Godzilla

There's a scene a third of the way through this second American remake of Japan's iconic monster franchise when we finally get the money shot. After near an hour of teasing glimpses, Godzilla stands revealed, and we ready for the titanic battle that's about to go down... only to get a cutaway to the other side of the world, catching the last glimpses of what should have been the movie's first creature combat play out on a grainy television news report. Director Gareth Edwards loves to tease. It's a bait and switch that the director used to great effect in his previous creature feature, Monsters, and a trick he's happy to repeat here.

It's a philosophy born from a mixture of budgetary concerns, story pacing and fear of CGI burn out that helped define that superb indie debut. The director's cheque may have added a few extra zeros in his shift to the blockbuster circuit, but Edwards still retains the template for Godzilla, and the build up to the final act clash of colossi feels earned as payoff is delivered in spades. With cameras finally lingering rather than cutting away on skycraper-sized beasts warring, the spectacle proves dazzling.

Godzilla may earn the title card, but there are equally-heavyweight actors whose names are etched above his on the movie's posters. That Bryan Cranston's one of them is clear indication that the studio's focused on enticing recognisable stars with acting chops to sell this as more than your standard creature feature. Because as with Monsters, and to a lesser extent, J.J Abrams' Cloverfield, most of the point of view to this unnatural disaster is from human eye level, and as much time, if not more, is spent on the human drama.

Shame then that that drama isn't as compellingly acted. Whereas in Monsters it was one romantic entanglement of a road trip overlaid onto a border conflict, in Godzilla we're witness to cross-generational, and even cross-cultural, relationships set against a world-swallowing war. Yet the script and delivery rarely raises the human element above monster movie cliché. You could argue Edwards has made a note-perfect genre piece, but it means outside the action, you're sadly apathetic.

While Cranston's the headline name, it's Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, and the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron) who quickly becomes our eyes to this ongoing incursion. His role as soldier is all-too obviously sold only as a way to get the camera onto the frontline.

Taylor-Johnson's an enigma; early promise in an engaging, troubled relationship with his father dissolves into a stoic, one-dimensional performance as he poorly sells not just his need to get back to his family, but his personal reasoning for downing the beasts that have surfaced. It's all straight face and little emotion - of the cast only Cranston and Elizabeth Olsen (wasted in a support role) inject anything beyond stereotype into their performances. If we're spending this long with these people, we want to care, want to be engaged at their predicament. Sadly we don't.

But Edwards gives good creature feature. He spurns the quieter moments of Monsters for scenes that'll have your cinema speakers nearly rupturing. Introductions of the film's beasts (yes, plural) are simultaneously terrifyingly alien and gob-smackingly brilliant. When Godzilla rips off his trademark roar, your grin will split your face, even as your organs are bruised at its intensity.

It's clear Edwards understands the dichotomy of Godzilla: a city-destroying monster who's also a heroic figure. His growing appeal, especially to kids, over the franchise's sixty year lifespan may certainly explain conscious concessions to the shots to earn that 12A rating and thus bigger audience pull. Aftermaths of multiple city-wide destructions are surprisingly bloodless, Edwards focusing on torn buildings and little else, while the final clash between Godzilla and his foes occurs during the night, hiding much of the gore that's easily suggested.

But yes, that's beasts, plural. If the film's taken the serious tone of the 1954 original as basis, Edwards at least acknowledges that most audiences know Godzilla movies as the big lizard squaring up against another colossus, with humanity's fate on the line. And it's an angle Edwards nicely converts into modern parlance with Godzilla set up as an uncontrollable weapon as deterrent against another invader, an apex predator hunting down its prey, oblivious to the needs of those lost in the shadow of his feet.

The nuclear and gamma radiation element once tied to ‘Zilla's origins is now converted into a food source that attracts the Mutos, the pair of insect-like creatures that hatch early into the film after decades of hibernation. In turn their emergence attracts Godzilla, who hunts the pair across the world as they travel from nuclear site to nuclear site. So, still a road trip movie after all.

When it's at its best, this is a fantastic monster movie that easily wipes away the stain of the 1998 U.S. remake. Brilliantly shot, with some stunning sequences that feel fresh even after a decade's worth of similar genre movies, and does right by its title star. If only the slow-burn human elements were as compelling, this would be a Godzilla movie we'd have loved watching whether the big fella was on screen or not.