Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Review

"You're a monster."

-Madison Russell

Five years after the events of Godzilla, an eco-terrorist, Alan Jonah (Charles Dance), begins attacking Monarch facilities that are holding various Titans at bay in order to unleash the monsters on humanity.  When his ex-wife and daughter are kidnapped by Jonah, former Monarch member Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) has to return to the organization to save mankind, but to do so they will have to turn to the creature that killed Mark's son, Godzilla (T. J. Storm).

I will be spoiling this movie below, but I do recommend this film.  It's on the stupid side, but it's a lot of fun and exactly what I want from my monster movies.

What Works:

The single most important ingredient in making a good monster movie is the destruction scenes.  This is what King of the Monsters gets perfectly.  The fight sequences are so much fun and far superior to anything in the 2014 film.  They're exciting and intense, plus they have variety.  There are really only three showdown sequences in the film, but, man, are they awesome.

The second most important ingredient in making a good monster movie is making sure the humans don't get in the way of the movie.  This where the 2014 movie failed miserably.  For the most part, this sequel succeeds.  The human parts certainly aren't boring.  They may be a little stupid and silly at times, but I don't mind that.  It goes along with the monster movie aspect of it all.

The best human factors are Kyle Chandler and Ken Watanabe.  Chandler is super likable and has a great character arc.  In the beginning of the the film, he simply wants to destroy all of the titans.  Fair enough.  He has a great motivation and a good point.  You can't help but root for him.  Watanabe has a very interesting relationship with Godzilla and the scene where they actually meet is pretty powerful.

I love that Vera Farmiga's character actually turns out to be one of the villains of the film, even though I have some issues with how her story ends.  She is the wife and mother of the two primarily characters of they story, which adds an interesting layer to the film, plus she's an easy to hate character.  When she calls Monarch to explain what she is up to, I wanted to feed her to Godzilla personally.  She's a fantastic villain for the first half of the film and makes it easy to get invested in our heroes plans to stop her.

Finally, the visual effects are spectacular.  Everything involving the creatures looks great, but we also get some interesting lighting thanks to lava and radiation.  Plus the storms created by Ghidorah look like something out of Mad Max: Fury Road and that is high praise.

What Sucks:

There are definitely some ridiculous moments where main characters should have died, but live thanks to their plot armor.  Godzilla arriving magically to save the day at the last second is fine to do once, but three times is a bit excessive.

As much as I enjoyed having Vera Farmiga as a villain for the first part of the film, I hate her character arc.  The movie gives her some redemption when she gets to die a heroes death.  The scene itself, a drive through Boston, is really awesome, but Farmiga's character should not have been the one to receive it.  All of this is her fault.  Countless people died because of her actions.  She is completely irredeemable.  She deserved a brutal death at the hands (or jaws) of a Titan.  Any other character should have gotten to go out in a blaze of glory, not her.

Verdict:

I had way more fun watching Godzilla: King of the Monsters than I did its predecessor.  The fight sequences are awesome, the visual effects are stunning, Kyle Chandler and Ken Watanabe are both great, and there are some interesting character dynamics where Vera Farmiga is involved.  I don't love how her character arc finishes and some of the situations the main characters survive are completely ridiculous, but I had a blast watching this and it has definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good