GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS may be the 35thGodzilla movie we’ve seen since 1954, but in the current run it serves as the third film in a new series; a “monster-verse” that began in 2014 with GODZILLA and continued with KONG: SKULL ISLAND in 2017. The idea is to make movies setting up the existence of monsters and then more monsters…leading to a massive showdown where they all slug it out.
One of the major complaints about the 2014 GODZILLA film is that the big guy barely showed up. Seemingly aware of this, director Michael Dougherty wastes no time as Godzilla appears in the first five seconds. KING OF THE MONSTERS begins just as the 2014 film is ending; with the climactic final battle in San Francisco which devastated the city and broke up a family or two. The film then jumps ahead a few years and an endless rollout of characters begins. We have Dr. Emma (Vera Farmiga), who is working on a device that can affect the rising pack of monsters (17 in all), her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown), who is too smart for her own good, Dr. Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), who is Emma’s estranged husband, Madison’s father, and an animal behavior expert. But wait, there’s more: Bradley Whitford shows up as an eccentric scientist, Sally Hawkins and Ken Watanabe reprise their roles from GODZILLA as more scientists who want to preserve Godzilla and his fellow monsters (or titans), David Strathairn as a Navy admiral who wants to nuke them all, Charles Dance as an environmental terrorist who wants to unleash all the sleeping titans on mankind to save the Earth (say what, now?), CCH Pounder as a Senator, and Joe Morton as (sigh), another scientist studying the titans.
What does it all amount to? Many groups of humans running around the globe either trying to stop or aid the titans. One titan in particular is not like the others and is controlling them all for its own purposes, while Godzilla, who conveniently is un-affected by that control, is the only one who can put a stop to it. The humans in the meantime are busy betraying one another and shooting guns at themselves. It’s an overcomplicated plot with way too many characters that tend to slow down the story more than they help it along.
As if the plot wasn’t clunky enough, the execution is worse. Mark is the only character that can figure out what’s going on or what to do, and the film just runs scene after scene of his group getting into trouble with him coming up with a brilliant idea to solve everything. It’s redundant, lazy, and un-inspired. An early twist that’s meant to surprise is more confusing than shocking, and the eco-terrorist’s plot to let the titans run loose on Earth makes no sense.
If monsters are all that is wanted out of a Godzilla movie, then KING OF THE MONSTERS does deliver. There are plenty of titans to look at; plucked out of the long history of Godzilla films and their design is excellent. The fights are a CG headache, and too many of them take place in the goddamn dark so it’s frustrating to see what the hell is going on. Godzilla still vanishes from the movie way too often, and the attempt at building the mythology of the titans is meaningless. And any hopes of a monster-sized battle-royal are squashed as Godzilla only fights one stinking titan.
On the technical side, the editing lacks any sort of pacing or urgency which adds to the dullness. The CG effects are great in some places, but obvious in others; definitely a case of quantity over quality. The scale of the film is huge as the story literally takes place all over the globe, and the many set-pieces work half the time. The score by Bear McCreary, which recycles old motifs from Godzilla’s history…is excellent.
The cast gets shortchanged as all their characters are stock. The highlights belong to Millie Bobby Brown who is excellent in everything they make her do, and Bradley Whitford who seems to be channeling Dennis Hopper from the 1960’s. One talented actress is completely wasted as she’s in the film for 18 seconds before turning into a hot lunch.
There is a fair amount of joy in seeing these classic monsters on the big screen again, and some of them are framed nicely, but the merits begin and end there. With lazy plotting, actions that make no sense, and fights that no can see…this lands with a monster-sized thud. And what’s even more annoying is that the film reminds us over and over that there’s one more titan out there for Godzilla to face, which makes all of this pointless.
BOTTOM LINE: Fuck it
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