Over years of waiting
and waiting, fans of the iconic Kaiju monster Godzilla have been dreaming of a
film that showcases all of his Giant Monster Glory as a Proper Big Budget Style
Blockbuster. The 2014 Godzilla reboot
was a step in the right in direction in terms of treating the character with
respect, but fell short on truly showcasing all of the Kaiju’s glory with a
lack of the title character. Now with the sequel finally here, Godzilla is back
and this time he’s not alone, with King
of the Monsters reintroducing other iconic Godzilla allies and adversaries.
Is this the Ultimate Godzilla film fans have been waiting for? In many ways
yes, as Godzilla King of the Monsters
does bring a lot of Mayhem and Destruction one would want from a Godzilla
movie, even if there are some downsides and elements that aren’t as well
structured.
Standard
Plot But Knows What It Is
After the events of the
2014 Godzilla film, citizens have
realized that Godzilla is not the only monster around. In fact decades hundreds
of gigantic titan exists to help protect or destroy the world and now some of
them are being summoned after catastrophic events occurring in the world. The
threats get even bigger when a legendary monster known as King Ghidorah is set
loose and between him and various other monsters set to face off against
Godzilla, a gigantic monster mash ensues. The plot of the film is basically
standard like that which doesn’t seem like much to hold on to as the story
doesn’t go any further and whatever elements it does add are kind of
convoluted. Not only does it get convoluted but some of the details aren’t as
interesting behind the monster madness and it feels like it has maybe too much
exposition when it comes to the plot. It feels very much like a set up movie in
some regards with a lot of allusion to future events in later films and nods to
both Kong Skull Island and Godzilla (2014). That is when the plot
is going on, however when the film does get to what most tend to see a Kaiju
film for, which is the destruction and monster battles, it fares much better in
that regard. Luckily it doesn’t feel too overbearing with the standard story as
there is a good amount of monster battles in this film, Where some may
complaint that there was a lack of Godzilla in the 2014 film, this film
definitely gives him and his monster allies and adversaries much more time to
shine and it is downright epic to see these monsters in a film like this. For
all the faults with the story, it at least knows what it is and gives the fans
what they want, an over the top action movie with giant monsters and it’s
satisfying in that regard.
Epic
Monsters Outweigh Weak Humans
With any Godzilla or Monster movie, the main appeal is of course the monsters but a
lot of these films feel the need to have a human element for some audiences to
latch on to. Unfortunately, this is where King
of the Monsters suffers from the most is that the human characters are some
of the most basic and uninteresting characters seen in a film in quite some
time. They’re not so much cringe worthy but there isn’t much to their
characters outside of what role they play in the film such as the Villain, the
Main Scientists, or the Comedic Relief. Granted Godzilla movies and other films of this caliber tend to have weak
human characters as well but there have been some examples of human characters
being done well in these kinds of films. Godzilla
(2014) at least had Bryan Cranston who was genuinely interesting and had a
great backstory and Kong Skull Island
had a few entertaining characters with Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman and John
C. Reilly. This didn’t really have that, even if none of the actors do a
downright terrible job, especially Ken Watanabe and Millie Bobbie Brown who
might have the most effort when it came to how their characters were written.
Fortunately, while the human characters are nothing special, the creatures are
something extraordinary. Some of the major classic Godzilla Creatures finally
make their big budget debut and they’re everything you’d want them to be in an
updated Godzilla movie. Mothra and Rodan are given a much needed updated with
more creature like textures and design making them look more badass than ever
before. Ghidorah also looks phenomenal looking exactly how he should while also
retaining more textures and having a more monstrous appearance for a modern day
blockbuster. But the star of the show himself, Godzilla returns, being the best
element of his last film now gets even more screen time than how he did before.
Every single scene he has a presence and one that will give fans of the title
character goosebumps just for witnessing all of his glory fighting various foes
in a bombastic blockbuster experience. There are even a few other neat
creatures seen throughout the film that add to King of the Monsters’ focus on monsters, giving this film an added
bonus for monster movie lovers. King of
the Monsters lives up to the name of being a monster mash of awesome even
if it gets slow and dull during the human moments.
Spectacular
Monsters Spectacle
One would hope for a
big budget Godzilla movie to also
look visually impressive and for the most part, King of the Monsters is a visual treat on a production level.
However, it does somewhat fall short on a production level in comparison to Godzilla 2014 and Kong Skull Island. King of the Monsters does lack in scale and how
grand the situation of Godzilla is that for all of its faults, the 2014 movie
mastered beautifully with its low angle shorts and tension showcasing how
massive Godzilla really is. Kong Skull
Island while not quite as serious as Godzilla
2014 had a great sense of style with great use of the 1970s time period and
Apocalypse Now style of filmmaking
alongside it being a monster flick. King
of the Monsters doesn’t quite have either of those things and if it does,
it’s not as prominent or as noticeably as the previous two films of the Kaiju
Cinematic Universe. What it does have is just a lot of action mayhem and
moments that are for lack of a better term, “Anime as Hell”. There still is a
sense of wonder and awe when seeing the monsters fight or cause any other sort
of destruction to the world. Add in the previously mentioned well designed
nature of Godzilla and his other monster companions, then you still get a movie
that looks impressive. Not to mention, the sound design in this movie is also
great with not only some great monstrous sounds of Godzilla and Ghidorah but
fans will be delighted to hear that the original Godzilla theme finally makes
an appearance in a big budget film. Every time the song is played, it just
feels as right as a theme as epic and fitting like Godzilla’s original theme
deserves to be remastered for a big budget film like this. The sights and
sounds of Godzilla are incredible in this and even without as much style and
flare to it, the monster mayhem and spectacle makes up for that shortcoming
big time.
Godzilla
King of the Monsters may be fundamentally flawed from a story and character
perspective but that is okay given the goal this movie had. This film was
attempting to be nothing more than a fun summer blockbuster showcasing Godzilla
and many other monsters with a ton of spectacle. If you’re looking for
something more than that, you might be disappointed with how this film fares,
but if you go in looking it as an entertaining time, you’ll be satisfied.
Godzilla is back and while he might not be better than ever, he and his fellow
adversaries gave a great show of impressive monster battles. It’s only a matter
of time when fans will soon get to witness Godzilla fight King Kong again, and
if it’s anything like how this film panned out, then we’ll have even more
enjoyable monster madness in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment