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Godzilla: King of the Monsters Review

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a significant step up from 2014's Godzilla, the first installment in Legendary's kaiju-focused Monsterverse. I thought the pacing of the first movie was too slow, that it had too much focus on the human characters and not nearly enough Godzilla, and I was disappointed in its monster battles where Godzilla and the Muto squared off...after stepping behind a skyscraper. This film fixed the monster problem in a big way and these humans felt like they fit into the plot better, even if there was still something off about them to me. There’s still some room for improvement, but King of the Monsters is a kaiju-sized step in the right direction and it’s absolutely worth seeing for your giant monster fix!

Full Spoilers...

I thought this movie walked the line between Godzilla the horror monster and Godzilla the hero fairly well. I haven't seen much of the original series, but I have seen the first film and the analysis of it I’ve seen from others framing Godzilla as the embodiment of residual radioactive horrors from the United States' bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (as well as later atomic testing) is a sobering take on the character (and my preferred one). There could absolutely be context I'm missing from the movies following that one, but Godzilla as a hero or an indifferent but ultimately positive force feels less important, definitely less relevant, and—especially in a remake made by Americans—could be construed as a whitewash (or at least a conveniently forgetful sidestep) of the atrocities we've committed (though I don’t believe that was the filmmakers’ intention at all). That said, this film does remind us that Godzilla was awakened by atomic testing and the Titans are returning in part because of what humanity has done to the planet. So, that culpability’s kind of still there, but it's not nearly as pointed or hard-hitting and it’s far more generalized into a “we’re all to blame for killing the planet” message instead of “we did something specifically evil and the effects are still wreaking havoc on innocent people.” Regardless, Godzilla's (TJ Storm) reemergence being a truly positive reaction to our negative impact on the planet doesn't entirely work for me: where it fell apart for me was when the movie agreed large numbers of people had to die to save the world. Yes, there is a line when the number of deaths becomes a bad thing to most of the characters, but Godzilla accidentally kills innocents too and the solution is to let more die? This is especially puzzling coming from Vera Farmiga's Dr. Emma Russell, who started her quest to understand the Titans because of the death of her son (Tyler Crumley)...so her resolution, the reason for her son’s death that she was looking for, is that more kids should die so everyone else can live? I can’t connect those dots and I just don’t buy that these huge creatures lumbering around and sometimes fighting is going to result in anything but more death (not every city can be evacuated like Boston was).

While the humans do affect the plot (waking the Titans, saving Godzilla, luring Ghidorah (Jason Liles, Alan Maxson, and Richard Dorton) and the others to Boston), it's weird that humanity has no part to play in the grand scheme of saving the planet, no redemption to earn, no way to out-think our extinction and create a better future for ourselves: we just have to sit back and let the kaiju remake the world. It's certainly daring to let the humans be so inconsequential, but I wonder if treating us like children whose toys are taken away while the "adults" fix everything is the best way forward. It certainly sets things up for a whole new world order that we’ve never seen though! It should definitely be interesting to explore this dynamic in future installments: what does the social structure of the planet look like with the Titans roaming around “in charge?” Unfortunately, the logistics of the Titans saving the Earth falter a bit for me: shouldn't the radiation they give off that rejuvenates the Earth also make those areas uninhabitable for a long time? And/or does it create new, potentially dangerous mutated creatures there? If they hadn't made a big deal out of the radiation in Godzilla's hollow Earth kingdom (which was a cool idea and very well-rendered; that was totally Atlantis, right??), the casual radiation they give off wouldn’t have bothered me since it would've just been part of the movie's pseudo-science. But since they made that level of radiation a thing, I would’ve liked at least a line or two explaining why the rest of it is safe. Godzilla’s atomic breath should also be a problem to anyone in the vicinity, right? Yet no one bothers to mention dangers potentially associated with the near-misses they all have. Oh well; it’s a movie about giant prehistoric monsters and while that’s not a free pass to forego internal consistency, fluctuating radiation levels are not enough to break my suspension of disbelief or my enjoyment.

Reimagining the kaiju in this movie as the ancient Titans is an absolutely clever idea! They definitely feel mythic and the movie does a great job of staging enormous creatures in beautiful surroundings with a lot of scope to craft iconic imagery. Their shared origin was a simple, easy way to tie all these creatures (plus semi-unrelated giant monsters like King Kong) together. The impact of the fights between monsters and the near-inescapable feel of their attacks on humans were visceral moments and these animals truly felt dangerous throughout the movie. The CGI was great and the creature choreography was solid too.  They found a wide variety of landscapes to plunder and spreading the Titans out around the planet was a cool way to truly make this a worldwide phenomenon and global event. While I would've preferred less shaky-cam, those kaiju battles were some seriously crowd-pleasing moments that made seeing this on the big screen worth it. The creatures’ disparate abilities also helped to keep each fight/attack fresh.

