| 90 |
Los Angeles Times
An expertly designed theme park ride of a movie that packs nonstop thrills.
|
| 70 |
Salon.com
Gary Kamiya
The plot is about as ridiculous as you'd expect, but for the most part its absurdities are tolerable.
|
| 60 |
Variety
Despite all the flash and filigree, this monster movie is curiously -- and conspicuously -- lacking in heart.
|
| 58 |
Entertainment Weekly
There are some clever and exciting sequences, but this $120 million epic of reconstituted Atomic Age trash lumbers more than it thrills.
|
| 50 |
The New York Times
Godzilla is so clumsily structured it feels as if it's two different movies stuck together with an absurd stomping finale glued onto the end.
|
| 50 |
Austin Chronicle
This Godzilla is lacking both the awesome spirit of the original and the sublime silliness of the more recent Toho outings.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
Gary Dretzka
It probably would have benefited from a 20- to 30-minute trim and, certainly, a smarter script, but the special effects truly are amazing.
|
| 50 |
Slate
Size really is about all that this tedious, underpopulated beanbag of an epic has going for it.
|
| 50 |
The New Yorker
The movie is of minimum interest; the story of the movie, however -- or, rather, of the way in which it has been engulfed by its own publicity -- is bound to fascinate connoisseurs of cultural meltdown.
|
| 40 |
Empire
Andrew Collins
Casting aside the forgettable ragbag of a cast, tiptoeing round the leaden script, and avoiding the story's many pot-holes (how come he only breathes fire twice?), Godzilla does provide plenty to look at. But that, for fear of sounding ungrateful, is all.
|
| 40 |
TV Guide
The year's most eagerly anticipated green-eyed monster finally rears its ugly head, not with his trademark radioactive roar, but a deafening yawn.
|
| 38 |
ReelViews
The script isn't just "dumbed down," it's lobotomized.
|
| 38 |
Chicago Sun-Times
A big, ugly, ungainly device to give teenagers the impression they are seeing a movie.
|
| 30 |
Dallas Observer
Peter Rainer
They do it up big, but their frame of reference -- mostly old sci-fi movies and TV shows -- is pint-sized.
|
| 30 |
Film Threat
For the single-digit age set, Godzilla is sure to be the greatest movie of all time.
|
| 25 |
Christian Science Monitor
The dialogue is dumb ('zilla has the best lines, "arrrrrggh" and "maaroarrr"), New York is waterlogged, and Godzilla isn't on screen enough.
|
| 25 |
San Francisco Examiner
Barbara Shulgasser
When a movie is nothing but relentless action, there's little chance for dramatic tension to develop.
|
| 25 |
San Francisco Chronicle
An overblown action monstrosity with no surprises, no exhilaration and no thrills.
|
| 20 |
Washington Post
The makers of Godzilla obviously devoted so much manpower and time and energy and money to the admittedly fabulous special effects that they apparently had no budget left over for actors.
|
| 10 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
While the special effects are impressive, countless films have already proven that if you sink enough money into a project, you can at least make it look good. Unfortunately, good looks are all Godzilla has going for it.
|
| 10 |
Washington Post
Size vanquishes both substance and subtlety in the overhyped, half-cocked and humorless resurrection of dear old "Godzilla."
|
| 10 |
Chicago Reader
Overlong, neither funny nor scary movie about a big lizard.
|
| 0 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Watching inept American actors and wishing they were badly dubbed into Japanese isn't any fun at all.
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