Checked out Godzilla: King of the Monsters over the weekend. This is the sequel to the American 2014 Godzilla movie and exists in the same “monsterverse” as Kong: Skull Island (which is referenced multiple times in this movie). They are making a King Kong vs. Godzilla next year… presumably locked regardless of how well this one does.
And… I didn’t particularly like this sequel (I liked the original even with its faults of having fairly dull humans and not a lot of monster). This film also suffers from dull humans even made worse by having more of them, almost none with personality or backstory. The one family we’re supposed to care about… I didn’t. But the movie has more monsters and more monster fighting… but also not as much as you’d think. In fact, Godzilla is (once again, though not this time for creative reasons) kept off the stage for large portions of the flick.
Lack of monsters is a budget thing, I’m sure, as is waaaay too much of this movie taking place at night. In the rain. Or at dusk or during a volcanic eruption which makes the scenes murky. Or in the snow. At night. It just goes on and on this hazy, murky, dark looking film. Even Pacific Rim 2 decided to fight its giant robots vs. monsters in the daytime.
And, honestly, if all you want is giant monsters beating each other up, I don’t think this movie works on that level (regardless of the night and rain). There are a handful of wide epic shots… but most of it is filmed too tight and without any heft or scale. They tromp through a city and knock down buildings incidentally. It honestly starts to approach Transformers levels of visual noise… and it gets boring being so indistinct and inconsequential-feeling.
Plus it does something that too many big FX movies (and tv shows) do… the FX team and the director and the script aren’t on the same page. So they give us huge world-expansive special FX where we’re told seventeen monsters are trashing presumably seventeen cities. Washington DC is drowned and on fire (in a shot we have no build up for) and its very apocalyptic… yet it never feels as epic or catastrophic as it should given the story and what we’re shown.
This movie is a big let down. Sure it’s just a giant monster slugfest and how good can they be? Well, they can be plenty good. They can have heft and import, they can be fun and engaging. They can make you smile or squirm in horror. Both the 2014 Godzilla and the lighter Kong: Skull Island nailed what they set out to do… this one seemed to bow to criticism and tried to give us something more epic. But failed.
Score: 66