By Ben Davis
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the latest entry in the Godzilla/King Kong universe and stars Vera Farmiga as Dr. Emma Russell, Kyle Chandler as Mark Russell, and Millie Bobby Brown as Madison Russell. The new installment pits the agency known as Monarch against Mothra, Rodan, and Godzilla’s ultimate nemesis, King Ghidorah. With humanity’s existence resting in the balance, Monarch turns to Godzilla to battle it out with these monsters to see who will reign supreme.
Look, this movie isn’t great. It’s in fact really bad in some aspects; however, I would be lying to you all if I said I didn’t eat up every bit of this nonsensical mess. The characters in here are cliché, the plot makes little to no logical sense, and the dialogue may as well have been written in crayon. But despite all of that, the monsters are absolutely incredible, the scope and the visuals are top notch, and the fight scenes between the monsters are breath-taking. And to be honest, that’s 99% of the reason I go see these films; it’s for the spectacle. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s take a look at these negatives (there’re plenty!)
Like I said before, the characters in this film are a cliché. They’re carbon copies of every 90’s disaster film character rolled into one. Seriously, Kyle Chandler’s character—Mark Russell—is the master of pretty much everything. Even the people more qualified for the job than him are know-nothings compared to his expertise. If you have a master plan, he has a plan better than the plan you just came up with. He’s pretty much like Steven Seagal without the fighting skills (which he probably has, we just haven’t seen yet). Vera Farmiga’ character—Dr. Emma Russell—has similar issues. Her motivations and choices don’t really make a lot of sense and are just choices to move the plot along rather than to serve the character. Unfortunately, this issue continues with Millie Bobby Brown whose character is so thinly written I can’t remember one line of dialogue she says in the entire film.
This is in no means a slant at these actors. All of them—including the rest of the cast that I haven’t mentioned—are incredibly talented actors and actresses who I believe did their very best to turn in good performances, but were just given the world’s worst dialogue. Which brings to light another one of my big problems: the dialogue. I can’t overstate just how laughable the lines are in Godzilla: King of The Monsters. At several points in the film, I laughed out loud when it’s very clear I’m supposed to take this all very seriously. Speaking of taking things seriously, the plot makes no sense whatsoever. Without giving away the details of why the plot is so silly, I’ll just say certain character motivations behind doing certain things defy all logical reason. Again, it’s just used to move the plot forward as to get to the big fights rather than to develop characters and their motivations.
Having said all of that though, this movie delivers on what it’s supposed to be: a big, bombastic, spectacle with creature designs that are enormous in size and in beauty. The way that Michael Dougherty is able to capture the sheer size of these monsters is incredibly admirable. It truly gives off a sense of wonder and magic when you see these creatures in their full might and power. This leads me to another big win: the visuals. The Visuals in Godzilla: King of The Monstersare nothing short of spectacular. Some of the shots in this film are done so with such care and craft I was awe inspired while looking at them. Same thing goes for all of the epic fight scenes between the monsters. Some of the stuff they’re able to pull off here is stuff that I couldn’t have even imagined in my wildest dreams I’d ever see on the big screen. It was an adrenaline rush every time the monsters fought and I was smiling ear-to-ear throughout every fight scene.
In conclusion, this film is a ridiculous nonsensical mess, but I enjoyed every single bit of this movie equivalent to cotton candy. Sure, the characters are essentially useless, and the plot don’t really add up but that’s not the reason we go see films like Godzilla: King of The Monsters. We go see these films for the spectacle and to be entertained and on that note it exceeded my expectations. So when Godzilla and King Kong do battle in the next film due to come out in 2020, I’ll be there!
Grade: B