Godzilla: King of the Monsters is beautiful, symphonic destruction
As a singular film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is beautiful, symphonic destruction of humanity, one that only becomes unglued by humanity itself.
Humanity has always been fascinated by the idea of greater beings that threaten and challenge our status as apex predators of Earth. In film, we’ve visited the notion of giants on our planet from The Lost World in 1925 and King Kong in 1933, to the myriad of Greek Gods and mythologies that have continued to dominate our celluloid imagination. Some have been greater successes than others, but there hasn’t been much change to the idea or belief that maybe that there are monsters, Gods, and Titans that will someday rise from the depths, or the skies, to put humanity back into its place. 2014’s Godzilla proved that audiences were still hungry for Japan’s great monster, wiping away the sour taste of 1998’s hyper-Americanized entry and continuing on the idea that once humanity’s moralistic compass had gone so far out of whack, there are forces out there that will ultimately right the wrongs.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters does not stray too far from the successful 2014 formula; doubling down on the true to the original homage that was so forgotten in 1998. King of the Monsters follows on from the events of 2014, pressing forward the idea that Monarch (the secret organization that has known for decades of the existence of Titans) needs to be held accountable for the emergence of Godzilla in 2014 that left San Francisco in ruins. From here we meet our human protagonists, led by Kyle Chandler’s Dr. Mark Russell (animal behavior and communication specialist), Vera Farmiga’s Dr. Emma Russell (a Monarch paleobiologist and environmental activist), and Millie Bobby Brown (their daughter). Their lives were irreversibly upturned by the original attack (leading to the death of their son) and have found themselves splintered across the globe.
What we learn is that Dr. Emma Russell has nearly perfected a tool that enables communication with the Titans (called ‘Orca’) that she originally developed with her husband. The tool is a MacGuffin of sorts that leads to the inevitable rise of these titans from their slumber. (Minor spoiler) Dr. Emma Russell takes cues from a certain galaxy conquering despot and believes that a solution to humanity’s problems can be solved by eradicating and restarting the population alongside these titans. Enlisting the work of eco-terrorists (their leader portrayed with Charles Dance-like precision by … uh ... Charles Dance), her plan to unleash these beasts to cleanse the Earth is met with resistance from her husband, the military, and Monarch. It leads to wild globetrotting goose-chases, futuristic tech that give the Avengers a run for their money, and the opportunity to see the reason we all bought a ticket to this flick in the first place- Godzilla stomping a mudhole in other kaijus.
There is some subtlety lost in comparison to Gareth Edwards' direction in the first film as new director Michael Dougherty opts for the blunt hammer routine. But these ground shattering battle scenes are by far the film’s strengths. Much of the titans clash in a symphonic crashing of orchestral soundtracks that is both moving and beautiful. Godzilla moves as the orchestra bellows and howls while the percussions thunder, exploding on screen as he battles King Ghidorah across planet-wide destruction. It is, however, plagued by the dumb humans who are reminiscent of children clanging away on triangles and tambourines in the audience of the philharmonic orchestra. By the film’s end, we care much more about Mothra than we do about the majority of the human characters. It isn't too much of a deterrent- the film’s strengths outweigh the weaknesses. The humor is in check and doesn’t fall into bad Michael Bayisms that plagued the Transformers series, and in the end, our lust and hunger for kaiju destruction are more than satisfied.
Some argue that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thanos did nothing wrong. Similarly, in the case of King of the Monsters, there will be many who argue that Dr. Emma Russell is not wrong in her desire to reboot the Earth and reset humanity. That is the moral question the film does pose, whether or not we’ve reached our capacity and ability to survive as a species on our limited Earth. Our fascination towards higher beings is also scratched to destructive proportions in the film. Asking again the question of our place in the universe amongst the leviathans in our mythical imaginations (the film does well in teasing the connection of these titans to ancient Eastern and Western lore). Godzilla: King of the Monsters doesn’t quite have the heart that Godzilla (2014) had, but it doesn’t fall off the cliff the same way Pacific Rim: Uprising did after the first film.
As a singular outing, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the beautiful, symphonic destruction of humanity, one that only becomes unglued by humanity itself. As the middle part of this impending trilogy and a date in the proverbial ring with Kong looming, it is also Hollywood’s big-budget reminder that everything bad that ever happens to us is really only our own fault.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is in cinemas now.
GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS
Directed by: Michael Dougherty
Written by: Michael Dougherty, Zach Shields
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Kyler Chandler, Bradley Whitford, Zhang Ziyi, Charles Dance, David Strathairn, Aisha Hinds, Sally Hawkins, Ken Watanabe
Distributed by: WarnerMedia / Legendary Pictures
Run time: 132 minutes