Coming from the director of Monsters it wasn't too surprising to learn that Godzilla would skew closer to the character side of things, although some fans were still a little disappointed. The film spent much of its time dealing with the new monsters the M.U.T.Os, with Gojira himself being teased multiple times before finally getting proper screen-time in the expansive finale. Personally we liked that approach; Gareth Edwards did a brilliant job, righting many of the wrongs Roland Emmerich committed in 1998. One of Godzilla's biggest strengths was Bryan Cranston and the film's marketing knew it. After an atmospheric teaser had set the desired tone, all subsequent marketing hinged on his engaging performance, particularly the enticing speech about a military cover-up. And to be fair you can't blame them. After his performance as chemistry teacher-cum-meth cook Walter White became a cultural touchstone he's one of the hottest actors out there. You can imagine a fair chunk of the audience was shocked (and not just those with Heisenberg T-Shirts) when Cranston's Joe Brody was killed off after forty-five minutes, long before the titular monster reared his head. To a degree it was a shame; the film's strongest human elements were certainly when Cranston was on screen, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson unable to command the same screen presence of his on-screen father. But that's just about worth it for the sheer surprise of such a big actor being felled.
