History YMMV / GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019

* CaptainObviousReveal: [[spoiler:Ghidorah being revealed to be an alien lifeform]] isn't that unforeseen for viewers who know most of the character's previous incarnations were also this.

* MemeticLoser: Because of this movie, Rodan is often jokingly depicted as a [[DirtyCoward cowardly]] [[TheQuisling Quisling]] in the style of [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Starscream]] or Benedict Arnold, based on him serving King Ghidorah after being beaten up and [[spoiler:switching to Godzilla’s side before Ghidorah’s body is even cold at the end.]]

** Charles Dance's cold and charismatic portrayal of the EcoTerrorist Alan Jonah made for an entertaining villain. Many viewers even found his chillingly nihilistic support of King Ghidorah and the Titans more compelling than [[spoiler:Emma's]] HeelRealization. It doesn't hurt that the latter is widely considered poorly-written and much less likable than the film seems to believe, and Jonah's [[KickTheSonOfABitch frequent sniping and mockery of her]] only serves to make the audience relate to him.

* WhatMeasureIsANonBadass: Rodan annihilates Monarch's Gold Squadron of jets in an aerial battle with ease, and he manages to severely cripple Mothra before their battle ends, but he's a MemeticLoser because he's nowhere near the power level of the Alpha Titans Godzilla and Ghidorah (one of whom makes Rodan back down with but a DeathGlare while the other curb-stomps Rodan in barely over one minute); even though the aforementioned Mothra is an Alpha.

* ApprovalOfGod: Mike Dougherty personally praised the fanfiction ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/23677753 Song of the Tiny Ones]]'' by Cyndi.

* AcceptableTargets: Aside from the [[StrawCharacter portrayal of the government]]; in the novelization, Asher reminisces on a time when he and Jonah doled out their own brand of justice on some game-hunters in Africa. The novel establishes that Ash, despite his terrorist occupation, is an idealistic young man who doesn't enjoy the killing he commits, but even ''he'' has nothing against whatever brand of justice he and Jonah dished out to those game-hunters.

* 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. Amusingly, this turned out to be true after a fashion, as 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'']].

** In ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', John Goodman's character, Randa, enters the film exclaiming "there'll never be a more screwed up time in Washington". This was a joke about the political climate of the time versus that of 2017, but cut to this film and UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC has been turned into a hellscape with artillery guns firing, giant reptiles and bugs filling the sky, and oh yeah, a gargantuan evil space dragon blasting everything with lightning. Needless to say, it's '''much''' more messed up than it was in the '70s.

** Lots of memes popped up when the 2014 movie's trailers were released, with the teased appearances of the Male MUTO being jokingly theorized as "[=#RodanConfirmed=]". Fast forward five years later, and Rodan really ''is'' confirmed!
** When stars Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell were announced to star in ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', many ''Film/StraightOuttaCompton'' jokes came up. More commonly with jokes on where’s Ice Cube is at. Now come this film, Ice Cube[[labelnote:*]]Or more accurately, his real-life son O'Shea, Jr., who also played his dad in the latter movie.[[/labelnote]] is now in the Monsterverse.

** Music/BlueOysterCult making a parody of their SignatureSong ''Godzilla'' called "No-zilla" as a response to their song for being left out of the [[Film/Godzilla1998 1998 remake’s soundtrack]] has become this after their song finally made it into an official Godzilla movie as a cover.

** Emma Russell. [[spoiler:She is perfectly willing to sacrifice millions if not ''billions'' of lives to reach her goals, she betrays her former colleagues and in doing so directly or indirectly secures many of their deaths (whether by the hands of Jonah's mercenaries, or by Ghidorah when she wakes it up), and she manipulates and drags her preteen daughter into an organization of ''radical paramilitary {{Eco-Terrorist}}s'' without thinking it through; to say nothing of how her goal involves collaterally putting millions of families through the very same pain of losing loved ones that she experienced. But she does genuinely care about her daughter and what Madison thinks of her deep down, and you can at least pity her for the loss of her son and her MyGodWhatHaveIDone realization, plus there's her subtle PetTheDog moment early in the film when she tries to save a colleague from being massacred. After her betrayal is revealed and after she awakens Rodan, Emma's actions have completely broken her relationship with her daughter -- after receiving an ArmorPiercingQuestion about whether or not her dead son would really want what she's done, Emma is at this point truly alone. Then there's the parental fear of her daughter being [[KidAmidstTheChaos in the midst]] of a city-destroying {{Kaiju}} battle (worse yet is Emma's knowledge that the battle will come upon Madison minutes before it does). Ultimately, Emma commits a HeroicSacrifice and is left dying in the street, moments before Fire Godzilla's metal-melting arrival...]]
** Her ex-husband Mark [[spoiler:is a non-antagonist example]]. He's rude, abrasive, self-righteous, cynical, vengefully bitter, he can be obstinately [[ItsAllAboutMe self-focused and inconsiderate of others]] when it comes to his grief and feeling sorry for himself; and he shows next to no appreciation, or even respect, towards his Monarch ex-colleagues when they're just trying to help him out and are ''[[UngratefulBastard focusing on saving his family]]''. However, Mark is as bad as he is at the movie's start partly because he's been unable to move past his little son being crushed to death amidst the San Francisco battle, and he blames Godzilla (who was one of the Kaiju involved in the battle and the only one that's still alive) for his loss. Plus, Mark feels a lot of shame, guilt and self-loathing over how badly he's let his daughter and now-ex wife down since Andrew died, and he's desperate not to lose them [[spoiler:(Madison alone after he finds out [[EvilAllAlong what Emma has become)]]]] as well once he learns that they're in danger.

** 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.

** Another inter-fandom example with ''Anime/GodzillaThePlanetEater'', released just 6 months before [=KOTM=]. Fans who enjoyed ''Planet Eater'' felt it had more interesting characters and themes, and saw it as a more sophisticated entry, while criticizing ''[=KOTM=]'' for being a dumb, mindless action movie that tries too hard to please die-hard Godzilla fans. Alternatively, fans of ''[=KOTM=]'' are quick to fire back by claiming the film still carries the look and feel of a Godzilla movie despite not being produced by Toho, and managed to deliver on not only a proper monster fight between Godzilla and King Ghidorah, but also had a more enjoyable and fun tone to it, denouncing ''Planet Eater'' for being too bleak, cynical, and often times pretentious, to find enjoyable.

