005: All Hail the King!

As promised, here is my review/recap of Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Make yourselves comfortable, it's going to be a long one.

First I feel the need to establish something: I don't like critics. This is actually relevant, since for some reason, critics tore apart this latest Godzilla movie. I don't know why I looked. I've been increasingly adverse to reading reviews as the years go on. Sometimes I give in to temptation, especially when it's something I've been looking forward to for several years and a franchise may or may not hang in the balance of how well it does.

I loved the first American Godzilla. I, of course, am referring to the Legendary Pictures release of 2014, NOT the Jurassic Park-esque crapfest they did in 1996. I do not consider that to be Godzilla. (I WILL fight you.) Only two good things came from that travesty. One, a silly scene in Godzilla: Final Wars where the real Godzilla wrecked the pretender to the throne in, like, two seconds. And two, the excellent Rifftrax version. Which I only watched because my dad (bless his heart) remembered my fondness for giant radioactive lizards and gave me a DVD of Godzilla '96. It was a gift, I appreciated it. I never ever planned to ever watch this film, ever. But since it was a gift... I had to. I'm not ungrateful, so I felt I had no choice in the matter. And I figured since I HAD to watch it, I may as well enjoy it. Rifftrax makes everything better. I highly recommend them. They even made Avatar tolerable.

So, seeing as how I loved the first entry in this new kaiju franchise, I was rabidly and impatiently awaiting the next entry. I was saddened by the fact that we had to wait five years, but I knew it would be worth the wait. I had Shin Godzilla and the anime trilogy to hold me over. Oh, and Godzilla Island. Godzilla Island is da shit. The trailers and kaiju designs for the new movie proved to me that King of the Monsters was going to be worth the wait.

Then the critics got a hold of it. They ripped it to shreds. I honestly don't know what they were expecting. The movie we got was exactly what was promised to us: an epic monster showdown with the most iconic monsters. Excellent special effects, an increase in quality from the first film, and a direct lead in to Godzilla Vs Kong. Maybe it was too geared towards fans? Maybe they expected better human moments? (Come on, everyone who's seen a Godzilla movie knows the humans are padding anyway in between kaiju brawls.) Or maybe they were just being negative and harsh, as critics tend to be. This is why I don't like critics. Let people enjoy what they enjoy. Don't rip it to shreds just to make yourself look clever or generate clicks to your article.

That bears repeating, because if there is a motto for this blog it's that: Let people enjoy what they enjoy. That's what I want to do. If I criticize something, know that it's only my opinion and I understand and value alternate viewpoints. Sometimes I just throw the snark to be funny and editorialize. I know someone reading this (either right now or in the future) is probably itching to go down to the comments and tear me a new one because in their viewpoint Godzilla '96 is a work of art. (Please don't yell at me. I'm sensitive.) That's fine if you see it that way. I think no less of you. I'm very glad you got enjoyment out of it and I will never make fun of you for that. You do you!

I don’t agree, but I don’t have to. I'm happy whenever someone is able to get joy out of consuming art. I got joy out of the Rifftrax version and some day I may get drunk and watch it again. (Knowing me, this will most assuredly happen.) And for that matter, I understand critics are just doing their job, and maybe not everyone enjoyed King of the Monsters. That's cool too. I'm really easy going. I just wanted to explain my viewpoint, my avoidance of critics, and above all else, my disappointment in the public reaction to a movie I waited five years for. (Reaction has improved in the months since the movie was released, so that helps me feel better.) I would rather focus on the good things and give a positive point of view. In my experience, critics run on negativity. I know that's not always the case, but it's just what I see far too often. While negative opinions do not affect me, negative energy does. I feel like there is enough negativity in the world. I am here to be a counterpoint to that whenever possible.

