Godzilla: King of the Monsters Review

Godzilla makes his Hollywood cinematic return after a five-year break and his return brings even more monster action. But bigger doesn’t always mean better.

After the events of Godzilla (2014), San Francisco is left in ruins and the US Government are seeking to put the Monarch Agency under military control. Monarch has found and contained 17 monsters known as Titans around the world, ranging from Mexico to Germany, and Antarctica. Amidst this eco-terrorist Alan Jonah (Charles Dance) seeks to release the Titans so they can bring balance to the world. Humanity’s only hope lies with Godzilla.

One of the biggest criticism of the 2014 film was its lack of monster action. Often when there was a fight, like the one at Daniel K Inouye International Airport, the action cut away. The only big monster throwdown being shown was in the final act. The Honest Trailer by Screen Junkies stated that there was only 10 minutes worth of Godzilla footage in his own film. The sequel counteract this by having a lot more monster action – but that comes with its own set of problems.

I personally enjoyed the 2014 version of Godzilla because it was basically a disaster movie featuring a giant monster. Godzilla (2014) paid a lot of homage to the Japanese original with its themes of nuclear war and destruction.

Gareth Edwards’ film followed the trend started by Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, going for the gritty and realistic approach. This caused an issue for the sequel because it was stuck between two stools. Godzilla: King of the Monsters had to keep the look of the previous film whilst also having to be a balls-to-the-wall monster brawl. It led to Godzilla: King of the Monsters to be too stupid to be serious and too po-faced to be fun.

The big problem with the sequel is the writing and how sloppy it is. This is a film that starts at a secret scientific facility which allows a teenage girl to enter into the heart of the operation. This would be considered illogical in a B-Movie let alone a film that wanted to be semi-serious. And the screenplay does not improve from this point. There were character inconsistencies and a forced environment message where the Titans are the Planet’s way to bring balance to itself. The reasoning played fast and loose with scientific facts.

To show how bad the writing is, there is character information on the Wikipedia page that was never revealed in the film. Plus the filmmakers missed the point of the franchise by showing the importance of nuclear weapons.

The storyline with the Russell family was intended to give Godzilla: King of the Monsters an emotional heart. They were broken by the San Francisco attack leading to the parents to have different views regarding Godzilla. The father, Mark (Kyle Chandler) wants to kill Godzilla because he’s a destructive wild beast whilst his ex-wife, Emma (Vera Farmiga) is an idiot who’s tarnishing her son’s memory.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is an ugly and dower-looking film because it has to adhere to the realistic style. It’s drained of colour and many of the fight scenes are overstuffed with weather effects, ruining the fights. It’s a case where would less have been more. Despite the film’s task being to bring audiences more monster action, Godzilla does disappear for a good portion of the second act. Say what you will about 2018’s Rampage it knew it just wanted to be dumb fun.

Godzilla: King of Monsters is not all bad. There were some moments of awe like the birth of Mothra and when Ken Watanabe finally comes face-to-face with Godzilla. Some reviewers have criticised for its shaky cam and frenzy editing. These criticisms were overblown because the action did have a flow to them. It was most impressive from the human perspective because it looked real.

The look and overly serious tone makes Godzilla: King of the Monsters the Batman vs. Superman of the Monsterverse. They were following ‘realistic’ style first film, share a dark visual look, and had poor stories. Although they were moments fantastic moments in both films it was not enough to overcome their issues. And like Batman vs. Superman Godzilla: King of the Monsters is already gaining vocal defenders online.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters should have been a fun ride and a defence from some fans of the franchise state that many of the Japanese films were bonkers. But Godzilla: King of the Monsters wanted to be held at a higher standard due to its look and serious approach and it disappoints on many fronts.