Godzilla - fun and destruction

I went to see "Godzilla" last evening... and liked it.  Of course, I have always been a fan of monster movies, especially where monsters roam the planet and cities are devastated.  I've seen a number of silly reviewers complaining about the actresses getting short shrive, their performances being stereotypical.  As are the actors, the actresses are only needed to advance the plot.  They are not pivotal.  In fact I don't even see their complaint as even remotely valid.  If you're going to see this film simply because Juliette Binoche, or Sally Hawkins, or Elizabeth Olson are in it, you're going for the wrong reason.  The star of the movie is Godzilla.  If you go to see it because Sally Hawkins is in it, you're likely to be disappointed.  She does a really good job at being an accessory, but then that's all she's supposed to be.  If, after watching this film,  the only thing you talk about is her performance, then this movie has failed.  That's why it's called "Godzilla."  Even Aaron Johnson, who gets star billing, is a minor character.  He is an accessory to the fact and nothing more, a witness to the events as they are unfolding.

Sometimes being a non-typical hero is best

He is the 'stand-in' for every man.  He is not your normal hero, the gung-ho soldier with testosterone shooting out every orifice as he dives head first into battle, but rather the quiet man who volunteers because he needs to, because it's the right thing to do.

I suspect that years from now, what audiences will remember most are not the battles and the destruction, instead it will be the parachute drop into San Francisco.  Visually it is stunning, it is spectacle without the spectacular: red flares falling like drops of blood.  And musically?  For those who didn't recognize the background piece, it is "Also Sprach Zarathustra," a tone poem composed by Richard Strauss.  If you did recognize it, you're probably remembering it from Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey."

I don't usually purchase movies but I may purchase this because it was fun.  I have a friend who still hasn't seen it so I may end up going to see it a 2nd time, which wouldn't be a bad thing.