History YMMV / GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019

* IdiotPlot: The plot only happens because almost none of the human characters seem to have a single clue what they're doing. While it may not bother those who are JustHereForGodzilla, it still sticks out like a sore thumb:
** The whole movie's plot begins when Monarch, the organization devoted to researching the Titans, allows a woman with very clear PTSD (and very possibly other undiagnosed mental disorders) to create a device that can replicate sonar frequencies to communicate with Titans. Her husband actually calls Monarch out on how thoughtless it was to let her continue working on this.
** Monarch is so confident that the ORCA solution will work that they trust said woman to use it on Mothra when she first wakes up... only, ''they're using said device for the first time''. Naturally, this leads to her using the wrong frequency and almost getting her and her daughter potentially killed by Mothra. It's by sheer dumb luck that she manages to find the right frequency in time.
** This works two ways with Monarch and the government. All-round, both organizations' faults described below are at the very least factors in [[spoiler:Emma Russell]]'s decision to throw their lot in with Jonah and set Ghidorah loose on the world.
*** Monarch's findings have led them to believe with near-certainty that the Titans' continued existence is essential to preventing humanity from wiping out themselves and most other life with a manmade ecological collapse within the next few generations, and Monarch are consequently holding back the government's and public's push for a militarized Monarch with a firmly anti-Titan agenda. But Monarch seem to care more about maintaining the status quo (keeping the Titans contained) instead of taking any productive measures to find a peaceful coexistence between humans and Titans such as Serizawa preaches of; a member of Jonah's faction themselves directly calls Monarch out on their sheer inaction in the movie. What's more, once King Ghidorah awakens the other Titans, it turns out that all the Monarch outposts' emergency failsafes to keep the captive specimens contained are ''completely useless'' in practice, something which gets explicitly pointed out in the novelization.
*** As for the U.S. government and the military, they're so supremely confident that they '''somehow''' know better than the organization whose actual job it is to study the Titans, and are so dead-set on killing all the big scary things indiscriminately under the short-sighted assumption that that'll make everything go back to normal and make all their problems go away; the senate near the beginning of the movie is dismissive or outright ignorant of every reason Monarch gives for why trying to exterminate the Titans indiscriminately would do more harm than good for humanity one way or another. As a result, the moment two Titans have escaped containment and are converging next to a populated island, the military recklessly fire their prototype FantasticNuke at them in what seems like a blind panic -- what ensues is nothing short of an EpicFail, with Godzilla taken out of action, and an unopposed Ghidorah consequently free to take control of the other Titans and begin using them to inflict global destruction. It's implied in the movie, and outright confirmed by the director, that had it not been for the military's stupidity, then Godzilla would've defeated Ghidorah only halfway through the movie's runtime. For extra points, the direct fallout of the government's FantasticNuke on Isla de Mara's waters has left the local fishermen's livelihood completely ruined once the global crisis is resolved, leading to said fishermen [[spoiler:selling Ghidorah's lost head to Jonah out of desperation in TheStinger]] -- it's implied in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' and confirmed by the ''[=GvK=]'' {{novelization}} that this causes pretty much ''the entire plot'' of the sequel.
** The eco-terrorists assume that because many of the Titans have a {{terraform}}ing effect, the best way to restore the human-tarnished natural balance is by releasing all of the Titans on the world indiscriminately without knowing enough about the differing creatures' respective temperaments or origins. In reality, it's only when Godzilla himself is holding dominion as the reigning Alpha Titan that the other Titans maintain the Earth's natural order, and otherwise the creatures seem more inclined to create natural chaos for both man ''and'' nature whilst serving their own needs, as the [=MUTOs=] and Skullcrawlers have previously demonstrated. So naturally, things go off the rails when the eco-terrorists decide that the first two Titans they'll release will be Alpha Titans in the same weight class as Godzilla, including a three-headed monster that was already suspected of being Godzilla's rival ''before'' it was released. With Alan Jonah and his soldiers, this idiocy can be hand-waved because Jonah is characterized as a mentally-unstable NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist who'll run on any InsaneTrollLogic to justify letting as much of humanity as possible die at any cost once his initial arguments' flaws are exposed, but with [[spoiler:Emma Russell]], who genuinely wanted to make the world a better place, not so much. Had the eco-terrorists been more picky about which Titans they released and when, the plot of the movie would likely go very differently.
** Colonel Foster at one point has a very clear sniper shot at Jonah just before the latter's face-off with Mark where his head is blocked by a beam, ''and she doesn't take the shot when she had the chance''. Had she taken the shot then, King Ghidorah likely wouldn't have been woken up that day and [[spoiler:Emma]]'s plot would've been foiled.

