Godzilla

This movie tramples the other Godzilla movies underfoot like Godzilla trampling a water tower with cheesy dolls meant to be humans hanging on it. Director Gareth Edwards captures that summer blockbuster vibe of yesteryear, when building suspense and perhaps just a touch of human drama took precedent over wall-to-wall CGI fireworks. He also manages to capture some of that old school Toho Godzilla goofiness to go with the film's mostly serious tone. Even though this film's Godzilla is CGI, there are some monster gestures that have a nice man-in-suit quality to them. It's pretty obvious that Edwards is saluting the all time blockbuster king, Mr. Steven Spielberg, with this movie. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson play a father and son team with a last name of Brody, just like Roy Scheider's character in Jaws. Many of the initial Godzilla shots include glimpses of those jagged Godzilla back points cutting through the surface of the ocean like a shark's dorsal fin. Cranston's slightly crazed, obsessed, gloriously overacting scientist dad rings of Richard Dreyfuss's mashed potato sculpting kook in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Everything builds up to a huge fight between Godzilla and some other monsters in San Francisco, and the city takes a major ass kicking. This is bound to be one of the summer movie season's more exciting movies, and it beckons to be seen on an IMAX screen. When Godzilla roars, it peels the skin off of your face.