are willing to let it do that, you will not be disappointed.