** The eco-terrorists assume that because many of the Titans have a {{terraform}}ing effect, the best way to restore the human-tarnished natural balance is by releasing all of the Titans on the world indiscriminately without knowing enough about the differing creatures' respective temperaments or origins. In reality, it's only when Godzilla himself is holding dominion as the reigning Alpha Titan that the other Titans maintain the Earth's natural order, and otherwise the creatures seem more inclined to create natural chaos for both man ''and'' nature whilst serving their own needs. This problem is exacerbated by the fact the first two Titans the eco-terrorists choose to release are Alpha Titans in the same class as Godzilla, including a three-headed monster that was already suspected of being Godzilla's rival ''before'' it was released. Alan Jonah is a mentally-unstable NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist who'll run on any InsaneTrollLogic to justify letting as much of humanity as possible die once his initial arguments' flaws are exposed, but [[spoiler:Emma Russell]], who genuinely wanted to make the world a better place, can't be so easily excused for their idiocy. Had the eco-terrorists been more picky about which Titans they released and when, the plot of the movie would likely go very differently.

*** Monarch's findings have led them to believe with near-certainty that the Titans' continued existence is essential to preventing humanity from wiping out themselves and most other life with a manmade ecological collapse within the next few generations, and Monarch are consequently holding back the government's and public's push for a militarized Monarch, but Monarch seem to care more about maintaining the status quo (keeping the Titans contained) instead of taking any of measures to try and re-introduce the passive Titans to the world or to permanently get rid of the government's push; a member of Jonah's faction themselves directly calls Monarch out on this in the movie. What's more, once King Ghidorah awakens the other Titans, it turns out that all of the Monarch outposts' emergency failsafes to kept the captive Titan specimens contained are ''completely'' useless in practice, something which gets explicitly pointed out in the novelization.
*** As for the U.S. government and the military, they're so supremely confident that they '''somehow''' know better than the organization whose actual job it is to study the Titans, and are so dead-set on killing all the big scary things indiscriminately under the short-sighted assumption that that'll make everything go back to normal and all their problems go away; the senate near the beginning of the movie is dismissive or outright ignorant of every reason Monarch gives for why trying to exterminate the Titans indiscriminately would do more harm than good for humanity one way or another. As a result, the moment two Titans have escaped containment and are converging next to a populated island, the military recklessly fire their prototype FantasticNuke at them in what seems like a blind panic -- what ensues is nothing short of an EpicFail, with Godzilla taken out of action, and an unopposed Ghidorah consequently free to take control of the other Titans and begin using them to inflict global destruction. It's implied in the movie, and outright confirmed by the director, that had it not been for the military's stupidity, then Godzilla would've defeated Ghidorah only halfway through the movie's runtime.
*** For extra points, the direct fallout of the government's FantasticNuke on Isla de Mara's waters has left the local fishermen's livelihood completley ruined after the global crisis is resolved, leading to them [[spoiler:selling Ghidorah's lost head to Jonah out of desperation in TheStinger]] -- it's implied in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' and confirmed by the ''[=GvK=]'' {{novelization}} that this causes pretty much ''the entire plot'' of the sequel.
** The eco-terrorists assume that because many of the Titans have a {{terraform}}ing effect, the best way to restore the human-tarnished natural balance is by releasing all of the Titans on the world indiscriminately without knowing enough about the differing creatures' respective temperaments or origins. In reality, it's only when Godzilla himself is holding dominion as the reigning Alpha Titan that the other Titans maintain the Earth's natural order, and otherwise the creatures seem more inclined to create natural chaos for both man ''and'' nature whilst serving their own needs. This problem is exacerbated by the fact the first two Titans the eco-terrorists choose to release are Alpha Titans in the same class as Godzilla, including a three-headed monster that was already suspected of being Godzilla's rival ''before'' it was released. Alan Jonah is a mentally-unstable NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist who'll run on any InsaneTrollLogic to justify letting as much of humanity as possible die once his initial arguments' flaws are exposed, but [[spoiler:Emma Russell]], who genuinely wanted to make the world a better place, can't be so easily excused for their idiocy.

