Godzilla

Plot: In 1999, there is a disaster at a Japanese nuclear power plant by the sea, very much like the real-life Fukushima Daiichi tsumami disaster in 2011. Ford Brody's (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) parents worked at the plant, and his mother is killed. His father Joe (Bryon Cranston) spends the last 15 years trying to figure out what the Japanese government is hiding. Turns out the disaster was a monster attack, and Joe predicts the monster is coming back.

When the monster does attack, Ford, survives and heads back to the US via Hawaii, but the monster comes too. Ford is a Lieutenant in the Navy, and his wife, Elle (Elizabeth Olsen,) is a nurse in San Francisco. There are additional monsters in the story, and I am not going to spoil the details. It ends with a big battle in San Francisco: Ford is there with a nuke, and the monsters are fighting each other.  Action. Heroics. Smashed Buildings. Cute Children in Peril.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The first part of the movie is a shadowy suspense where we don't know what is the horror in the shadows. It is always suspenseful. In the second part, the same characters are witnesses to the action as the monsters journey from Japan to San Francisco -- smashing buildings along the way. 

The special effects are great. The plot is well-written, and we all root for Godzilla to win. Elizabeth Olsen has a small part as Ford's wife, but she does a nice job with facial acting. 

Godzilla is excellent for a monster movie, and I recommend it. Godzilla is fun to watch, and is cool in places. It is a movie for spectacle, and when the film is over -- there isn't much to talk about. Godzilla is not trying to be more than a spectacle. (Monster movies aren't my favorite genre. Godzilla is not a horror movie.)

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen

Directed by: Gareth Edwards

Rating: 2.5 stars: The best monster movie since Pacific Rim.

More: Godzilla is a big monster. It is as big as an aircraft carrier. 

Even More: I still like the Blue Oyster Cult song Godzilla, and it final lyric "History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man."  Seems to fit this movie.