THE PITCH
WORTH
$$$1/2
THE VIEWING
Monster mash movies never really captured me as a child. I watched them but mainly in horror. Me and my young overactive imagination couldn’t handle the thought of a huge furry arm reaching inside my comfy bed room window and snatching me out of it. Long drives down the highway I remember seeing monsters emerge from the highway horizon on a straight-away. A snout appearing out of nowhere, nestling in the leaves of that huge oak outside my window. Of all the problems I had my curiosity also wouldn’t let me NOT watch them either. Looking back at it I used it as game film. What to do and what not to do in case of an attack. Now that I’m grown and a little bit more on the “normal” side I can appreciate them more. I love Peter Jackson’s King Kong in 2005. I maybe the only reviewer in the world that liked the 1998 Matthew Broderick Godzilla. This latest rendition of the conquering “King of all Monsters” was pretty darn good. I fell asleep a couple of times but NOT because it was that boring. Godzilla was the second in a customized double creature feature [the other was the new X-Men movie], all after service on Sunday… so that was a lot of sitting down and being comfortable. I have to explain it that way because a lot of the complaints I’ve been getting were that the movie was too long and “It would of been better had Godzilla been in the Godzilla movie.” I can now see why they feel as such but I disagree. I thought the “build-up” of tension and story were spot on. It led up to one of the best and more spectacular finale fight scenes in a monster movie. People in my theater where cheering. Honestly, [thinking while typing this]... maybe some of the film near the middle and a little bit after could have been left on the editing room floor but even so, I did not think it took anything away from the film.
This installment of Godzilla showcased more of a pragmatic ground level effect plus the extremely personal and firsthand consequences of ‘monster mayhem’ in a real world prism. The word of the decade with these new films is ‘plausibility’. You can make any tall tale seem realistic if you tell it right. The opening story captured me in this film. Well done to all the cast and to the screenwriter(s) whom were able to pull that off and keep me engaged throughout. Yes, my body betrayed me and I drifted off but I still don’t believe it was because of the pace of the film. I want to see it again so it can’t be that…. right?
Worth Watching. May be a tad long for some so just beware of that.
letter grade: B