* IdiotPlot: The plot plot only happens because almost none of the human characters seem to have a single clue what they're doing. While it may not bother those who are JustHereForGodzilla, it still sticks out like a sore thumb:
** The whole movie's plot begins when MONARCH, the organization devoted to researching the titans, allows a woman with very clear PTSD (and possible other undiagnosed mental disorders) create a device that can replicate sonar frequencies to communicate with Titans. In one scene, her husband tells MONARCH that the idea behind the device was to keep whales away from the shoreline, "not to play god with your little creatures".
** MONARCH is so confident that his works that they trust said woman to use it on Mothra when she first works up... only, ''they're using said device for the first time''. Naturally, this leads to her using the wrong frequency and almost allowing Mothra to go on a murderous rampage. It's by sheer dumb luck that her daughter manages to fiddle with some knobs and find the right frequency.
** MONARCH is also so stubbornly confident in its alleged ability to communicate that they also misguidedly think it's reason enough to ignore the US government's advice to let the military kill the titans. They believe that the Titans provide a balance to nature when the reality is that only Godzilla himself seemed to be interested in "restoring balance", all while making it very clear the extent of his indifference towards humans.
** Next, because they also apparently do not have a defense department, a group of eco-terrorists raid their Chinese base and force Mothra out into the world, and all so easily allow them to be framed for allowing several attacks to happen.
** When both the military and MONARCH get wind of the very ObviouslyEvil head of the terrorist group, Alan Jonah (come on, he's played by friggin' Charles Dance), and decide to track him, they get themselves in several situations where they have very clear shots at him ''and don't take the shot''. Several soldiers are shown going up against the groups of 5 or 6 and manage to get outnumbered every time. In one particular instance, they're monitoring a situation in which Emma Russell and her family get held at gunpoint by said group, and their refusal to ''gun the mercenaries down'' leads to King Ghidorah being woken up!
** All of this results in cataclysmic destruction of several cities, Emma herself dead, more monsters (including a freaking wooly mammoth) awakening all because the US government were too stubborn to throw MONARCH's top people in jail and [[KarmaHoudini Alan Jonah gets away too, not to mention gets his hands on Ghidorah's lost head]].

