It's an amusing movie, filled with uncreative clichés and dry dialogues. Fortunately for the movie maker, lost of us do not go see Godzilla for the interesting plot or engaging character and conversation. We go for the monster, and what a fine monster it is. Not a monster with personality as King Kong did, mind you, but its (or his) character was more fully developed than other human characters in the movie.
The movie started with nuclear testing that has changed a lizard's life forever. Then Godzilla starts his journey to New York, New York, destroying a few fish boats along the way. Nick Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), a biologist, who at the time was studying nuclear test's effect on earth worm's physical size (makes them 17% bigger), was picked up to study the anomaly. Meanwhile, his ex-girlfriend Audrey (Maria Pitillo), who is desperately trying to move her journalism career forward, sees Nick as her big break. Audrey is a knock-out, but it wasn't hard to see why her career was not going anywhere -- she neither dresses professionally like Lois Lane, nor converses intelligently which is probably the fault of the script. Accompanying Audrey is the TV photographer Animal (Hank Azaria), who gives a fine performance despite the role limitation. Then there is the self-claimed insurance guy (Jean Reno) from France (where Godzilla was first sighted), who was the only character that is more interesting than Godzilla.
The rest of the movie is predictable but entertaining. The main theme is to kill the monster. So there is a helicopter scene that wasn't original (reminded me of Star War), but fun; there is mass destruction of New York City both by Godzilla and its hunters; there is the submarine fight; and there is the Madison Square Garden full of Godzilla eggs and baby Godzillas. There is nothing original about any of these, but the whole movie was paced well and it keeps you interested. Anytime when the characters are not chasing or looking for Godzilla, meaning when they are trying to have meaningful human interactions, you can go for a restroom break.
I went to see it thinking it will just be like Jurassic Park, the Lost World, and it was better than that. It was funny throughout and occasionally silly. Overall, it's an amusing movie that will surely entertain you if you don't go in with high expectations.
Wendy Lin
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