Considering the critical and financial flop of the US-made Godzilla (1998), I am very surprised that anyone bothered to release this movie stateside. I am also very glad they did, since this shows exactly how to make a G-movie...you use the original Big G himself!
Even though a lot of the effects in this film still involve the "man-in-a-suit-a-saurus" style of monster, they are excellent! There is a lot of fairly good CGI eye candy and the revamped Godzilla suit is truly a sight to behold. The big guy hasn't looked this good since his initial escapade back in 1954.
It's always hard to figure out where the movie exists in the Godzilla canon (there are basically four eras: The first two movies, the movies after that up until the initial series ended in 1975, then the revivial in the eighties that began with Godzilla 1985 and ended with Godzilla Vs. Destroyah, and now this film), but it seems to begin another era of G-films, with no apparent links to any of the other ones, other than the original movie Gojira.
This is basically just a fun movie...full of action and a bit of suspense and a lot of crunch time! Just what a G-Fan wants!