Kernel Rating (out of 5):
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Length: 123 minutes
Age Appropriate For: 12+. There’s no real cursing or sexual content here; the PG-13 rating is largely because of the action scenes. There’s that huge monster Godzilla and another couple of monsters that show up, and they all fight, destroying cities and killing thousands of people (which you don’t see onscreen, but the massive devastation is evident). A few main characters also die, there’s mention of Hiroshima, and there’s a general sense of dread and chaos throughout. Nevertheless, it isn’t gory or grotesque, and could be appropriate for tweens and above.
The latest version of ‘Godzilla’ isn’t an instant classic, but visually, the film reaches for the stars. There’s an epic scale here that works very well.
By Roxana Hadadi
Godzilla, king of the kaiju, is one of our most iconic pop culture monsters, and Gareth Edwards knows that. The director pays him proper homage in his film “Godzilla,” the latest adaptation of the giant beast’s story, with well-done action sequences and an epic scale. But with all the focus on the monster himself, the human characters suffer—this isn’t a film that pays the same amount of attention to all of its parts.