** Since the casting of Millie Bobby Brown and Randy Havens, fans of this film have gotten along very well with ''Series/StrangerThings'' fandom. There are also fans who compare the female M.U.T.O to The Mind Flayer.
** With ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. Director Michael Dougherty has been very supportive to ''Avengers: Endgame'' and [[https://twitter.com/Mike_Dougherty/status/1108920404599463936 even posted a heartwarming tweet]] of a comic book cover of Marvel’s Godzilla featuring the Avengers and said, “This movie would make the world a better place.” Fans of both franchises took very kindly to this tweet and expressed love for the idea of a crossover between the two.
** Many fans of ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'' also get along really well with fans of this movie courtesy of the composer Music/BearMcCreary having worked for both projects which involve legendary battles between gods, monsters, and awesome soundtracks.
* GeniusBonus: The never-seen Titan of Africa is called "Mokele-Mbembe," a reference to a [[LivingDinosaurs legendary African sauropod dinosaur cryptid.]] Several other Titans seen or mentioned on-screen have names of mythological or biblical origin, such as "Scylla", "Behemoth", "Methuselah", "Bunyip" and so on, implying that most human legends and beliefs are based on those creatures' existence.

** 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:with a group of eco-terrorists attempting to unleash the Titans as a way to ''"save"'' the Earth with a machine that can manipulate them, only for GoneHorriblyWrong to ensue because they severely overestimate their ability to control the Titans and because they unwittingly unleash a creature which poses an even bigger threat to the world than humanity or the other Titans]].
** Joe Brody's iconic line in the last film[[note]]"And it's [Kaiju] gonna send us back to the Stone Age!"[[/note]] becomes this in light of the implications in this film's CreativeClosingCredits that the Titans actually [[spoiler:already did that to the human race once before, eradicating an AdvancedAncientHumans civilization that predates every other civilization on Earth, as a direct consequence of said civilization attempting to control and enslave the Titans]].
** In [[Film/Godzilla1954 the very first Godzilla movie]], [[spoiler:Dr. Serizawa was unwilling to use the Oxygen Destroyer on Godzilla as he feared that, in the wrong hands, it would be used as a destructive weapon on par with the atomic bomb. While not in the same continuity, we do get to see the military use an Oxygen Destroyer that was commissioned by the government as a weapon to use against their enemies, the Titans. Dr. Serizawa’s greatest fear has become a reality.]]
** [[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}} and the ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' graphic novel mentioning that Graham grew close to both Emma and Madison in the years after the events in San Francisco.

* AcceptableTargets: Aside from the [[StrawCharacter portrayal of the government]]; in the novelization, Asher reminisces on a time when he and Jonah doled out their own brand of justice on some game-hunters in Africa. The novel establishes that Ash is an idealistic young man who doesn't enjoy the killing he commits, but even he has nothing but catharsis in the memories of whatever he and Jonah did to those game-hunters.

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:In response to the tyrannical alien dragon bringing global death and suffering, along with the [[HeroKiller death of Mothra]], [[GoodIsNotSoft Godzilla pulls off a massive and merciless]] NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on [[SatanicArchetype King Ghidorah]] by blowing off his wings, his side heads, and the rest of his body from the neck down before blowing up the agonizing central head with an ''[[BreathWeapon Atomic Breath]]''. Basically, don't piss off the Big G, aka the ''true'' King of Monsters.]]
* CharacterRerailment: Ghidorah returns to become the unstoppable and terrifying [[spoiler:alien]] OmnicidalManiac acting out of his own will that he was introduced as in ''Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster'' after spending almost all of his appearances afterwards as the resident PsychoForHire for the next AlienInvaders VillainOfTheWeek after another, suffering progressive VillainDecay through the franchise as a result. Here, even when the human villains do try to control him like the alien villains had done before, Ghidorah immediately proves to be EvilerThanThou and they barely escape from his wrath.

** Kaiju fans are already pretty much begging to hug the monsters, but Mothra's larva form takes the cake with its adorable monstrous appearance. She will still attack without hesitation if you strike her first even in this form, though.

** In a darker way, as monstrous and terrifying evil as Ghidorah is, there's something rather amusing about the way Ghidorah's three heads occasionally disagree like bickering siblings. The left head is especially [[https://twitter.com/search?q=ghidorah%20kevin&src=typed_query adored by]] [[https://www.tumblr.com/search/ghidorah+kevin the fans]] for its GeniusDitz and MinionWithAnFInEvil personality.
* CriticalDissonance: Received mediocre reviews from critics, with a 42% Rotten Tomatoes score and 48/100 Metacritic average and with many lambasting its tone, plot, and characters. However, audience reception was much more positive, with 83% and 71/100 audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic respectively, and received overwhelming praise from Godzilla fans, both old and new, for its ramped up Kaiju action and tributes to the classic Toho films.

** A weird example; one of Ghidorah's ''heads'' gets this treatment. Many fans like to depict the left head, nicknamed "San" or more often "Kevin", as the TokenGoodTeammate of the three, focusing on the fact that he's TheDitz and more curious and easily distracted than his brothers. Even the director has [[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-godzilla-director-ghidorah-mothra-rodan-20190602-story.html gotten in on this interpretation]], joking that Kevin would likely not be such a bad guy if he could call more of the shots.
** Rodan, to a lesser extent. A number of fans have sympathized with the Fire Demon, claiming that he's not a really bad guy, and was just minding his own business before stupid humans fire missiles at him and force him to fight Ghidorah, who in turn beat him and force him to fight Godzilla and Mothra. Never mind that he shows unprecedented aggression towards the humans, clearly enjoying himself as he picked them out one by one--unlike Godzilla, who is willing to ignore the humans' hostility against him as long as it doesn't interfere with his goals, and Mothra, who is able to drive off aggressors in a non-violent way.
** Mark Russell to a slight degree. Fans and fanfics are likely to focus on his sympathetic qualities and trauma, but downplay or overlook the bits where he acts high-horsed and where he treats his ex-colleagues like shit most of the time for the first half of the film.
** From his lovers, Admiral Stenz gets this in regards to the Oxygen Destroyer's launch. Viewers who really like him are quick to argue that he was JustFollowingOrders and that he actually personally disagrees with the weapon's usage against the Titans, despite what Stenz's choice of words ("With any luck it'll '''kill these things''' and '''this nightmare will finally be over'''") and his vocal tone (he sounds purely annoyed when refuting Serizawa's protest) indicate.
** Though it's very slight, the government figures such as Senator Williams in the start of the film get this in regards to their GottaKillEmAll demands regarding the Titans, as described under MisaimedFandom.

