Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Long Live The King
Been a while since I did a string of Godzilla movies, and since I don’t quite feel up to tackling the massive arc of the OG nuclear force of nature, I opted to swap in the newest ones, because I apparently only ever did the first one of the more successful American attempts. Will they let them fight this time? Will we be more attached to the humans? Maybe we should ask Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
To be honest, I was rather surprised with how quick this one jumped to the King - usually he’s a good few down the line. Monarch - the monster watchers that they are - have all sorts of facilities. After the first movies incidents and carnage, there’s now terrorists out to take control of these big old monsters - and governments and all that stuff of course. One family decides to try and make a device that could help control them, and they work for Monarch - until the terrorists get them anyways.Said terror-bringers unleash true terror when they let out Godzilla prime nemesis from the old flicks - King Ghidora. Forget the people, will anything survive?
The actors do a fine job here. They did a find job in the first one too, but it would be dishonest to say that most people probably are less interested in the people than they are the monsters. Still, the actors here do a good job with their parts, even if you won’t necessarily find their characters super enthralling or connection-worthy. Deliveries are well done, body languages are well done, and there’s really only a few times when someone feels like perhaps they might be hamming it up for a joke or whatnot. The monsters themselves have a bit of personality at times - complete with leading to a meme with one of Ghidorah’s heads being a bit on the derpy side. Is it a ton? I mean, you won’t find me complaining that Godzilla isn’t going any victory tap dances, but I do think that at this point in the new movies that the old ferret-faced Godzilla from the Millennium arc, but it’s getting there. Part of that might be them giving the monsters more show time this time around and my love for the old ferret-face design giving it the edge because of nostalgia.
The characters don’t perhaps get as much of the fun as the actors. Most the baddies feel generic evil with generic evil save-the-world through killing it philosophies. I suppose it is a step above the classic “I just want all the power in the world so let me control the monsters” idea, but it still somewhat lacks that really interesting hook that feels unique in terms of the main plot and the characters in it. Our returning characters, for who they are, get some time to deliver some good, meaningful lines, but in turn also end up making the others feel less impressive because of it. That said, the main characters good and bad feel relatively smart and like people, it’s just some of the evil side of things can be a bit… cartoony. The comedy side characters might not hit well with everyone, but although the humans don’t feel as relevant as the first in terms of the story being told where it felt like a lot of the soldiers journey was being mirrored onto Godzilla to humanize him. Here, it’s more like a typical monster movie where the humans are just trying to deal with the monsters and the situation caused by them.
Stare down light show
Hands down my favorite part of this movie is the sound design. From monster roars to vehicle struggles, stomps to explosions and breath weapons. Everything about this movie sounds great, and in the theaters where things are set up to be as good as possible doubly so! Having been around for the old movies and being a fan for years, there’s straight up moments in the soundtrack that’ll get me emotional to some extent, That being said, a lot of it is just really well done scene-enhancing stuff - big old orchestral scores with choir support. Admittedly it’s not exactly something that I would be listening to on repeat in the car or recall most of the not-already ingrained into my head from years of hearing it in the movies.
The effects work is great as well. Yeah, we got some big old CG monsters, and there are some moments where things don’t look as good as others - but that’s true for any movie. Costumes for the normal folks work in that they are believable to the world they are in - but in doing that classic modern movie approach it also doesn’t end up making any of the humans really go nuts and blow your mind. The sets and vehicles get a bit more of a science fiction touch with some pretty neat stuff. Some of said stuff also serves as easter eggs to those older movies that I enjoy so much, so there’s also a level of that in there. I’m biased I suppose.
It should be pretty obvious by now, but I’m not really a watch movies to think kind of guy. This has some threads in there for the thinking types - some stuff like grief and getting over it, nature balance, the ever so classic “humans as a virus.” Some of this stuff you could have a field day with outside of the movie and probably go even more in depth than the movie does with it. Sometimes during the movie you’ll be too bogged down with how cartoony a villain is or how crazy a monster might be to really spend much time thinking about any deep thoughts. Oh, are we talking about a philosophical way of overcoming your grief by facing the demons that created them? Let’s just slap some hollow earth in there before you think to much on it! Of all of them, I feel like Serizowa has the most potent line to him - and not just because he had the best line in the movie before this one.
Round one, fight.
This is a good one. I’d say that I like it more than the first, largely because it doesn’t cut every time a monster gets on screen, and it’s got more monsters in it. That said, I do feel that for the most part the combo between the soldier and Godzilla and how it played off the two worked better in the first movie, although by the final act this one has some pretty potent stuff going on with it’s characters as well. The spectacle and sound design in this movie is totally on point, and it’s also quite necessary to check this one out before we move on to the next installment. I’ll probably never really tire of Godzilla movies, and I am glad that these ones have seemingly done a better job at getting more people into it state-side than before. After all, as they say - long live the king.