Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Wow, I didn't enjoy it. Like, so very, very, very much. The other Godzilla shows that it cost a lot of money, and the monster battles are actually pretty good, at least the final one, which cleverly works with scale and alternates spectacular shots of two dueling titans with action with human characters running at their feet. But that's pretty much it. The new Godzilla has about fifteen human characters, but finding a single one among them that was the least bit interesting or likeable was a task beyond me. A few hours after the screening, I actually remember the names of about two of the protagonists. The trouble is that despite all the declamation and certain attempts to conceive Godzilla II a little differently, it is ultimately very much about those human characters, who of course are the ones who, by their dullness, flatness and absolute unwillingness to take themselves even a little bit less seriously (this is a film in which a giant lizard fights an even bigger three-headed dragon, dammit!) they get boring at first, and then just annoying. The grandeur and elegance promised by the trailers isn't there in the end, and while the fights are fun to watch, the rest of it really doesn't work. In fact, as a viewer, I'm not really interested in seeing another film conceived in this way. (2019-05-30)

This film is in some ways the same for me as the previous one – knowing what to expect from it makes me enjoy it much more. Yes, I'm still sorry that it didn't follow the Gareth Edwards style, but the story itself isn't actually any sillier, it's just presented in a very, shall we say, straightforward way and looked at through a completely different lens. Last time, humans were in the lead while monsters were unleashing havoc that affected people's destinies, and Godzilla was there to help people at the right moment. This time around, the monsters are in charge, wreaking havoc on an even larger scale, with humans on the sidelines and helping the real main characters, Godzilla and Mothra, at the right moment. I was pleased to see that the titan fights are a lot clearer on TV at home than they were in the cinema, so I enjoyed some quite amusing close-ups and imaginative choreography (I absolutely love the moments when the digital monsters move as if they’re wrestlers in rubber suits), I never stopped enjoying Bear McCreary's Ifukube-themed music, and although I may regret it, I have to say I'm looking forward to the Kong fight. (2019-05-30)

An excellent start and a spectacular demonstration of different monsters, buried under a faint yet convoluted plot and underestimation of the viewer’s intelligence. Thanks to Gareth Edwards, with the previous movie Warner Brothers has managed to pull off a respectable relaunch of the Godzilla cult by successfully blending the motifs and the atmosphere of the original Japanese myth with the pomp of Hollywood blockbusters. But instead of meeting the audience’s expectations, they entrusted the next two sequels to creators of mediocre horror movies. Sure, pouring the high budget into first-class CGI should be good enough for the stupid target audience craving cool-looking monsters, but let’s see if this approach changes with the new CEO. (2019-07-05)

Dougherty must be the only person on the planet who is approached by the people form Warner Brothers with a huge budget and an unmissable offer “to play games with Godzilla and all his fellow cult monsters in the backyard during their awakening and the end of the world", so he can't think “hmm, it could be from the perspective of people, as Edwards tried but failed to do, or bitter satire in the style of (Shin´s) Japanese Godzilla or a catastrophic B-movie full of ultimate monsters and titanic battles referencing the classics". No, what comes to his mind is “cool, I'll finally be able to shoot an interior conversational movie from the Avengers Helicarrier and satisfy all the scientists who have to say the weird nonsense with a straight face in similar movies, and I'll do it by not making them say that in a few sentences, but it will last tens of minutes and even the nonsense they talk about will be even more stupid than it normally is and I will intersperse it with dull CGI action, where everyone will constantly keep running out of collapsing buildings, and it will be full of such generic shots of falling skyscrapers that even the animators themselves won´t be able to tell whether this scene of a crumbling big city happened in the last Marvel or DC movie". And he did as he said he would. The childish quasi-scientific piffle and solutions meant to restart the civilization of Mother Nature are an integral part of the genre. But only If they form the background/prologue to the battles of the Titans, not if they are the cornerstone. No one gives a shit about monsters anymore. Except Dougherty. And when they just have mercy on the audience here and there and offer what the viewers are looking for, it lacks ideas, cool moments, dynamics and scale. The exception is a few moments during the decent ending, when the film almost becomes what it wanted to be (and should have been) the whole time. McCreary's music, paying one tribute to another, is the film's biggest asset. And yet it is very specific in every respect. At least he understood “what is going on", even if the director didn't. (2020-09-28)

Oh shi... Faulting Godzilla for having stupid people in it is rather unfair. They have always been stupid and their behavior often illogical or just plain dumb. And it’s not Godzilla’s fault. The people who move the action along, especially the unpleasant scientist, are asking for a kick up the ass, but they manage to wake the monster, which then destroys the city and then they have a fight. Thank God for that, at least; otherwise there’s no point in even concerning myself with the cast. There are lots of battles and they’re much more monstrous than before. The alien dragon is a worthy opponent for Fatty. The caterpillar/moth seems really nice, not to mention Rodan the Pterodactyl (the aerial chase is incredible) and the mammoth. I think the sequel with Kong already has a clear winner, but I look forward to seeing it anyway. But with fewer people next time, please. (2019-05-31)