Reviews Film / Godzilla King Of The Monsters 2019

A Beautiful Dissapoitment

I've been a Godzilla fan ever since I was three years old, and once the news that the 2014 film was getting a sequel featuring the big four of Toho, i was less than happy. I already hate the second American G-Film as is (which will be saved for another review) I figured this film wouldn't be much better. Then i heard that Michael Dougherty was stepping in as director, and I was excited! I like Krampus, so I figured this couldn't be so bad.

Then came opening night...

I stills say it still probably would be better than whatever Gareth Edwards was gonna churn out, but this wasn't much better unfortunately. Alright, enough flashbacks, lets start with the characters: bland as can be. Mark Russel is the only character I have actually managed to like in this entire film, with his wife Emma being a confusing antagonist that feels so close to begin engaging, but falls on her face, and his daughter, played by none other than Millie Bobby Brown, does nothing more but scream in the most annoying way possible! We have the "comic relief" characters that add almost nothing to the plot, Zihy Zhang (I butchered her name didn't I?) who also doesn't add anything, the African-American women who pilots the Argo doesn't add anything.. y'know it's already bad when it feels like almost half the cast could've been cut.

Now we have the bad guy, whoever his name was, that also doesn't do crap! No wonder his actor hated his role, there's literally nothing for him to do! We don't know anything about him (The Aftershock tie-in book doesn't help) and he isn't even intimidating as an antagonist. That's the worse thing you can do for a villain, not make them intimidating. Serizawa and Graham, two of the only redeeming graces in this movie and its prequel, dead, and now these films have almost nothing to fall back on for an interesting human cast in the slightest. Thankfully, there's two redeeming graces that help save it from begin complete crap: the Kaiju and the Music... the former, however, isn't without it's faults either.

I love what they did with Mothra and Rodan, not enough to make them my favorite versions of the characters but still incredibly well done. Unfortunately though, I can't say the same for Ghidorah. He looks too generic. He's the same as almost every other modern-day CGI Western dragon, just with three heads and two tails. Seriously, compare Monster Verse Ghidorah to Smaug, they look almost exactly the same! For Godzilla himself, I am very glad they ditched those dull back spikes from the 2014 film for much better classical ones. Not sure why the tail was changed though. Not only did it's spike tip make it look more intimidating, but the shorter length also makes it look weaker. The new Titans are a mix bag. Behemoth is lovable, but Methuselah, Scylla and the Queen M.U.T.O.. Not much love for them from me. Especially the latter, since it just adds to the really confusing life cycle the M.U.T.O's have in this universe. The CG models themselves look spectacular mind you, I don't hate them. It's just the kaiju themselves.

Now we have the music, which is beautifully done by Bear Mc Creary. When he went ahead and remade the classic Ifukube scores, they sound amazing!. But then when he makes his own new themes, they sound bland as heck. Ghidorah and Rodan's themes are not awe inspiring, not powerful, not indimidating. They're just lame and sound like they're trying too hard. I tried listening to them multiple times, but no matter how many times I do, I forget about them minutes later.

Sorry to say my fellow G-Fans, but I found this movie to be completely overrated to the franchise. If you like it, more power to all of you, but there's only so many things I found good about this movie, the rest I can do without. And if Godzilla vs. Kong too fails... I have to say, I will no longer invest in the Monster Verse as a whole. Far as I'm concerned, King of the Monsters is a beautifully looking, but bitter dissapoitment through and through.

4/10