Boom goes the dynamite. (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

Okay, sorry. The rant is over and hopefully it will not taint the rest of this entry. Back to light-heartedness and positivity. I said previously that this post would be focused and it still is. All that above was just to say that regardless of the reviews, I LOVED this movie. It was, in my humble opinion as a Godzilla Connoisseur, one of the best kaiju movies ever made. And you can trust me. I'm an expert. I even own a book that I am in the process of reading.

See? A book. That proves it. I will read it someday.

And if you still don't believe me, I also have toys... er, collectibles. The biggest of those:

This was a Christmas present from Cocoa shortly after the first movie. Kairi for scale.

My crown jewel. I am eternally grateful that this exists. (And yes, it is a beanie baby.)

So, yah. Expert.

In high school I had a very detailed and realistic dream where I was walking the countryside at night and felt something like a huge earthquake. I climbed a hill and looked up to see Godzilla walking across the fields. (I lived out among farmlands when I was younger. Fields on all sides.) I got a sense of just how big and threatening he was in that dream in a way I never quite did in the movies. I woke from the dream with the drive to make a modern movie that captures the sheer enormity and power of the monster. It was one of the reasons I wanted to become a filmmaker. When the 1994 movie was announced, I was devastated. Someone beat me to it. When the commercials for the film came out, I felt the chance was wasted. I could not get behind the redesign. Now that Legendary has put out two movies in the series, I feel like that old dream of mine has come true. I don't even mind that I wasn't the one to bring it to life.

Cocoashade and I saw the first film on a date, and so we saw this one together too. We went to see this movie at the Alamo. For those who aren't familiar, the Alamo is an excellent theater chain that revels in the cinema experience. They serve food, themed drinks, and have lots of little extras playing before the movie. The pre-movie footage consisted of some obscure Godzilla pop-culture references, a snippet of a documentary on the movies, and other fun stuff. The Alamo also played several old-school Godzilla films in the months leading up to this one, but I learned about those too late. They were at fairly inconvenient times anyway. I really wanted to see Destroy All Monsters on the big screen. As god intended. Sadly I missed out. Oh well... someday.

Anyway, as I said, we saw it at the Alamo, and I'm very glad we did. The atmosphere was charged and full of positive energy. It helped lift my spirits, which had been dampened by my ill-advised check of the reviews. I could tell that there were others around me that were just as excited about this movie as I was, and that helped. I love being around people who enjoy the same things as me.

Oh hai there. (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

Before I begin my run-down of the movie, I do need to warn you that there will be major spoilers. I’m recapping the movie, so I’m going to give away plot points and the ending. So if you have not seen this film yet, I highly recommend you see it before reading any further. I don't want to be the cause of spoiling any enjoyment. Book mark this page and come back later.

Okay, still with me? (Or back with me, as the case may be.) Here we go. The movie picks up five years after Part One. Godzilla has not been seen since the epic battle with the Mutos, and Monarch (the scientific research company tasked with studying the giant monsters) has been searching for him. We quickly learn that more and more Titans (as they call them) have been showing up around the world with no real explanation as to why. Two members of Monarch, Dr. Emma and Dr. Mark (who I think look like Scully from The X-Files and Seth MacFarlane respectively) lost their son off camera in the first movie. Their surviving child, Madison (Eleven from Stranger Things) is oddly deadpan... I guess that's just her acting style. She's playing a matured-beyond-her-age teenager, so it works. Anyway Scully and Seth have divorced and Madison went with her mom to play with monsters. Dad became a drunk, rehabbed, and is now playing with everything besides monsters. (Mostly wolves, I think?) Dr. Emma is hard at work creating a machine that can talk to kaiju. Which is something I should never be given access to. Seriously, that's how super villains are made, people.

Ex-wives, am I right? (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

Okay, enough plot. A major draw of any kaiju movie is large-scale monster battles. And that is something this film has plenty of. Once the Titans start meeting, fights break out. Thankfully the movie doesn't waste much time before this. I appreciated the pacing. We got the plot unfolding at a decent clip, with Titan fights sprinkled throughout. Overall, a good balance.