Like I said, I think they walk the line between Godzilla as a hero and as a monster pretty well—as reasons to fight the other monsters “to protect us” go, they gave Godzilla good ones—but I didn't need them to essentially make him Jesus, dying and resurrecting to save us all. I did like that they incorporated the way they killed Godzilla in the original movie—an "oxygen destroyer" deployed in the ocean—and Dr. Serizawa’s (Ken Watanabe) sacrifice to bring him back totally worked for that character's devotion and dedication in this version. However, the savior trope didn't land for me and the "Godzilla's gonna explode!" countdown also came off as a little less threatening than it was intended (and that's more radiation that apparently doesn't matter unless you're at ground zero), but it didn’t hurt the final battle for me. Mothra was very cool; she was my favorite kaiju in the movie. Her abilities were the most intriguing (and the ones that would seem to make the most sense to jumpstart the Earth's rebirth, since she also helps stabilize Godzilla) and I was sorry to see her die. I hope that the reports in the credits of another Mothra egg are true, but is it possible Godzilla laid that egg and it's the offspring of the two of them instead (Mothra did rain some sort of energy down on him at one point)? It’s probably a Mothra twin, though, to reflect that bit of the Mothra mythology that’s also represented here by the twin Monarch scientists played by Zhang Ziyi (Doctors Ilene and Ling Chen). Either way, I liked Godzilla and Mothra’s bond/relationship and thought it was totally believable. Ghidorah was suitably imposing and scary; he was a more than worthy opponent for Godzilla and the reveal that he was an alien instead of a native of Earth felt totally natural to the story, so the inclusion of aliens on top of everything else was easy to roll with. I don't need to see him again like the post-credits scene implies, but maybe he'll be rebuilt into a cyborg next time. Rodan (Jason Liles) was cool in short bursts, but ultimately his attacks were limited and I feel like we saw all we need to from him. I was disappointed he survived (it definitely looked like Mothra stabbing his heart killed him!) and Godzilla's glare at the end didn't feel like enough of a reaction to Rodan killing Mothra at all. I would've also liked the other kaiju that show up in Boston to do more than just walk around, even if they didn’t end up fighting Godzilla or Ghidorah, but ultimately their lack of action and involvement didn't hurt those sequences for me.

I wanted more from the humans script-wise and couldn't figure out what was missing at first. I've finally landed on the idea that a lot of them feel like they exist mainly as their plots ("must help Godzilla," "must kill Godzilla," “must save family,” etc.), but I wanted to know more about their lives, hopes, and interests outside of these goals (is there any hope for whatever they wanted to do with their lives in the worlds Emma and Monarch are trying to create?). Kyle Chandler (Dr. Mark Russell), Vera Farmiga, Ken Watanabe, and Millie Bobby Brown (Madison Russell) are all very strong actors and do good work with what they’re given here, but I thought the writing left them all with one big goal that overrode everything else about them (though we see a bit of Mark outside of Monarch). There also wasn’t much room in the writing to explore the character growth they did get as their opinions on the Titans evolved over the course of the film. Things like Emma accepting the death of more kids and (like my sister pointed out) Madison’s concern for her mom at the beginning vs. her going along with the “kidnapping” plan could’ve used more explanation in the script instead of feeling like we’d missed beats to set up plot twists. Perhaps the cool stuff Madison got to do, like going rogue and calming the Titans down via the Orca device while bringing them to a deserted city, could’ve been grounded in a third viewpoint on the “monsters will save us/kill us” discussion to further illuminate her character and tie the struggle to save the planet to real life a little bit more closely. They could’ve framed her as the embodiment of the younger generation, looking at the options offered by the adults and finding a new way forward that didn’t involve killing the Titans or handing the planet over to them; maybe they could’ve worked out a partnership of some kind so humans could have a hand in helping to save themselves (especially given the Orca was a communication device). Still, characters in a lot of movies lose detail in service of the plot, so at first I didn't know why it felt so odd here. I now think it’s because these humans are also so inconsequential on the grander scale of saving the Earth that their lack of personal lives left me with very little to connect with even on a “Yeah! Humanity can turn it around!” level. Doesn’t knowing what kind of life they’re fighting for make for a more compelling and complete struggle than simply fighting to survive? If we can’t save the world without relinquishing control to giant monsters, what does that say about our chances of dealing with the perils facing our real world? Regardless, all of these humans were more engaging and entertaining than the ones in the first movie, whom I can barely remember (and the returning ones seemed to fit this film’s more bombastic tone better). I hope the survivors get to come back in the next one!

While it feels like I’m being hard on this, I did enjoy it and it's very entertaining; a massive improvement from Legendary’s first Godzilla! They could still stand to give the humans more depth beyond what’s needed for the plot, but this cinematic universe seems to be evolving in the right direction even if I don't agree with the conclusions it's coming to about the fate of the world and who can save it. Ultimately, it seems they learned all the right lessons from Kong: Skull Island and this is a fun rapid-fire journey through the original Godzilla series in a modern (though not as pointed) context. I'll definitely watch King Kong vs. Godzilla—the original was one of my favorite movies as a kid—but I'm not sure how that will feel different from this one since the news reports during the credits indicate it's just another challenge between alphas. Will Kong be the hero in that one, as in the original (they do mention that Godzilla's on humanity’s side..."for now")? I can't see either of them dying; will their battle lead to Mecha-Godzilla instead? Will Mecha-Ghidorah appear to help fight Godzilla? Maybe adding human-created cybernetics to the story will be a good way for people to take a bigger role in saving the world, unless they want to knock us down again by having our technology distort the Titans and their natural function on the planet in some manner. Those are all questions for later though; in the meantime, if you're looking for a giant monster mash, Godzilla is king!

 Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!