With giant, dueling monsters of Pacific Rim stature and massive amounts of destruction only comparable to The Avengers and Man of Steel, Godzilla is a perfect start to what is predicted to be one of the most prolific summers in box office history.

As a fan of the original Kaiju movies, I was a little hesitant that they announced another American Godzilla movie, especially after the abomination that was Roland Emmerich’s 1998 film. This movie defied my expectations, however, and turned out to be a lot of fun.

One thing you should keep in mind is that Godzilla is, first and foremost, an action movie. Obviously, I didn’t go into this with the same mindset as I would a more “serious” film. I came in wanting to see a big monster destroy a city, and that is exactly what I got.

With that out of the way, I first want to talk about the production values. The 160 million dollar budget was clearly well spent, as the CGI was some of the best I’ve seen. While I’m not a very big fan of CGI in general, it’s hard to deny just how well-done this was. It almost felt like a huge monster was destroying a real city, and not just some video game-like replica. The destruction felt very real, and unlike many other movies (Man of Steel in particular), it was actually justified.

The camera angles were also top notch, with less reliance than most movies on familiar cinematographic tropes like lens flares and shaky cam. The camera and lighting work really sucked me in,  and it was tastefully done for an action movie.

I can’t speak as highly about the dialogue, on the other hand. It was mostly just typical action movie dialogue, existing only as an excuse for more explosions. Perhaps my biggest complaint was that they didn’t have any Japanese people yelling “GODZILLA!” While Ken Watanabe did have a cheesy line, it wasn’t quite dramatic enough for a Godzilla movie. But really, most people don’t watch Godzilla for the dialogue.

Besides Bryan Cranston(Breaking Bad), who doesn’t have a very major role, most of the acting seemed pretty phoned-in. Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, Inception), who is usually great, didn’t really do anything in the film. He must have just been included as a nod to Godzilla’s Japanese origin. The other characters mostly just fill various action movie stereotypes, such as the easily-surprised everyman and the stern military leader.

Overall, however, this movie was an incredibly enjoyable experience. If you’re looking for Oscar-winning dialogue and masterful characterization, you’ve come to the wrong place. While this movie is more or less stereotypical of action movies in terms of plot, it’s the visuals that really make this movie. If you have any interest in action movies, I highly suggest you see this film.