Godzilla: King of the Monsters review

GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS:

BIGGER IS…MORE ENTERTAINING IN THIS MONSTROUS FOLLOW-UP!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Godzilla is back in Godzilla: King of the Monsters

            Godzilla raids again (reference intended) in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the latest installment of Legendary’s MonsterVerse and follow-up to the 2014 American reboot of Toho’s hugely iconic Godzilla franchise dating all the way back to 1954. This wasn’t the first time the King of the Monsters was adapted to the screen for American audiences, there was also the 1998 film version of Godzilla from TriStar directed by Independence Day’s Roland Emmerich and starring Matthew Broderick that pretty much went over as well as you could imagine.

            Despite performing well at the box-office, Godzilla (1998) was abolished by critics and fans alike for various reasons. The creature looking absolutely nothing like Godzilla, being killed by missiles, and the overall film playing more like a knockoff of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park than Godzilla (*ahem* Godzilla eggs hatching into raptors)…let’s also not forget there was a lot of fish in that movie, I’ll stop now.

            In fact, the movie hurt Godzilla’s reputation so much that Toho who originally killed off the Godzilla character prior to the 1998 film’s release resurrected him with Godzilla 2000 and kicked off a new series of Japanese Godzilla films. Yeah, Legendary and director Gareth Edwards had a lot of bad memories to wash away when the 2014 reboot was first announced. 

            Thankfully, the 2014 Godzilla movie had a much better understanding of its source material than the 1998 version and updated the famous movie monster in the correct way. I remembered being hooked right when the opening credits sequence started referencing Godzilla’s origin and the buildup to his arrival in the film is absolutely brilliant but fell flat with its lack of monster action or well-shot action sequences.

             Godzilla (2014) was a good attempt at adapting the character for an American audience but really could have used more monsters on-screen. On the plus side it kicked off the MonsterVersewhich was followed up by 2017’s Kong: Skull Island.

            Now we have this follow-up, Godzilla: King of the Monsters not to be confused with the American re-edit of the original 1954 film of the same name, with Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus) replacing Gareth Edwards as director and bringing in some of Godzilla’s most iconic friends and foes like Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Rodan. It seems like King of the Monsters was giving the fans exactly what they wanted judging by the marketing and the film choosing to lean more towards dumb popcorn entertainment over the murky, slow-paced tone of its 2014 predecessor.

            How does King of the Monsters hold up? It’s complicated and all depends on how you like your Godzilla movie. 

            Do you prefer your Godzilla movie to be more human focused and serious, or do you prefer it to be non-stop monster action and dumb popcorn fun?

To me personally, I find King of the Monsters to be a lot more entertaining and fun to watch than the 2014 movie because it brings the focus back to the monsters that inspired the genre and the action sequences are better lit and we get to see more of the monsters fighting each other over humans running in the city. But this is coming from a guy who is not a Godzilla purist if you’re looking for expert Godzilla advice, seek out the Angry Video Game Nerd. 

            Sometime after the showdown between Godzilla and the MUTO in San Francisco, the film follows the heroic efforts of a crypto-zoological organization known as Monarch has been formed consisting of paleobiologist Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga-Down to the Bone, Up in the Air, The Conjuring Universe), her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown-Intruders, Stranger Things), crypto-sonographer Dr. Rick Stanton (Bradley Whitford-Adventures in Babysitting, Get Out, Destroyer), scientist Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe-Letters from Iwo Jima, Batman Begins, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu), paleozoologist Dr. Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins-Happy-Go-Lucky, Paddington 1 and 2, The Shape of Water), twin mythologists Dr. Ilene Chen and Dr. Ling Chen (Zhang Ziyi-Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Grandmaster), and their Director of Technology Dr. Sam Coleman (Thomas Middleditch-Silicon Valley, Kong: Skull Island, Zombieland: Double-Tap) bent on proving that humans and monsters (or Titans) can co-exist. However, when three powerful monsters, Mothra, King Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Dragon, and Rodan emerge leaving humanity’s existence hanging in the balance, the Monarch organization recruits Emma’s ex-husband an animal behavior and communication specialist Mark (Kyle Chandler-Friday Night Lights, King Kong (2005), Super 8) and a military forces group known as the G-Team to find Emma and Madison who are in possession of a monster controlling device known as an Orca and set Godzilla loose to combat these new threats to save the world. 

            The film also stars Charles Dance (Last Action Hero, Game of Thrones, The Imitation Game) as Colonel Alan Jonah, Aisha Hinds (The Shield, True Blood, Underground) as Colonel Diane Foster, O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton, Ingrid Goes West, Long Shot) as Jackson Barnes, and David Strathairn (A League of Their Own, L.A. Confidential, Good Night and Good Luck) reprising his role from Godzilla (2014) as Admiral William Stenz.

            Overall, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a blast of mindless monster fun despite its standard story and (mostly) stock human characters. But unlike the 2014 film the scenes with the human characters don’t feel as long or drawn-out as last time, definitely better paced in that regard and you’re never sitting there thinking to yourself “When are we going back to the monsters?” The human scenes are short, sweet, and to the point.

            All three American Godzilla movies suffer from the same problem, too many human characters but very few of them I care about. Nobody in this or the 2014 movie is bad, but the films don’t allow much time to develop everyone and some of them vanish from the rest of the movie after a while with the exceptions being Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, and Bryan Cranston from the first movie. 

            Let’s talk about the new monsters, while they are all CGI and don’t really have the same rubber suit practical charm of the Japanese films, the models for Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan look great even though Ghidorah looked like a three-headed Smaug. Mothra especially looks amazing in this movie with all the added textures given to her body and face, it’s surprisingly a pretty convincing effect.

            The film is filled with callbacks to the original movies including variations of the classic Godzillatheme music recreated by Bear McCreary. It’s the first American Godzilla movie that actually FEELS like a Godzilla movie.

            Godzilla: King of the Monsters is far from being one of the best Godzilla movies but as an entertaining summer blockbuster, it’s a fun time whether a fan of the monster or not.