Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Review

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Review

It’s hard to make a Godzilla movie. Toho makes it seem easy, having produced over 30, more of them good than bad. It’s so strange to think there have only been three American-produced Godzilla movies since the monster was first introduced in 1954. The east has had considerably more success than the west. The first American one, from 1998, was so unworthy of the name, the 2014 reboot bore minimal resemblance to it, but that one was worthy of the title Godzilla.

Now, five years later, we finally get the follow-up, which makes it more explicitly clear that this is a shared universe of films, referencing Kong: Skull Island and teasing next year’s title bout, Godzilla vs. Kong. Even though 2014’s Godzilla was generally well-received and successful, fans and casual movie-goers alike had some issues with it. The slow burn was admirable, the focus on the human drama was welcome, and the restraint and mystery surrounding the monsters was intriguing. But, people wanted more Godzilla. And less boring humans. And more action. And more monsters. Those criticism were heard, and have been addressed.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is very different from the previous Godzilla—tonally, visually, and structurally. The conservative Jaws-esque approach used before is completely abandoned. This is a sequel that leans into the sci-fi roots of Toho giant monster movies, feeling more akin to Pacific Rim than its predecessor at times. It really should have been called Godzilla: Rise of the Titans, but instead they just copied the title from the 1956 American re-edit of Gojira, because that’s just what studios want to do these days, apparently (other title-copying examples: The Predator, Halloween). From here on out, I’m just calling it Godzilla 2.

As a seasoned Godzilla fan, I’ve come to expect anything from this franchise, from the stone-cold serious to the campy, cheesy extravaganzas. Godzilla 2 tries to mix the seriousness and realism established before with the over-the-top sci-fi action the franchise has become so well known for. In a way, it’s almost another reboot. It maintains continuity with the events from 2014, but follows a new cast of main characters, with only three supporting characters returning from before, and has a total expansion on the lore of the monsters and the way this fictional world works.

There seems to be a duality to how Godzilla 2 is being received. As a fan who has seen every single Godzilla movie ever made, I found a ton in this one to enjoy. For those who are not fans of the Toho Godzilla, and perhaps have only seen the 2014 version, it is not coming off well. So far, it’s had a fairly mixed-to-negative response from critics and audiences, but I will say this. If you don’t like Godzilla as a concept, this one isn’t going to win you over. If you love anything and everything to do with Godzilla, this will satisfy in numerous ways. If you want just a good old summer blockbuster action movie and don’t really care about Godzilla, it should suffice. And if you want a super clever plot and well-written human characters over monster action, I guarantee you’ll be disappointed.

The story begins in 2014, amidst the chaos of the final battle in San Francisco between Godzilla and the MUTOs from the previous film. A family loses their son, then we jump ahead to five years later, and the world has become aware that giant monsters (now called titans) exist. What most people are not aware of, though, is how many the secret organization Monarch are aware of. Godzilla hasn’t been seen in all this time. He’s about to make a return, though, along with a bunch of others all at once. The family from the beginning has fractured due to their loss. Vera Farmiga (from The Conjuring) plays the mother, Emma, Kyle Chandler (previously in Peter Jackson’s 2005 King Kong remake) plays the father, Mark, and Millie Bobbie Brown (Eleven in Stranger Things) plays their daughter, Madison.

Emma invents a device called the Orca, which emits a frequency that only titans can hear. This little device, which is something of a deus ex machina, is the whole reason the entire movie happens. She is captured (or so it seems) by eco-terrorist Alan Jonah (Charles Dance, Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones) and forced to use the device to awaken the titans. They first go to Antarctica, where “Monster Zero” is frozen in ice. Monster Zero (also known as Ghidorah, the three-headed flying hydra) is Godzilla’s mortal enemy, and with all the titans now active, it’s a fight for supremacy, to see which one will be king of the monsters!

Spoiler: it’s Godzilla, he’s king.

