Godzilla

Directed by Roland Emmerich, Godzilla follows several characters, including Matthew Broderick’s Nick Tatopoulos, Jean Reno’s Philippe Roaché, and Hank Azaria’s Victor Palotti, as they attempt to survive after the enormous title creature attacks New York City. Filmmaker Emmerich, working from a script written with Dean Devlin, delivers a bloated and mostly tedious endeavor that contains few, if any, elements designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest, which is disappointing, to say the least, given that the picture admittedly does open with a fair amount of promise – as the comfortably familiar first act, having essentially emerged directly from a template for movies of this ilk, seemingly paves the way for yet another larger-than-life (and propulsively entertaining) Emmerich end-of-the-world thriller. There’s little doubt, however, that Godzilla eventually progresses into a tedious and hopelessly padded-out midsection that emphasizes the dull exploits of several thinly-drawn (and predominantly unappealing) human characters, and it’s clear, certainly, that the nigh interminable atmosphere is exacerbated by an ineffective (and hopelessly anticlimactic) final third detailing the survivors’ battle with hundreds of raptor-sized monsters – with the end result a low point both for the blockbuster genre and for Emmerich himself.

* out of ****