missraziel Was curious to see the movie but it was so badly spliced together it made no sense and bored me to sleep!!Seems to be an a-typical movie about Americans bombing creatures, the usual jive.Avoid this one if you've never seen it before, wish I had....

Rainey Dawn This is a remake of sorts of the original 1954 'Godzilla' movie which was all in the Japanese language. 'Godzilla, King of the Monsters' has footage from the original film and most of it was dubbed over in English. This American version stars Raymond Burr as a reporter covering the event - so we see a lot of Raymond in this movie - that is good for American audiences.Overall this is a very fun large creature film - it would be good to watch the original 1954 'Godzilla' then follow it up with 'King of the Monsters'.The idea of (atomic and nuclear) weapon testing spawned quite a few large creature movies - and Godzilla was one of them. It made an interesting time era in motion pictures.7/10

Woodyanders American reporter Steve Martin (an earnest and engaging performance by Raymond Burr) covers the story of a lifetime after a giant prehistoric monster gets reawakened from its centuries of slumber and goes on a rampage in Japan. While this version isn't as bleak and somber as the Japanese original, it's nonetheless still pretty grim and admirably serious in tone, with the added character of Martin incorporated into the main narrative in a clever and convincing way by making him more of an active participant than a passive observer (the Big G even knocks a building on Martin at one point!). Although the love triangle amongst the three main Japanese characters is less prominently featured and the film hence nowhere near as poignant as the original, the American version still registers as a good film in its own right due to the overall respectful treatment its given by director Terry O. Morse and screenwriter Al C. Ward. Moreover, the scenes of Godzilla destroying Tokyo are truly terrifying, the dubbing is generally acceptable (in a nice touch, whole portions are still presented in Japanese), Akira Ifukube's robust score hits the rousing spot, the special effects hold up quite well, and residual traces of the pertinent central message about the dangers of atomic bombs and radioactive fallout can still be discerned throughout.

Jonathan C Godzilla is a movie which, if viewed without its cultural context, can be gravely misunderstood. Some reviews refer to it as simply a dippy monster movie, but this confuses the movie with its dozens of sequels. Godzilla is really a sort of Requiem for the Japanese War Dead, and their attempts in the movie to destroy him are nothing less than attempts to destroy violence and terror itself--their own war on terror. Watching it for the first time after many years, I was heartbroken and moved.Raymond Burr's scenes are frankly awkward, but that's okay--again a metaphor for awkward attempts of the two countries to get to know each other after WWII. The burning of Tokyo is not awkward--it is terrifying, even with the lousy special effects, because you know these people lived it. The firebombing of the city in March 9-10, 1945 was more lethal than either of the Atom Bombs. The scenes of wounded lying in the hospital are true to life, again because these folks had a first-hand recollection. Watch the movie without this knowledge, and it seems silly. Watch it with this knowledge, and you simply want to cry.