** King Ghidorah's left head has proven to be popular due to its curiosity and surprisingly Adorkable nature (also, WordOfGod confirms his name as "San" (AKA Kevin), with the other heads especially the [[EnragedByIdiocy center's]] interaction with it being praised.
** Of the original Titans in the film, Behemoth (the one which resembles a woolly mammoth) is probably the most popular of them, probably for having a very distinct design and being one of the rare examples of a mammalian kaiju (besides Kong, of course).
*** This seems to also be an InUniverse case as in the novelization a researcher frees him before Monarch can kill him due to finding him to be "the most interesting titan".
** The older Houston Brooks who appears late in the film. For simply being a returning character from ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' and for now being played by EnsembleDarkhorse king Creator/JoeMorton.

** Based on Michael Dougherty's claim that a character from ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' will show up in the movie, fans speculated Charles Dance's character is none other than an aged up James Conrad, [[TimeShiftedActor who was previously played by]] Tom Hiddleston in ''Skull Island''.
*** Ultimately jossed, as it's revealed that Charles Dance plays Alan Jonah, the leader of an eco-terrorist organization seeking to weaponize the Titans. The ''Skull Island'' character in question is an older Brooks, now played by Creator/JoeMorton.
** The second trailer teases two additional monsters: one a multi-legged crustacean-like creature and another being a shelled, mountain-like monster. While generally thought of as brand-new kaiju created by Legendary, some are speculating that the spider-creature might be Kumonga, Ebirah, Destroyah, or even "Vishnu" from the 2014 teaser trailer; while the mountain-creature has been theorized to be Anguirus, Kamoebas, or even Gamera.
*** This was intensified upon the reveal that there's ''17'' reported kaiju, and various have been getting curious codenames like "Leviathan" and "Bunyip", driving speculation on what kaiju these could be up to eleven.

** King Ghidorah is as badass as ever in this movie and stays true to his original portrayal in ''Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster'' as an unstoppable, world-ending [[spoiler:alien]] force of nature.

* MisaimedFandom: A surprising number of viewers thought the government was being reasonable with their GottaKillEmAll demands at the start of the film. Said viewers argued that with what little the human race knows about the Titans at the film's start before the ending proves Serizawa and Emma were right about how the Titans are essential to maintaining Earth's ecosphere, the government's demand comes off as highly understandable. Of course, this argument ignores the fact that Monarch have already established before the film's start that the Titans are ecologically essential, and that the government are basically getting it into their heads that they ''somehow'' know better than the professional Titan experts.

** 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 after it awoke, what [[spoiler:Emma]] ''can't'' be let off easy for is this: after the newly-awakened Ghidorah fully establishes its Ax-Crazy true nature by incinerating the G-Team ForTheEvulz in full view of Emma's Osprey, Emma actively tries to stop Madison from using the ORCA to distract Ghidorah from killing Mark and anyone else. Whilst the disoriented Ghidorah does after several moments of bearing the amplified signal turn his attention to blasting their Osprey to make the signal stop, Emma actually moves to stop Madison several moments before that, at the very ''second'' Madison grabs the ORCA and tries to save the lives of her father and Emma's colleages.
** Alan Jonah toes the line in his first few scenes with the brutal and cold-blooded massacres he conducts at Monarch outposts (particularly notable is him looking a Monarch scientist who has his hands up in surrender dead in the eye, then shooting him point blank). The latest possible point of his crossing is when he [[spoiler:shrugs off Emma's concerns that King Ghidorah is doing the complete opposite of restoring the planet's balance]], [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist revealing that saving the Earth was just his excuse]] and he's [[OmnicidalManiac willing to let the]] ''[[OmnicidalManiac entire planet]]'' [[OmnicidalManiac die]] out of misanthropic spite.
** King Ghidorah himself crosses it ''[[EstablishingCharacterMoment in his very first scene]]''. If not when kills the G-Team despite knowing full well they pose no threat to him, then for sure when he eats [[spoiler:Dr. Graham (who was running away from him and did nothing to provoke him, instead of focusing on Godzilla who Ghidorah had down on the ground)]]; all ForTheEvulz.

** Fans may have been caught off-guard by [[spoiler:Ghidorah's ability to regrow his heads]], but this isn't the first time the character has shown such abilities: In ''Rebirth of Mothra 3'', [[spoiler:Grand King Ghidorah regenerated his ''entire body'' from one of Cretaceous Ghidorah's severed tails!]]

* 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]]. On the other hand, it's been cited as a reason for the film's box office underperformance; while King Ghidorah, Mothra and Rodan are iconic among fans of the franchise, they're [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure not very well-known to general audiences]], meaning the SequelEscalation [[SequelAdaptationIconicVillain implied by their presence]] didn't register and the trailers appeared to be [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks more of the same]].

** Admiral Stenz and the military have been subjected to this following this film. Besides Stenz' haters assuming he greenlit the Oxygen Destroyer's launch (which to be fair is entirely possible), viewers tend to say the military were targeting Godzilla as well as Ghidorah when the [=O.D.=] was launched. This ignores that Stenz only contacted Monarch in the very same moment that Ghidorah had just finished fighting Rodan, quite a while before Godzilla arrived on the scene, indicating that the "things" Stenz said the O.D. was meant to kill were in fact Ghidorah and Rodan rather than Ghidorah and Godzilla.
** Ghidorah himself gets a LoveToHate 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 onscreen suggested.

** Certain viewers of the 2014 ''Godzilla'' movie also found Godzilla to be something of a DesignatedHero due to the amount of collateral damage and mass destruction he indifferently causes onscreen while pursuing the [=MUTOs=] (particularly the tsunami he brings to Hawaii), in contrast to how the classic Toho movies which portrayed Godzilla as the hero would often sugar-coat him and make him out to be a more idealistic AntiHero who conveniently avoids harming any innocents when he trashes a city block. This film implies early on that because of the destruction in the 2014 movie, not everyone regards Godzilla as a hero, and some people (like Mark Russell) outright want Godzilla's blood for it.
** Something which 2014 viewers criticized Dr. Serizawa for was his and Dr. Graham's advocation against the military's plan to nuke all three Kaiju, [[NuclearOption taking the military's side on the matter]] due to that film presenting the military as (mostly) rational if out of their depth and due to the fact the film doesn't explicitly vindicate Serizawa and Graham's worries -- although that film did give the military some intelligence and sympathetic points, ultimately, it was clearly intending to portray their decision to use the nuke as a NukeEm move which likely would have made things worse rather than better if used against the Kaiju. And the 2014 film's graphic novel prequel ''Godzilla: Awakening'' did not help its case, with how the '54 bombing against Godzilla and Shinomura [[StrawmanHasAPoint ultimately solved everyone's problems without any catches]]. [[spoiler:This film ''explicitly'' demonstrates when Godzilla is nuked point-blank to revitalize him that nuking a Kaiju runs the risk of turning them into a walking, ticking, invincible hydrogen bomb which is basically running on steroids for a matter of hours before it explodes]].

