Godzilla: King of the Monsters

‘Godzilla II: King of the Monsters’ promises to build on the great work already laid out for this franchise, mixing popcorn fun and thrilling craft, but instead it relinquishes all of that to be a predictably dull and plodding bore. It doesn’t even manage to be a fun, brainless monster movie, assuming that a satisfying monster battle is all about being big and loud and doing nothing else. We waited five years for the follow-up to ‘Godzilla’, which only makes this new film even more of a disappointment, and doesn't excuse the badly-written screenplay or the poorly-executed visual effects. With Dougherty handing the reigns over to horror director Adam Wingard for 2020’s ‘Godzilla vs Kong’, here’s hoping the Monsterverse finds its feet again.

• Daniel Lammin

Read Daniel's full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-godzilla-2-king-of-the-monsters-the-king-stumbles-in-this-loud-and-blundering-mess

Picking up after the events of the previous film; “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” deals with a world trying to assess what to do with the presence of the giant Titans. The Monarch Corporation wants the creatures studied and has established locales to study the ones they have found currently hibernating. The U.S. Government wants them destroyed as they do not want repeats of the destruction that was previously caused by Godzilla.

Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobbie Brown) have developed a device known as Orca that will allow them to communicate with the creatures using specific sonic frequencies.

After a successful test under duress; the duo are captured by a ruthless Eco Terrorist group who want to use the giant creatures for their own objectives. This leads to a chase around the world with Monarch attempting to stop them and with Emma’s ex-husband Mark (Kyle Chandler) deeply involved though he is deeply divided as he blames Godzilla for the loss of their son.

When a gigantic creature is freed; Godzilla faces his greatest challenge as there is a race against time to save the world.

While the film has some very impressive visual effects, the film drags as aside from a couple of brief encounters; the audience is required to sit through roughly 90 minutes of plodding story to get to the action which is roughly only the last 15-20 minutes of the film.

The human characters were very disinteresting and many of the international cast looked at times like they were sleepwalking though their lines as they seemed to have a real lack of passion for what they were given to work with.

The human characters were also very annoying and I found myself hoping that they would be taken out by the creatures as I had no connection to them and they did not inspire any sympathy.

While it may possibly appeal to hardcore fans, this was a miss for me as there simply was not enough creature action to counter-balance having to sit throu...

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As some of you might know, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is one of my Most Anticipated Movies of 2019. Not because I expected it to be a beautifully written, heartfelt story with fully-developed characters who I would immensely care about. I was incredibly excited because it’s freaking Godzilla and from the few images that I had seen, it looked absolutely stunning. I didn’t need an Oscar-worthy screenplay or amazing performances. I just wanted a decent and logical (this last word is important) narrative with reasonable characters, and tons of monsters fighting to the death against each other. So, my expectations were neither complex or as high as some other people might have.

Unfortunately, I left the theater extremely disappointed. I can’t deny the impeccable VFX and the infinite amount of wallpaper-worthy images spread across the entire film. Some scenes are filled with jaw-dropping cinematography, astonishingly gorgeous monsters, and the fights feel so real that the sound design alone takes you to the edge of your seat. However, when the two pillars of any movie (story and characters) are so far away from even remotely working, there are no technically perfect aspects that can save the film from a disaster. I wrote this exact last sentence a few weeks ago regarding Game Of Thrones, and I will stand by it. I’m always the first guy to praise exceptional filmmaking skills, but if I have to choose between a technically seamless movie, and a film with a fantastic story and fully-developed characters, I have no doubts that the latter is the indisputably right choice.

Ultimately, that’s the huge problem here. The screenplay is loaded with some of the laziest exposition scenes I’ve seen in the last few years. Characters continuously have some sort of presentation to explain something in a completely unpredictable conversation randomly. Generally, a movie like this always has some kind of cli...

It's dumb. Really dumb. And I don't mean "Oh it's a big, noisy action movie and it doesn't engage you very much mentally so that means it's stupid", I'm talking like, the rules contained within just this movie are frequently broken, and a big chunk of the ideas make no sense by the end. Dumb. But I still had a pretty good time with King of the Monsters (kind of a weird title to give Godzilla when the tagline for the sequel is "God VS King", and Godzilla is not the king in that matchup, but I digress). The quality of the CGI varies drastically, but when it's good, it's just enough to get me over the line to enjoying it to the point I can give the movie a positive review.

Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.

Very loud, very dumb, and very entertaining

And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, "Arise, devour much flesh." After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, whic__h had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

• Daniel 7:3-7

Behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth [...] And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea [...] And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, "Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" [...] And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

• Revelation 12:3-13:8

I really enjoyed Gareth Edwards's 2014 Godzilla. Sure, there were plot holes through which you could drive an entire fleet of trains carrying nuclear weapons, it featured coincidences that stretched believability even by Hollywood's standards, the human characters were paper-thin, and it took itself very, very seriously. But I...

When I watched the 2014 Godzilla movie I was less than impressed as can be seen from my review here.

When watching this one I felt it was marginally better.

True to the Hollywood standards today, or perhaps lack thereof, the script writers just had to try and squeeze in a lot of green bullshit about how we destroy the planet and something has to be done bla bla bla.

Interesting enough though, the way it was done, actually made the green fanatics the bad guys in the movie. Whether that was intentional or the writers was too stupid to realize it I do not know.

The story is essentially about how one green fanatic in particular releases the “Titans” as they are called in the movie and uses them to wreak havoc, killing millions, to “balance things” and start a new world. That is your typical green fanatic although with a bit more means than usual to implement his deluded fantasies. Of course Godzilla, with the help of a few clear minded humans, comes to the rescue. That’s pretty much it. As I wrote, a typical substandard Hollywood script.

What makes this movie better though is that the implementation is not so shit full of absolutely stupid and unintelligent sequences as the 2014 movie. The implementation is actually not that bad. The action sequences are really quite good and there’s plenty of big ass monsters in this movie.

I also quite liked that cool super-carrier airplane that the Monarch crew flew around in.

As despicable as the previously mentioned green fanatic is, the role was nicely implemented as well as the main protagonist and most people around him.

The part about kick-starting Godzilla after he was wounded by detonating a nuke in front of his nose was a bit silly though. So was the hole it’s to hot and radioactive for drones as well as for a nuclear submarine so let’s send in a guy on foot. Seriously?

Also the after scenes where life magically sprouted everywhere the Titans had wrecked havoc was more than a little stupid.

If t...

When Charles Dance first entered the scene I was like; "Tywin Lannister's alive?!"! LOL

Don't know why everybody is hating this, it was actually a pretty good films. Can't wait to see GvK!

I felt like a kid again watching my fave monsters fight like they did when my late dad and i watched them together. I freaking loved it. THAT is how you make a Godzilla movie. Can't wait till he fights Kong.

It features some decent moments (cool end shot!), but overall I was feeling rather indifferent throughout 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters'.

A bad movie this is not necessarily, though it is not one I'd file under 'good' either. The run time ought to have been shorter and the human characters could've been more interestingly portrayed. The big fight sequences didn't really do anything for me either, which is kinda reminiscent of 2014's 'Godzilla' in truth. I do like the titular character, but these (sole) two experiences of it have been underwhelming.

Vera Farmiga is alright as one of those onscreen, I'm a fan since seeing 2011's 'Source Code' so have been wanting to see her act further. The cast, including Farmiga to be honest, are all quite forgettable in this (not helped by issues that I alluded to with their characters above) - so much so, I'm unable to pick a standout. Bradley Whitford's Rick Stanton, conversely, is somewhat irritating.

Here's hoping I will actually enjoy what 'Godzilla vs. Kong' has to offer.

I don't now quite what I was expecting here - but this really fails to deliver on any front. Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno probably did the best recent version of this back in 1998 and this isn't a patch on that. The special effects are spectacular, but not in any particularly innovative way - and the monsters just keep coming like every kid in the class got to design one (and it was a big class!). There isn't much writing to speak of and the cast might as well just have stayed in bed. The action scenes are lengthy and repetitive and I was, frankly, quite bored by the whole thing after half an hour.