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Drs. Graham and Serizawa at the senate meeting, and the rest of the Monarch brass in later scenes, notably don't seem to be taking the threat of the government taking over Monarch and attempting to kill all the Titans (with public opinion furthermore favoring MurderIsTheBestSolution) seriously despite their reverence for the Titans and belief in their essential necessity to the world.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Those among the top Monarch brass who believe the Titans are essential to the world like Graham, Serizawa and Chen (not Stanton) would start pushing new organization projects and put more pressure on researchers, to try and give the world further hard proof that attempting to kill the Titans isn't a good idea.\\
'''Instead:''' They argue with {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s who are mostly ignorant at senate hearings, but they pay little attention to the government's plan outside of senate hearings. And they place higher priority on keeping the Titans contained and maintaining the status quo than in actually taking the steps they preach of towards creating a human-Titan coexistence.\\
'''The Result:''' [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] grows paranoid about the government taking over Monarch and trying to kill the Titans becoming inevitable, which if it didn't outright cause [[spoiler:her FaceHeelTurn]] was seemingly a factor in it. And once Ghidorah and Rodan are released near a populated island, the military don't bother to spend any time discussing the situation with Monarch and just take matters into their own hands and make a NukeEm move against the two Titans.\\
'''Probably justified by Monarch's leadership still having varying degrees of doubt about whether or not they're really right about how the Titans rising again is really a good thing, and by those of them who recognize the Titans are beyond any manmade ability to control believing that nothing the government threw at them if they tried would harm anyone but humanity themselves paying for their hubris. Too bad Monarch didn't think that the military were making a Titan-killing weapon that might be more devastating and effective than a nuclear warhead.'''
** Alan Jonah and [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] starting their campaign to awaken all the dormant Titans one-by-one so they can restore the natural order by awakening the Titan which happens to be suspected of being ''a rival Alpha to Godzilla'' second of all. Starting their intended repopulation process by releasing the Titan that's most likely to have a hostile reaction to one of the only two already-active Titans is like trying to start repopulating an ecosystem by releasing the two rival species most likely to compete with each other into the ecosystem before any of the others.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' They'd either make sure Ghidorah is one of the last Titans released, first releasing most of the lower-grade Titans first so they and Godzilla can reestablish a Titan biome amongst themselves comparable to what their original rule thousands of years ago was like, or they'd just leave Ghidorah out of their plan entirely to remain frozen lest he kill Godzilla and wipe out the last of Godzilla's kind.\\
'''Instead:''' They wake up the Alpha Titans including Godzilla's rival before any of the lesser ones.\\
'''The Result:''' Godzilla and Ghidorah violently clash mere ''minutes'' after Ghidorah's awakened, each one seeking the other's blood.\\
'''Possibly justified by hints that [[spoiler:Emma isn't entirely sane]], and by Jonah operating under hypocritical InsaneTrollLogic that he and Emma don't control the laws of nature despite their attempts to make the Titans resume rule of the planet.'''
** [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Emma Russell]]'s whole reaction to Andrew's death in the San Francisco battle is generally regarded this way by audiences once it's revealed [[spoiler:she made a FaceHeelTurn and threw her lot in with Alan Jonah's EcoTerrorist paramilitary, planning to supposedly act as [[GaiasVengeance Gaia's Avenger]], all so that her son's death wouldn't be in vain]].\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Andrew dying in the urban destruction inflicted by {{Kaiju}} that are [[HumansAreInsects indifferent to humans]] fighting each other would make her want to ensure that such a thing never happens to anyone else again, much as she reveres the Titans.\\
'''Instead:''' [[spoiler:She sets about releasing all the dormant Titans so they can decimate human civilization, and the survivors will be forced into an ecologically sustainable coexistence with the Titans, who meanwhile restore the environment; in complete ignorance of the facts that her son would be utterly horrified by this if he could see it, and that her plan involves forcing millions of families to go through the exact same trauma of losing loved ones as she, Mark and Madison went through]].\\
'''The Result:''' She gets a lot of ContemptCrossfire from [[spoiler:her partner-in-crime and the people she betrayed]], and worst of all her relationship with her only surviving child [[spoiler:is completely shattered]].\\
'''Possibly justified by indications that Andrew's death caused Emma to experience a SanitySlippage. Some viewers' Character Interpretation is that Emma [[spoiler:grew to blame the human race instead of Titans for her son's death because it was human activity that was causing the Titans to begin awakening again, and her above actions were all her raging against humanity]].'''
** Mark Russell attempting to leave Castle Bravo and try finding Madison on his own ''in the middle of an apocalypse'' is already presented InUniverse as a near-missed DidntThinkThisThrough, but there's some extra idiocy to it that the film doesn't really address in the scene.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He'd realize that with Ghidorah ordering the Titans to exterminate humanity, his best chance at actually getting Madison back alive without her or him following Andrew to the grave is by sticking with Monarch, to provide further advice and help in the war to stop Ghidorah where and when it's required; so that Ghidorah's ApocalypseHow is derailed sooner and is no longer a threat, and so that the calmer global conditions without Ghidorah directing theTitans will give him a better chance at finding Madison's location.\\
'''Instead:''' He packs up and intends to leave Monarch behind just when they need all hands on deck so he can look for Madison with minimal help, with an apocalypse going on likely to obstruct his efforts and with absolutely no idea of where ''in the entire world'' he should start looking for Madison.\\
'''Possibly justified by Mark correctly having no faith that Ghidorah can be stopped at this point with Godzilla seemingly dead, and Serizawa establishing in the previous scene that Godzilla was the Earth's only hope of defeating Ghidorah. Mark could've actually been near the DespairEventHorizon, and he intended to spend whatever short remainder of their lives he and Madison had left being with his daughter before Ghidorah's apocalypse killed them.'''
*** Sam Coleman could in the same instance be accused of being an Idiot for conceding to letting Mark go through with this so easily, instead of demanding Mark stay or notifying Castle Bravo's military to stop his Osprey leaving, considering how useful Mark's animal behavior knowledge has previously been and how Monarch and the military might've been completely lost a couple times over already if not for him.
** Alan Jonah leads an "elite" group of ecoterrorists, who were approached by [[spoiler: Dr. Emma Russell to use her research]] to awaken the Titans, and thus bring the Earth back into balance. Unfortunately, the first Titan they set about awakening is Ghidorah, who screws their plans to wake the Titans up one by one and limit the destruction, instead waking them all up and summoning them to him. Jonah decides this isn't exactly a bad thing, despite the increasing reluctance of [[spoiler: the woman who conceived the plan in the first place and the obvious horror of that woman's teenage daughter]].\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Him to keep his hostage under guard, or at least under watch, and have a guard posted at the ORCA, the linchpin of his (granted, now moot) plan, and the only device that can allow humans to meaningfully interact with the kaiju and influence their behavior, as well as have guards posted at other important areas in the Monarch bunker they're using as a base.\\
'''Instead:''' He basically indulges in LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard, allowing Madison to hear [[spoiler: her mother]] give some crucial exposition over the PA.\\
'''The Result:''' Madison figures out where she's been taken, steals the completely unattended ORCA, ''literally walks out the front door'', and makes it to Fenway Park, where she uses its speakers to amplify the ORCA enough to draw in Ghidorah and alert Monarch to her location, thus not only getting rescued but setting the stage for Godzilla and Ghidorah's final battle.
** Emma's HeroicSacrifice after the ORCA was repaired and used to distract Ghidorah from VampiricDraining Godzilla and make him go after the signal's source (giving Godzilla time to recover and finish Ghidorah) was seem by some audiences as a pointless act on her part. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K730Df36p1k HISHE]] poked fun at this.\\
'''They'd Expect:''' After the Russells reactivated the ORCA, they could leave the ORCA where it was, unmanned but still broadcasting, while all of them escape on an Osprey before Ghidorah reaches the site looking to destroy the signal's source.\\
'''Instead:''' Emma [[spoiler:takes the repaired ORCA and drives off with a Humvee while the others including her family escape, keeping Ghidorah chasing after her until it kills her]].\\
'''Possibly justified by three things, the last two of which are actually explicitly pointed out in the novelization. (1) Emma might have at this point realized just how many lines she's crossed with her plan and wanted to commit suicide in the hopes of achieving some faint ghost of atonement. (2) The humans didn't know how much time Godzilla would need to fully recover once the ORCA lured Ghidorah away from him, especially after enduring Ghidorah's VampiricDraining -- if Emma didn't draw out Ghidorah's pursuit of the ORCA for as long as possible by driving off with it, for all the humans knew, Ghidorah could've arrived at the ORCA's location and destroyed it, with enough time to spare before Godzilla had fully recovered for Ghidorah to pick right up where he'd left off with the VampiricDraining, and then there'd be nothing to stop him killing Godzilla and destroying the world. (3) Let's say the humans did leave the ORCA broadcasting at the spot where it was while they all left by Osprey: once Ghidorah arrived at the site and blasted the ORCA to atoms, he might see the Osprey flying away and realize what they'd done, then immediately try to kill them all in one action -- rendering Emma and Mark's determination to save their daughter's life for nought since she'd die with them. This is confirmed by the novelization.'''