** In the original ''Godzilla'' film, Dr. Serizawa's claims of Godzilla's ecological importance were kind of hard to take seriously for some, despite the fact that this influence [[RealityIsUnrealistic exists in real-life with keystone species.]] In this film, [[spoiler:it's more explicitly shown that TheCuckoolanderWasRight, with the ending revealing the presence of the awakened Titans is having a massive healing effect on damaged ecosystems.]]
** The official {{novelization}} recontextualizes a few problems viewers had with the film in order to amend them:
*** Master Sergeant Hendricks and the rest of the G-Team's red shirts that weren't already slaughtered by the eco-terrorists, turning around and firing on the freshly-awakened Ghidorah with ''regular'' machine guns is considered one of the most glaring instances of TooDumbToLive in the movie, and in the [=MonsterVerse=] overall (which is no small feat given that trope's history with the kaiju genre). The novelization [[AdaptationalExplanation makes it explicitly clear]] that the soldiers ''knew'' their guns couldn't do much more than draw Ghidorah's attention and maybe annoy him, and that they were committing a HeroicSacrifice by trying to keep Ghidorah focused on them to buy the main cast more time to escape.
*** Although it wasn't a major point of contention, many fans were disappointed that Kong doesn't get any more than a couple mentions in the film, seeing it as a missed opportunity to begin setting up his fight with Godzilla in the next film. The novelization features an extra scene from Kong's P.O.V. on Skull Island, which reveals how Kong responded (or rather ''didn't'' respond) to King Ghidorah's alpha call, and that Kong is absent from the movie's events because he's too busy keeping the Skullcrawlers that are responding to Ghidorah's call from escaping Skull Island; making Kong the HeroOfAnotherStory while still putting him in the narrative.
*** A criticism levied at the movie is how majorly Jonah and his goons grasp the VillainBall during the last hour of the run-time [[spoiler:by (A) leaving the incredibly-valuable and dangerous ORCA unguarded in a non-secure room and (B) leaving their [[TheMillstone Millstone]]-level conscientious TokenGoodTeammate Madison completely unsupervised]]; enabling Madison to steal the ORCA right out from under the eco-terrorists' noses. The novelization slightly amends this by revealing that Jonah ''did'' leave one particularly-intimidating goon to guard the ORCA, and Madison barely avoided being foiled by that mook when he almost caught her red-handed.

** 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.
** It can also be seen as more of one to ''Film/Gamera2AdventOfLegion'', both films have an alien threat from outer space arriving on Earth to terraform the planet to suit their needs, involve the heroic monster temporarily out of commission due to an explosion (though it's Legion who put Gamera out of commission rather than humans) and followed by the heroic monster using a massive power boost to finally obliterate their opponents along with the aforementioned questioning of the kaiju's benevolence and intentions with humans.

** Many have also complained at changing the catch-all designation of giant monsters from "M.U.T.O.s" to "Titans", changing their overall feel from being cryptids to being straight up eldritch gods. Though it could be very likely that it was changed to avoid confusion with the "M.U.T.O.s" from the previous film, since the name is associated with those two far too often. Given the more god like appearance of the monsters in this upcoming film, the name "Titans" could be more fitting.

* ToughActToFollow: Not necessarily the film itself (although it does have fans who hold it in higher regard than [[Film/GodzillaVsKong the follow-up]]), but rather its soundtrack; in the Franchise/MonsterVerse overall. After Music/BearMcCreary[='s=] god-tier work on this film which was nominated for four Best Music and Best Original Score awards (on top of the film winning two HPA Awards for Outstanding Sound), a lot of viewers who watched ''King of the Monsters'' and subsequently watched ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' couldn't help feeling underwhelmed by the new film's soundtrack, which had a different soundtrack composer.

** While the character of [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] is clearly not ''supposed'' to be fully sympathetic, much is made of her tragic backstory, including the loss of a child during [[Film/Godzilla2014 the first Godzilla attack]], fueling her determination to take drastic action to fix the world. Unfortunately, said "drastic action" involves working with an eco-terrorist paramilitary group to unleash monsters en-masse and bring human death on a truly massive scale, and the film never really acknowledges the hypocrisy of it; instead painting her protectiveness over her remaining offspring as a redeeming quality rather than drawing attention to the incredible cognitive dissonance necessary to condemn hundreds of millions, even billions of other parents' children to their deaths "for the greater good," [[spoiler: to say nothing of her own ex-husband and co-workers]]. [[spoiler:Emma abandoning her plans to rescue Madison]] is supposed to be her redeeming quality winning out, but since she's already [[spoiler:condemned millions of other parents' children to die as part of her plan, it debatably comes off as her being [[MoralMyopia Morally Myopic]] instead]]. Indeed, Alan Jonah's constant sniping at them about her attitude is ''supposed'' to be a KickTheDog moment, but instead comes across as him rightfully calling the character out.
** Although he's still widely considered a comparatively better character than Emma, Mark Russell has some of this himself regarding his [[MisplacedRetribution attitude toward Godzilla]]. We're supposed to sympathize with his pain and understand where he's coming from with his hatred towards Godzilla for the latter's role in the San Francisco battle which killed Mark's son. However, whilst the movie does portray Mark as ultimately being in the wrong for hating Godzilla and holding onto revenge, there's one crucial factor in San Fran's destruction that the movie does ''not'' acknowledge in any shape or form, not even when Mark is admitting that he needs to let go of his hatred: '''the [=MUTOs=]''' were the beasts responsible for starting the city's destruction, whereas Godzilla's involvement began and ended with him stopping and killing the [=MUTOs=]. This makes Mark's grudge against Godzilla in the present look less like an understandable if misguided reaction by an emotionally-wrecked man to Andrew's death, and more like Mark is a spiteful man who was so petty as to latch onto the very creature who essentially ''avenged'' his son's death as a target for him to hate, just because the [=MUTOs=] weren't alive long enough for him to hate them. The fact that Mark unfairly lashes out at his completely-courteous Monarch ex-colleagues in an extremely rude and at times hypocritical manner because they won't indulge his rage doesn't do him many favors, nor does the movie's AMillionIsAStatistic treatment of the Russells' grief relative to millions of other people's.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Over a year after the film was first released, [[https://youtu.be/Hr0GBJ7VJsI this]] ''WebVideo/UpFromTheDepths'' video goes into great detail about some of the deeper spiritual themes and symbolism working just under the film's crust. Some of it is fairly obvious, such as Godzilla and Ghidorah being God and Satan respectively, but some of it is pretty deep, such as Serizawa's sacrifice being thematically a literal human sacrifice by which humanity atones for having sinned against God(zilla), and the Russells representing [[FlatEarthAtheist disbelief]] (Mark) and [[BeliefMakesYouStupid dogma]] (Emma), with Madison as the balance between the two extremes, and the final reconciliation of the family showing balance being regained (just prior to Godzilla's final defeat of Ghidorah, to drive the symbolism home). While it may not necessarily elevate the film beyond "dumb monster movie," it does make it a ''smarter'' "dumb monster movie."
* WhatMeasureIsANonBadass: Rodan gets this. He annihilates Monarch's Gold Squadron of jets in an aerial battle with ease, and he manages to severely cripple Mothra before their battle ends, but he's a MemeticLoser because he's nowhere near the power level of the Alpha Titans Godzilla and King Ghidorah (one of whom makes Rodan back down with but a DeathGlare while the other curb-stomps Rodan in barely over one minute), even though Mothra herself is an Alpha Titan.

