Godzilla
Warner Bros. | Release Date: May 16, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 48 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
21
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 16, 2014
This is a movie of tremendous visual daring, magnificent special-effects work and surprising moral gravity. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMay 15, 2014
The sheer filmmaking craft on display here shames almost any comparably budgeted superhero picture you can name. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineEric HendersonMay 14, 2014
In form, it's no wham-bam VFX sizzle reel replete with sputtering, ejaculatory climaxes. It's the magnificently sustained equivalent of Ravel's "Bolero," with nuclear warheads in place of timpani rolls. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 14, 2014
The director thinks visually, which sounds redundant until you realize how many monster movies are flat, effects-dependent factory jobs. Edwards knows how to use great heights for great effect. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 15, 2014
The worry regarding 2014's Godzilla was that it would seem like a retread of recent big-budget monster mashes "Cloverfield" or "Pacific Rim," or, worse yet, that it would sink to the depths of the 1998 American reboot. Happily, though, this one can stand on its own two enormous three-toed feet. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 13, 2014
This Godzilla doesn’t tap into deeper cultural anxieties the way its 60-year-old ancestor did. Nor does it engender much dramatic investment in its hero... Yet as pure popcorn entertainment, Godzilla delivers plenty of goosebumps. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 11, 2014
This could easily be ground zero for a whole new series of films, but if it remains a stand-alone single movie, Edwards told an entire story, and for the first time in as long as I can remember, it feels like Godzilla actually matters. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt MaytumMay 12, 2014
That rare breed of blockbuster that emphasises character over spectacle and slow-burn tension over relentless action sequences, Godzilla rewards patience with strong performances and sparing, spine-tingling set-pieces. Read full review
80
CineVueAmon WarmannMay 11, 2014
The human drama isn't always as compelling as it wants to be, but at its best Godzilla is a hugely entertaining blockbuster that starts strongly and finishes with a mighty roar. The king of the monsters has returned, and it appears he's here to stay. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 11, 2014
A summer blockbuster that’s not just thrilling, but that orchestrates its thrills with such rare diligence, you want to yelp with glee. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 15, 2014
Godzilla 2014 is a more somber and frightening reboot than the cartoonish 1998 movie. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickMay 15, 2014
The second half of Godzilla is definitely more fun than the first part of a film I enjoyed overall, if less than last year’s similar dip into giant monster blockbusterdom, “Pacific Rim.” Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 15, 2014
Here, finally, is a giant monster movie made in the anything-goes CGI era still capable of making your jaw drop. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 15, 2014
While it has its moments of baffling plot development and the human characters aren’t exactly Shakespearean in depth, there’s some pretty impressive CGI monster destruction here, and the talented English director Gareth Edwards clearly respects the thought-provoking sci-fi roots of the original. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 14, 2014
In many ways, Godzilla is a cousin to Edwards' earlier movie, "Monsters," in that it focuses more on the ineffectual humans than the monsters. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnMay 11, 2014
Edwards manages to sustain a grim, cerebral atmosphere all the way through, as if fighting the inevitable demands of the material. The movie contains enough basic money shots to please hardcore Godzilla fans without indulging in them at every opportunity. By contemporary blockbusters standards, it's practically a minimalist enterprise. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensMay 17, 2014
You don’t go see a 2014 Godzilla reboot for the delicate character shadings and plausible story structure. You go to watch a giant radioactive lizard whale on stuff, and on that score, Godzilla does its work. Read full review
70
The DissolveKeith PhippsMay 13, 2014
Edwards’ film doesn’t care much about metaphorical resonance, and cares even less about its human characters, many of which get forgotten for long stretches of the film. But Godzilla has a way with a disaster setpiece, and it cares a lot about providing awesome monster-on-monster action on a mammoth scale. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 10, 2014
Superbly made but burdened by some dull human characters enacted by an interesting international cast who can't do much with them, this new Godzilla is smart, self-aware, eye-popping and arguably in need of a double shot of cheeky wit. Read full review
67
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 15, 2014
It’s just a popcorn movie – but it’s loud, smashing fun, if you accept it as a high-tech piece of silliness. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 14, 2014
It’s a creature feature for the Subatomic Age. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 12, 2014
He doesn't seem too interested in his actors — they're more plodding than their reptilian costars and you don't care about a single one of them — but Edwards does know how to fashion some serious monster mayhem. Read full review
65
NPRBob MondelloMay 16, 2014
We're here to see the film's leading lizard, who is pretty gorgeously realized by an army of digitizers, even if he seems just a bit-player in his own movie for the first hour or so. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoMay 15, 2014
