"Mommy, look! A dinosaur!" says a tot gaping at a creature on his TV. Actually, it's Godzilla he's looking at but the kid does have a point.

If "Jurassic Park" stole a couple of notions from the long-running Japanese "Godzilla" series of films, the new "Godzilla" repays the favor by borrowing liberally from the "Jurassic" bag of carnage tricks: imperiled children, slow-to-act scientists, the arrogance of man, a slow-burning scene in which characters try to remain silent as a nearby monster sniffs them out and a series of mouth-open, awestruck looks from the large but disposable cast all suggest that "Godzilla" director Gareth Evans knows "Jurassic Park" well.

And, really, if you're going to steal, why not steal from Steven Spielberg?

But it may be the familiarity that keeps the pretty-good "Godzilla" from being a great "Godzilla." Evans delivers plenty of memorable scenes -- a thrilling train derailment, an inventive depiction of a flood, a spectacular traffic jam, a gorgeous shot of parachuters plummeting toward San Francisco -- but he doesn't have enough control of the material to blend those elements into the cohesiveness of a great popcorn film like "Jaws" or even "Independence Day." Too many key details get lost in the massive destruction on-screen and the somber tone runs the gamut from intense grief to abject pain. The kid's dinosaur line gets a laugh but it literally is the only joke in the whole film.


The movie opens, appropriately, in the place where Godzilla took his first steps: Japan, at a science lab where something awful is discovered and quickly covered up. Years later, that "something" -- OK, a massive creature that destroys everything in its wake and that looks a lot like South Korea's "The Host" when it swims -- is let loose. Scientists Ken Watabane and Sally Hawkins, Navy man Aaron Taylor-Johnson, nurse Elizabeth Olsen, nuclear scientist Bryan Cranston and Admiral David Strathairn are among those trying to foil Godzilla (and, perhaps, another creature or two) as it lays waste to at least four cities.

As he proved on his low-budget "Monsters," Evans is a resourceful filmmaker who can balance the sort of large-scale destruction that summer blockbusters require with smaller, human moments that give that destruction more impact (by the way, this is the rare cities-are-falling movie in which New York is spared). His thoughtful, suspenseful "Godzilla" is held back by only two things: Taylor-Johnson's lack of charisma and the nagging feeling that what this "Godzilla" really wants you to do is watch other, more accomplished films.



Directed by: Gareth Evans

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston

Rated: PG-13 for violence

Should you go? If you like monster movies, sure. The 3-D is good but I don't think it's as important to the experience as seeing "Godzilla" on the largest screen you can. A drive-in would be perfect. **1/2