Bryan Cranston was the acting draw for this movie, and I don't know why. It's not that I don't like Bryan Cranston, it's just that he really isn't the focal point of the story. I know what you're probably thinking; you're thinking that Godzilla is the focal point, and that should be obvious by the title - well I have news for you, Mr. Know-it-all (or Ms), Godzilla doesn't show until over halfway through the movie. I don't know why this is a popular strategy amongst modern monster movies, but it seems pretty common.
Here's the thing about this storyline - your average Godzilla story is just an excuse to have monsters fighting each other inside cities. I figured that the reboot would be the best time for them to cobble together something interesting and thoughtful, but we instead find ourselves staring down the barrel of a slapped-together story that essentially relies on gut feelings, assumptions, and wild guesses.
So, this winds up being pretty human-centric, as is normal for Godzilla movies. Who are these people? As usual, it doesn't actually matter, and I think we'd be okay with some of them kicking various buckets. The army guy? Yeah, he can die, it's fine. The little boy he somehow got saddled with? Whatever. The token Japanese scientist who for some reason is important for this movie? Honestly, I really wish he had been killed. I came for Godzilla destroying things and possibly kicking another monster's butt.
The fact is, this movie had every reason to be better than it was. They tried to avoid the pitfalls of the 1998 movie by not giving logical roots or anything like that. Like that movie had borrowed CG animations for the little baby 'zillas, this movie appears to have borrowed a bit (see right) as well, but the CG is pretty well done.
Acting was okay
Story was pretty pitiful
Dialog was bad
Effects were very good
Direction was tolerable
2.0/5