Going back to that ending, then; when all's said and done, and Godzilla has lazer-beamed the head off of the final Mutos, he falls down, apparently dead. Ford is reunited with his family, the day is saved... and then Godzilla, covered in rubble, stands up, stomps over to the ocean, and dives on in, whilst a news channel overlay begs the question: "Is Godzilla The Saviour Of Our Times?" This feels like it's played with B-movie intentions, completely at odds with the rest of the movie. And then Godzilla slinks beneath the surface of the water, and end credits! It's not the worst ending of the world, but it does absolutely nothing to excite or provoke discussion. "Oh, so the human race realise Godzilla isn't all the bad" isn't enough to justify a good ending hook, because we already learned that 30 minutes ago - the movie told us that there might be more to Godzilla than meets the eye when he returned completely of his own accord to help mankind against the Mutos, after all. But once the final battle is done, the movie is over far too quickly; we don't even get to find out what happened to half of our main characters!
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
