It's not "Pacific Rim"

But what was Pacific Rim? It was a beautiful meditation on the spiritual nature of giant robots fighting giantic monsters arising from the ocean; truth be told, however, it was a little weak on plot. Okay, really weak on plot and character, since every character was more archetype than human being. Truly amazingly depicted archetypes, granted.

Godzilla manages to root itself in plot and genuine human relationship. For the record, it's nice to see a main character suffer a major familial tragedy in childhood and go on to establish what appears to be a perfectly normal family in adulthood: cheering, and rather true to life. If I have any substantive criticism of the film, it's that we didn't get to see enough of the titular character himself. Still, I was very pleased with what I did see. From what I remember from watching all the Godzilla movies during my childhood (thanks, Washington D.C.'s Channel 20!), they got his scream just about perfect.

Having seen the new Godzilla with Things 1 and 2 this afternoon, I don't know why some reviewers saw an environmental/mankind-gets-what-he-deserves-for-messing-with-nature theme. On that count, it pales in comparison to the overt anti-nuke/pro-green emphases of the original films. Exhibit A: Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, which, in all seriousness, may have been my favorite of the Godzilla movies. And then there's its theme song, which left my 12 year-old self slack-jawed in amazement.

In sum: not Pacific Rim, but since Pacific Rim isn't out this summer, go see Godzilla instead. Its makers may have let him grow to a size too large to be possible, let alone believed, but at least they remembered that he's our hero.