Godzilla...when you come at the king, you best not miss

A sequel to the 2014 version of Godzilla and at the same time an extension of the monsterverse franchise that continued with Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a film that delivers exactly what it promises. The log line for this movie should be ‘All kaiju, all the time’ because that’s pretty much what we have; a whisker over two hours of Godzilla alternately knocking seven bells out of monsters and having seven bells knocked out of him. And it’s great fun.

There’s no need to do all of that slow reveal of the monsters that you get in other movies. This film starts in 2014 at the end of the last movie with Godzilla stomping his way through what remains of San Francisco. Dodging his giant feet are scientists Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga and their kids.

Cut to five years later and we are in a post-Godzilla world in which other giant creatures known as Titans – ‘seventeen and counting’ – have been discovered. They are being held in secret by Monarch, the quasi-governmental SHIELD/Haliburton hybrid which is a constant in the monsterverse.

Enter a group of eco-terrorists led by Charles Dance who want to free all of the Titans believing they hold the key to a new, reborn, Earth. Their main target is the ultimate apex predator, the three-headed King Ghidorah. If he can be freed then all of the Titans will be drawn to him and in the aftermath of their rampaging the planet can be revitalised. Of course there is already an apex predator in the shape of Godzilla who plainly wants to have a say in proceedings.

The scene is set for a series of monstrous set pieces as the existing Titans – Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra – slug it out while Monarch tries to pick up the pieces. These battle scenes are thrilling moments of colossal combat as the behemoths are prepared to slug it out with the planet as the prize.

This surely is what you came in for. I have heard people say that the human stories and characters – Chandler and Farmiga and their whiny daughter Millie Bobby Brown – are one dimensional. So what? That’s like going to La Scala for the opera and complaining about the shade of the curtains; it’s not why you paid your money.

If I want to see Chandler and Farmiga agonise over marital difficulties I’ll got see Carol (2015) or Up in the Air (2009), in which they are both excellent. Here they are just characters who say some stuff to fill in the gap while the big guy catches his breath between slugfests. I don’t care. Likewise Brown could be replaced by a cardboard cut-out at any stage and you wouldn’t notice. Again, I don’t care.

The clue is in the title. It’s a Godzilla movie. Granted it’s not a Japanese Godzilla movie – of which Shin Godzilla (2016) is superb – but lacking those specific Japanese cultural tropes this is a very good monster movie.

There is much to admire here. I love that there is a sense of scale to Godzilla – a singular failing of the Japanese films. He starts off colossal here and then puts on a couple of growth spurts. I love too that Mothra is treated right; there was always a spiritual quality to her in the Toho movies and this is preserved here. My only regret on the monster front was the absence of Ebirah, star of Ebirah, Monster of the Deep (1966), star of my first kaiju movie and the first film I ever went to see on my own. Still, this is an expanding franchise so I still have high hopes.

Despite their lack of appreciable story or character Chandler and Farmiga do well with that they are given, as do the likes of Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, and Ken Watanabe. This is difficult to do with a straight face and their performances are wholehearted and absolutely what is needed.

So, does it have human drama and emotion? Not so much. Does it have kaiju laying waste to continents? In spades. That’s why Godzilla, King of the Monsters is such rip-roaring, knockabout, giant-sized fun and why you should stick around for the credits and the post-credits scene,

A sequel to the 2014 version of Godzilla and at the same time an extension of the monsterverse franchise that continued with Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a film that delivers exactly what it promises. The log line for this movie should be ‘All kaiju, all the time’ because that’s pretty much what we have; a whisker over two hours of Godzilla alternately knocking seven bells out of monsters and having seven bells knocked out of him. And it’s great fun.

There’s no need to do all of that slow reveal of the monsters that you get in other movies. This film starts in 2014 at the end of the last movie with Godzilla stomping his way through what remains of San Francisco. Dodging his giant feet are scientists Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga and their kids.

Cut to five years later and we are in a post-Godzilla world in which other giant creatures known as Titans – ‘seventeen and counting’ – have been discovered. They are being held in secret by Monarch, the quasi-governmental SHIELD/Haliburton hybrid which is a constant in the monsterverse.

Enter a group of eco-terrorists led by Charles Dance who want to free all of the Titans believing they hold the key to a new, reborn, Earth. Their main target is the ultimate apex predator, the three-headed King Ghidorah. If he can be freed then all of the Titans will be drawn to him and in the aftermath of their rampaging the planet can be revitalised. Of course there is already an apex predator in the shape of Godzilla who plainly wants to have a say in proceedings.

The scene is set for a series of monstrous set pieces as the existing Titans – Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra – slug it out while Monarch tries to pick up the pieces. These battle scenes are thrilling moments of colossal combat as the behemoths are prepared to slug it out with the planet as the prize.

This surely is what you came in for. I have heard people say that the human stories and characters – Chandler and Farmiga and their whiny daughter Millie Bobby Brown – are one dimensional. So what? That’s like going to La Scala for the opera and complaining about the shade of the curtains; it’s not why you paid your money.

If I want to see Chandler and Farmiga agonise over marital difficulties I’ll got see Carol (2015) or Up in the Air (2009), in which they are both excellent. Here they are just characters who say some stuff to fill in the gap while the big guy catches his breath between slugfests. I don’t care. Likewise Brown could be replaced by a cardboard cut-out at any stage and you wouldn’t notice. Again, I don’t care.

The clue is in the title. It’s a Godzilla movie. Granted it’s not a Japanese Godzilla movie – of which Shin Godzilla (2016) is superb – but lacking those specific Japanese cultural tropes this is a very good monster movie.

There is much to admire here. I love that there is a sense of scale to Godzilla – a singular failing of the Japanese films. He starts off colossal here and then puts on a couple of growth spurts. I love too that Mothra is treated right; there was always a spiritual quality to her in the Toho movies and this is preserved here. My only regret on the monster front was the absence of Ebirah, star of Ebirah, Monster of the Deep (1966), star of my first kaiju movie and the first film I ever went to see on my own. Still, this is an expanding franchise so I still have high hopes.

Despite their lack of appreciable story or character Chandler and Farmiga do well with that they are given, as do the likes of Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, and Ken Watanabe. This is difficult to do with a straight face and their performances are wholehearted and absolutely what is needed.

So, does it have human drama and emotion? Not so much. Does it have kaiju laying waste to continents? In spades. That’s why Godzilla, King of the Monsters is such rip-roaring, knockabout, giant-sized fun and why you should stick around for the credits and the post-credits scene,