There were several tributes and callbacks to the original Godzilla series. The most noticeable is the title. See, "King of the Monsters" was the name of the American version of the very first Godzilla movie. From the kaiju to the music to the spirit of the whole thing, this was very much a love letter to the Godzilla series. Dr. Serizawa, for those who may not realize, was himself a tribute to the original 1950's Godzilla. He was the scientist who created the Oxygen Destroyer that killed Godzilla.

One tribute that was almost too subtle was the twin thing... See, traditionally Mothra has tiny female fairy twins as her attendants. This movie changes that up in an interesting way. But it's sort of a blink and you'll miss it moment. There are twin scientists working for Monarch so you see who looks like the same woman in two different locations. There's an ah-ha reveal near the end. But it's more of an Easter Egg when it should be a plot point, in my opinion.

Baby Mothra (Credit: Legendary Piictures)

The Mothra larva was beautiful. I love the redesign. Dr Emma is messing around with the cocoon and her mad science device. Basically what it does is hone in on something called the "alpha frequency" to control the behavior of the Titans. I'm not entirely clear on how that works, but hey, I guess Monarch has been busy since the days of Skull Island.

At this point we got the major plot reveal... Dr Emma is working with a previously-unmentioned terrorist group. A former military guy named Jonas. Her intention is to release all the Titans at once to bring about a time of renewal on Earth. This is where the movie falters just a tad. Some of Dr Emma's actions are confusing. Like, does she even care about Madison at all? Her daughter very nearly got blown up when the terrorists come in and the woman seemed unphased by this. Or is she just unhinged? Cocoashade and I paused and debated this for a while during our rewatch. We came to the conclusion that Emma is just focusing too much on her lost son to the exclusion of her living daughter. This seems to be a common problem in parents who have lost children in media. It's sad, but making this more clear in the film would have added quite a bit of depth.

On the BluRay there is a deleted scene where Dr Emma reflects on her actions and shows some doubt. I feel like this was an unfortunate cut. Her only real emotions in the film were cold stubbornness and yelling. Adding a moment of uncertainty in there would have helped.

Go Team Monarch! (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

The Monarch characters are quirky and mostly unimportant. However, Dr. Serizawa and his... assistant? Vivienne... pretty sure she's his assistant. Those two are damned heroes. They're on Godzilla's side and take no shit about that fact. They walk out of a hearing because it was a waste of time. I would totally be their friends.

Real talk... the humans have never been the best part of Godzilla movies. If you're honest, they're padding. They kill time in between kaiju battles. They try and fail repeatedly to stop their own destruction and rarely have a real impact. Still, I have to say that Legendary does a better job with the human aspect of the films than Toho did. (Aside from the very excellent first movie from 1954.)

We get some scenes expanding on the situation on Earth. Titans are awakening everywhere for some reason. There are 17 in all (counting Godzilla), but they never show or tell us what all of them are. I would really like a full list.

Epic freezer burn. (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

And then we get our first glimpse of the Big Bad. Frozen Ghidorah is awe-inspiring. I love Ghidorah. He really is Godzilla's perfect arch-enemy. Sure, G-Man has fought a lot of bad-ass kaiju (Destroyah comes to immediate mind) but King Ghidorah is always bigger, stronger, and meaner than him. Also of note, when he's introduced we get another callback when they refer to him as Monster Zero. This is what he was called in his very first appearance in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.

The boys are back in town. (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

I love how all three heads have different personalities. That's certainly a new take on him. The left head is the curious, cat-like one. The right head is the attentive one. The middle head is the leader. It adds a new dimension to him. (Them?)

Showdown time! (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

Godzilla wastes no time squaring off with Ghidorah. And the original Godzilla theme plays as they face each other. This was a great battle. This one battle was worth the ticket price. Poor Godzilla got whipped quickly, though. Mind you, this is a descendant of the Godzilla that would have fought King Ghidorah in the past. (We saw a skeleton in Part One.) So, instinctively he knew the two of them had to fight, but he had no idea what to expect.

