A Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Review
Going into this I was beyond worried. It didn’t get very good reviews and I am a massive Godzilla fan and I’ve been disappointed in most of America’s takes on the kaiju.
Well I was pleasantly surprised. Godzilla: King of the Monsters may be the best Godzilla movie of the last 20 years.
The plot of Godzilla has always been kind of weird. There’s always the plot of big Kaiju fight and destruction with a subplot with humans to push the main plot along. American Godzillas have a tendency to make Godzilla the subplot, however this one really let Zilla shine.
Our story starts in 2019, 5 years after the events of 2014’s Godzilla. Don’t quiet like the dating but that’s just me nitpicking. After the loss of their son Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) and Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) separate since Mark wants to destroy Godzilla while Emma wants to keep the Kaiju race alive and study them. After the wake of Mothra, Jonah Alan (Charles Dance) and his eco-terrorist group storm the Monarch facility and take Emma and Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown).
They want their technology to awaken the other Kaiju so that they can take back the world and “cure the disease that humans created.” They awaken Rodan and King Ghidorah who fight and defeat Godzilla, making Ghidorah king and he wakes up all other Kaiju to destroy and take over Earth.
Godzilla is out and Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) has to travel to Godzilla’s underwater sanctuary to use a nuke to revive and rejoice our favorite Kaiju however he needs to sacrifice himself since the radiation is so strong. After still being beat by Ghidorah again, Emma has to distract him to give Godzilla a chance to get back up. It took Godzilla and 2 humans to defeat King Ghidorah.
The movie ends with Godzilla standing over 3 other Kaiju roaring, reestablishing himself as king.
Some will complain about how the human story is lacking. It’s a Godzilla movie, the human story is there to drive the monster story. We had so much action compared to the last one which definitely adds points in my book.
Oh, side note, King Kong was either directly shown or name dropped 3 times, confirming him as a Titan like Godzilla. I find this interesting because our new Kaiju King needed help from humans, which may be seen as weak and cause King Kong to rebel against him.
I love the messages and imagery though out. Our humans have to learn to forgive and make sacrifices and redeem themselves. Godzilla must also grow, he has a challenger and he needs help. The humans, being stupid, awaken the Kaiju and Godzilla, being the protector, needs to fix this. It really shows companionship and I think shows an important message of living with our planet, that we are killing it too quickly. There aren’t giant monsters in the real world to fix our mistakes so we need to correct ourselves before its too late.
One of the coolest images in the movie is seeing Ghidorah standing on a mountain top with a cross in the foreground, he is towering over the cross showing him as the new god of this planet.
Whenever we see humans the camera is fine, but with Kaiju in the scene, it gets shaky, it goes in and out of focus on their faces and features, hard zooms and close-ups. Just typing it makes it seem chaotic and amateur but how they use it makes the scenes more intense and exciting, these styles show him big and impactful these creatures are.
I would give Godzilla: King of the Monsters a solid 8.5/10. It is definitely in my top 5 favorite Godzilla movies ever and if you like Godzilla even a little bit or even just the idea of Kaiju’s like Pacific Rim this is a must-see.
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