** With ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu''. Despite being released within close proximity, you’ll see both fandoms getting along splendidly. Simply because both are Legendary productions based off popular Japanese franchises and both have Ken Watanabe. Numerous Pokemon fans have voiced eagerness to see ''King of the Monsters'', christening it a SpiritualAdaptation of what they'd imagine a movie involving Legendary Pokemon would be like. Likewise, many G-fans are more than happy to voice support for the follow-up Legendary movie, considering the two as teammates in the box office context. Toho distributing both in Japan ensures any site talking about one film is bound to include the other.

* WinTheCrowd:
** The reveal that [[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/system-of-a-down-serj-tankian-blue-oyster-cult-godzilla-826686/ an epic remix of Blue Oyster Cult's song "Godzilla"]] is included in the soundtrack drew legions of fans cheering.
** The announcement at Comic-Con 2014 following the success of Film/Godzilla2014 that the sequel will feature Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah.
** The very first trailer at Comic-Con 2018 was one of the most talked about trailers coming out of the event. With its wonderful cinematography and use of “Claire de Lune” as well as it’s very brief but memorable shots of the monsters in the trailers had the crowd lose it.
** The sneak-peek designs of the monsters via S.H. Monster Arts was very well received. As many fans were happy that the designs of each monster retain their classic iconic look with minor changes.
*** Even better with Godzilla’s design retaining his well-received look from the previous film but with some tweaks to improve his appearance.
** The announcement that Bear [=McCreary=] will not only compose the music, but will adapt Akira Ifukube’s iconic Godzilla’s theme for the film has gone over well with fans.

* SpiritualAdaptation: Given the Kaiju cast (Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah), the movie is spiritually a remake of ''Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster'' (although the plot goes in a completely different direction).
** Alternatively, this film serves this to Film/Gamera3AwakeningOfIrys. Both films questions on the allegiance of the Kaiju and the BigBad awakened by a troubled female.

