Godzilla

This movie has it all. I loved this version of the Heat Ray. There’s an angsty scientist with a eyepatch. Incredible miniatures smashed to smithereens. The Tokyo destruction scene is an all timer. The Godzilla theme and the score as a whole are immaculate. The poignancy of this coming out just 9 years after the bombs dropped and basically being a psa for PLEASE STOP DEVELOPING THESE THINGS and recognizing the temptation to do it anyway. Sarizawa’s sacrifice at the end also makes Godzilla Minus One’s ending hit even harder than it already does. (Leave it to me to bring that movie up in another review.) BUT. The first half is dull as rocks, almost painfully at times. It cuts around so quick and disjointedly that it’s hard to care about anything going on until the threat is made VERY clear around the halfway point. The dad/paleontologist character’s refusal to fight for himself (or say much of anything to anyone in a position of power) is super frustrating and makes him really hard to enjoy watching as the de facto protagonist of the first half of the movie.