Ethan Clements

Coming from a die-hard MonsterVerse fan: This movie was way more grounded than most other Godzilla films, and here it actually works. There's a sense of dread in every scene with the monsters, Godzilla's big reveal was perfect, and the MUTOs designs are alien yet grounded in reality. The monsters portrayal and the intricate details make them like real creatures, all the way down to how the male's legs fold up when flying, or to how after Godzilla uses his atomic breath his dorsal plates gradually turn off, like an energy depletion bar... The world building with humanity's reaction to the creatures is realistic, and overall the worldbuilding and atmosphere is frankly chilling. From when Godzilla bursts through the Golden Gate with buses filled of children mind you, when the female MUTO attacks the train, the HALO jump, the Kiss of Death... its more of a horror flick than a monster movie, just without the gore and such. Godzilla was at his weakest in this film, but it goes to visually tell you that these creatures have evolved to fight each other. Now for my complaints. The movie overall was way too dark, you could hardly tell what was going on in the action scenes. This was utilised well in the Honolulu and train scenes, but for the final fight you couldn't tell where everyone was for the most part. The humans were generic, Ford Brody was just a nothing character, it honestly should have followed his father. The monsters needed more screentime, the parts they are in are well executed, but they keep teasing you with a big fight before cutting to black, and the whole final fight wasn't even visible half the time. Anyways, if you grew up with the old Toho films, you should definitely watch this, and its generally a good popcorn movie if your looking for something more serious.