Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

[dashrendar44]

Emmerich's Zilla made more sense than this thing. How sway?

 

C-.

Edited June 6, 2019 by dashrendar44

[DAJK]

Made me miss Edwards. More action, sure, but it doesn't have any signature or flare to it. It's just a bunch of very talented CGI animators throwing all of their talent onto a computer, with no directorial style to make any of the action memorable.

 

Oh, and the human characters are pretty much on the same level as last time. One good actor/performance (Cranston/Brown) and everyone else is just hammy and bland. 

 

D+

[Daryle]

I seem to be in the minority but I loved the movie. So much I did my first movie review ever in our studio.

 

Anyone who'd like to watch it I'd love any feedback you have- the good and bad!

 

 

[elcaballero]

17 hours ago, DAJK said:

Made me miss Edwards. More action, sure, but it doesn't have any signature or flare to it. It's just a bunch of very talented CGI animators throwing all of their talent onto a computer, with no directorial style to make any of the action memorable.

 

Oh, and the human characters are pretty much on the same level as last time. One good actor/performance (Cranston/Brown) and everyone else is just hammy and bland. 

 

D+

For all its faults, the best aspect of Godzilla 2014 was how much weight Godzilla had. Godzilla literally gets meteored now and barely leaves a crater. That shit should've been like the Death Star blowing up Alderaan.

 

That and hammy acting combined with very, very poor attempts at comedic lines really annoyed me.

[Daryle]

1 hour ago, elcaballero said:

Godzilla literally gets meteored now and barely leaves a crater.

Admittedly I said the same thing to my wife after. A meteor the size of Godzilla would level a city.

 

There was nothing that "annoyed" me though because it was a monster movie (in a world where Godzilla exists, meteors don't wipe out cities- I guess). My expectations were to see monsters and Godzilla- and from my perspective they delivered.

 

Surprisingly I don't see much talk about the music- the music in KotM was phenomenal compared to 2014. The clips I used in the above review are perfect examples.

 

The music in 2014 is just LACKLUSTER in comparison to KotM.

[baumer]

8 hours ago, elcaballero said:

For all its faults, the best aspect of Godzilla 2014 was how much weight Godzilla had. Godzilla literally gets meteored now and barely leaves a crater. That shit should've been like the Death Star blowing up Alderaan.

 

That and hammy acting combined with very, very poor attempts at comedic lines really annoyed me.

 

OMG!! Yes, the attempted comedic bits were so annoying.  And Kyle Chandler being the complete opposite also annoyed me...he was just angry and intense in almost every scene.  

[kaijukurt]

Edwards had an eye for visuals that was pretty much unmatched by most recent blockbuster directors.

IMO expecting the same level of weight was always gonna be a long shot to begin with, but that doesnt mean KOTM lacks visual flair.

In fact, a lot of the different VFX sequences peppered throughout the films shows us that Dougherty & co. put a lot of thought into what was put on-screen.

We have the Antarctica sequence of Godzilla getting blasted-charging his breath-getting blasted in return and scenes like Mothra's emergence among others.

Along with smaller, more colorful kaiju moments like Ghidorah's left head sniffing out soldiers & Rodan snapping up a jet pilot (a direct homage to The Giant Claw).

KOTM is visually creative on a different level than G14 but the eye candy & money shots are still impressive and very much made with TLC.

Couple that with the McReary's score and youve got some supercharged Toho-worthy imagery in a Hollywood blockbuster. Impressive stuff, Id say.

I also like how in KOTM, monsters dominate the plot. When the monsters arent on screen, the characters are still talking about monsters, and the central family drama is tied into that.

After some comments that Godzilla himself wasnt that involved in the plot of G14, its a nice change of pace to see KOTM begin & end with Godzilla along with shedding some light on his pseudobiology & behavior.

