When I saw Godzilla in the theater I was captivated but kind of let down based on my expectations of Godzilla being the main bad guy and it being more frightening, etc., etc.
Watched it again on blu today with adjusted expectations and loved it! There's so much I like now! I don't feel like it was lacking so much this time in "civilian panic" scenes. The Hawaii and Golden Gate bridge scenes were brilliant IMO. The quiet rushing of the tsunami was very ominous, as were a number of human POV shots from inside buildings, monorails, school buses, etc.
And one thing I really loved about the movie was how the destruction was depicted in the media. Just quiet breaking news on TV screens in the background. Some people were glued to it and many others were just going about their lives. Which is honestly how I think our planet would really react to kaiju in this day and age! 9/11 really popped our modern nation's cherry with regard to real time live destruction. And really, is Godzilla much more horrifying than that? If you're at ground zero yes but otherwise...I'm not so sure.
I just really liked how people's reactions were portrayed.
There seemed to be a number of homages throughout. Jurassic Park, ALIENS, Close Encounters, hell I even think I heard the Carbon Freezing Chamber noise when the bay doors to the cargo plane opened right before the big skydiving scene.
I didn't feel like the movie was one big tease either. The first MUTO shows up about 30 minutes in, not the longest wait for movies that aren't rushing things, then it goes to Hawaii, Godzilla shows up, then Vegas, then the train on the bridge, then the Golden Gate bridge followed by the big San Francisco finale. I just felt like it had a lot of monster action and as much as I pined for each Godzilla appearance he always satisfied when he did arrive, and with each "aw man" when he would leave it was just that much more exciting when he'd return. And he returned a lot!
It was just cool. Best Godzilla design ever IMO and the one word that popped into my mind when the movie wrapped up was "respectable." After 60 years we actually have a Godzilla movie that is respectable as a real movie. I know there are a lot of die hard fans of the Toho stuff but come on, other than the 54 original, its all just goofy schlock. But this new movie is the real deal. I hope that Edwards doesn't have a knee jerk reaction to all the "we didn't see enuf monsterz!" posts and pull a MOS with too much action for the sequel and no story to back it up.
I enjoyed Godzilla way more than Pacific Rim.
