Review: Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a massive monster spectacle
The sequel to 2014’s Godzilla doesn’t quite live up to expectations…
★★★☆☆
The crypto-zoological agency Monarch faces off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. (IMDb)
The stylish and impactful trailers and posters for Godzilla: King of the Monsters set the stage for an exciting movie that would be a suitable follow-up to 2014’s Godzilla. But trailers and posters can’t always be trusted. Even with its undeniably excellent cast (featuring the likes of Sally Hawkins, Ken Watanabe, Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Charles Dance and Millie Bobby Brown), King of the Monsters only impresses in certain specific moments, and generally has a laughably bad plot, groan-worthy dialogue, and far too many characters. Thankfully, the actual monster action is seriously impressive and feels as big and consequential as it looks. But there isn’t quite enough focus on how the people on the ground have been affected, and the human characters we do follow aren’t really complex, deep or compelling enough to have any emotional effect on the audience. Check it out if you’re merely looking for loud smashy crashy action, but skip this one if you’re hoping for a well-constructed story with themes or characters to care about!
The consequences of the San Francisco attack
King of the Monsters kicks off by flashing back to the destruction in San Francisco, showing us that the Russell family played by Farmiga, Chandler and Brown were actually caught up in the midst of all the catastrophe. Back then, if you don’t remember, Godzilla rose up and defeated the MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) that were terrorising humanity and destroying the city. But that’s something that would be hard to understand from the ground, especially if your son was tragically killed during the event, which happens to Mark and Emma (Chandler and Farmiga) here. In the aftermath of the clash and the death of their son, the relationship between Mark and Emma completely breaks down and they split up. The additional complication is that both of them worked for the clandestine monster investigation collective Monarch, and were developing an understanding and a way to communicate with and maybe even control titans just like Godzilla. Five years after San Francisco, Emma is captured by eco-terrorist Alan Jonah (Dance), and with her technology he begins releasing newly excavated titans to bring more destruction to the world. Clearly, Godzilla will have to return to put an end to the madness!
The monsters awaken
As you’ll have seen if you watched the trailers, this movie introduces a whole bunch of brand new monsters. There’s massive moth Mothra, big angry bird Rodan, and the enormous three-headed dragon creature King Ghidorah. It’s King Ghidorah who ends up being the “big bad” of the story, besting Godzilla in an early confrontation and aiming to control all the other monsters that are returning, with the general goal of wiping out humanity and taking over the world. It’s pretty standard villain stuff, but Ghidorah is obviously a a dragon with three heads, and it’s not exactly going to talk and explain its motivations. The movie works hard to explain a lot of its science, but that can also feel like one of its downsides; it’s burdened with a lot of exposition and it doesn’t have any particularly good dialogue! What is impressive, though, is the visual effects. The work on creature design and humongous conflict is unparalleled. The designs of Mothra, Godzilla himself and Ghidorah (who manages to look different than so many dragons we’ve seen before) are amazing. And when they all fight each other at he climax, it feels enormous and fantastical. At least in this regard, it’s everything the trailers promised.
It’s big and silly, and that’s part of why it’s very entertaining
Gareth Edwards’s Godzilla got much more love from critics than this version is getting, but it’s worth remembering that the human characters in that movie weren’t particularly nuanced or interesting either. There are a few too many characters here though, and it’s a problem that’s amplified because we have to keep track of more named monsters than before! None of the humans in King of the Monsters are interesting. The strong cast does its best, but Chandler, Dance and Farmiga in particular are saddled with the most basic of character types. And Sally Hawkins is completely wasted in this movie! The plotting is also haphazard and messy, with very little making sense and the movie rarely attempting to give us an idea of the scale of what’s happening, the impact of it on the world or the feelings of people experiencing it. As mentioned above, the dialogue is often shockingly poor and it can be tricky to follow exactly why things are happening. Furthermore, while it makes sense to have a fairly lengthy running time to make things feel epic, there are definitely occasions where the film drags and feels like it’s way too long. Still, given that it’s stuffed with action, you’ll rarely have to wait long for some colossal titans to face off against each other in those awesome and beautiful battle scenes!
Verdict
The monster action in Godzilla: King of the Monsters is spectacular, but the plot is messy and it has too many characters. Ignore the dialogue and there are amazing must-see moments!
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