WARNING: SPOILERS

The recent reboot of the Godzilla series released on Friday, May 16, 2014, the first release from the franchise in over a decade. The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ford Brody, the main protagonist, alongside Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Olsen.

The story begins with a young Ford living in Japan. His parents work at a nuclear power plant, where one day a severe accident destroys the entire facility. His dad survives the incident with minor injuries, but his mother dies in the accident. However, Ford’s father believes the incident was not a natural occurrence, and spends years looking into what truly spurred the event.

Ford grows up and starts a family of his own, leaving the past behind him while his father perpetually insists that they press on with the investigation.

The film really gets going when Ford’s father coerces him into finally trespassing into the quarantined zone where the nuclear zone used to reside. Upon reaching the facility, they discover it is not uninhabited—others work there, performing experiments on a giant egg. The egg hatches while they are there, summoning an enormous flying monster known as a Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism, or MUTO for short. The creature ravages the facility and leaves in search of a mate while Ford and his father attempt to escape.

Ford’s family, however, resides in California, away from him and his father during their excursion in Japan. Once the first MUTO had hatched, another egg in the middle of Las Vegas spawned a second MUTO. The two monsters communicate mysteriously, but with one goal—meeting each other to mate. In doing so, they destroy countless towns and kill numerous civilians, prompting the army to lead a full-sized attack on them.

Most of the action throughout the film comes during the escape scenes. Ford is constantly running for his life, sometimes due to the MUTOs’ presence, other times due to natural disasters they cause. Other scenes demonstrate Ford’s wife and child on their run to safety. All of the main characters consistently escape death, generating intense tension in the viewer.

Godzilla, however, plays a rather minimal role despite being the title monster. For the majority of the film, he merely cruises alongside naval battleships while the army lets him be. In one scene, the army opens fire on him; however, this is ignored, as it does not incite any sort of anger towards the humans. Godzilla’s sole purpose seems to be to defeat the MUTOs, as there is little to no back story given to understand his motives.

In terms of action and fighting, the film manages to be slightly underwhelming. While Godzilla is fighting the MUTOs, Ford and other characters have scenes showing them and their current objectives. Many of the fight scenes also feel half-complete, as the punches do not always connect, instead opting for a scene cut to one of the human characters. It is not until near the end of the movie where Godzilla and the MUTOs finally brawl with mass destruction trailing behind their every move.

While the story does manage to be compelling at times, Godzilla unfortunately fails in being a movie revolved around monsters fighting. The acting is mostly solid, bringing about believable characters and decisions. The lack of finished action scenes with Godzilla attacking other monsters makes the movie feel rushed at times, but the ending fight scene helps to somewhat make up for it. All in all, Godzilla is an enjoyable film with a few missteps.