Godzilla: King of the Monsters

 A retrospective by Forrest Humphrey

Here we are, a little over a week before “Godzilla vs. Kong” hits theaters/streaming services, and its time to look at the most recent Monster-verse film: 2019's “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” While I find 2014's “Godzilla” mostly serviceable and “Kong: Skull Island” to be a silly good time, I'm more torn with “King of the Monsters.” To be blunt, I think this is the worst film of the Minster-verse, but it also hurts to say so given there are several things about the film I love.

Director Michael Dougherty wanted to take a different approach than the 2014 film, calling to mind “Alien” to “Aliens” in terms of respecting Gareth Edward's slow build in the previous film but wanting to ramp things up in this sequel, and I will say that has been achieved. The movie moves along very quickly, and the various monsters start showing up minutes into the film, with a new action set piece never to far away. But for reasons I will get into, this is working for and against the film in significant ways. 

Our story is thus: Its been five years since Godzilla fought the MUTO's and in that time, the Monster Hunting group Monarch has found upwards of seventeen giant monsters around the world, including of course Kong on Skull Island. The first one we see is in China, being studied by Dr. Emma Russel (played by Vera Farmiga) and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobbie Brown). That kaiju? Another Toho legend: Mothra. The giant bug hatches from her egg and we are introduced to the device that will prove central to the plot: The Orca, a device created by Russel and her husband (played by Kyle Chandler) which replicates the bio-acoustics of the monsters to influence and even control them. While it turns out to work, their test is interrupted by our main human villain (Charles Dance) and he kidnaps the pair and takes the Orca. Chandler is then introduced being picked up by Monarch head Dr. Serizawa, with Ken Watanabe reprising his role from the previous film. They must find the Orca and get it back before it is used for terrible purposes. 

That leads them to Antarctica, where the real prize monster is hibernating. Another much beloved Toho staple: the great golden dragon King Ghidorah. But the film unveils its shocking twist: Farmiga's character has been working with Charles Dance the whole time! They are releasing the monsters on purpose, for you see, the giant beasts will cull humanity and reset the earth to a more natural state before human vanity kills it all. King Ghidorah is freed and his ancient rival shows up looking for a fight: good old Godzilla. 

So that's the premise. The bad guys are going to wake up the monsters and our heroes have to stop them while various creatures wake up and fight. While it seems very simple, there's also far too much going on. I didn't mention them here, but there are far too many characters. In addition to the Russel family, Serizawa and Charles Dance's villain, there are a number of other characters affiliated with Monarch and/or the military to keep track of. This is a huge cast with 12+ characters jumping around, and I can get back to my earlier mention of the pacing. This film has so many characters and is in such a hurry to move along, nobody gets to actually develop their characters. Its constant exposition dumps and location hopping and you just never care about these people. 

Key example? You might have gotten excited when I said the human bad guy was played by Charles freaking Dance, a master actor and terrific villain. The problem? He gets maybe 4 scenes where he even speaks, and its the absolute barest minimum to establish his motivation, he gets no time to develop any nuance or deepen his philosophy on why he and Farmiga think this trial-by-kaiju plan is such a sure thing. The “main” characters played by Chandler, Brown and Watanabe don't get much better. Granted, its bearable in the moment because to their credit, these are all solid actors doing their best, its just that none of them have any material to work with. So its a mixed bag on the previous film. Nobody is as memorable as Cranston, but nobody is as boring to watch as Aaron Taylor-Johnson either. But at least it was quickly established why the characters were doing what they were doing and had solid motivations. Here, its just...noise between the action scenes when frankly, the solution would have been to hack the cast down to a more manageable number, that way the fast pace would still at least give the core characters a LITTLE time to breath and get the audience to care about anything that isn't Godzilla fighting something.

But this is a Godzilla movie, and I have said several times there's plenty of action scenes, and hey, that's why we watch Godzilla right? How are the monsters? This is why Im so torn. When I saw this in the theater, I was quite literally bouncing in my seat like a hyperactive toddler when Godzilla and Ghidorah squared off in Antarctica. I'd waited my whole life dreaming of seeing these iconic monsters fighting with a few hundred million dollars of budget behind it, and god its so much fun when its happening. Even when its not Godzilla per se, where the MUTOs were rather bland, here the other monsters are other beloved kaiju like Rodan and Mothra. Rodan in particular gets one of the best sequences in the film where he utterly wrecks an air force squadron. 

This is also all set to a fantastic soundtrack by Bear McCreary of Walking Dead and God of War (PS4) fame. He uses the classic Ifukube themes throughout and adds his own style, with a lot of tribal drums and chanting. And its just freaking great. The visuals, however, are a more mixed bag. Mostly they're good to great, but have issues. For one, I honestly think the 2014 movie looks a little better. The visuals are just crisper, more “real” looking. There's also a huge issue when it comes to visibility here. While the prior film was often “merely” dark, here its not just dark. Almost every action scene is in the dark, while also being in a snowstorm or a thunderstorm or something that makes the scenery a mess of particle effects and it gets obnoxious. Rodan's scene is one of the best because its the only one in broad daylight and easy to see, then Ghidorah shows up and happens to always make hurricanes so hey, time for rain and clouds to obscure the action! Hell, this was such a commonly sighted issue that many, including me, feel it was addressed on purpose in the very first trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong showing the action in the middle of the day where all the action is clearly visible, and that does give me some hope for it.

Edwards also had, I felt, a better eye for cinematography, and it better conveyed the weight and size of these three hundred foot tall things. Low angle shots that framed the monsters against things like buildings or bridges to recreate that old school sense of scale, are far less present here. There are still some utterly gorgeous shots though, no denying that, and both films do a great job of infusing the monsters with a lot of personality which goes a long way. Rodan actually grinning before he spins and obliterates a ton of jets? Great? Ghidorah is of special mention here, as each of his three heads has a distinct personality and frequently squabble and bicker the whole movie. They put a lot of work into these beloved monsters and that's why I hate having to sling so much mud at the film otherwise. 

So, as much as I personally have a great time with the film, I feel I would be dishonest if I didn't give it a thumbs down for its many issues. A great cast is utterly wasted here, the fast pace actively hampers anyone's chances to actually make you care and even when the monsters start kicking ass, the muddied visuals and frequent cut-aways (yes that problem from the 2014 movie is back with a vengeance) can hamper what would otherwise be the show stealing scenes to recommend.