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: While [[spoiler:Godzilla has been killed off in past series entries, it almost always turned out to be temporary, or lead to them being replaced by a successor. [[spoiler:Not to mention Godzilla is a very important character to the broader series as the resident BigGood and/or GreaterScopeParagon, ''and'' that at the time of his "death" there's still quite a bit of movie left and another set piece battle between him and Ghidorah to get to.]] All in all, their surprise demise in the middle of the movie is not very convincing.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Although the film does present WellIntentionedExtremist [[spoiler:Emma Russell]]'s plan to awaken the Titans as VillainHasAPoint and [[spoiler:even TheExtremistWasRight]], her criticism of Serizawa and Monarch for the sorry state that the latter has fallen into at the film's start is scarcely treated as more than an afterthought. While the Monarch brass and Mark are right to call [[spoiler:Emma]] a lunatic and call her out on the global mass murder her plan involves engineering; out of the three Titan-interested organizations in the film -- those being Monarch, the prejudiced government who simply want the Titans indiscriminately exterminated and have nil foresight of the likely consequences, and the eco-terrorists who have valid concerns about the government but are far too willing to murder billions of innocents -- Monarch throughout the film come across as the most passive and ineffectual party in regards to their ultimate agenda. Dr. Serizawa preaches about humans and Titans coexisting, but neither he nor any of his supporters make any suggestions in the senate scene, nor anywhere else, about how to go about doing that, and in the meantime Monarch's actions indicate they care more about maintaining the inevitably soon-to-fail status quo (keeping the Titans contained) than doing anything productive. Furthermore, when Serizawa, Graham and Coleman attend a senate hearing and advocate for human-Titan coexistence (the one time Monarch are actually seen doing squat to address the threat of the government's stupidity), it's clear that Graham and Serizawa aren't taking it all that seriously (albeit because the senate are, well, less than reasonable about the whole thing.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Although the film does present WellIntentionedExtremist [[spoiler:Emma Russell]]'s plan to awaken the Titans as VillainHasAPoint and [[spoiler:even TheExtremistWasRight]], her criticism of Serizawa (who called her out for taking extreme risks, prompting her to retort that Monarch is in a pretty bad state at the film's start and that the same risks apply to what he is or isn't doing) are scarcely treated as more than an afterthought. The thing is, Monarch arguably lose quite a bit of moral highground against the eco-terrorists when one realizes that Monarch are doing ''the least'' about actually addressing the Titans' awakening, compared with the prejudiced anti-Titan government (who actively want to try indiscriminately exterminating the Titans with nil foresight of the likely consequences) and the eco-terrorists (who have valid concerns about the damage said government could do if it has its way). Serizawa preaches of human-Titan coexistence being important, but he and Monarch seem to be more interested in maintaining the status quo than in actually doing anything productive at all to ensure the coexistence they speak of comes about; having done practically nothing in the five years since the previous film's events even though the fate of all humanity hangs in the balance. The only time Monarch are shown doing squat about how the Titans' awakening will affect humanity before the eco-terrorists come in is when Graham, Coleman and Serizawa attend a senate hearing at the film's start; a hearing which Graham and Serizawa clearly aren't taking all that seriously (albeit because the senate is clearly showing they're blind to reason).

*** Another line from Randa in ''Skull Island'' has him openly defending the idea that monsters exist, all the while [[ArbitrarySkepticism mocking people for believing aliens exist in the same scene]]. [[spoiler:Cut to this film and it’s revealed that this take on King Ghidorah keeps its alien origins from the Showa era]].

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: [[spoiler:Kill off Godzilla? Toho's most beloved creation and effectively to the ''Film/MonsterVerse'' what ''Film/IronMan'' was to the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' years ago? ''Riiiiiiiight.'' [[note]]It should be noted that Godzilla ''has'' died before, but almost always has a successor to pick up his torch. Then again, Iron Man ''has'' been killed off without a chosen successor in the MCU.[[/note]]]]
* LoveToHate: Alan Jonah creates this effect with the chilling, cold-blooded and ruthless performance that Creator/CharlesDance delivers to the role, and him murdering Monarch operatives all over the place and condemning all of humanity and the vast majority of life on Earth to being murdered by Ghidorah in NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist contradiction of his claims to want to save the Earth make the audience quite want to see him get his just-deserts. It probably also helps that Jonah has a few PetTheDog moments and implicit BenevolentBoss tendencies (and a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds backstory in the novelization to boot) whilst remaining an overall nasty piece of work who is unjustifiably-evil and selfish.