So this brings up some questions. There were Prehistoric Godzilla? I've read interviews where this could be explored in a future movie. Is the current Godzilla different from his prehistoric ancestors? I'm assuming he's been changed by radiation, but they don't really make that clear. And Ghidorah is also radioactive? He came from space... was his meteorite radioactive? Did he inadvertently create the Titans when he crashed? Regardless, Ghidorah is not of this Earth. Godzilla is defender of Earth. He must repel the invader at any cost. Unfortunately that isn't so easy. He gets defeated and Ghidorah wanders off to cause more mayhem.

After that we see some more Titans. And one thing quickly becomes evident in this movie... one thing that never changes. Rodan is still a dick.

Rodan, being a dick as usual. (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

For more on Rodan's dick-ness, please see Entry 002. (Actually, if you haven't read that one yet, bookmark it and go read it later. It's excellent.) In this film, Rodan awakens from a long slumber and bursts from a volcano. You might think he'd have a cup of coffee, maybe a couple of pop tarts. But no, you would be mistaken. Not our Rodan. No, Rodan immediately does a fly-by of a nearby village, destroying everything he passes by. Just for fun. And later he sneaks up behind Mothra and messes up her day. With his fucking beak. The dick.

Rodan is redesigned. He looks a bit sleeker. But his character is unchanged. He trashes everything within range. He chews on airplanes, dive bombs people, eats people as they eject from their jets. Rodan. Is. A. Dick. Also he has lava dripping off him. Damn.

(Okay, to be fair the humans did shoot a couple of missiles at him, but still. You know he would've done all this anyway.)

The second battle between Godzilla and King Ghidorah gives our hero field advantage because they're in the ocean. He chews off the cat head but ends up badly hurt. Admiral Stenz comes back from the first movie and suggests they use the Oxygen Destroyer. Bad plan. The film tries its damnedest to pretend he's dead, like we'd really buy that halfway through the movie. After the battle the most fucked up thing happens... the cat head grows back. (Ghidorah could not do that before.) Everything seems dark.

Lots more stuff happens. A big Easter Egg is Dr. Brooks from Skull Island. He's older now, but still working with Monarch. (I did not catch that on my first viewing.) Mothra hatches. Madison and Dr. Emma have a fight, after which Madison runs off with the Monster Voice Device. It’s revealed that Dr. Chen is a third generation twin and she gives us a plot dump where we learn King Ghidorah is from space and has major beef with the Godzilla line.

Titans are everywhere. (There's even another Muto from the first movie!) I would have liked to see more of the Titans. Maybe in a future movie? But the biggest is Mothra. I could do future posts about Mothra... we'll see. (There are some really fun and campy movies in that series.) Her part in this movie is pretty vital. She helps bring Dr. Mark around, and acts as Godzilla's big ally. She helps keep the balance. In the film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Mothra played peacekeeping diplomat between Godzilla and Rodan, convincing them to team up against their common foe. (That does not happen here, but she still helps.)

Hmm… could this be some sort of symbolism? Nahhh. (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

Dr. Mark comes up with a plan: find Godzilla's bachelor pad and shoot a nuclear missile at him. (But in a good way?) We also get a lot of history. Godzilla's home is an underwater temple. (Atlantis? They don't really say but it's hinted. Did a big Titan battle sink Atlantis?) Whether Atlantians or no, there were ancient people who worshiped Godzilla. I want to know more about this.

And then Dr. Serizawa sacrifices himself. There's always a noble sacrifice. You always have to detonate the bomb yourself, or stay behind to hold the door shut. Or distract the monster while your friends get away. It's overdone... it really is. But I feel like they played it well here. It didn't feel hokey to me, but I can see how it could. They tied it in well to his relationship with Godzilla, his insistence that humanity needs him. It worked... but it was fucking sad. I liked that guy.

The original theme plays again as Godzilla rises, back at full power. So triumphant. The curiosity he shows the humans is interesting. Is that instinctive too? Or is this proof of intelligence? It seems as though he knows they helped him.

