As will be explored later on in this piece, director Gareth Edwards obviously wanted to make his own mark with the film and with the source material, yet to take so much attention away from the main draw will remain a dividing factor for every viewer. Still though, if you're going to do a film about Godzilla and mass-market it as the definitive version of the character you'd be forgiven for thinking he would feature prominently in the final product, rather than deliberately cut away from the action, or pad out the surrounding world as something more of an attempt at building anticipation. That being said when things do finally - and we do mean finally - kick off, it's suitably glorious thanks to almost two hours of preamble beforehand. Godzilla delivers in the final confrontation in a way that no other monster movie has ever done purely based on spectacle, and it's precisely because of that sense of intentional screentime withdrawal too - something that if you can hold on for the big finish, it's definitely worth the entrance fee.
