Perhaps the downright oddest thing about Godzilla is the lack thereof, almost as if the budget dried up unexpectedly before the filmmakers had rendered his scenes and only had enough money left to include the iconic beast for 10 minutes. Because that's all the time you really get with the eponymous creature. Instead, much of Godzilla is focused around that of the Muto (Massive Unidentifiable Terrestrial Organisms), a pair of flying cockroach creatures who awaken with plans to breed and cause mass devastation; Godzilla appears much, much later, almost in a cameo variety. It makes sense that the movie establishes an enemy in such detail, given the route that the director and screenwriter have opted for here - what doesn't make quite as much sense, however, is the way in which you feel like you learn a lot more about the Muto than you do Godzilla; almost as if the movie might have been better and more accurately titled "Muto: Godzilla For A Bit" instead, just for clarification. When Godzilla does appear, it's great, but for a two hour movie, roughly 10 minutes spent with the big man is highly disappointing, to say the least.
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.
