This is the second Godzilla film in the MonsterVerse series, a story about the crypto-zoological agency Monarch finding themselves facing titan monsters Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah, and their ultimate solution is letting Godzilla battle them all to save mankind.
The film is a little reminiscing to Toho Studio's classic 1964 movie, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, but this time featuring the monsters in the 21st century, with some neat special effects. You get to see each of the monsters' unyielding powers and characteristics, and them battling each other is nothing short of edge-of-your-seat monster excitement. However, the CGI on the creatures were too dark at times, making the monster battles hard to see. It is also difficult to see the creatures' faces and reactions - just a whole lot of head-spinning movements and swift actions.
The human drama was average at best, and the good guys vs. bad guys subplot was a major distraction from the film, I thought. Much of the evil doers' actions were overkill, and our protagonists were too preachy, save for Ziyi Zhang's duo doctor roles, which is a great nod to Mothra's tiny twin priestesses in the classic films. I also liked that the filmmakers incorporated Mothra's Song in this movie.
But, as with much of today's films, there is forced comedy to lighten up the mood, courtesy of Bradley Whitford's St. Stanton character. His humor was extremely annoying and distracting, very out-of-place for the movie.
With all the hard-to-see monster action to the distracting human drama, there is too much in the film to digest and makes it hard to appreciate the main point, which are clearly the monsters. It leaves little room to sympathize with the human characters and leaves you craving for more of the monsters.
Grade D+
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
2019
Action / Adventure / Fantasy / Horror / Sci-Fi
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
2019
Action / Adventure / Fantasy / Horror / Sci-Fi
Plot summary
The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face 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. When these ancient superspecies, thought to be mere myths, rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity's very existence hanging in the balance.
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Too much mayhem going on.
Same old monster mash
Dressed up with an awesome budget and 3-D which version I saw, Godzilla King Of Monsters is a throwback to those old Japanese monster fests when Godzilla and all his pals were laying waste to most of urban Japan. Godzilla originally a villain monster became a leader to other of these titanic creatures as they battled Ghidrah the hydra head bad guy from outer space.
Ghidrah's back too and he and Godzilla slug it out in of all places Boston with Fenway Park as ground zero.
There's a human cast too, but like in the Japanese films they take second place to the computer graphic generated big guys.
It's big and it's awesome, but doesn't have the same sense of fun as the Japanese created creatures destroying those cardboard sets.
Fun at times, but flawed with it
GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS is a film much like its 2014 predecessor: average and interesting, but too flawed to have much in the way of rewatchability. I come to it as a huge fan of the Japanese kaiju genre; those rubber-suited bouts of the 1960s mark the high point of the genre to me, so this overlong epic is something I have a mixed reaction to. As before, the human storylines drag down the pacing and make this going on too much, and the staged conflict is boring at times.
I like Millie Bobby Brown in STRANGER THINGS but she feels out of place here, tacked-on to appeal to that demographic. Kyle Chandler is also the most uninspiring protagonist I can imagine, although better actors like Ken Watanabe and Charles Dance are assured in smaller roles. There's copious monster action here as you'd expect, and I was delighted that not only does King Ghidorah show up but Mothra and Rodan too, with the right nods made to the original mythologies. But the CGI isn't quite as good as I was hoping for and the action becomes mildly repetitive before long.