I liked it. I liked it a LOT, both in spite of and also somewhat because it was so different from most other Godzilla movies (and Kaiju films in general).
After this I'm getting into spoilers, so proceed at your own risk.
This is the first time we've seen a Godzilla that is unequivocally a mutation. The design seems to owe as much to the creature from the Host as it does to earlier Big G incarnations. This is a twisted, lumpen, deformed creature. It burns from the inside, it's features are irregular and asymmetrical, and it looks like it's constantly in pain.
This Godzilla is not a hero, it is a monster.
And it works!
I could wish that the CGI effects were better – there are times where it has a weightless feeling of floating over the live images rather than resting upon the ground, but in general the blend of computer effects, live shots, and models works pretty well.
He's also stationary for like half the movie, which is kinda weird.
Generally, in other Godzilla films, the parts of the films that I care about the least are the parts where humans are talking. I don't watch Godzilla movies to watch car chases, drama or romantic sub-plots, I watch Godzilla movies to see a dude in a rubber monster suit smash a model city and fight another dude in a rubber monster suit. Maybe even fight TWO other dudes in monster suits!
But despite the dearth of dudes in rubber suits, this movie drew me in. I've seen it described elsewhere as feeling like an Aaron Sorkin show, with a large cast spouting accurate-sounding jargon at high speed. I think that's an accurate description.
This movie isn't about a guy in a rubber monster suit fighting another guy in a rubber monster suit, it's about how a government responds to an unexpected natural disaster.
The allusions to the Fukushima reactor disaster aren't even subtle – they talk about radiation plumes spreading, Godzilla's steps land like earthquakes, tsunamis follow in his wake.
And there aren't any villainous humans, either, just mostly hard-working & dedicated individuals working together to solve a previously unencountered problem. It's a vision of a government out of Star Trek, not House of Cards. In a way it's almost like a police procedural – highly trained specialists investigating a problem against a time limit. The scenes are tense, well-acted (mostly), and compelling.
I also need to talk about the music.
Hollywood movies have SUCH BORING MUSIC today! There are exceptions, but I miss the sweeping and memorable themes of yesteryear! Man of Steel could have been VASTLY improved simply by adding John Williams' themes from the old Superman movies. That song evokes the character like nothing else does. It's the same for me with the classic Godzilla theme. It was used judiciously, sparingly, and perfectly. When the horns and strings start, you KNOW that is about to get real.
I mentioned earlier that the design of Godzilla was quite a bit different from the G we're used to. So was his Atomic Breath – now it's lasers venting out of the spines on his back, and he can shoot atomic fire out of is tail, too. It's a plot point – if he overheats he can die, so that's how he vents his internal biological fusion reactor. If he uses his fire too much, he cools down and enters a torpid state. It looks weird, and I didn't much like it, although I suppose it did work in the context of the film.
And shooting fire out of his tail? I thought it was stupid and ridiculous at first, but the final shot of the movie completely turned me around on that. His tail is rent and torn, and there are what look like tiny human/godzilla hybrid skeletons budding off of the tip. One of the long tears also appears to have teeth along it. Could it be that this Godzilla is an amalgam creature, an entire species of previously unknown marine reptiles fused together by nuclear waste? Because to me it looked like the tip of the tail might once have contained a mouth, and if he breathes fire out of his mouth, then he can breathe fire out of his tail, too.
It also goes a ways towards justifying why he keeps the tip of his tail up in the air, rather than dragging it along the ground.
So, while it wasn't quite what I expected, an it wasn't quite what I wanted, I thought it was a great addition to the mythology. Lots of new stuff to think about, and perhaps most impressively they made a movie about Godzilla where the humans were just as interesting as the Big G.
Worth a look!