An uneven spectacle that can’t sustain its solid first-half character moments. But the movie can also flash a surprising, often clever sense of legacy, and is intermittently capable of thrilling us. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 15, 2014
Fortunately, the monsters are actually kind of a kick. And isn’t that why you go to see a movie like this anyway? Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 15, 2014
Seeing the scaly dude side with Mother Nature against the freaks is almost worth enduring the blather that precedes it. I said "almost." Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 15, 2014
Ironically this big, lumbering movie could have used more, not less. More Godzilla without question, and more emotional content for its very good cast too. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 15, 2014
It is at once bloated and efficient, executed with tremendous discipline and intelligence and conceived with not too much of either. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 14, 2014
How many times have we complained that summer blockbusters are all about the action, at the expense of niceties like character development? Well, Edwards has gone in another direction, one that's more intriguing in theory than on the screen. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerMay 11, 2014
Edwards’ film boasts great filmmaking, noble intentions and cracking monster action. Yet it never reconciles its B-movie origins — preposterous premise, clichéd characters — with its solemn, Nolanised tone. This Godzilla stomps but very rarely romps. Read full review
60
Time OutTom HuddlestonMay 11, 2014
It’s always fun to watch scaly, skyscraper-size behemoths lay waste to civilization, but a bit more human drama wouldn’t have gone amiss. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 10, 2014
Edwards seems to have miscalculated our investment in his cast...simultaneously underestimating how satisfying some good old-fashioned monster-on-MUTO action can be. Read full review
60
Film.comJames RocchiMay 10, 2014
The best thing about this new Godzilla is that it spares no expense or effort to deliver big, burly IMAX-ified action... The worst thing about this new Godzilla is how that’s the best thing about it. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 16, 2014
Sometimes, oftentimes, trailers showcase only the good stuff. The actual movie is a pale substitute. Such is the case here. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezMay 11, 2014
Godzilla asks you to care about its characters, achieves that aspiration, earns your trust, and then not only pivots towards a far less interesting character, but abandons most of its absorbing emotional legwork for a fairly rote and straightforward rock ‘em, sock ‘em monster movie. Read full review
55
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 11, 2014
Director Gareth Edwards (“Monsters”) gets the money shots right, but neither he nor screenwriter Max Borenstein (working from a story by David Callaham) makes the human characters interesting enough to get us through two mostly Godzilla-free acts. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 19, 2014
Skip Godzilla the movie. Watch the trailer. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereMay 15, 2014
Godzilla – both the movie and the big guy – is otherwise something of a lumpy, lumbering great beast of a thing, lurching from city to city, continent to continent, smackdown to smackdown and plot point to plot point with singularly graceless indifference to anything other than those take-home jaw-dropper shots. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 15, 2014
When the film finally gets around to monsters on a rampage, you'll get both more and less than you bargained for. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 15, 2014
The problem is that he — unlike most modern sci-fi directors, who throw so much CGI at you that they make miracles cheap — seems peculiarly stingy when it’s time to deliver. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 15, 2014
What's particularly weird about Godzilla is that for long stretches, all it shows is destruction. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 15, 2014
The latest Hollywood version of the Godzilla story is neither fun nor fearsome. It’s an empty spectacle in which the humans are as meaningless as the monster. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 14, 2014
At some juncture — much earlier than director Gareth Edwards intends — Godzilla needs to stop being an extra in his own movie. Read full review
50
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekMay 14, 2014
Godzilla is one of those generic, omnipresent blockbusters that's undone by the very spectacle it strives to dazzle us with: Everything is so gargantuan, so momentous, that nothing has any weight. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 14, 2014
In a tale this timeworn and a film this devoid of humor, with only a few moments of humanity, with tension frittered away by the tedious repetition of the fights, anybody who has ever seen Godzilla in any incarnation can be forgiven for asking the obvious. “What else have you got?” Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 15, 2014
Despite a few fiery breaths, there’s mostly hot air from a lot of serious actors slumming it. Read full review
40
The GuardianPaul MacInnesMay 10, 2014
While many people might want to go to the cinema to see Godzilla, what they get instead is a load of homosapiens desperately trying to put a human face on the drama. Read full review
30
TimeRichard CorlissMay 11, 2014
Edwards’ Godzilla dawdles toward its Doomsday climax; the movie could win a prize for Least Stuff Happening in the First Two-Thirds of an Action Film... It’s a concept lacking a magnetic story, a package without a product. Read full review
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