And right there in the subject line of this post you’ll find my major gripe with the new “Godzilla” movie, if you can call it a gripe.
They played it straight, it does what it says on the tin, it clocks in at two hours instead of nearly-three, and the biggest kaiju fan I know gave it her full approval. Hell, the movie even does a respectable job (all things considered) of figuring out how to get the main POV character into position for each action piece he’s thrown into, which is usually one of those parts of such movies which tend to make you say, “Oh, COME ON.”
A great work of modern cinema? Maybe, maybe not. A solid giant-monster movie worthy of its name? Oh, hell yes.
How is it in comparison to Pacific Rim?
Where “Pacific Rim” is bright and fun and about-something, “Godzilla” plays it very, very straight and sober. There are far fewer characters to track. There are no moments of camp, no winking nods to the audience. (Well, okay, maybe one.) PR is a human story of varied personalities clashing then meshing as they try to fight off the monsters. This is a story of giant monsters clashing while humans scramble to deal with it.