Godzilla: King Of The Monsters

Godzilla, King of the Monsters (2019)

39% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 245 reviews)

Runtime: 131 minutes

Directed by: Michael Dougherty

Starring: A great cast that somehow got roped into an outrageous film

From: Warner Bros.

I saw this on Saturday afternoon and I still can't believe how wacky this was... although it's not like some of the Toho movies weren't strange in their own ways, as I explain below:

Maybe I am over-rationalizing, but...

Friday night I revisited the 2014 Godzilla, which I don't love as much as the first time but I still enjoyed. The human story was interesting, it was expertly put together, had a great score and when there's kaiju action, it was great. This film, I knew beforehand it'd be quite different, and opinions so far are even more polarizing than all the opinions surrounding '14. Once I saw this I was amazed that they got such a great cast for such a loony picture.

I admit I am being overly kind here and in another film I'd be mad at how stupid this is or all the moments that beggar belief, or the contradictory character moments, or how daffy it is overall. Here... honestly, in different ways there are some Toho films that have some zany plots, such as vs. Hedorah (appropriately, as the late Yoshimitsu Banno directed that, and was responsible for bringing this and '14 to the big screen) or many of the Heisei movies, like Biollante or vs. King Ghidorah. To be frank, the villains here-and I don't mean Ghidorah or Rodan-might as well be the Seatopians, the Xillians or some other humanoid race that is alien or otherwise not quite human. Some of the messages presented here are definitely straight outta the Showa or Heisei era, along with their master plan.

All that said, even though this is another example of why I avoid most modern summer blockbusters (and at times modern movies in general) and the focus on the Russell family-no relation-is not as strong as the Brody clan in '14 and “numbing” is another valid complaint... I'll still say that because it was as peculiar as some prior entries and the kaiju battles were rad-although the camera should have pulled back more often-I guess I'll say this was fine overall. The focus clearly was on “giving those complaining fanboys what they carped about what wasn't in the 2014 movie” above all else.

Like I said, this is a silly movie although not much more so than some of the Toho movies of the past, and this busy film is not lacking in action beats. Plus, the Bear McCreary score does contain a few familiar motifs. But can we have a show of hands for those that realized Zhang Ziyi played twin sisters? It took a YouTube review and IMDb to reveal this. Apparently that twin was only present in one scene to deliver one of the many moments of exposition. It is hard to notice as the movie hops around the globe so much and is overstuffed and a few moments could be described as Godzilla Ex Machina.

That YouTube review was more negative than this one so in a trend that has been going on for the past week or so, there's been a G Force that has left negative ratings and reviews towards those that did not love the movie. I imagine that won't be too much an issue here; I just hope next year's Godzilla vs. Kong is not quite so inane like this film was. At least I got entertainment out of this, although the kaiju involved was a big reason why.