Godzilla: King of the Monsters, from Legendary and Warner Bros. Pictures, serves audiences an action-packed film dedicated to the legendary monster and his nemesis, King Ghidorah. While the film features lots of smashing, crashing, fighting, and destruction, it’s light on … well, everything else.
The king of the monsters‘ 35th sequel follows paleobiologist Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), who leads a team of researchers from Monarch, a zoological organization, in studying Titans — aka epic monsters of the world — including Godzilla. They aim to use a sonar device called Orca to calm the 17 behemoths, who are locked up at Monarch outposts across the world. While testing out this device, Alan Jonah (Charles Dance) and his band of eco-terrorists break into the Monarch research facility and kidnap Emma and her daughter, Madison (Millie Bobby Brown). They plan to release all of the Titans and restore balance to the world’s ecosystem. Doctors Ishirō Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) lead a team of Monarch scientists and soldiers to find Emma’s ex-husband, Mark (Kyle Chandler). They work together to track down his family and try to take down the terrorists before the Titans demolish entire cities and kill millions of people.
While there’s constant action and explosions, which barely let you take a breather, the plot fell short of matching the excitement. With a head-scratching sequence of events, it’s clear that this movie is all about the monsters. Even the moments of comedic relief weren’t effective. Despite having perfectly corny jokes for a sci-fi flick, the audience isn’t given enough time to digest or appreciate them, because another random explosion or disaster quickly took the spotlight.
The star-studded cast also includes Bradley Whitford (Dr. Rick Stanton), Zhang Ziyi (Dr. Chen), Thomas Middleditch (Sam Coleman), O’Shea Jackson, Jr. (Barnes), and Aisha Hinds (Col. Foster). The strong female characters taking the lead roles and driving the plot is a major plus that kept me watching. However, the nonsensical sequence of events and character development — even for a sci-fi movie — along with the special effects overshadowed many of the cast members’ great performances.
It’s a Godzilla movie, so of course the visuals are the most important aspect. In this sequel, the special effects take the franchise to new heights with epic battle scenes between the CGI-enhanced monsters and buildings crumbling after every massive blow. The stunning visuals of the action scenes keep you glued to the screen and get you hyped for the ultimate showdown between Godzilla and King Ghidorah, but they can also be a bit exhausting.
The sequel stays true to the franchise and gives fans exactly what they want: to see Godzilla smash stuff. The movie concludes with an ominous end-credits scene that has no mention of King Kong, leaving fans curious about the movie’s next sequel, Godzilla vs. Kong, which premieres next year.
If you come for the kaiju, you won’t be disappointed. Monsters are in no short supply in this film, and they are certainly there to do what they do best: wreak havoc.
Photos: Warner Bros. Pictures