I will have a separate spoiler section, but first my spoiler-free thoughts. On the whole, I was very entertained by Godzilla 2. It packed in plenty of monster action, most of which looked pretty impressive, even though a lot of it took place in the dark or in stormy weather. Godzilla himself, once again, plays second fiddle throughout much of the movie to the other monsters, but less so than the previous movie.

The human characters are halfway decent. I found them more entertaining and memorable than those of the previous film, largely due to the better cast. One of the problems I had with Godzilla 2014 was Ken Watanabe’s character Dr. Serizawa had nothing to do except look on into the distance in awe and say the famous line “Let them fight.” This time, though, he has a much more significant role in the story, and more memorable scenes. I wish Millie Bobby Brown had more to do throughout, and I wish the character Dr. Stanton (Bradley Whitford, the dad in Get Out) had less to do, because by the end of the second act, he’s exhausted his purpose as comic relief to the point of being annoying. I also had an issue with Vera Farmiga’s character, but I’ll save that for the spoiler section.

What I found most impressive of all was how Godzilla 2 came up with new things I had never seen before in a Godzilla movie. Monsters who have never fought before battle it out, new monsters are shown (though only glimpses), and there are effective moments of interaction between the humans and monsters. The visual effects were mostly good, though still with some unfortunately poor cgi shots throughout. In terms of references and easter eggs, there were so many, I probably missed a decent portion, but the ones I did pick up on were all delightful, with the exception of two blatant references to Aliens. I found those references too on-the-nose, but that was probably just me, as I’ve seen Aliens so many times and am such a big fan of it, I detected the references immediately.

What I found to be the two big negatives about the movie that aren’t spoilers are the pacing and dialogue. Though there’s quite a bit of action throughout the whole movie, it kind of comes in hills and valleys. It goes from very exciting to slower without a decent flow, and this is most noticeable in the second act, which meanders to the point of actually making the movie feel long—and this is coming from someone who still enjoyed it. The dialogue is often corny and there are some failed attempts at humour. While I did find some of it funny, it’s mostly a laugh-less two hours, and there are multiple instances of characters simply stating what is already apparent through visuals, which was an unfortunate similarity to the Godzilla movie of which we do not speak (the 1998 one).

Godzilla 2 is a sequel tailor-made to the Godzilla fans, so I almost feel bad not giving it an absolutely glowing review. I really, really liked it, but honestly, I didn’t unabashedly love it, either. They played it safer in some ways than 2014’s Godzilla by just giving fans what they wanted and not going for a more nuanced approach, but it also really went off in a crazy direction, which I liked. Just don’t go into this movie expecting a direct sequel that maintains its serious nature (and please, do not even think about the likes of 2016’s Shin Godzilla). It’s a fun time, and gave me all the classic giant monster action I could hope for, plus a little more.

************************************************************************************

Now on to the spoilers. Unfortunately, the trailers showed a lot of the big moments, but actually kept enough of the plot unrevealed that I was still surprised by a few things. Some surprises were good, others were a letdown. First, the good. I was actually a bit sad to see Ken Watanabe’s character Dr. Serizawa die, but they did it in a fitting way, paying homage to the 1954 original in a reversal of sorts. The Serizawa character in the original killed Godzilla, but also killed himself in the process. Now, Serizawa kills himself with the very weapon that awakened Godzilla in the first place (not to mention the weapon that killed his own father in Hiroshima), in order to let Godzilla live. Good stuff.

I didn’t expect Ghidorah and Godzilla to fight it out in Antarctica immediately after Ghidorah is set free. After all this incredible monster action had happened, I realized we hadn’t even been introduced to Rodan yet, which took me by surprise. By the halfway mark, I was already satisfied with the monster stuff, but there was so much more to come. There was an appropriate escalation of action, too, with Godzilla returning for his final battle with Ghidorah in a super-charged nuclear state—again, something I’ve never seen before—making for a great finale, and the conclusion was satisfying enough, while leaving me really eager for next year’s Godzilla vs. Kong (which will, likely, include many more giant monsters, too).

