Certificate – 12A
Directed By – Michael Dougherty
Starring – Millie Bobby Brown, Charles Dance, Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, Sally Hawkins, Thomas Middleditch, Ken Watanabe, David Strathairn, Ziyi Zhang, O’Shea Jackson Jr.
Running Time – 132 Minutes (2 Hours 12 Minutes)
I never saw Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla film, but highly enjoyed Kong: Skull Island. Going into the screening for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I was hyped as the trailers for this massive monster movie have been awesome.
What Is Godzilla: King of the Monsters About?
Five years after the events of the first Godzilla, the film follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-size monsters, including the mighty, who collides with Mothra, Rodan and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed Ghidorah.
When these ancient super-species – thought to be mere myths – they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.
Is It Any Good?
There are things I like about this movie, but ultimately no.
The things I did like it that if you didn’t see Edwards’ original movie you won’t be lost as I stated above I didn’t, but on the other hand it wouldn’t hurt either if you checked it out before or after.
The monster fights are pure popcorn fun and just fucking enjoyable!
Which is why you NEED to see the film on the biggest screen possible to see these fights in the best possible way.
You also need to see it on the biggest screen possible because some of the shots Dougherty showcases are utterly beautiful and would be the perfect picture for any wall.
Finally, Bear McCreary’s score is epic and will be worth listening again and in a lot of ways reminded me of Hans Zimmer’s Dark Knight Rises soundtrack.
Anything Bad About This Film?
Where to start.
This is the most disappointing summer blockbuster this year and it bums me out to say this.
The film is a good 20-30 minutes too long and honestly, could’ve cut so much and it would’ve been leaner and better.
Meanwhile, Brown has been the main human focus in the trailers and in the film does next to nothing and I’m sorry for the spoiler but it needs to be known.
Staying on the characters, they’re written awfully like Dance playing an eco-terrorist should be so much more fun but nothing happens and is a massive letdown.
Then you have Watanabe, who only speaks in thoughtful phrases and sentences and no word of a lie there is a character who says something along the lines of “if these walls could talk the stories they could tell.”
I’m not asking for some indie style character work, this is a monster punish-up, shoving popcorn in your face movie but give some sort of human contact.
There are moments in the film that are boring, which is probably because of the runtime.
If this was roughly an hour and 50-minute film with fewer characters it could’ve been so much more enjoyable.
Despite all these things, I’m still looking forward to seeing Godzilla go toe-to-toe against Kong next year.
Verdict
While some shots are beautiful, the monster fights are awesome and the score is epic. The film suffers from poor characters, script and overly long.
The Bear Cave 