Did I know what to expect in this movie? No, what I thought was totally different to how it played out. Seeing Godzilla on film for the first time and being in an IMAX cinema for the first time, I knew I had a special event ahead of me. Godzilla, as we all know, is a giant monster that attacks cities. He’s a force of nature fighting back against Mankind.

This movie is the latest in a long line of flicks starring the main character. Toho Studios created the icon and took Godzilla through 28 features. Toho’s films contained a whole host of monsters, the latest “Godzilla: Final Wars”, featured 14 monster co-stars. Up to this release from Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros, the US haven’t exactly had the best of luck with the city destroyer. The last major release, being 1998’s “Godzilla” starring Matthew Broderick, didn’t exactly go down well with critics.

Of course “Godzilla” is a science fiction monster film. It does what it says on the tin basically. The message of the movie is basically “you mess with nature, she’ll fight back and screw you up”. It’s a simple, yet strong message delivered in a great cinema experience. It’s also themed along the lines of what family means. This is a great twist on the traditional story but the script weakens at times, as I explain later.

The plot is quite simple, nuclear bomb testing awakens natures’ famous beast and humanity has to deal with it. I’m being simple because if I gave the plot away, it would ruin the movie to be quite honest. There’s a few little twists and turns leading up to a triple monster fight in the city during the film’s third act. The plot as a whole is quite straightforward. Others may compare this to Del Toro’s mega hit Pacific Rim. As I have not seen Pacific Rim, I can’t comment on such comparisons. In parts, it’s predictable, but that doesn’t stop it from being a spectacle of awesome. Don’t expect a monster ripping through the streets of San Francisco throughout the whole movie because “Godzilla” is not the movie you’re looking for. It takes a different route, one that’s familiar but not done really a lot over the rest of the monster films.

This 2014 reboot is more about how human civilization deals with such a force of nature and how Mankind needs to survive as oppose to just seeing Godzilla rip through buildings like nothing. Don’t get me wrong, buildings are destroyed in a fantastic way, just not throughout the whole movie. It’s known that Toho had set some conditions for the movie in-order to make sure it was done right. The monsters fighting Godzilla are known as M.U.T.Os, meaning Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms. They are attracted to radioactive objects and feed off of the radiation. There are two that star against Godzilla. They get more screen time than the main guy does. In the third act of the movie, it’s a triple fight and we see Godzilla’s iconic Atomic Breath, used with such fierceness and ease.

Taking the main roles in “Godzilla” are Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Ken Watanbe (The Last Samurai, Inception). Supporting these three is veteran actor Bryan Cranston (TV’s Breaking Bad, Drive), Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche among others. Johnson stars as Ford Brody, a soldier of the US armed forces coming back to his homeland to be with his wife, played by Olsen and son (Carson Bolde). Cranston is cast as Ford’s father, Joe. Binoche makes a small appearance as Joe’s wife, Sandra.

Johnson is a believable family man just wanting to live life comfortably alongside Olsen. They have some great on-screen chemistry (well for the scene they are mainly together) and gel well. Note that they will be playing Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch in the new Avengers sequel “Age of Ultron”, released in 2015. As much as Bryan Cranston is shown off in the trailers, he’s not utilized enough on screen. For his character’s screen time, he plays a fantastic part. I just don’t think they gave him the amount of screen time he necessarily deserved. Everybody thinks Cranston is a bit of a loony in “Godzilla” however when plot points take shape, you know he’s completely correct. Juliette Binoche may as well have not been on-screen for her part. Honestly, what screen time she has really doesn’t push the boundaries at all. In fact, it’s Cranston that makes the scene become a lot more emotional.

The script isn’t strong at points in the film and the second act basically falls flat in parts. Nothing seems to breach the boundaries in the middle. During the beginning and Cranston’s part, you can see the script took a risk and wasn’t afraid to jump. The third act really required no dialogue. Sitting watching on the big screen, a monster battle of epic proportions really needs no script. It’s just what you’ve always dreamed of. Certain parts of the writing make Godzilla tease a fight with one of the M.U.T.Os but you are always teased and it almost takes away from the final act, but the final act does enough to save itself.

Gareth Edwards seems to make his big Hollywood debut in “Godzilla”. His official directorial debut was the movie “Monsters”, released back in 2010. I didn’t see Monsters so I was quite intrigued as to how Edwards would show the world’s famous monster on the cinema screen. I’m safe to say, he has done a fantastic job. The landscapes are gloriously captured and the overall camera movement is to be extremely admired.

Godzilla himself stands 350 feet tall and it’s portrayed like that. Edwards told interviewers that “it was important to me that this felt like a Toho Godzilla”. The CGI in this movie is magnificent. Godzilla is textured so well and realistically that he’s pretty much seamless to the real actors. Double Negative, the special effects house in London, seem to take to the main stage as the effects creators. Their work goes from Man of Steel to Les Miserables to the last 5 Harry Potter movies. They are pretty eccentric when it comes to the art of CGI. They don’t disappoint at all in Godzilla. The supervisor for visual effects for the movie was Jim Rygiel, most noted for his work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There were more visual effects houses working on Godzilla, it’s just Double Negative seem to be the ones in the main credits.

I watched this at an IMAX theater in 3D. I had some major problems with this. The main great point to make, with it being my first time at and IMAX showing, I loved the screen space. Having a gigantic screen to watch monsters do battle is one hell of an experience and I’ll be sure to view in IMAX again in the future. The 3D, honestly, wasn’t worth it. There were one or two scenes where it looked fantastic. The scene that comes to mind straight away is a landscape shot of a helicopter flying over the wilderness. It looks like its paying huge homage to 1994’s Jurassic Park.

As for the other scenes and shots in the film, it just wasn’t needed. There were some great places that 3D could have been utilized and it just wasn’t there, it’s a bit of a shame really. In most of the shots in the middle act, I felt like my eye-sight was deteriorating as I watched, it was just too blurry at times. It seemed like there were attempts at making the foreground of the screen blurred to create 3-dimensional depth but these attempts were shoddy. Seems like the editing needed to be a bit more finely tuned for it to work brilliantly. Pace wise, it goes up and down like a roller-coaster at times, but it’s a great contrast for the technique. Being fast when the monsters are around and being slower when it’s Mankind’s turn at making a strategy.

The sound editing and score work flawlessly. Godzilla’s roar is unimaginably powerful, you don’t just hear it, you feel it. The sounds of the M.U.T.Os are eerie and all-round creepy as hell. Just the sound alone of them attacking the cities is nerve shaking. Going along with the mutated animal sounds are ambient sounds that anyone will admire, creating tension and suspense throughout this flick. “Godzilla” is scored by Alexandre Desplat, whose most noted for the final two Harry Potter films’ score. He describes the soundtrack as “non-stop tortissimo, with lots of bass, Japanese drums and electric violin”. I can tell you, it works wonders. Built with some sound almost paying homage to what feels like John Williams’ compositions, I think it’s also in homage to the classic Japanese cinema in which Godzilla first took reign. It’s a beautiful score that fits right in.

In conclusion I loved “Godzilla”. It’s a monster movie that cinema was made for. It’s not a perfect film by any means but its perfection in parts. As mentioned before, seeing Godzilla kick butt is gloriously done here and I shall be definitely picking this flick up on Blu-ray if I don’t see it in cinemas again. For anyone reading this that hasn’t seen “Godzilla”, I urge you to book your tickets and go and enjoy it with a big bucket of popcorn. You’ll get a few jump scares, some fear and some Michael Bay style explosions in one of two scenes. If you are thinking of watching in 3D, I’d honestly advise against it for reasons mentioned before. I can see this being a spectacle of its own in just 2D. I don’t think this is for a gender specific audience as both males and females can take away something from it. As also mentioned, “Godzilla” has been compared by some to Pacific Rim, I have no comment on that since I haven’t seen the latter. Again it’s not perfect but I’ll give it a 7/10.