Getting into the monsters themselves, the big standouts were Rodan and King Ghidorah. Rodan has never been cooler in any movie than this one. His aerial combat with the jets alone was amazing, but then his battle with Mothra—a battle I had imagined as a kid but had never before been done—was even better. Ghidorah receives the most screen time of all the new monsters, and his depiction is also perhaps the best I’ve seen, though I can’t say that with as much confidence as with Rodan. Ghidorah literally being a storm was a new take that I really liked, and his regenerating head was another new addition to the character that was a simple but brilliant change.  

Mothra was underused, which I’m sure will disappoint many, but she still had some great moments, and there’s a hint in the end credits that she’ll be back. She has, after all, been difficult to completely get rid of in the past, what with her usually laying an egg before dying and all. This is probably a long shot, but what if they make a Mothra spin-off with just her, like the reverse of what Toho originally did with giving Mothra her own movie before having her fight Godzilla? Maybe after people embrace her in this movie there’ll be enough demand there. I mean, hell, if a character like Ant-Man can get his own movie, why can’t Mothra?

The music is easily one of the best aspects of the entire movie. Bear McCreary is one of the most underrated composers working today. The way he brought in the old themes, from Godzilla’s March to Mothra’s Song, were excellent, and having the epic cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s song Godzilla in the end credits was a real treat (though I would have preferred the original rendition). The problem I had, though, was the sound mixing. I don’t know if it was just the theater I saw it in or not, but the sound effects often overpowered the music. I would have liked the music to be more prominent than it was, but it still sounded great, and the updated sound effects for the classic monsters were great, too, especially Mothra. Also, Godzilla’s roar reverting back to the original was a nice touch.

Two of the big surprises involved the true motivations of Vera Farmiga’s character Emma, and the use of a secret military weapon. First, the secret weapon. When Godzilla and Ghidorah begin round two of their battle in the ocean, plunging beneath the waves, Admiral Stenz (the guy who sent everyone on the HALO jump in the previous movie) comes on a screen and informs us the military have been working on something called the oxygen destroyer. Instantly, I’m intrigued, because as any good Godzilla fan knows, this is the name of the weapon that killed the original Godzilla (though it was originally invented by Serizawa). They drop it in the ocean, it makes an awesome explosion, and then…Ghidorah flies away, Godzilla sinks, seemingly dies, then a little while later, they find out he’s alive, but weak, and recovering in an undersea temple. Using the oxygen destroyer this way kind of bothered me. It was simply a bit of fan service, and didn’t amount to anything. They could have just had a proper monster fight and Ghidorah beats Godzilla badly enough that he has to retreat to recover. Having the oxygen destroyer not only come out of nowhere, but also ultimately be ineffective, kind of came off as weird to me. Of course, this little detail likely didn’t even trip up anyone who wasn’t a huge fan.

And as for Emma’s true intentions, it makes the movie more convoluted than necessary. She is seemingly forced by the bad guys to use her Orca technology to awaken the titans, but, why? Well actually, she wants to do it, because she thinks like Thanos: if the world is destroyed by monsters, it will actually thrive better, because overpopulation and pollution and environmental damage and all that will come to a halt, and evidence indicates the areas the titans wrecked are doing better now and the radiation is helping (?), so in the words of Thanos, it’s a small price for salvation. Of course, after this reveal, her daughter calls her a monster, which is about right. This whole expository reasoning just felt really jammed into the movie, and either could have been removed entirely, or worked in with more finesse, instead of being awkwardly plunked into the movie as it is then never explored much more after that.

Well, this review has gone on long enough. Godzilla 2 was nearly everything I hoped it would be. Seeing the monsters I’ve watched since I was a kid return to the big screen in an all-new, loud, visually-exciting adventure was enjoyable on a level I don’t think many general movie-goers will also be able to enjoy, but hopefully the respect and care that went into crafting this loving tribute to the king of the monsters (and all associated monsters) will be recognized by fans and casual viewers alike.