Godzilla
2014
**
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston, Carson Bolde, Richard T. Jones
15 years after a mysterious disaster at a Japanese nuclear power plant, the desolated area experiences the same seismic activity, and a Muto (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) emerges from the ruins. The gigantic creature heads towards the west coast of the US, with Godzilla on its heels. Gareth Edwards, who broke through with the charming and unusual Monsters, cannot breathe life into this latest franchise reboot. Although his movie may be fractionally smarter than Roland Emnmerich's disastrous 1998 version, as a piece of entertainment it offers no improvement. The first half an hour are gripping and Godzilla's backstory is interesting, but the remaining 90 minutes offer nothing but boring clichés. Godzilla barely features in its own movie and the human characters are a familiar mix of scientists and military personnel, all of them without personality. The final battle between the monsters is slow, dull and, thanks to the murky setting, incomprehensible.
