Godzilla: King of the Monsters

“Long live the king.”

Jonah Alan

It’s been five years since we last saw Godzilla, or at least kind of saw him. My biggest issue with the 2014 version was that the title character himself is limited to 8 minutes of screen time and when he does appear, it’s very very dark, so even if you have a single light on in the room it’s hard to see what’s actually going on. Five years of waiting and anticipating seeing more Godzilla like they promised, as well as some classic monsters such as King Ghidora, Rodan, and Mothra, was I disappointed? Not in the Godzilla portions of the movie.

This movie wastes almost no time with the action starting practically right off the bat, and the action was absolutely incredible. Seeing a giant 350 foot tall lizard fighting an even bigger three headed dragon while crushing buildings I don’t think is something that will or can ever get old. Even after the movie ended and trying to sleep afterwards there were just certain scenes I couldn’t stop thinking about. Unfortunately the action was really the only part I did like. All the character-based scenes felt very rushed to get to the next monster showdown, but they would also drag on without feeling very important to the overall story. Just to clarify, I’m not saying by any means there was too much Godzilla in this movie, you can never have too much Godzilla in a movie unless it released in 1998 maybe, but who remembers that one anyway.

While the monsters aren’t fighting, the film tells the story of how the Earth is dying and it’s mankind’s fault. If this trope wasn’t so overused and I wasn’t so tired of seeing rants on social media a million times a day I think this would’ve worked better. The dialogue between characters I thought was really dry and almost all the jokes fell flat for me and felt really forced and out of place. There’s several moments that almost recap the entire monologue that told us the plot in case audiences weren’t paying attention either. Characters that I really enjoyed from the first movie felt really downplayed in this one, and by the time their arcs payoff, I almost feel like I didn’t really care anymore.

Anyway, human characters in a Godzilla movie is probably not the reason you’re wanting to watch this movie. If you’re here specifically for monster-on-monster action you will not be disappointed. Godzilla and the other monsters are very heavily featured in this movie, and the fight scenes are spectacular. VFX are really something to see, and the sound design/sound mixing in this movie is through the roof! Each monster has a unique combination of sounds, and each roar is very layered and very detailed, and they didn’t hold back on the volume either. There’s a roar in the 2014 Godzilla that felt like it should’ve been theater-rumbling-loud but it felt muffled and pulled back, but there were several times in this one I almost felt like covering my ears, it was awesome! This movie also has an end credits scene, so make sure you stick around for that.

Overall, Kong: Skull Island is still my favorite in the current “Monsterverse” of films, and it is a step up from the 2014 Godzilla, but I did feel disappointed overall. Godzilla: King of the Monsters gets a 5/10 from me, but I do feel a little bad ranking it that low because the action was so good, but unfortunately all the in between parts I wish could’ve been heavily improved upon and always felt like they were dragging. I also understand this is a monster/disaster movie, but so was Kong and the characters and dialogue weren’t the deepest on the planet, I didn’t find myself trudging through those scenes like I did with this one. This movie will be treated by me similarly to the 2014 Godzilla, I’ll still buy the 4K when it releases but I most likely won’t be watching it in its entirety again, just select parts of the movie. I’m excited to see what they do next year with Godzilla vs. Kong, as long as it doesn’t end with both their mom’s names being the same (“Save….. Mothra!”), I think it’s gonna be awesome. What did you think of the film, did you think that it’s truly the King of the Monsters? Let me know in the comments, and feel free to follow my blog for more reviews and to be the first to know when I post them!