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| Godzilla versus King Ghidorah in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Image courtesy Warner Bros. |
It's
always fun to watch an audience pop during a movie, folks getting
perfectly stoked by the machinations occurring on screen. Godzilla:
King of the Monsters created
several of these moments, with the lion's share coming from the
appearances of Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra. (The
Boston audience cheered vociferously at the sight of Fenway Park,
because of course it did.) And the film often justified their
excitement, offering some of the best monster battles ever shown on
screen, as well as a surprising amount of emotion from its monsters.
The filmmakers had a win with their monsters, yet the movie
ultimately falls short because of an overabundance of the human
element.
King
of the Monsters
picks up a few years after the events of the 2014 Godzilla
flick, as the world copes with the realization that enormous monsters
are real and savage. Scientist Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her
daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) are in China watching the birth
of a new monster, Mothra, when terrorists led by Jonah Alan (Charles
Dance) show up and take Emma, Madison, and a device that emits an
alpha sound wave to control the monsters. As the terrorists travel
the globe to wake dormant monsters (starting with King Ghidorah and
Rodan), Emma's ex-husband Mark (Kyle Chandler) is recruited by
Monarch heads Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivianne Graham
(Sally Hawkins) to find his family and retrieve the device. They are
joined by a collection of scientists and soldiers (Ziyi Zhang, Thomas
Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, O'Shea Jackson Jr., David Strathairn, and a
crazed Bradley Whitford) in the pursuit. Meanwhile, Godzilla is back
in action to fight these other titans for supremacy.
By
far the highlight of King
of the Monsters is
the monsters themselves, especially how good they look.
The design work for Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah is
incredible, far richer than other recent monster flicks. They don't
completely cross the uncanny valley, but they make it far enough to
heighten some the danger depicted for the human characters on screen
and to have a fair amount of personality expressed through their
motions and facial expressions. Godzilla in particular comes with the
added benefit of a consistent look of annoyance with the humans who
pursue him, grumpily waking up from a satisfying nap with a glare
that says “Fine, I'll go fight Ghidorah again. Lazy humans.”
Cranky Godzilla is a treasure to behold and it effectively justifies
a potential heel turn down in one of the ensuing sequels.
Godzilla,
Ghidorah, and Mothra are by far the most interesting characters in
King
of the Monsters,
and they receive precious little screen time for their efforts. The
movie is more focused on the antics of the Russell family, Serizawa,
Alan, and Whitford's increasing insanity. The humans in any of the
Godzilla vs. monsters films are better served in the background,
plotting to help Godzilla defeat whichever monster he's facing that
day. The attention belongs to Godzilla though, the Shaft of the
monster world who shows up just to wreck the bad guys' worlds. King
of the Monsters
puts the poor lizard in the corner. This movie just screams for
monsters, its title literally promising a slew of beasts ready to run
amok. Yet film's the heartbeat belongs to the humans, and it suffers
for greatly because of it.
King
of the Monsters
greatest failing is its attempts to surround the monsters with vital
themes. Writers Michael Dougherty (who also directs) and Zach Shields
make their story about almost everything:environmentalism,
animal rights, family drama, the danger of good intentions, nature
versus science, the complexities of love, and the existence of what
is effectively Atlantis are all in this movie. And this movie just
can't handle that much, losing track of both its message and of its
monsters. The original Japanese Godzilla
used
the monster to convey a devastating fear of nuclear destruction and
the dangers humanity brings upon itself. The original isn't subtle
about its message – it is about a giant lizard with atomic fire
breath – but it is a clear, effective message buoyed by legitimate
pathos. King
of the Monsters
is a bigger film and suffers in part because of its attempts to have
more characters, more plot, more themes, and more monsters. To
paraphrase one of America's greatest poets, more monsters, more
problems.
Review: Two and a half out of Five
Stars
Click here to see the trailer.
Rating: PG-13
Run time: 131 minutes
Genre: Action
tl;dr
What
Worked: Monster
battles, cranky Godzilla.
What
Fell Short: Dearth
of monster battles, the human interactions, the script in general.
What
To Watch Instead:
Godzilla
(1954, 2014), Kong: Skull Island, Pacific Rim
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