“Godzilla” god of monsters and god of creature features bring thrills

With one of the oldest movie monsters, whose first film aired in 1954, the Godzilla movie franchise has had huge success through the decades. With the new American movie by the same name, people can relive their favorite monster over again, but this time on a bigger level with amped up effects.

Like most people, sometimes I just want to go see a movie that is action packed and exciting, which was all I expected from “Godzilla,” but I was pleasantly surprised that it was more than that. Even though Godzilla himself wasn’t shown until 45 minutes into it, it was still thrilling. There were several scenes where I caught myself holding my breath and sitting at the edge of my seat.

The plot follows a young man, Ford, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who aids his father, a crazy Bryan Cranston, to help prove his theory that a creature caused a nuclear plant’s destruction in Japan 15 years ago.Of course his theory was proven but not without further destruction and the discovery of a moth like creature named Mutos. As  the film progresses, Ford is basically tasked with saving the world from the Mutos. I greatly appreciated that Godzilla was also on the people’s side in trying to defeat Mutos and bring back order to the world, despite the fact that he caused several hundred casualties.

Something about the effects were extremely intriguing. It was apparent that the filmmakers tried hard for the monsters to appear real. Throughout scenes that took place in cities, the camera was angled from a person’s view to show how real people would view the creatures.

Although I enjoyed the general storyline and the “reality” the effects created,  Taylor-Johnson’s character was boring. He was cast as an average guy that had to help save the world, but he should have been saving his below average personality. The film obviously didn’t want to focus on character development, but they could have cast a more than one-note actor.

That being said, I give “Godzilla” a low B. It was a gripping adventure that was worth the ticket.