Godzilla versus disappointed expectations. Review of the movie “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”

I am a fan of Godzilla and the company. Both of the few serious versions (like Godzillafrom 1954), as well as most pulp hits. I am aware of their weakness. I know that special effects are often more than conventional, that these images are filled to the brim with kitsch, that the plot does not demand them. All this fades away in the face of the unique magic of actors fighting in costumes and smashing cardboard cities. This specific convention allows you to forgive more. At the same time, I cannot take the same approach to American attempts to find myself in this genre. Studies in the USA have much more resources and technical facilities than those in Japan. Therefore, American productions costing hundreds of millions should offer more and better than their Asian low- and medium-budget counterparts. And yet, the existing MonsterVerse creations have not fully lived up to expectations.Godzilla from 2014 showed the title monster very sparingly (as the fans counted – about 10 minutes of screen time) and focused on the wrong heroes (I will not spare them from Bryan Cranston). Three years later, the prequel to the series – Kong: Skull Island – offered more action-packed action, but overloaded with too many plots and characters. Nevertheless, both films received a rather warm reception from critics and made a profit. All indications are that Godzilla: King of the Monsterswill not repeat their success. As of today, neither the average rating of Western reviewers (about 40% on Rotten Tomatoes), nor the estimated revenues from cinemas (around 400 million, including the box office from around the world) are satisfactory. I am sad to say that I fully understand this result.

Wrath of the Titans

Giant monsters have ruled the Earth for millennia. Referred to as “titans” (the term kaiju does not appear , probably to distinguish it from the Pacific Rim series ), they appeared in the oldest myths and legends. For many years, however, they have not been revealed to mankind, dormant deep under the Earth’s surface. Everything changed when the 1954 nuclear tests awakened Godzilla. Monarch was created to monitor the creatures – a secret organization that kept their presence secret from the public. The change took place only in 2014 due to the hatching of GNOL(Giant Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms). The battle between them and the king of monsters led to the destruction of several cities (Honolulu, Las Vegas, San Francisco) and the death of thousands of people. Action Godzilla: King of the monsters takes place five years after the tragic events. During this time, the lizard disappeared from the radar, but the Monarch found and secured the hiding places of seventeen other titans. A tragedy occurs when eco-terrorists step in and awaken the beasts to cleanse the Earth of the human plague.

Monstrous human threads

The simple plot is full of plots and characters. Relatively the most time was devoted to the Russell family. The traumatic experiences led to the breakdown of the marriage of Mark (Kyle Chandler), an animal behavior specialist, and paleobiologist Emma (Vera Farmiga), who has since brought up a single daughter, Madison (Millie Bobby Brown). The schematic and poorly written family drama is complemented by scenes with the participation of a group of scientists from Monarch – led by Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe), who expresses spiritual banalities – whose aim is to serve the viewer with exposition and technoblotting. In incompetence and myopia, researchers can boldly compete with the crew from Prometheus. This group is complemented by eco-terrorists headed by Jonah (Charles Dance) and one of the worst and least thought-out action plans in contemporary cinema. In fact, even soldiers get their five minutes (almost like in Bay’s Transformers ), even though they do not play any important role.

The human heroes also have this unbearable manner of interfering with the scenes of monster fights. Rodan is about to catch King Ghidora, the titans are about to clash … and here, for example, we jump to the scene in which Mark tries to open the jammed hatch of the plane. There are many, many more such joy-spoiling moments. The only consolation is that it is better than in the first part, where the viewer was deceived endlessly, for example by showing a TV report instead of the fight itself.