* TheWoobie: Madison does not have any easy time throughout the movie. Aside from how her older brother's death when she was a small child tore her and her parents apart, [[spoiler:she gets manipulated by her own mother into joining an EcoTerrorist paramilitary]], is surrounded by Monarch people being massacred by the dozens, will likely be having some ShellShockedVeteran-style nightmares for a while after her traumatic close calls with Ghidorah and other Titans [[spoiler:in Boston (which included what was implied to be a near-death experience)]], and she watches helplessly as [[spoiler:''another'' member of her family]] dies rather violently in a HeroicSacrifice (in a rather similar setting to the her brother's death, no less).
* WoobieFamily: The Russell family, arguably. After Andrew was tragically killed when he was twelve years old in the San Francisco incident, it pretty much tore the family apart. Besides how Andrew's death turned Emma and Mark into {{Jerkass Woobie}}s, the film's events unquestionably turn Madison (who's pretty much the only one who isn't badly screwed up by Andrew's death) into TheWoobie.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Godzilla’s design in [[Film/Godzilla2014 2014]], while praised for being truer to the Toho Godzilla than [[Film/Godzilla1998 the previous American Godzilla]], was criticized by fans in a few areas, such as the dorsal spins being too small and too reminiscent of the jagged spikes that took over since ''Film/Godzilla2000'', and the infamous elephant feet. This film updated the spines to resemble the more traditional maple leaf spines from [[Film/Godzilla1954 1954]], and the claws on his toes were enlarged to make the feet look more even.
** After suffering through VillainDecay in some of [[Film/DestroyAllMonsters the]] [[Film/GodzillaVsGigan past]] [[Anime/GodzillaThePlanetEater movies]], King Ghidorah [[spoiler:is back to his original, villainous, and terrifying portrayal seen in ''Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster'', as a stand-alone planet destroying menace who proves his dominance over other Kaiju]].
** The first film suffered a case of DigitalDestruction upon home release, which affected every copy by darkening the scenes to the point of having to brightening the screen. WB gave this movie has a proper home video release with better video presentation.
** Although Alexandre Desplat's score for the 2014 film was well-received, many fans were disappointed that it failed to incorporate any of Akira Ifukube's classic themes from the original films. Evidently, Bear [=McCreary=] agreed, as his score for ''King of the Monsters'' features liberal uses of Ifukube's compositions, including the iconic Godzilla and Mothra themes, and as a bonus, he even included a cover of the beloved Music/BlueOysterCult song "Godzilla" sung by Serj Tankian.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Emma Russell and Admiral Willian Stenz again. See [[YMMV/MonsterVerse here]] for details.

*** Although it wasn't a major point of contention, many fans were disappointed that King Kong doesn't even get mentioned during the film, seeing it as a missed opportunity to begin setting up their eventual fight. The novelization then reveals that Kong is too busy [[spoiler:keeping the Skullcrawlers from responding to Ghidorah's call for help]] to make an appearance, making him the HeroOfAnotherStory while still putting him in the narrative.

* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Emma Russell is arguably the single most intense example in the [=MonsterVerse=], and is saved from being TheScrappy only by TheExtremistWasRight and StrawmanHasAPoint. She's either one of the most interesting and tragic characters of the film, whose backstory of losing her son during the first Godzilla attack in 2014 [[spoiler:and joining an eco-terrorist group out of revenge towards mankind]] made her an engaging character to follow, or the most detestable lead in a Godzilla movie for [[spoiler:dooming the world by freeing deadly giant monsters to destroy it]], as well as putting the safety of her daughter at risk by [[spoiler:forcing her to be with the eco-terrorists she's allied with]], which was seen as hypocritical to her cause.
** Admiral Willian Stenz again. See [[YMMV/MonsterVerse here]] for details.

** Someething which 2014 viewers criticized Dr. Serizawa for was his and Dr. Graham's advocation against the military's plan to nuke all three Kaiju, [[NuclearOption taking the military's side on the matter]] due to that film presenting the military as (mostly) rational if out of their depth and due to the fact the film doesn't explicitly vindicate Serizawa and Graham's worries -- although that film did give the military some intelligence and sympathetic points, ultimately, it was clearly intending to portray their decision to use the nuke as a NukeEm move which likely would have made things worse rather than better if used against the Kaiju. And the 2014 film's graphic novel prequel ''Godzilla: Awakening'' did not help its case, with how the '54 bombing against Godzilla and Shinomura [[StrawmanHasAPoint ultimately solved everyone's problems without any catches]]. [[spoiler:This film ''explicitly'' demonstrates when Godzilla is nuked point-blank to revitalize him that nuking a Kaiju runs the risk of turning them into a walking, ticking, invincible hydrogen bomb which is basically running on steroids for a matter of hours before it explodes]].