[Webslinger]

As a continuation of a shared monster universe that its predecessor and Kong: Skull Island established, Godzilla: King of the Monsters takes the proceedings in an uninspired, unspectacular direction. Likely in response to the divisive nature of the 2014 film’s limited (albeit well-executed) action sequences, this sequel doubles down on the monster mayhem, but it’s so perfunctory that the film feels like it never really takes off as anything more than two-plus hours of sound and fury signifying very little of substance. (And for all the action, I still didn’t feel like Godzilla was in enough of the movie.) Unlike in the previous film, the human characters get weak, unimpressive development. Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, and Kyle Chandler all try to do their best in the roles of a fractured family, but they can only do so much with what amount to stock roles that just follow expected beats. Bradley Whitford and Thomas Middleditch get some funny lines, but the humor of their parts feels at odds with the grave seriousness that Ken Watanabe, Charles Dance, and several others bring to their parts – as if the film wants to have its cake and eat it too by simultaneously trying to establish emotional weight while also occasionally winking and nodding at its own silliness. The monster fights are fine, but they’re so protracted that it’s easy to zone out as they’re unfolding. Each film in this extended universe has been a step down from what came before, which makes me feel a bit wary about the Kong v. Godzilla matchup slated for next spring. This movie may well please diehard Godzilla fans who have been waiting to see a wider breadth of well-known creatures duke it out; for this more casual viewer, however, it just didn’t really pop.

 

C

 

Stray Thoughts:
- Speaking as a Red Sox Fan by One-Time Geographic Convenience, I'm kinda bummed that they did a huge set piece at Fenway, yet didn't destroy the place as impressively as they could have. I was honestly more engaged with the Fenway-set climax in Ted. Furthermore: if the main human family is from Boston, where are their accents? Vera Farmiga definitely has one from her performance in The Departed, yet it's nowhere to be seen (or heard, I guess?) here.

 

- I don't know whether to blame the script, the director, or the actor (or some combination thereof), but the gravitas Ken Watanabe brings to his role just makes his character and that character's role in the proceedings feel overly silly.

 

- Perhaps this is just my ignorance of the Toho Godzilla franchise in action, but are we ever going to see Godzilla fight in clear weather in these big English-language blockbusters? Like, ever? I just re-watched the '98 misfire (part childhood nostalgia, part hate-watching fun) and the '14 flick before seeing this one, and it seems like all three set their fights under rain, fog, or darkness. Unless that's just a tried-and-true trope lifted from the original films, I'd like to actually *see* Godzilla kick some ass in a fight scene instead of watching as the filmmakers all but force viewers to squint to discern what's happening.

[Fancyarcher]

My review.

 

https://dailyuv.com/980158

[Rorschach]

This is probably the disappointed I've been coming out of a movie in a very, very long time.

 

C-

[ddddeeee]

On 6/7/2019 at 7:08 PM, Daryle said:

Admittedly I said the same thing to my wife after. A meteor the size of Godzilla would level a city.

 

There was nothing that "annoyed" me though because it was a monster movie (in a world where Godzilla exists, meteors don't wipe out cities- I guess). My expectations were to see monsters and Godzilla- and from my perspective they delivered.

 

Surprisingly I don't see much talk about the music- the music in KotM was phenomenal compared to 2014. The clips I used in the above review are perfect examples.

 

The music in 2014 is just LACKLUSTER in comparison to KotM.

Desplat's music was much more focused than McCreary's. It was huge and had a drive without ever feeling cluttered. It was also mixed wonderfully and there were about half a dozen moments when all the sound was dialled back and it was only the score guiding the visuals. Really might be Desplat's best score.

 

McCreary's score was all over the show and mixed poorly; couple that with all the muddled images and you have a huge pile of sludge.

[cookie]

Haven’t seen it again since I saw it in theaters, but I remember it being the first 2D movie in a long time that actually put a strain on my eyes as if I were watching it in 3D. That’s how murky and muddy a lot of it is.

 

And Bradley Whitford should still get a Razzie nomination for this. God, what an annoying character.

Edited September 7, 2019 by cookie

[MrFanaticGuy34]

A fun monster-movie which also serves as a fun Godzilla-film, IMO. Really liked it and it’s a considerate step up from the already good & grounded first film. Don’t get why critics rated it less than G14.

 

A

Edited December 4, 2019 by MrFanaticGuy34

[Menor the Destroyer]

The beginning of the movie was awful with a bunch of pointless convoluted plotlines set up. It picks up once Ghidorah awakens, and any moment with the monsters on screen is a delight (especially Rodan's awakening, that was one of the few times I got the sense of scale like Godzilla 2014). The direction is a step down from the previous film, but the monster action is still pretty cool. The issue is, the movie is a chore to watch whenever the monsters aren't on screen. I'll give it a C, in terms of overall filmmaking it's worse than that but it has enough cool moments with the monsters that I find it watchable despite the awful script. 

Edited April 4, 2021 by Menor

[lilmac]

I give it a B after I turned my brain off and ignored the plot shenanigans midway through the movie.