The story starts in Japan when Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), father of Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), witnesses a nuclear meltdown that kills his wife. The film then transcends to the future after Joe has spent years studying what had caused the disaster. Joe convinces Ford to sneak into the radiation site because he wants to figure out what caused the meltdown. They discover the Japanese government has a been hiding a M.U.T.O egg, which hatches into a giant moth. The M.U.T.O. kills Joe, and then begins to fly towards to U.S.
Godzilla, who has been watched by the Japanese government as well, because of the M.U.T.O’s presence, and now it’s a race against time before this M.U.T.O., its mate, and Godzilla meet each other to fight on U.S. soil. While this is taking place, Ford is trying to get back to his family and get them to safety as the U.S. government is deciding whether or not to nuke the two new threats, killing millions of people.
The premise of the movie is set up well as it shows how much of a threat M.U.T.O ‘s can be. However, the film is not based solely around the monsters as most of the movie centers around Ford’s challenges as he keeps running into the two creatures on his way to meet his family. This can be a letdown for some fans and viewers as Godzilla and the M.U.T.O’s fight scenes are cut short to tease the audience. The M.U.T.O’s get more screen time than Godzilla in this film, and the movie’s monster is pushed to a supporting side character. The movie makes up for this issue because the special effects of both monsters are stunning and their size is enormous.
Another disappointing fact is that Bryan Cranston does not have a large of a role in the film as most viewers had planned him to have. Many of the Godzilla trailers hyped him up to be the main character of the movie, but instead it is Aaron Taylor-Johnson who takes the main protagonist in this flick.
With the movie running a little over two hours it is sad that most of it is focused on the military soldiers than the actual monsters. However, the original “Godzilla” from 1954 also focused on what the people around Godzilla go through as well, showing the devastation and terror that the king of monsters can cause. Though they both focus on the humans, the original “Godzilla” still knew that Godzilla needed to be shown every so often to keep the audience interested, whereas the newer reboot does not. If you are an old or new fan of the Godzilla franchise then this movie is definitely for you.