*** Although it wasn't a major point of contention, many fans were disappointed that King Kong doesn't even get mentioned during the film, seeing it as a missed opportunity to begin setting up their eventual fight. The novelization then reveals that Kong is too busy [[spoiler:keeping the Skullcrawlers from responding to Gidorah's call for help]] to make an appearance, making him the HeroOfAnotherStory while still putting him in the narrative.

* AssPull: Emma Russell [[spoiler:joining Alan Jonah and his eco-terrorist gang and helping them unleash the Titans against humanity because she thinks it could "honor" her son Andrew's death and help the world be better, despite the fact that Andrew's death in itself occurred in a Titan attack back in [[Film/Godzilla2014 2014]]. In other words, Emma knew very well and very personally how bad unleashing gigantic living natural disasters was, yet she actually thought creating a million repeats of her son's death on everyone else was the best way to honor his memory, making her decision to support the eco-terrorists a colossal {{doublethink}}. And since she knows that the terrorists are evil people, it makes even less sense for her to think they would let her stop the rampaging Titans once she loses control of them.]]

** In the original ''Godzilla'' film, Dr. Serizawa's claims of Godzilla's ecological importance were kind of hard to take seriously for some, despite the fact that this influence [[RealityIsUnrealistic exists in real-life with keystone species.]] In this film, [[spoiler:it's shown that TheCloudCuckoolanderWasRight, with the ending revealing the presence of the awakened Titans is having a massive healing effect on damaged ecosystems.]]

** Although it wasn't a major point of contention, many fans were disappointed that King Kong doesn't even get mentioned during the film, seeing it as a missed opportunity to begin setting up their eventual fight. The novelization then reveals that Kong is too busy [[spoiler:keeping the Skullcrawlers from responding to Gidorah's call for help]] to make an appearance, making him the HeroOfAnotherStory while still putting him in the narrative.

* AssPull: Emma Russel [[spoiler:joining Alan Jonah and his eco-terrorist gang and helping them unleash the titans against humanity just because she thinks it could help the world be better. Despite the fact that she lost her own son, Andrew Russel, to a titan attack back in [[Film/Godzilla2014 2014]]. In other words, Emma knew how bad unleashing killer creatures was so it wouldn't make sense for her to join the villains in helping them destroy humanity. And since she knows that the terrorists are evil people, it makes even less sense for her to think they would let her stop the rampaging titans.]]

** In the original ''Godzilla'' film, Dr. Serizawa's claims of Godzilla's ecological importance were kind of hard to take seriously for some, despite the fact that this influence [[RealityIsUnrealistic exists in real-life with keystone species.]] In this film, [[spoiler:it's shown that TheCloudCuckoolanderWasRight, with the ending revealing the presence of the awakened Titans is having a massive healing effect on damaged ecosystems.]]
** [[Film/Godzilla2014 The 2014 film]] was criticized by fans for focusing too much on the human drama and not giving the monsters enough attention. The filmmakers have addressed this by balancing out both the human story and the monster fights, giving the monsters and the threats at large a much greater presence. [[CriticalDissonance Sadly, this became even more polarizing among critics]].

** Although it wasn't a major point of contention, many fans were disappointed that King Kong doesn't even get mentioned during the film, seeing it as a missed opportunity to begin setting up their eventual fight. The novelization then reveals that Kong is too busy [[spoiler:keeping the Skullcrawlers from responding to Gidorah's call for help]] to make an appearance, making him the HeroOfAnotherStory while still putting him in the narrative.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** [[spoiler:Vivienne Graham]]'s death. See [[YMMV/MonsterVerse here]] for details.
** Whilst [[spoiler:the handling of Serizawa's death]] was a lot better-received than the above, there are still some who complain about it and [[spoiler:Admiral Stenz's death (if the DeletedScene is considered canon)]], claiming that the film is both severing the Monsterverse's ties to the 2014 film and eliminating the most interesting human characters.

