Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Ford Brody, a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe. Soon, both men are swept up in an escalating crisis when an ancient alpha predator arises from the sea to combat malevolent adversaries that threaten the survival of humanity. The creatures leave colossal destruction in their wake, as they make their way toward their final battleground: San Francisco.
Gareth Edwards brings genuinely impressive large-scale visual craft to this reboot — the HALO jump sequence and creature reveals are cinematically stunning, with a disciplined sense of scale rarely seen in blockbusters. Acting is serviceable with strong supporting work from Watanabe and Cranston, though the human lead is thin. The plot is a familiar disaster-movie scaffold with underdeveloped characters and too little Godzilla screen time for many viewers. Novelty is limited — it's a remake/reboot hitting well-worn kaiju beats despite the quality execution. The San Francisco finale delivers on spectacle but resolves somewhat abruptly.