Godzilla: King of the Monsters

It’s been five years and the world is still reeling from the first appearance of Godzilla.  In that time, the existence of other ginormous creatures, known as Titans, begins to come into public view.  Some, like the organization Monarch, seek to find a way to coexist with the giants.  Others wish to use their power for their own nefarious ends.  An act of despair causes the awakening of one of the greatest Titans of all and sets the world on a course towards extinction.  Once again, Godzilla must arise to face some of his most fearsome rivals: the beautiful Mothra; the fiery Rodan; and the most dangerous of them all, the three headed Dragon, King Ghidorah.  The fate of mankind hangs in the balance as the battle for the title of “King of the Monsters” begins again.

The first thing that popped into my head after finishing Godzilla: King of the Monster was…why did we need the 2014 film in the first place?  I know that movie has its fans and defenders, but I personally felt letdown by Godzilla 2014.  Though it was good to see the big guy looking better than his disatrous 1998 US appearance, Godzilla himself was barely in the film which was more focused with Kick Ass trying to avoid getting crushed by giant monster battles.  Well, King of the Monsters clearly heard that major complaint and more and sought to rectify that.  The end result is a good American version of a more old school Godzilla adventure complete with epic scale battles, human logic that makes no sense even though it tries to sound important, and a much more abundant amount of Big G himself.

 

As I said, the plot of the movie is kind of just there because…well you do need more than just “giant monsters beating the crap out of each other” to justify a little over two hour movie.  To it’s credit, I did enjoy the human cast more than the 2014 film.  The family dynamic between Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown had a surprising amount of engaging weight to it, with Bobby Brown especially delivering a great performance showing us she is far more than her star making role on Stranger Things.  There’s some good banter between the new Monarch characters, with Zhang Ziyi (of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Tiger fame) standing out as a lover of the lore of the Titans, she’s kind of a Kaiju Otaku.  We get some familiar faces given much meatier roles.  After being given next to nothing to do than exposit trailer lines in the 2014 film, Ken Watanabe’s Dr. Serizawa is more front and center than ever in King of the Monsters, alongside his returning assistant, Sally Hawkins’ Dr. Graham, and David Stratharin’s Admiral Stenz (though he has less to do than anyone in the film really, which is a shame cause I liked the scenes of him and Watanabe chatting in the 2014 film).

As for the plot, like I said, it feels like a classic Godzilla tale being adapted into a Hollywood blockbuster.  Man’s arrogance thinks it can control the mountain sized Kaiju to bring about some kind of cleansing event for the planet.  The more you listen to one of the villains basically outline their entire evil plan you just wonder…why?  Who would be so dumb as to think they can control Godzilla or any of his giant monster brethren?  It’s a recipe for disaster and feels silly.  This plot is far from 2016’s more historically inspired Shin Godzilla (taking elements from the two big disasters that befell Japan in 2011).  It’s a hard balancing act to find sometimes: trying to focus on Godzilla as the nuclear nightmare while also having epic showdowns between monster rivals.  I’m not saying it cant be done, it’s just not particularly done right here.  The human relationships between Chandler, Watanabe, Bobby Brown, Farmiga and Ziyi pick up some of the slack and offer far more heart than anything involving the Brody family in the previous movie.

 

But forget about people talking.  You know what you came here to see: the fights.  And let me tell you, this is where King of the Monsters really needed to shine in lew of the lack of good fight scenes in the last film and it stepped up big time.  I highly recommend seeing King of the Monsters on the biggest screen possible to appreciate the scale and gravitas of each brawl, chase or simple arrival of a new monster.  I will say that maybe the darkened scenery could have been dialed back so we could see more of the action a lot clearer.  But what is there does impress.  Godzilla’s first showdown with King Ghidorah in Antarctica and the chase between Rodan and Monarch’s Hellicarrier esque vehicle, The Argo, are two of the most stand out spectacles you’ll see on screen.  Then there’s the big climax itself where the battle royale we were promised in the trailers and production reports arrives.  Tack on the much appreciated use of classic Godzilla character themes and you’ve got grand scale battles that must be seen to be believed.  You thought you saw city wide destruction in the 2014 film?  You aint seen nothing until this film takes the Kaiju conflict to a global level.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters has a plot that will make you groan at how dumb humans can really be…which isn’t too off par for the course in a Godzilla film really.  However, the film feels like an entirely different beast than its predecessor.  It’s bigger, faster, better paced, features new and more likeable characters while doing better justice to returning favs.  And Godzilla himself is still a marvel to behold and its exciting to see him clashing with some of his decades old enemies once again, this time in a US feature that doesn’t suck.  King of the Monsters gets the ball rolling fast on the shared Monsterverse of  Legendary Pictures but also manages to be a fun ride all on it’s own (helping it stand out from other films too focused on setting up their own mini universe like The Mummy or The Amazing Spider Man 2).  I wanted more Kaiju clashes and more Godzilla, I got them both and I cannot wait to see how they try to top this when Godzilla vs. Kong arrives next year.  The King is back…hail to the King baby.

8/10