** [[spoiler:Another female M.U.T.O was also unexpected. Though this time, it’s implied that she will now be Godzilla’s ally in the future.]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Seeing as the film features non-speaking sentient kaiju, there's understandably room for quite a bit of this.
** Ghidorah's three heads have been subject to quite a lot of this, with fans arguing over which head is the most intelligent, most aggressive, most malicious, most tactical, etc.. It probably didn't help that Ichi (the middle head) and Ni (the right head) getting confused with each other by the audience when Ichi had a couple ItCanThink moments caused some Character ''Mis''interpretation.
*** Ni in particular has debatably been given [[FlatCharacter less clear personality]] than the other heads in the film proper. He's variously seen by fans either as the intelligent one, the aggressive one, or the middle head's loyal enforcer.
*** Looking up Monsterverse Ghidorah fanart and fanfiction demonstrates how San/Kevin (the left head) is variously interpreted as a somewhat AffablyEvil-type mild TokenGoodTeammate who is mainly just following his more sadistic brothers' lead, or as being just as evil and willfully-omnicidal as the other two heads.
*** Kevin's [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness moment of savagery]] when he bites down on Godzilla's neck with more eagerness than the other two heads and causes Godzilla a lot of extra pain, has been interpreted several ways. They've suggested it's because he's ObsessedWithFood (Ghidorah's heads are in the middle of VampiricDraining Godzilla), or because he [[ItsPersonal holds a grudge]] over Godzilla previously ripping off his head, and some viewers argue that Kevin overall acted more malevolent after his head was ripped off and regrown.
*** When Kevin's head is regenerating, Ichi rips the protective membrane which forms around the stump off before the skull has even fully re-formed. One has to wonder, is the membrane supposed to be ripped off at that point to make way for the regenerating head's growth, or is Ichi just bullying the brother that he always gets frustrated with?
** Speaking of Ghidorah in a more overall sense, it's very clear that Ghidorah is unnaturally sadistic and that he enjoys killing humans regardless of whether or not they're trying to pose a threat or challenge to him. But whereas previous incarnations of Ghidorah were {{Planet Destroyer}}s, the ambiguity of this incarnation's MysteriousPast and the cast's speculation that he might be trying to destroy Earth as part of a HostileTerraforming process has led to the following among some viewers. Is Ghidorah ultimately an animal (albeit a truly malicious one who is all too happy to KillAllHumans) who's found himself in an environment unlike the one his species are normally found in, and is converting it into a home which better suits his environmental preferences; or is he actually just straight-up driven by malice and hatred to kill as many living things that aren't him as possible? Note that the official novelizations of ''King of the Monsters'' and ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' as well as most ''Godzilla'' fans lean towards the latter interpretation of [=MonsterVerse=] Ghidorah.
*** When Ghidorah is preparing to kill [[spoiler:Madison]] with all three heads' Gravity Beams in Boston after disabling the ORCA, is Ghidorah doing this when the ORCA signal is no longer a threat purely because he's that sadistic or because he's pissed off with [[spoiler:Madison]] and wants payback for her crossing him?
*** When Ghidorah chomps down on Godzilla and starts VampiricDraining his excess radiation (causing Godzilla a ''lot'' of agony); is Ghidorah performing this vicious act to prevent Godzilla achieving his Burning Godzilla form with the added benefit of taking the radiation for himself (one does have to wonder WhyDontYouJustShootHim, since a broken neck would probably kill Godzilla even in that state); or is Ghidorah doing this instead of just shooting him out of sheer sadistic glee?
** Rodan's HeelFaceRevolvingDoor status leave a lot of room for speculation. Just how malevolent is he and what are the nature of his fluid allegiances? Is he truly a case of IFightForTheStrongestSide, is he LoyalToThePosition, or was he BrainwashedAndCrazy after Ghidorah took control of the world's Titans? As it stands right now Rodan's nest has become a tourist attraction in Fiji so he obviously isn't giving Godzilla any trouble, but it still leaves his true loyalties up in the air.
*** When Rodan decimates the Isla de Mara village, massacres the Gold Squadron and tries to destroy the ''Argo'', is he merely being territorial or is he just extremely ferocious and merciless at the smallest provocation? Note that the novelization explicitly points out that the missiles fired at Rodan when he was atop his volcano would logically be interpreted by an animal as a direct challenge for their territory.
*** And what about when Rodan initially challenged Ghidorah. Was he merely being territorial? Is he just that [[JustForPun hot blooded]]? Or was he actually loyal to Godzilla from the start and once the ''Argo'' led him to Ghidorah he tried to stall him until Godzilla could arrive, but quickly got overwhelmed and only gave his subservience because Godzilla was seemingly killed?
*** Also, Rodan's initial reaction to Godzilla in the final scene before Godzilla snorts at him -- with the way Rodan spreads his wings and screeches, it seems like he could be showing defiance before Godzilla shuts him down, or he could be doing that thing {{Starscream}} does where he hails and praises Megatron when it's clear the big mech's staying large and in charge today.
** A particular point of Rodan's HeelFaceRevolvingDoor also applies to all the other Titans that fall under Ghidorah's control when the latter usurps Godzilla's position as the reigning alpha. Are the other Titans rendered BrainwashedAndCrazy by Ghidorah, or is it a case of SmartAnimalInconvenientInstincts where the Titans follow their alpha regardless of what that alpha is going to do to the natural order?
** Is Godzilla and Mothra's companionship entirely down to species symbiosis, or is there a current of individual emotional companionship running underneath? Their cooperation, Mothra's HeroicSacrifice and Godzilla's ''brutal'' slaying of Ghidorah afterward could be them displaying genuine concern for each-other as individuals, or it could be their awareness of the need to win the fight against Ghidorah at any cost (Mothra's sacrifice unlocked a weakened Godzilla's SuperMode, and Ghidorah's HealingFactor made destroying every last piece of him a necessity).
--->'''Jackson Barnes''': So, her and Godzilla, they like, they got a thing going on?\\
'''Sam Coleman''': Symbiotic relationships between two different species aren't all that uncommon.
** Though the general implication in the film is that Godzilla came to the Hollow Earth city to heal using its radiation, some fans have provided the alternative interpretation that he came there to die, which would make sense if he knew how much of a threat Ghidorah really posed to the planet and that the three-headed monster had free reign while Godzilla was incapacitated.
** On the human side: does Alan Jonah let Emma leave to find Madison when she pulls a gun on him because he doesn't want to risk his own life, because he's vaguely amused and doesn't consider stopping her worth it, or because he has a pang of empathy due to his {{Backstory}} when she declares she won't lose a second child?
*** Also, at the end of the film, does Jonah [[spoiler:retrieve Ghidorah's decapitated head]] because he's had a complete IgnoredEpiphany response to Godzilla repairing the planet's ecosphere from manmade damage without genocide and Jonah is looking to see humanity destroyed; or is Jonah just retrieving the head so he can sell Ghidorah's DNA on the Titan DNA market to get himself and his operations by? The ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization lends a bit of credence to either interpretation.
** While Admiral Stenz obviously knew about the Oxygen Destroyer before he contacts Monarch to warn them to withdraw from the blast zone, how involved was he in the project? Fans have argued over whether Stenz believes the Oxygen Destroyer's deployment is a [[Film/TheAvengers2012 stupid-ass decision]] and just doesn't show it or he fully supports the reckless move. 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?
** It's unclear how Andrew Russell died in the San Francisco battle (namely which Titan killed him -- Godzilla or one of the [=MUTOs=]), which begs a question about Mark Russell's MisplacedRetribution. Does Mark somewhat understandably hate Godzilla more than any other Titan for directly causing his son's death, or was he so desperate for something to hate in his grief that when the [=MUTOs=] were killed, he put all the blame on the very same Titan who saved humanity from further destruction?

** Her ex-husband Mark is a [[spoiler:non-antagonist]] example. He genuinely loves his daughter Maddie and wants to do what it takes to rescue her. Yes, his {{backstory}} is tragic, and the way he's responded to his son's death at least makes sense (especially when compared to [[spoiler:how Emma responded]]), but that still doesn't justify him being a high-horsed {{jerkass}} to his former-colleagues before he TookALevelInKindness halfway through the film. He finds himself regretting not seeing his wife and daughter when he learns they've been kidnapped, he has a HopeSpot in Antarctica where he literally comes within metres of getting Madison back; and if finding VengeanceFeelsEmpty when [[spoiler:Godzilla is seemingly killed]] isn't bad enough, he then gets to watch as his wish coming true directly enables a three-headed [[spoiler:space]] monster to start turning the ''entire planet'' into its personal plaything and killing off the human race.

** To a milder extent, some viewers reacted this way to Mark Russell's grudge against Godzilla, pointing out that it comes off as dickish that he responds to his son's death in the [=MUTOs'=] havoc by blaming the very Kaiju who killed the [=MUTOs=] and in doing so prevented them from bringing even more destruction (essentially, it's like Mark is redirecting the blame for his son's death onto the very creature who actually avenged Andrew for him by killing the [=MUTOs=]). However, this interpretation assumes that it was the [=MUTOs=] who caused Andrew's death, and not Godzilla (who ''did'' cause some of the collateral damage on his own), and Mark outright states at one point later in the film that Godzilla killed his son.

