Title: Godzilla: King of the Monsters
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Michael Dougherty
Starring: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, O’Shea Jackson Jr., David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe, Zhang Ziyi
Runtime: 2 hr 12 mins
What It Is: The sequel to 2014’s Godzilla, this movie takes place five years after the events that transpired in it. In this movie we see title character face off against fellow monsters including Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah as they fight each other for dominance while the Monarch Agency continues their work. The movie was written and directed by Michael Dougherty and is the 3rd in Legendary Entertainment’s MonsterVerse (following the aforementioned Godzilla and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island).
What We Think: What’s not to love about giant creatures (or Kaiju) destroying buildings and leave a trail of destruction in their wake. That’s one of the reasons I loved Rampage (the 1980s video game, not the movie of the same name). And this movie definitely delivers with the destruction of major cities, while having a human interest type story with the main characters including newcomers to the franchise Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, and Kyle Chandler all having their own storyline togther.
Millie did a great job in her movie debut, as did the veteran actors who joined the franchise for the movie. The returning cast was very light with Ken Watanabe, and Sally Hawkins delivering some memorable lines in their roles.
Some of the other newcomers to the franchise included Charles Dance (who most viewers know as Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones, Bradley Whitford (who has been in more TV shows then I can count), Thomas Middleditch (from the very funny HBO show Silicon Valley) all of whom were used well in their roles.
While the movie does feature a lot of Kaiju (17 in total), I would have liked to see more battles between them. The main battle towards the end of the movie was terrific, as was a 2nd battle that was used to break the action up from the main one.
The score by veteran composer Bear McCreary had a few nods towards the classic Toho produced Godzilla movies, and over the first part of the credits was a cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s Godzilla song from System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian.
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Our Grade: B. The storyline was good, but felt a bit slow at times, and as I said above I would have liked more Kaiju battles. It is an enjoyable 2 hours and change, and definitely a good summer “popcorn” movie that fans of Godzilla movies and fans of big budget blockbusters may like. And for fans there is (what I thought) was a little nod/easter egg to the Toho movies involving Mothra. If you caught it, let me know here or on Twitter at fatj00.
All screenshots from the movie courtesy of Legendary Entertainment/Warner Bros.