** Not 100% intended by the creators, but a lot of spectators would likely agree that [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] crosses the MEH when they activate the ORCA to fully awaken Ghidorah, knowing that [[spoiler:her own ex-husband and the father of her daughter, plus a bunch of other key Monarch operatives whom a later scene reveals she personally recruited]] will be at ground zero. While [[spoiler:Emma]] could be let off easy for not knowing Ghidorah was an AxCrazy OmnicidalManiac until it was released, what [[spoiler:Emma]] can't be let off easy for is actively stopping Madison from using the ORCA to distract Ghidorah from killing Mark and the Monarch operatives, when Ghidorah had just established on the G-Team moments ago how Ax-Crazy it really is (the InUniverse reason she did this was because Ghidorah was going to destroy the aircraft they were in).

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Besides how TheExtremistWasRight in the end about the benefits the Titans could create for the world if awakened, [[spoiler:Emma Russell]]'s [[VillainHasAPoint criticisms about the government taking over Monarch and attempting to kill off the Titans]] come off as highly valid concerns; even more so when one considers all the [[Fridge/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Fridge Horror]] of the government's plan. Drs. Graham and Serizawa themselves seem to consider attempting to get the {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s to see reason to be largely futile in the senate hearing. Monarch insist that humanity's best chance at survival is finding ways to coexist with the Titans, but they never give any suggestions for how they would go about doing that, and in the meantime they seem to be more interested in maintaining the status quo by keeping the Titans contained (see VillainsActHeroesReact).

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: As stupid as humans can be when it comes to interfering in nature, that doesn't mean we aren't responsible for being the ones to clean up the mess, nor does it mean we should step back and let giant monsters take care of everything for us. [[spoiler:Serizawa's direct intervention]] was crucial to cleaning up the mess humans made in [[spoiler:injuring Godzilla and leaving the Alpha position up-for-grabs to Ghidorah]]. And had it not been for the Russells' direct intervention in Boston -- [[spoiler:the ORCA disrupting Ghidorah's control over the other Titans, and later all three of the family using the ORCA to stop Ghidorah from VampiricDraining a downed Godzilla]] -- Ghidorah would've almost certainly won for all the benevolent Titans' efforts to stop him.
-->'''Mark Russell''': "''This time we ''join'' the fight!''"

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: [[spoiler:Kill off Godzilla? Toho's most beloved creation and effectively to the ''Film/MonsterVerse'' what ''Film/IronMan'' was to the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' years ago? ''Riiiiiiiight.'' [[note]]It should be noted that Godzilla ''has'' died before, but almost always has a successor to pick up his torch.[[/note]]]]

%% * TooBleakStoppedCaring: Part of why the film was critically panned is the overbearing amount of tragedy and destruction, the unrelenting tension from beginning to end, and a massive body count that makes it [[AMillionIsAStatistic impossible to feel anything]], except maybe annoyance at ''yet another'' "shocking" twist. Some fans generally agree, either feeling numb or exhausted by the constant horror taking place. Titans attacking humans (smaller than ants in comparison) and wiping out whole companies of fighter pilots and soldiers with single attacks makes the monsters appear less hopelessly powerful and more like boring {{Invincible Villain}}s.
* UnexpectedCharacter:

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Part of why the film was critically panned is the overbearing amount of tragedy and destruction, the unrelenting tension from beginning to end, and a massive body count that makes it [[AMillionIsAStatistic impossible to feel anything]], except maybe annoyance at ''yet another'' "shocking" twist. Some fans generally agree, either feeling numb or exhausted by the constant horror taking place. Titans attacking humans (smaller than ants in comparison) and wiping out whole companies of fighter pilots and soldiers with single attacks makes the monsters appear less hopelessly powerful and more like boring {{Invincible Villain}}s.

** Not 100% intended by the creators, but a lot of spectators would likely agree that [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] crosses the MEH when they activate the ORCA to fully awaken Ghidorah, knowing that [[spoiler:her own ex-husband and the father of her daughter, plus a bunch of other key Monarch operatives whom a later scene reveals she personally recruited]] will be at ground zero. While [[spoiler:Emma]] could be let off easy for not knowing Ghidorah was an AxCrazy OmnicidalManiac until it was released, what [[spoiler:Emma]] can't be let off easy for is actively stopping Madison from using the ORCA to distract Ghidorah from killing Mark and the Monarch operatives, when Ghidorah had just established on the G-Team moments ago how Ax-Crazy it really is.