Dr. Emma finally comes to her senses after a good cry in the break room. (We've all been there, haven't we?) I feel like we were supposed to sympathize with her, but nah. Too little too late you Scully wannabe. Meanwhile, Madison plays with the radio, calling in the cavalry. Things are getting dicey and all our pieces are moving onto the board for the final showdown.

Godzilla arrives to save Madison at the last possible minute. At that point in our rewatch, Cocoashade joked, "Gamera?" I'm so proud of her for that joke and my bad influence on her. (See, Gamera is friend to children and... y'know what, never mind. Just wait for my inevitable Gamera posts.)

The epic final battle commences. We have Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra, Rodan, and a bunch of panicked overly dramatic humans. Boom. Recipe for a finale. The plan to supercharge Godzilla worked too well and he's now near meltdown.

The last thing you see before you get eaten. (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

Burning Godzilla is another tribute. In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Godzilla went thermonuclear and was in danger of exploding. Dr. Chen shows her connection to Mothra by sensing her approach. The pretty glowing bug swoops in and webs up Ghidorah like Spidey. (Which is a neat trick.) This is when Rodan sucker punches Mothra with his god damned beak. Rodan is on the wrong side this time, but does that surprise anyone? Ghidorah sucks up some electricity (because I guess he can do that now?) and shoots lightning everywhere. As their battle continues, Mothra fucking stabs Rodan. (Good.)

STAB. (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

But Mothra gets hurt in the process. Things looks bleak. The humans do their human things. Whatever. This whole thing is like the worst divorce ever. Poor Maddie. Maybe work out your shit before your kid gets caught in the middle of a cataclysmic monster disaster. God damn.

King Ghidorah seems to have Godzilla at his mercy. 'Zilla is dropped on his head and is about to explode. Then the tides turn. Mothra throws herself in the path of Ghidorah's death ray. The humans actually help a bit, driving Ghidorah away to buy Godzilla time to recover. Dr. Evil Mom tries to do the whole noble sacrifice thing but it's a fail. Dr. Serizawa did it way better. I mean, she did draw Ghidorah away so the others could escape, but the movie didn't give us enough reason to care about Emma. Meh. (This part fell flat for me.)

Godzilla’s Super Saiyan form. (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

Godzilla has his meltdown and vaporizes Ghidorah. So cool. All the electric breath in the world can't save Ghidorah at this point. There's a nice fake out where it looks like Ghidorah survived, but it's just that his head is still alive in Godzilla's mouth. One last atomic blast and he's gone. Godzilla needs a frickin' nap after all that. All the Titans are in line. Even Rodan and the Muto bow to him. The end credits roll with Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla song and the original Mothra and Godzilla themes playing. We get little scenes setting up the future of the series. (For real, there are some really important things in there.)

The post credit scene brings up a very interesting possibility for the future. I won't spoil that part, I'll just say that Big G has a lot more trouble coming up than just an over-sized monkey. Speaking of monkey, I'm pretty hyped about Godzilla Vs Kong, but I will be seriously sad if my boy loses. I don't see how he could, but I guess time will tell.

In summation, Godzilla: King of the Monsters was an excellent continuation of the story and expansion of the shared universe. It did a good job bridging the gap between Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island and leading into the next installment. Some of the human bits were clumsy and the motivations murky, but I don't feel it detracts from the overall experience. The Titan designs and effects were top notch. There was enough mystery and unanswered questions to leave you wanting more. All in all, very well done. 10 / 10.

Guess it’s a family grudge? (Credit: Legendary Pictures)

And there you have it. My first ever movie review. I think it turned out all right. I just really enjoyed this movie and hopefully my impressions have convinced you to give it a try if you haven't. Don't take my word for it-- draw your own conclusions. And if you find one of those machines that let you talk to Titans, let me know immediately. I promise I won't use it for evil. *maniacal laughter*