Warner Brothers and Director Gareth Edwards deserves a golf clap. They have taken a franchise that has been laughable for decades and made it into something audiences will flock to see. My review of Godzilla comes a bit late. I had meant to post before release with this prediction, Godzilla would be a monster hit, huge. The box office has spoken and everyone's favorite kaiju took an epic bite out of the competition with a staggering $93 million dollar opening. Why? What did this production team understand that the other Godzilla remake, insert Roland Emmerich here, and last year's disappointing Pacific Rim did not? It boils down to three words, subtlety, surprise, and seriousness.

Godzilla opens in 1999 with two scientists (Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins) discovering a giant insect pod. The developing creature feeds on radiation and in short order sets off a massive electromagnetic pulse. This pulse devastates a Japanese nuclear reactor, with tragic consequences for Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), the plant's lead engineer. Fifteen years later, Brody has become obsessed with the incident and getting back into the quarantine zone to investigate the reactor. His son, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), has grown up and become a soldier with expertise in explosives. Ford has grown apart from his eccentric and is not too pleased to have to fly to Japan. His father has been arrested, again; forcing Ford to leave his wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and son in San Francisco. The Ford's reconciliation takes a turn for the horrific when they sneak back to the reactor site. They witness the mammoth emit another EMP, then hatch into a gigantic moth-like creature. It takes flight, on a rendezvous to meet another awakening creature in the Las Vegas desert. As the military and scientists rush to face these monstrous, radiation sucking creatures; something even bigger pings from the ocean depths. The Japanese believe that Godzilla has awoken. And that it is drawn to the other monsters as their natural predator.

The first surprise of the film is the lack of Godzilla. The big guy is hinted at, underwater, in the shadows, but we don't actually see him for over an hour in the film. And when we do, it is fleeting, until the impressive monster free for all at the climax. The screenplay puts the focus on the two moth-like creatures and their global trek to hook up. This is where the subtlety comes in. Previous monster flicks, like Pacific Rim, and in the same vein, Transformers, were just orgies of special effects. CGI behemoths toppling cities is old hat to modern audiences. Edward's brings the film to a boil by actually focusing on the story. They took the plot development, especially the fate of the primary characters, seriously. The filmmakers didn't want Godzilla to be silly or stupid, so the treat the film as a tension filled disaster epic. Audiences get their monster fix, but, gasp, are actually treated to a clever story with a few unexpected twists.

The ensemble cast in Godzilla is expertly played as second fiddle to the spectacle. There's not really a star, although Taylor-Johnson is central to the plot. The various characters are reactionary as the monsters plow their may to the inevitable city destroying fracas. I love the "holy sh*t" expression that Ken Watanabe wears throughout the entire film. It's entirely believable. Imagine the look on your face if three gigantic monsters were annihilating everything in sight. Elizabeth Olsen gets a little stale as the crying, running for her life mom, but I suppose that's also a staple in these kinds of films.

Godzilla is true summer movie experience. It's got thrills, chills, and ticks every box needed for great entertainment. Kudos again to the filmmakers for keeping Godzilla fans happy and delivering a film that everyone can enjoy. I took a friend who'd never seen a Godzilla or kaiju film. She thought it was very entertaining. If Warner Brothers can win over the ladies, then the nerds are already in the bad. Not to be missed in the IMAX 3D.