* HesJustHiding: Somewhat. The fact that [[spoiler:San/Kevin's decapitated head]] at the end of the film is clearly experiencing decomposition didn't stop fans speculating that it's still biologically alive and could [[spoiler:regenerate a whole body from the neck-stump in time. Bizarrely, this turned out to be somewhat true- the head of San was used for the creation of Mechagodzilla, allowing Ghidorah to take over the machine and become the BigBad of ''Godzilla Vs. Kong'']].

* HesJustHiding: Somewhat. The fact that [[spoiler:San/Kevin's decapitated head]] at the end of the film is clearly experiencing decomposition didn't stop fans speculating that it's still biologically alive and could [[spoiler:regenerate a whole body from the neck-stump in time. Bizarrely, this turned out to be somewhat true- the head of San was used for the creation of Mechagodzilla, allowing Ghidora to take over the machine and become the BigBad of ''Godzilla Vs. Kong'']].

** Dr. Serizawa’s line in [[Film/Godzilla2014 the last film]] about how the arrogance of man is thinking nature is in their control and not the other way around became a lot more foreboding after this movie came out, [[spoiler:which shows a group of eco-terrorists attempting to unleash the Titans as a way to ''"save"'' the earth with a machine that can lure and control their actions.]]

** [[spoiler:Emma Russell's actions and betrayal]] in Antarctica indirectly causing [[spoiler:Dr. Graham's death]] becomes harsher in light of a passage in the movie {{novelization}} mentioning that Graham grew close to both Emma and Madison in the years after the events in San Francisco.

** Admiral Stenz's HeroAntagonist actions overall in both films and what they say about his mindset and personality are subjected to this, particularly after this film. He contacts Monarch to warn them to withdraw when the military launches the Oxygen Destroyer, but while he obviously knew about the weapon beforehand, how involved was he in its launch, and what does he think about the launch? Overall, is Admiral Stenz a reasonable-minded OnlySaneMan who is neutral on the matter of whether or not to try killing the Titans, and who believes the Oxygen Destroyer's deployment is a [[Film/TheAvengers2012 stupid-ass decision]] but chooses [[ToBeLawfulOrGood To Be Lawful instead of Good]]; or is Stenz a narrow-minded GeneralRipper who when a Kaiju problem starts directly endangering the public will attempt to NukeEm first and ally with Godzilla second, and fails to learn the right lesson from his mistakes?
*** Note that Stenz seems regretful when telling Monarch about the Oxygen Destroyer's launch, but is he regretful about the untested weapon's less than reasonable usage, or is he disappointed that Monarch couldn't (in his eyes) stop it from coming to this; or does he merely feel bad about hurting Dr. Serizawa's feelings?

%%* LoveToHate: King Ghidorah already had this before, but this incarnation gets special attention for its MultipleHeadCase characterization (which has earned the "Kevin" head in particular some DracoInLeatherPants treatment) and its AdaptationalIntelligence.

** Ghidorah himself gets a LoveToHate /''non''-TakeThatScrappy form of this. Whilst the film and novelizations make it clear that Ghidorah enjoys killing and has ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill tendencies as a manifestation of his sadism, fanfics often make him ''way'' more prone to ColdBloodedTorture or inflicting slow, agonizing, drawn-out deaths than anything seen of him in canon suggested.

* HesJustHiding: Somewhat. The fact that [[spoiler:San/Kevin's decapitated head]] at the end of the film is clearly experiencing decomposition didn't stop fans speculating that it's still biologically alive and could [[spoiler:regenerate a whole body from the neck-stump in time]].

* {{Anvilicious}}: HumansAreSpecial in the sense that we're collectively counted by {{Kaiju}} as one of their number, but we're also morons for disregarding our planet's ecosystems and for thinking we can control nature without consequence.

* PanderingToTheBase: This movie is purposefully designed to appease die-hard Godzilla fans. This time, there more Kaiju fights involving the classic Toho monsters, the music includes new renditions of Akira Ifukube’s iconic Godzilla theme, plus Yuji Koseki‘s Mothra theme, and a remix of [[Music/BlueOysterCult Blue Oyster Cult's song "Godzilla"]], and more scenes taken straight out of the Toho movies. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Given the amount of love it’s gotten from the fans, on top of it being the 65th anniversary of the series, that’s not necessarily a bad thing]].

* TooCoolToLive: Technically averted by [[spoiler:Mothra, who is killed by Ghidorah during the film, as the end credits suggest she might have laid an egg before her death that will hatch a new Mothra, and the director not only confirmed this but stated the Mothra individual in the film has BornAgainImmortality]].