Since his first foray into cinemas in 1954, from the controversial 2014 reboot to the exceptional Shin Godzilla in 2016, Godzilla has had his ups and downs for his entire 64 years of not only in movies but in all different forms of media. Godzilla is one of those names that is so iconic that even your grandparents will know who it is, and here we are in 2019 with a brand new entry in this historic franchise.

King of the Monsters is set five years after Godzilla (2014) with Godzilla being missing. A group of monster researchers by the name of Monarch attempt to relocate him, but as they are searching for our titular dinosaur they stumble across more than 17 monsters dubbed “Titans” and hide this information from the government. Problems arise as an eco-terrorist group lead by Alan Jonah (Charles Dance) attempt to wake the Titans; as he believes that waking them will lead to a reborn earth that will be clean of human pollution.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters tries to right a few of the wrongs of Gareth Edwards 2014 reboot, and in a few respects, it succeeds; unfortunately, this newest entry still can’t fully nail it. In Godzilla (2014) there was a greater emphasis put on the human characters and it failed, (for the most part,) with the exception of Bryan Cranston’s character. In Godzilla King of the Monsters, the human characters are mostly well-realized and more fleshed out than in previous films. That is thanks to the great performances by Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown, Godzilla (2014)’s Ken Watanabe and Game of Thrones’ Charles Dance.

Though human characters have always been relevant to the story in the Godzilla franchise, the stories tend to focus on the giant Kaiju and their battles. Despite this, Godzilla tends to be a bit more nuanced in western adaptations than in the Japanese iterations. Thankfully in King of the Monsters, the fighting is based more around Godzilla, Ghidorah, and Rodan. The fights are a glorious display of eye-popping colors, amazing set pieces that involve lightning, fire and Godzilla’s signature atomic breath that makes each battle fun and exciting to watch.

Unfortunately, director Michael Dougherty chose to pan between human close-ups and then used the same close-up shots for the Kaiju fights which can make the monsters feel smaller; while fights become hard to follow at times. Godzilla and the other Kaiju tend to look smaller on screen than in Godzilla (2014) and I chalk that up to Gareth Edwards’ amazing use of scaling techniques. Because of this, in King of the Monsters, you never get to feel how big Godzilla and Ghidorah’s fights really are.

The fact that this is a building up a cinematic universe (akin to Marvel ‘s MCU) of sorts also should be mentioned. This began with the 2017 release of Kong Skull Island. Now I have yet to see Skull Island so I can not comment on the movie’s quality or how it ties into King of the Monsters; but I can comment on how annoying it was to hear “Skull Island” or “A giant ape was found on Skull Island” and having the information shoved down my throat throughout the entirety of the movie. Yes, I am very excited to see the two iconic beasts duke it out, but the audience doesn’t need to be reminded every few scenes that this is now a universe.

Overall I absolutely enjoyed Godzilla King of the Monsters, with its breathtaking spectacle of colors and adrenaline pumping set pieces; as well as the overall fantastic modern depiction of Rodan, Ghidorah, and Mothra. This is a Godzilla movie for the new age and I love where they are going with it. If you love watching big monsters duke it out or have an odd urge to see a three-headed dragon shoot lighting Godzilla King of the Monsters has you covered.

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Godzilla King of the Monsters

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Fun Kajiu action
• Gorgous CGI

Cons

• Some weak characters
• Action hard to follow at times