For someone who is as big a Godzilla fan as I am, the film felt fresh as often as it felt familiar. And I loved it.
Japan’s iconic Godzilla finally made the leap into a successful Americanized film in 2014’s Godzilla. That movie’s financial success caused Legendary Pictures to greenlight two sequels mere days after its release. The studio also announced the creation of a MonsterVerse, a cinematic universe for Godzilla to share with other giant monsters, including King Kong and old pals from his days at Toho Studios, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah.
Tying all of these films together is the mysterious organization called Monarch. First seen in Godzilla and then again in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, Monarch searches for what we would refer to as giant monsters. They refer to them as Massive Unknown Terrestrial Organisms (MUTOs).
In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Monarch has come under scrutiny for hiding the existence of these creatures from the public. Following the events seen in Godzilla, in which two MUTOs battled Godzilla in the middle of San Francisco, Monarch finds themselves trying to explain that Godzilla is not a malevolent creature but a benevolent one. He is nature’s way of balancing things. Since the “Battle of San Francisco,” Monarch has located and contained 17 MUTOs – now called Titans – across the globe.
A movement to exterminate Godzilla and the other Titans is beginning to gain traction with the governments of the world. While two Monarch scientists, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Dr. Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins,) are defending the organization to Congress, they receive word that a device called ORCA has been stolen. ORCA’s developer, Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) has also gone missing, along with her daughter, Madison (Millie Bobby Brown.)
ORCA is a device that mimics the bioacoustics that the Titans use to communicate. In the wrong hands, of course, it could be used for nefarious purposes. Monarch contacts Dr. Russell’s estranged husband and ORCA co-creator, Mark (Kyle Chandler), to have him assist in the location of the doctor, ORCA, and Madison.
What follows is a whirlwind of globe-trekking as Monarch and Mark attempt to find the ORCA, the abductors, the abducted, and Godzilla, who hasn’t been seen since San Francisco. Through a series of events that I won’t spoil, other monsters are unleashed, including Mothra, a giant moth; Rodan, a fire demon; and King Ghidorah, a three-headed dragon, who rivals Godzilla in terms of sheer power.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a far less believable film than 2014’s Godzilla or 2017’s Kong: Skull Island but that doesn’t make it less enjoyable. Those two movies actually feel somewhat sedate when compared to King of the Monsters. The human drama has been dialed back a bit and the monsters are allowed to slug it out more frequently (and violently) than we’ve seen before.
This movie is very much a love letter to Godzilla fans as much as it is an attempt to introduce the mythology of the character to a new audience. The script by Michael Doughtery, who also directed, and Zach Shields borrows elements from several of the Japanese Godzilla films. The musical score, by Bear McCreary, also inserts elements from Akira Ifukube and Yûji Koseki’s contributions to earlier Godzilla movies into the mix. For someone who is as big a Godzilla fan as I am, the film felt fresh as often as it felt familiar. And I loved it.
Does King of the Monsters have issues? Of course it does. One has to pull back hard on the reins of disbelief to swallow a lot of what is dished out on-screen. But that was the joy of the early Godzilla movies and this, a modern film made for modern audiences, recaptures that joy perfectly.
I can think of no better compliment than what I witnessed during my screening. As the credits rolled, a snippet of Akira Ifukube’s classic Godzilla theme began to play. A child, who I would guess was about five or six years old, suddenly shouted with glee, “Godzilla! Godzilla! I love him!”
I couldn’t have said it better myself, kid.
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
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