* IdiotPlot: The plot only happens because almost none of the human characters seem to think through what they do. While it may not bother those who are JustHereForGodzilla, it still sticks out like a sore thumb:
** 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 (trying to keep the Titans contained) instead of taking any productive measures to find a peaceful coexistence between humans and Titans such as Serizawa preaches of. EcoTerrorist [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] cites Monarch's sheer inaction in the face of the government's own idiocy described below as one of the reasons why [[spoiler:Emma]] threw their lot in with Jonah and kicked off the movie's plot by setting Mothra and Ghidorah loose, and to [[spoiler:Emma]]'s credit, none of the Monarch brass are able to provide a logical counter-argument to that point.
*** 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; enabling the Titans to swiftly emerge under Ghidorah's command and begin ravaging the planet in their new Alpha's name as the DarkestHour descends.
*** This isn't Monarch's only area of ineptitude that impacts the plot. The whole plot begins when Monarch allows Emma, a woman with very clear PTSD (and very possibly other undiagnosed mental disorders), who furthermore previously got a number of people killed by a Titan in ''Godzilla Aftershock'' due to her FatalFlaw of getting too far ahead of herself, to create a device that can replicate sonar frequencies to communicate with Titans; and if Emma's colleagues have any concerns that her mental health might make her unfit to work on much less handle a device with that much power to influence animals which are practically {{Physical God}}s, then they're just as lax about the matter as they are about the government. Mark actually calls his ex-colleagues out on this. [[spoiler:It turns out that not only did letting Emma continue working on solving the Titan problem directly probably contribute to her SanitySlippage and FaceHeelTurn, it also enabled her to create the tool that would enable her and Jonah to forcibly awaken Ghidorah and set the apocalyptic conflict in motion]].
** 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 mentioned above, this is one of the reasons [[spoiler:Emma Russell]] throws their lot in with Jonah and starts the movie's plot. As a result of the government's idiocy, 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 [[spoiler:taken out of action]], and a now-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 alone 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 who could potentially challenge him, including a three-headed monster that was already suspected of being Godzilla's ArchEnemy ''before'' it was released. With Alan Jonah and his soldiers, this idiocy can be hand-waved because Jonah is a mentally-unstable NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist who'll run on any InsaneTrollLogic to justify letting as much of humanity as possible die when it comes down to it, 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, or given an ounce of serious thought to Godzilla's role in the established natural order, 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 (at least not on that day), Jonah and his forces including [[spoiler:Emma]] would have likely been arrested or killed, and their plot foiled.

* AssPull: Emma Russel [[spoiler:joining Alan Jonah and his eco-terrorist gang and helping them unleash the titans against humanity. Despite losing her own son, Andrew Russel, to a titan attack back in [[Film/Godzilla2014 2014]]. In other words, Emma knew how bad unleashing killer creatures was so it wouldn't make sense for her to join the villains in helping them destroy humanity.]]

** The movie proper has King Ghidorah perched atop an active volcano, roaring into the sky with a cross in the foreground, cementing him as the Devil to Godzilla's God.

*** This was intensified upon the reveal that there's ''17'' reported kaiju, and various have been getting curious codenames like "Leviathan" and "Bunyip", driving speculation on what kaiju these could be UpToEleven.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Two recurring criticisms of this film are too little monster action and uninteresting main human characters. Funnily enough, both those were gripes critics had with the 2014 film while this film actually ''ups'' the monster action by comparison.

* CriticalDissonance: Received mediocre reviews from critics, with many lambasting its tone, plot, and characters. However, it received overwhelming praise from Godzilla fans, both old and new, for its ramped up Kaiju action and tributes to the classic Toho films.

** Emma Russell. [[spoiler:She is perfectly willing to sacrifice millions if not ''billions'' of lives to reach her goals, she betrays her former colleagues and in doing so directly or indirectly secures many of their deaths (whether by the hands of Jonah's mercenaries, or by Ghidorah when she wakes it up), and she manipulates and drags her preteen daughter into an organization of ''radical paramilitary {{Eco-Terrorist}}s'' without thinking it through; to say nothing of how her goal involves collaterally putting millions of families through the very same pain of losing loved ones that she experienced. But she does genuinely care about her daughter and what Madison thinks of her deep down, and you can at least pity her for the loss of her son and her MyGodWhatHaveIDone realization, plus there's her subtle PetTheDog moment early in the film when she tries to save a colleague from being massacred. After her betrayal is revealed and after she awakens Rodan, Emma's actions have completely broken her relationship with her daughter -- after receiving an ArmorPiercingQuestion about whether or not her dead son would really want what she's done, Emma is at this point truly alone. Then there's the AdultFear of her daughter being in the midst of a city-destroying {{Kaiju}} battle (worse yet is Emma's knowledge that the battle will come upon Madison minutes before it does). Ultimately, Emma commits a HeroicSacrifice and is left dying in the street, moments before Fire Godzilla's metal-melting arrival...]]

* EightDeadlyWords: One of the recurring criticisms the film receives from viewers is that a good portion say they didn't give a damn about the new human characters such as the Russells who are introduced in this film -- the only humans these critics said they cared about if anyone are the returning characters from the 2014 film, [[spoiler:two of whom are killed off in this film whilst the third has an UncertainDoom]].

** To a milder extent, some viewers reacted this way to Mark Russell's grudge against Godzilla, pointing out that it comes off as dickish that he responds to his son's death in the [=MUTOs'=] havoc by blaming the very Kaiju who killed the [=MUTOs=] and in doing so prevented them from bringing even more destruction (essentially, it's like Mark is redirecting the blame for his son's death onto the very creature who actually avenged Andrew for him by killing the [=MUTOs=]). However, this interpretation assumes that it was the [=MUTOs=] who caused Andrew's death, and not Godzilla (who did cause some of the collateral damage on his own), and Mark outright states at one point later in the film that Godzilla killed his son.

** 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 who could potentially challenge him, including a three-headed monster that was already suspected of being Godzilla's ArchEnemy ''before'' it was released. With Alan Jonah and his soldiers, this idiocy can be hand-waved because Jonah is a mentally-unstable NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist who'll run on any InsaneTrollLogic to justify letting as much of humanity as possible die when it comes down to it, 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.

*** 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.