You HAVE got to be kidding me with that line.  His screen time is probably half of what it is in those films.  At MAXIMUM, 3/4 of his screentime in whichever one of those shows him the least.  There's also the added benefit that the movies actually felt like they focused on him when he showed up.  They didn't just keep cutting to the humans right before Godzilla was about to fight a monster or destroy something.  Godzilla was allowed to have the spotlight, not be relegated to a background character in his own film.

And again, because we don't see those fights and he seems fine when he starts fighting for the 3rd time in the end, we don't get the sense of anything.  You can infer it if you wish, but it's not shown in his face or actions until the very end.

Have you watched those films recently? I think you're really underestimating how much Goji shows up in the new film. There's quite a lot of him throughout the final act, plus  there's his earlier scenes like the Golden Gate bridge.

Let's take Final Wars for example; besides a short appearance in the intro, he doesn't even show up until an hour in, and it too shows a lot of the human story while Goji fights. In the original film, we spend much more time with scientists and other human characters  than with Goji.

We don't have to see the entire final fight uncut from start to end to know that he's fighting the whole time, to see him getting beaten up two on one, and to see him get a building dropped on him. It's very clearly shown that he's been through a lot and is tired as a result.

The main reason I noted America bashing is I don't think really any of you are Godzilla fans.....

You guys are claiming to be and then your reviews do nothing to back it up. Honest question have any of you seen a Godzilla movie outside of the new ones? Nearly every Godzilla has a heavy military theme. He engages them in nearly every film in his entire run.

This film is set in America. It will feature US troops prominently. In fact if anything this film is in the spirit of old school Godzilla more than can be described. Another major theme of many Godzilla themes is humans doing some stuff to aid Godzilla in his fighting of other Kaiju.

The military angle shouldn't be surprising to ANY of you if you've watched really any Godzilla film. Its a recurring major theme of the franchise.

I own all 28 Japanese Godzilla movies and have seen every one multiple times. Huge fan since I was 13.

Yeah I believe you and your stuff I've been reading makes sense. I agree with you also about the screen time. People saying that he's not in it enough to be a "real" Godzilla movie obviously haven't watched the films. There's plenty where he doesn't even appear until far into it, and feature far more military vs Kaiju than the new one.

I think there's a lot of people in here saying they know about Godzilla but clearly don't.

And I think you're really overestimating it.  If fans and general audiences are complaining about the lack of Godzilla, something is wrong.  This was to not only be a movie for the fans, but to get new fans onboard.  you don't do that by barely showing what got many of us to become fans in the first place. 

Also, I don't care how long it takes to get to Godzilla.  Most Godzilla movies take awhile to get to Godzilla.  Like I said, I prefer that if they are starting things off.  But, once he shows up, it needs to allow Godzilla to shine and do his thing.  NOT tease that he's about to do his thing, and then cut immediately to something less interesting.  The Godzilla series would have failed if the older movies were like the new one.

People going in with different expectations can lead to misperception and exaggeration. The majority of people seem quite happy with the film; you'll always have a vocal minority who are never pleased.

Godzilla wasn't any less of a focus in this new film than he was in Godzilla vs Mothra '92, Godzilla Final Wars, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla '74...

Lol, and some elitist trying to say that others aren't real Godzilla fans because they don't agree with them.  Hmmm. 

Actually, most people and sites I've been listening to and looking at tell me that word of mouth is mixed.  Might be why the box office dropped ~17% from Fri to Sat.  I think next weekend isn't going to be pretty.  Okay, but nothing spectacular.  Curious to see if it can top Godzilla '98 (after being adjusted for inflation is ~$550M WW.)

I saw the new 'Zilla on Saturday with some buddies. It started off promising, but OP is right in that the star of the movie has hardly any on screen time. In fact we see the MUTO WAAAY more than the big guy himself. And GZ is never really introduced the way the MUTO is, he just kinda shows up little more than halfway through the film and you only see glimpses of him until the end.

Also, another big negative is the not-so-subtle anti-nuclear power and global warming messages that the movie tries a little too hard to push. Obviously nuclear power and the a-bomb have always been themes of the Godzilla franchise, but Hollywood really needs to ease up on the holier-than-thou political messages.