Godzilla (2014 version) (2 Stars)

What happened? I don't think I've ever been so disappointed by a film. The trailers made the film look so fantastic, it looked like a potential for my film of the year, and yet it fell flat.

The problems were so manifold that I don't know where to begin. Let me just list them briefly.

• We didn't see enough of Godzilla.
• The Motus (re-imagined Mothras?) looked ridiculous, as if made out of metal.
• Ken Watanabe, usually a good actor, spent all the time staring into space.
• Joe Brody dies after being picked as the assistant to deal with the crisis.
• We see too much of the soldiers, even though they're ineffectual.
• The nuclear explosive crisis at the end is confusing.
• The mass destruction of cities by the Motus is hardly shown.
• Most of the film's action is too dark.

I don't understand why some people enjoy the film. The only thing in its favour is that Godzilla, when we see him, looks like the original Japanese Godzilla. In the 1998 film she (yes, Godzilla was a female in that film) looked more like a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex. I went to see the film with about a dozen members of my film group. We were all psyched, expecting something incredible. When we walked out of the cinema the opinions ranged from "average" to "awful piece of shit". None of us liked it.

If you're a hardcore Godzilla fan I'm sure you'll go to see it whatever I say. But it's not worth the money.