Godzilla: King of the Monsters -- a review

Warning, this review contains a mild spoiler

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a sequel to the 2014 Godzilla film that many people trashed because Godzilla wasn’t shown onscreen nearly enough in the film. Personally, while I understand the criticism, I still enjoyed the 2014 movie, which re-introduce the Big G to modern day audiences, and it was successful enough to start a whole new universe of film sequels that started with Kong: Skull Island. That universe-building continues with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which is directed by Michael Dougherty, who also helmed the Halloween classic Trick R Treat.

There are monsters galore in the new Godzilla, which heeded the complaints about the earlier film by showing all of them onscreen in their full glory. The most intimidating of these monsters--next to the Big G himself--is Monster Zero, a three-headed, winged beast that is also known as Gidorah. When he’s released from the antarctic ice beneath a secret base, Monster Zero immediately establishes that he’s the bad guy by killing off a character from the 2014 Godzilla film. Even though I was not crazy to see this happen (I liked the character), it was a pretty effective way of making the viewer hate Monster Zero.

But Godzilla: King of the Monsters is very well done overall. It manages to strike a balance between the big monsters rampaging all over the earth and the humans scrambling to try and contain the situation as best they can. What helps is that it has a strong cast, which features Kyle Chandler, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Bradley Whitford, Vera Farminga, and some kid named Millie Bobby Brown (you might know her from this little show on Netflix about strange things). The entire cast is superb; we believe these big monsters are stalking the earth because their sturdy performances make us believe it.

And the effects are also exemplary. The battles are spectacular, with several taking place in the daytime and still maintaining a realistic look. The main story line has some interesting twists in it that keep it fresh and interesting, and they even manage to make the viewer root for Godzilla against Monster Zero. I was greatly impressed with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but was dismayed to see that it wasn’t the box office hit that everyone was hoping it to be. Now that it’s on home video, perhaps people will discover this film, which nicely revives the sheer fun of the big monster movie. --SF

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