Return of the kings

All the storylines with the actors are not particularly engaging and distracting from enjoying watching the real kaiju stars . Director Michael Daugherty listened carefully to the criticism of his predecessor, Gareth Edwards. King of the monstersis filled to the brim with action scenes involving monsters. Moreover, Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah are full-fledged characters that can boast of individualized characters. And in the case of the golden dragon, there are even three different personalities, one per head. The title lizard itself becomes an ally of people even more than in the previous version. It is therefore closer to the child-friendly counterpart from the Shōwa era than to the chaotic neutral / evil known from the first films or series of the Heisei era. Therefore, there is no point in looking for scenes in which Godzilla destroys cities – no, its goal is to defend the planet. Could it be an attempt to discount the success of superhero productions? Anyway, despite such a long duration (132 minutes!), There are very few scenes in which the titans destroy cities. In fact, only Rodan’s awakening is accompanied by the classic theme of people fleeing in fear. In the case of Ghidorah, perhaps for the first time in his career, he does not terrorize any metropolis on the screen. The scenes with him take place in the now deserted city.

Darkness, darkness I can see

Unfortunately, in the case of scenes with monsters, you can also find a spoon of tar. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher did a great job: many of the shots are beautiful and memorable. But at the same time, every battle of the titans is accompanied by an atmospheric “overdrive”. It’s snow, it’s a downpour, it’s a hurricane – the whole cross-section of the weather forecast. A frightening with effects makes the action often unreadable. Especially since all the scenes take place at night or at dusk. Although it is not as bad as in the defense of Winterfell third section last season Game of Thrones, but Kong showed how good they look in the fighting during the day and I wish that his successor did not take advantage of that.

Music is great for that. Bear McCreary drew heavily on the achievements of Japanese predecessors. Thanks to this, you can hear new versions of classic melodies that accompanied, among others, Godzilla and Mothra for years. The director himself described the soundtrack as “a monstrous opera” and it remains only to agree with it. Although the excellence of the soundtrack is due to the original composers (including the genius Akira Ifukube), McCreary did a very good job of modernizing it. during the end credits there is even a reference to Godzilla Roland Emmerich from 1998 – a cover of the song Blue Öyster Cult, created for this film, sung in the 2019 version by Serj Tankian.

Spoiler alert!

The following paragraph will be filled with spoilers, so if someone does not want to spoil the surprise, jump to the summary. Daugherty stuffed his picture with a fanservice , which is a bonus for those familiar with the original series. Although it seems that the director sometimes refers to well-known elements without reflection. This is reminiscent of Batman v Superman , where Superman’s death was drummed too quickly and thus lacks the message. The same is true of the King of Monsterswhere oxygen destructor was introduced into the plot. What in the first installment of the series was the main tool used to defeat the lizard, here appears only in one short scene. The same applies to the form known as “Burning Godzilla”, where the monster has reached a critical mass through excessive irradiation. In Godzilla vs. Destructor, this theme was carried over from the beginning of the film, and its conclusion was the death of the creature. In the case of a new production, it is only a temporary power-up , as if taken from a computer game, which, apart from increasing the strength, does not have any negative consequences.

I cannot remain indifferent to the fact that Serizawa’s plot was unskillfully ended. In the original, a scientist of the same name dies in a suicide attack to save the world from the beast’s terror, while his 2019 counterpart also decides to die … to save the monster. Additionally, he does it with an atomic bomb (sic!). The allegory of Godzilla, showing the terror and destruction to which human activities can lead, disappears completely here. This turns the anti-nuclear message of the previous movies on its head and underscores a completely different approach to the US nuclear power plant. It also bites inside the presented world, because the doctor’s attribute is a broken watch, inherited from his father who died in Hiroshima. Although Serizawa’s death scene is nicely produced and can arouse emotions,

Man does not live by monsters alone

Contrary to the expectations of some fans, it would not be possible to base the entire movie on only great monsters. Kaiju , however well realized, will always be limited to filling the simplest archetypes due to the lack of emotions, facial expressions or voice. Therefore, any production about monsters should also have a strong human component. I disagree with the frequent accusation of fans that the scenes with the actors are just an add-on and not worth focusing on. Not in a situation where the image lasts more than 2 hours. There are examples of monster movies in which the creature only appears for a few minutes (such as Aliens ) and the viewer is kept in suspense. This play was unsuccessful for Michael Daugherty. It’s not always a good idea to hand over your production to a fan.Godzilla: The King of the Monsters is the best example of this.

We would like to thank the Cinema City chain for the opportunity to watch the film