Godzilla: King of the Monsters is everything you want

Warner Bros. Pictures

A lot can happen in five years. When the first of the new Godzilla movies was released, Hotchka didn’t even exist. Instead, I reviewed the movie for the site I previously wrote for, CliqueClack. The review is still available but my basic feeling for the first film was ‘meh’. Too little Godzilla, too much of the new monsters, not enough Bryan Cranston, too much gawking at the action and little dialog. But it was a hit and led to the superior Kong: Skull Island which hinted at a coming ‘Monsterverse’ from the studio (and Warner Bros. has been much more successful with their monsters than Universal was in attempting to launch its ‘Dark Universe’). Well, that Monsterverse is here with the release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and if you have any lingering ill will from the first movie, put it aside now (also, turn off your brain for two hours).

The new movie picks up five years after the events of the first movie (so it is chronologically accurate and explains the emergence of some of the new tech in the movie, which would have been a stretch had the film stuck to its original release schedule) as well as the events of Kong, which is mentioned but does not play a part in this movie (that is being saved for 2020’s Godzilla vs Kong). The film introduces us to broken family the Russells, new characters, who lost their son during the San Francisco rampage five years ago. Mark (Kyle Chandler) and Emma (Vera Farmiga) have split but they share a daughter, Madison (Millie Bobby Brown). While dad is off photographing nature, mom has just completed work on a device that simulates the alpha waves of monsters like Godzilla, the Titans — of which there are now 17 known, and counting. Godzilla is nowhere to be found, but Emma and Monarch (the entity from the first movie that is trying to corral these beasts) are about to witness the birth of Mothra, and when she does hatch Emma’s device works to perfection and keeps her from destroying the facility. Of course, there has to be a villain and with perfect timing Jonah Alan (Charles Dance) waltzes in, kills most of the Monarch employees and kidnaps Emma and Madison … or does he?

Notified of the incident, Mark is brought in by the Monarch folks from the first movie, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe), Dr. Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) and Admiral William Stenz (David Strathairn), who need the reluctant Mark to help them save the device and his family. Of course, before they split Mark was also working for Monarch with Emma on the device, dubbed ‘Orca’. Godzilla shows up out of the blue but Mark realizes he’s not there to threaten them, he’s looking for something else so they follow him to the Antarctic where Emma is being forced to use Orca on a new monster that is about the be released from a block of ice, a three-headed creature they’d dubbed ‘Monster Zero’. It seems that Jonah is seeking to establish a new world order of Titans which will reverse the destruction of the planet at the hands of mankind … by destroying the planet, because new growth comes from destruction. Humanity will survive … if they’re lucky enough to get to one of the many outposts Monarch has established around the globe (and don’t ask who survives, why and how because those questions are never answered). But is he working alone? And can Mark and the members of Monarch stop him before it’s too late, and save Emma and Madison in the process?

I grew up watching all of the classic (and sometimes cheesy) Japanese monster movies on TV after school on our local The 4 O’Clock Movie. What I wanted from the first movie, we get here with the appearances of Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidora (aka Monster Zero), and a bunch of other Titans. If you felt cheated by the MUTO in the first movie, you will be more than thrilled with the monsters in the new movie. Rodan and Mothra don’t get as much screen time as Ghidora, but they are there, they all fight, and Mothra actually plays a very pivotal role in the film’s climax, so there’s nothing to be disappointed with. King Ghidora is pretty cool with its massive wings, three heads and lightning bolts that shoot out of the wings. It truly is a fearsome nemesis for the hero, Godzilla. But there is also a twist involving Ghidora, that we won’t spoil here for those who don’t already know, that puts an interesting spin on the character and explains why all the other Titans suddenly no longer react to Godzilla’s ‘alpha’ status. There are many cool scenes with the Titans, like Rodan’s awakening, and Mothra spreading her wings, so this movie made me feel like a kid in a candy shop, that elementary schooler who raced home to see those old movies on TV. If I have any complaint, it’s the same complaint I have with almost all action movies that involve hand-to-hand fight scenes — they are filmed in extreme close-up so it’s hard to see the action (and it’s all even further obscured by the dirt and debris that is naturally flying around as buildings are destroyed). Please, directors, if you’re incapable of putting together a fight scene that the audience can actually see … let someone else step in and handle those shots. Especially when it’s not even real people! It’s computer generated so let us see the action!

Now, if you’re going into Godzilla: King of the Monsters for any reason other than to see giant monster fight … check your brain at the door. For a movie that is so concerned with science and technology and the planet, it has to be one of the dumbest movies I’ve ever seen. The one thing that really stood out to me was the movie’s geography, in that I could not for a minute figure where anyone was at any given time in relations to anyone else because they moved from, for example, Antarctica to Boston in the blink of an eye. Bradley Whitford’s character keeps talking about a ‘Hollow Earth’ theory to explain how Godzilla disappears so quickly and shows up at another point on the globe, so when the submarine he and the others are on is suddenly 600 miles away from their starting point, he is certain the theory has been proven. But we just have to take his word for it. Also — radiation. Doesn’t seem to be a problem for most of the characters. Nor does detonating an ‘oxygen bomb’ underwater. The Monrach folks are advised to get more than two miles away from an area where such a bomb is to be detonated because it’s going to eliminate all the oxygen in that area. So then what happens to the water, which is one part hydrogen and two parts oxygen, when that thing goes off? Uh … nothing? I don’t know, this movie just has the goofiest science ever, but who cares … GIANT MONSTERS!

Even with all the goofiness of the science, the cast actually does a good job at making us believe they believe all this hokum. Chandler and Brown are particularly good at conveying their emotions, their concerns, their fear and wonder. High five to them both. Farmiga is also fine, but as I’ve said before she seems to be one of those actors who need a really good director to get a really good performance out of her. Director Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus) probably needs a little more experience with a cast and a movie of this size, as it shows in the too close-up fight scenes and Farmiga’s passable performance. Charles Dance makes a good villain, and never resorts to mustache twirling, and newcomers to the franchise Ziyi Zhang, Whitford, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds and Anthony Ramos are given enough to stand out from the background players. I had actually forgotten Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) was in the first movie, so I was surprised to see her here. Ken Watanabe is given more to do and more dialog so he’s not reduced to the squinting and reacting he did in the first movie. Overall, everyone gives it their all and some go above and beyond what is required from a movie about giant, radioactive monsters.

If you’re walking into Godzilla: King of the Monsters expecting to analyze every frame or question any of the science or geography, you are bound to hate the movie (and if you read most of the mainstream critical reviews, that’s what you’re going to see). If, on the other hand, you know and love the classic Japanese movies from which this franchise is born and we disappointed that more of the classic monsters were not in the first movie, then you will absolutely love this movie. I don’t think there’s any gray area here. You’ll love it or hate it, plain and simple, and I loved it because it gave me everything I wanted and needed after the first movie’s disappointments. You will be the ultimate judge.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters has a run time of 2 hours 11 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of monster action violence and destruction, and for some language.