03 May Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Review

GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS

This is part of my ‘Re-Review’ series, where I revisit a movie that I haven’t seen in awhile to evaluate if my opinion has changed with time.

With the release of the first full trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong, I decided to re-watch six of my favorite Godzilla-centric movies, including the precursors to the new film.

Old Opinion: My favorite, if not the best, of the Godzilla Cinematic Universe

New Opinion: An epic Godzilla movie marred by poor cinematography and character work…but still by favorite

The biggest complaint about 2014’s Godzilla: not enough Godzilla. Godzilla: King of the Monsters took this criticism to heart, to its benefit, but foolishly neglected other aspects of good filmmaking, which is a dodgy proposition when making a giant monster movie; a genre riddled with very few excellent entries.

KotM basically starts with a flashback to the San Francisco attack from Godzilla, making sure audiences get some up-front Godzilla action. Then the movie settles into a pretty standard pattern of too-long scenes of human exposition, punctuated with exciting giant monster carnage. If this sounds negative, keep in mind that I really enjoy this movie, but I’m keenly aware that it is, technically, the weakest entry in the three-film franchise.

The story revolves around the Apex Corporation, a foil to the benevolent Monarch we already know, trying to wake up as many titans as they can around the world. As Apex wakes up the titans, Godzilla re-emerges after a 5-year slumber to put them in their place—he is the King of the Monsters, after all. Unfortunately, one of the monsters awoken is not an original titan: Ghidorah is from outer space and might outmatch Godzilla, having some unique powers that convince many titans that he is the real apex predator of the planet. This leads to a…wait for it…GIANT MONSTER FIGHT!

Sounds great, right? I mean, that’s exactly the kind of story that I want in a Godzilla movie, and it has all the elements of the best entry in the franchise yet. But the story is complicated with a bunch of sci-fi fluff about controlling the titans with sound. The people behind Monarch and Apex are exposition machines by necessity because controlling titans through sound is…inherently ridiculous and overly complicated. Also, Apex’s motivation is a tired trope: humans are Earth’s virus and must be stopped.

The main character is Madison Russell, played by Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown. She lost a brother in San Francisco, and her parents split up as a result. Her father, Mark (played by Kyle Chandler), left the family, while her mother, Emma, stayed to take care of Madison, joining Monarch to seemingly help introduce a level of control over the titans into Madison’s and her life.

There are some nice twists (Emma really works for Apex and masterminded their anti-human strategy), but the method of conveying all of these elements is just a TON of talking scenes. Ken Watanabe’s Serizawa returns, shedding wizened counsel upon the dumb humans, but when all is said and done: too much human stuff. This is in contrast to Kong: Skull Island, which probably had as much or more human screen time, but we cared about them, and they were interesting. THAT is the difference and the problem with KotM.

The action scenes in KotM are spectacular, and the final showdown is epic in scale and destruction. Ghidorah’s rise and initial contact with Godzilla is also a massive scene. The only downside to these scenes is they are filmed from the human’s perspective: on the ground, looking up. These scenes suffer from the kaiju equivalent of a Bourne action scene: the camera work is too close, and you can’t tell what is happening.

THAT SAID…I really enjoy this movie. There is some genuine pathos to Godzilla, and there are a lot more monsters. Ghidorah is pretty amazing, being significantly larger than the already massive Godzilla. The movie has no shortage of monster encounters, and it’s a solid escalation from Godzilla. But the script needed another couple passes to refine and simplify some elements. But as Godzilla movies go, it may be the worst of the current iteration, but it is still an order of magnitude better than most predecessors.

Pros:

• A lot more monsters, and a lot more GIANT MONSTER FIGHTS
• Godzilla is given a bit of a character arc
• Millie Bobby Brown gives a solid performance, particularly for a child star

Cons:

• Overly complicated plot
• WAYYYYYYY too much exposition among the human characters
• Some special effects scenes are muddled (too dark, poor camera angles, etc.)

Rating: 3.5/5
Listen, my heart says 4.5, but my mind says 2.5, so I compromised with 3.5. Real truth, probably a 3…

Review by Jim Washburn