I got to watch the sequel to 2014's Godzilla on Thursday in an IMAX theatre. I've been looking forward to this film since it was announced about 5 years ago.
Well.... It was a letdown. It felt like Legendary listened to the chief complaint about the 2014 film (not enough Godzilla / monster action) and they delivered in that sense. Unfortunately, they peppered the rest of the film with a very dumb script, ridiculous storyline, and a waste of mostly good actors.
As for everyone who says they watch Godzilla films for the monsters and not the humans, that's fine.... if you're a 5 year old. Anyone who's a long time Godzilla fan can tell you that some of the best films had both great monster action AND a decent storyline.
Even the really goofy films had a silly storyline that matched the fun kaiju antics. KOTM was inconsistent, trying to pass a serious tone that would then throw in bursts of humor, most of which was just moronic and annoying.
**SPOILERS BEGIN**
The gist of the plot is Vera Farmiga's character (Dr. Emma Russell) lost her son in SF during the Godzilla Muto attack. Now she's developed a technology to communicate with and control the monsters. She and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) get kidnapped and are forced to awaken the other kaiju. It turns out Emma is in cahoots with the kidnappers and has some silly, Thanos style idea about restoring balance to the planet because the humans are ruining it. Varmiga's character comes off like an irrational baffoon, who suddenly decides to change her mind after her daughter runs away and is in danger (despite dragging her along for all the chaos). Oh, and Ghidorah turns out to be a space monster who suddenly can't be controlled and leads the other kaiju to destroy humanity. So Emma was perfectly fine with unleashing the monsters and letting them kill innocent people, but now that Ghidorah wants to lead the monsters to pretty much do the same thing, she suddenly has a problem with it??? Emma's estranged husband is working with the military and chasing them to save the daughter.
The monster scenes are mostly good and entertaining. Ghidorah was a scary badass, and Mothra turns out to be surprisingly tough. Rodan looks great, his awakening is good, but then he doesn't do much else, except get beaten by Ghidorah and Mothra. And Godzilla has a tendency to suddenly show up just in the nick of time on multiple occasions, enough that it becomes tedious and silly.
The final fight with Godzilla and Ghidorah is quite spectacular, with Goji going nuclear and blasting Ghidorah with atomic pulses that melt the dragon like butter on a hot pan.
I wish the film had shown more of the actual kaiju destruction and spent more time on the kaiju fighting, instead of cutting to the reactions of the human characters. There are too many scenes with the humans in the line of fire and miraculously surviving. The characters played by Bradley Whitford and Thomas Middleditch were especially annoying, constantly saying stupid jokes that never land. Kyle Chandler comes off like a histrionic fool at times, the director really should've had him tone it down a bit. Ken Watanabe was great as Serizawa, and Sally Hawkins, Zhang Ziyi, Aisha Hinds and Millie Bobby Brown were all decent. Charles Dance as the main baddie was mostly forgettable.
There were simply too many characters, too many scenes of the characters surviving impossible scenarios, and too much focus on the dysfunctional family (Farmiga, Bobby Brown & Chandler) that keep interrupting the monster action.
There were some nice tributes to past films sprinkled throughout, and those, along with the monster scenes, will please the Godzilla fans. Unfortunately, it all adds up to a big, uneven mess that doesn't leave much of an impression. Most of the fans online are going apeshit over this film, ranting that it's awesome, but the glaring problems are things that I just can't overlook. Godzilla 2014 was a better, more solid film. I really hope that they get the formula right for Kong vs. Godzilla, otherwise the Monsterverse may not last. Even though this film is not great, it seems to be making a splash at the box office, so hopefully that can help to keep the series going and we can get better offerings. This one was just passable.
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