Sean reports on Godzilla from the field!

Late last night my morse-code receiver started beeping like crazy so I dashed up and decoded his hurried message:

The Return of the King

Knowing I planned to see the new Godzilla on opening weekend, Dennis asked me for some impressions – and here they are: Wow! Hollywood finally got it right. This is not a full review, and it has NO SPOILERS.

The story-telling concerning Godzilla and his foes is superior and has pleasing echo’s of Shusuke Kaneko’s wonderful 1995 reboot, “Gamera: Guardian of the Universe.” The necessary pseudo-science to explain the impossible is nicely handled, and each monster entrance and set piece has a great build-up. This is a welcome improvement over last year’s Pacific Rim, which was OK, but which kept throwing one rushed action scene after another at us, hardly giving us a chance to see the monsters before they were dispatched by the giant robots. The battle royale in Godzilla, on the other hand, is completely satisfying! Again, wow.

I see online there is some heartburn that Godzilla is too fat, and while he could be a bit less chunky, he’s still majestic and awesome in just the right way. The MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) are wonderfully sinister and powerful looking. As for the humans, the cast is good, and the soap opera elements are kept to a decent minimum. (Still no gay characters in a big budget action movie, but I have hopes for the future.)

To end this short impression – I give the 1998 version an F, last year’s Pacific Rim a C, and this summer’s Big Comeback an A!”