Godzilla's roar can't compensate for human bores in King of the Monsters

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

Shape of Water an odd twist to a classic story

Michael Shannon and Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water. Image courtesy Fox Searchlight.

 

In less capable hands, The Shape of Water could come dangerously close to being unwatchable. A blend of four genres telling an utterly bizarre love story with many grotesque details, the movie lives right along a number of thin lines that would tip it into being completely unwatchable, a pretentious art house movie that fails to blend the works of Davids Cronenberg and Lynch. Director Guillermo del Toro, who wrote the movie with Vanessa Taylor, is brilliant enough to use the oddity of his premise as a means of telling a basic love story between two fragile beings. What results is one of the sweetest, most charming love stories of the past decade.

There has always been something strangely benign about the supernatural beings that lurk just outside the real world in del Toro's movies. Ghosts are tragic creatures whose intents are benevolent to heroes and malevolent to the villains, and mythological gods provide aid and assistance for the protagonist's quest toward self discovery. The Shape of Water inserts the supernatural being into the center of the story, having a strange merman creature (played by Doug Jones) start an odd relationship with mute cleaner Elisa (Sally Hawkins). Elisa and the creature grow more and more in love and who receive aid from gay copy artist Giles (Richard Jenkins), Elisa's very reliable and understanding friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer), and Michael Stuhlbarg's mysterious scientist Dr. Robert Hoffstetler, as they fend off the very dangerous Strickland (a typically intense Michael Shannon). The cross between the fantastical and the normal is much more direct in this movie than some of del Toro's older, non-action movie titles, but the concept of a surprisingly ordinary abnormal supernatural presence fits with his modus operandi. Yet even those other movies come nowhere close to being quite as brazenly weird as The Shape of Water. It remains difficult to reconcile the romance between Elisa and the merman given the physiological differences and just how intimate their love becomes. It's not entirely unusual for a movie to create an emotional bond that toes the line at a physical relationship, but The Shape of Water goes right over that line and shows how close their relationship has become.

Their relationship might not be the strangest part of The Shape of Water. What's really disconcerting, aside the unfortunate fate of an unlucky cat, is the multitude of genres thrown together for this film. The Shape of Water is a fantastical love story, with elements of a Cold War spy movie and an era piece that digs under the artificial happiness of the early 1960s. As characters, Zelda and Giles could fit in just as well, if not better, in supporting roles in a romantic comedy, there to support the female lead as she pines for the dreamy captain of the high school swim team. Del Toro and Taylor even toss in elements of musicals, including a lovely and heartbreaking musical number that shines through Elisa's imagination.

None of it is overly distracting though because The Shape of Water's attention is focused on the relationship between Elisa and the merman. It's a beautiful romance, told quietly through kind acts and courageous feats. Everything between Elisa and the merman is driven by love and devotion, an unspoken romance that never strays into being sappy or saccharine. Every tender look, every embrace is earned because of how well Hawkins and Jones connect their characters. The other elements are there to elevate the romance, adding the necessary complications to move the story forward while adding a dreamy, nostalgia-tinged element to the film.

Nothing about tale told by The Shape of Water is overly complicated. To quote another movie about a woman and a beast falling in love, this is a tale as old as time about two beings who are exactly right for each other despite the circumstances around them. What's different is the lens used by del Toro and Taylor to tell this tale, to provide their unique take at how far true love can stretch physical impossibilities. Del Toro and Taylor have taken a banal plot and turned it into an indelible, beautiful love story about two incomplete beings completing each other and finding love in an otherwise hopeless place.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 123 minutes

Genre: Drama

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Target audience: Romantics with a sense of the macabre, so anyone who likes Guillermo del Toro movies.

Take the whole family?: No for several reasons.

Theater or Netflix?: This would make for a pretty interesting date night event.

Academy Award odds?: I hope this gets a Best Picture nomination, although it wouldn't be too surprising if this was snubbed because of how weird it is. At the least Sally Hawkins deserves a nomination for her quiet brilliance.

Watch this as well?: Guillermo del Toro's backlog is unique and often excellent, highlighted by The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. The Shape of Water also has hints of Pedro Almodóvar, so check out the very fun but slightly supernatural Volver.