Here we are folks, what we've been building to the entire time. That's right, just a week late, but hey, here it is. There is so much I can say, compliment and discuss when talking about how much I love Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Before the movie even came out, this was going to be one of the most important films of my life, genuinely. Before the movie even had an official name, it was my lifeline. All I knew when I was struggling through my Sophomore and Junior Years of high school was that no matter what happened that Ghidorah, Mothra and Rodan were FINALLY going to make their return to the big screen with the effects and budget of Legendary Pictures. No matter what happened, I had to stick around for that. Don't mean to get so personal, but I just had to make it clear: waiting for this movie was hard, but I waited it out, and I am so endlessly happy to say that it is everything I wanted. A sequel to Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, this is the movie of my dreams. But of course with this being the third in a cinematic universe, of course the question will come up: Godzilla or King of the Monsters? Well, I'll elaborate on this as we go on, but I believe Godzilla is a better overall movie, but King of the Monsters is a far superior Godzilla movie.BEFORE WE GET STARTED THOUGH, THIS REVIEW WILL BE FILLED WITH SPOILERS! IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE AND WANT TO SAVE YOURSELF, STOP NOW AND SEE THE MOVIE!
Five years after the initial reemergence of Godzilla and the MUTOs attack in San Fransisco, Godzilla has gone missing, Monarch has upped its technology and received much more significant funding, and it is becoming abundantly clear that the monsters aren't leaving any time soon. Between Monarchs numerous outposts and the recent reveals of monsters like Kong and Godzilla to the public, the monster crisis is fully in swing. This new world is soon thrown into chaos when former Monarch scientist and survivor of the 2014 attack, Emma Russell uses a device to revive the great monster devil: Ghidorah. With Godzilla reappearing soon after and receiving aid from his ancient ally Mothra, Godzilla must now ally himself with the humans in order to defeat the golden menace and once and for all claim his title as the King of the Monsters.
Alright, let's get started with the BIG positives of this movie. First and foremost, the soundtrack is this movie is absolutely incredible. Bear McCreary is already a legendary composer, making some music for some incredible works of the 21st century like the original God of War trilogy and music for the Walking Dead as well. The man's music is incredible and fits perfectly with the work he is in. But in this movie he just absolutely pops off. The music is almost too good. Making its welcome return is the original Godzilla March by Akira Ifukube, reorchestrated and made even better for the modern era. It just doesn't feel right when Ifukube's music isn't in one of these movies. But in King of the Monsters, Bear brought it back and it's just so incredible. Booming and thrilling as the original and with added chants of "GO-JI-RA!" throughout, this is like an ancient tribal calling to the King. So roll out the red carpets and bow down because Godzilla is bigger and better than ever as is his theme. But of course, that's not all. Also returning is the famous Mothra Song in its absolutely perfected form. Never in my life did I think the masterpiece of the Mothra Song in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. could be topped, but it has. Elegant and beautiful as the Mothra Song should be, while still powerful and ready to attack like this version of Mothra. I can't even lie when I say Mothra sprouting her wings with the Mothra Song almost made me cry in the theater. And of course, Rodan and Ghidorah aren't forgotten about either. Rodan's theme is badass, there's no two ways around it. Wild and sporadic and as fiery as the monster it represents, it is the perfect new theme for a Rodan who has the magma of the volcano truly burning through his blood. And while a return of Terror would have been welcome, Ghidorah's theme is still amazing. From the poem written in Babylonian to the feeling of absolute evil and mystery that permeates throughout the entire piece, this is the theme of a Ghidorah ready to destroy and reshape the world how he sees fit. The music was absolutely fantastic and enhanced this brilliant movie even more.
The monsters of this movie are the best they've ever appeared in the entire series. Of course benefitting from some of the most money ever poured into one of these movies, that's just scratching the surface. At last put on to film for an American audience is the absolute truth of Godzilla: Godzilla, the indifferent savior of the world. Rodan, the wild card. Mothra, the guardian beauty always ready to make the sacrifice play. King Ghidorah, the space demon aimed to destroy anything in its way. Every monster receives some of the best treatment they are likely to receive for the rest of time. Let's talk about 'em a bit more in depth, starting with Godzilla. Honestly, there isn't exactly a ton of new stuff I want to go over. He's Godzilla! You're pretty well acquainted with him after this film series, you know him. But I am happy to report he uses the classic roar mixed in with his modern roar created for 2014's Godzilla. This is Godzilla at his absolute best, getting in some of his best action in the series to date, and getting everything from his 1954 roar to Burning Godzilla and in general being the king we know and love. Rodan was awesome to watch and got a new spin on his character that I really love seeing. He's essentially Fire Rodan in this movie, fire burning through his wings, magma in his blood, the works. He gets some really badass action in the movie, like when he first emerges from his volcano and does like five spins in the air to take out all of Monarch's jets. His fight with Mothra is an absolute highlight of the final battle and is thrilling. I will say for a devout Rodan fan that this version might not be immediately accepted because he begins as a villain, but he turns it around in the end. Then we got Ghidorah, which, holy crap. This is THE definitive version of the character. Everything he does in this movie is pure and simple evil and terrifying at its best. I cannot even lie when I say he verges on being genuinely scary in the movie. From his incredible awakening from Antarctica to his hilariously brilliant death in Boston, Ghidorah absolutely commands the screen, and his terror cannot be over stated. I'm really excited to see where we go from here with the missing head. Because there are a lot of opportunities we can explore *cough* *cough* MECHA KING GHIDORAH PLEASE! Last up, my favorite monster of the entire movie: Mothra. Outside of Godzilla, Mothra is the first monster we see in the movie, and everything about her character is absolutely perfected in this movie. What we essentially get in this movie is a reprise of Mothra from GMK, with a little bit of first series Mothra thrown in for good measure. With the wasp inspired design like in GMK, she is able to actually throw down and it's so awesome. She puts really good use to all of her abilities, her massive new claws to smack around Rodan, webbing Ghidorah to a building in the final battle, flourishing her wings to intimidate Godzilla and even performing YET ANOTHER Mothra sacrifice to save the day. Mothra is an absolute angel that no one deserves. Mothra's two highlight scenes, the God Rays for finding Godzilla and blossoming under the waterfall were both so beautiful and well done that I truly teared up. Of course from hearing the Mothra Song in an American made movie, but also because it was so well done.
And now for something I have addressed I believe like twice or so in these reviews: Direction. If you'll allow me to use a sports metaphor, then let me put it like this. If you have a team with even some of the best players in the world and you think you can't be stopped, you will go nowhere with a good coach who knows how to control big personalities manage a game, and give the team vision. That is a film director's job too: manage personalities, a filmset and inspire the film's vision. And Michael Dougherty absolutely nailed it. He was often quoted in interviews before the movie as saying he wanted to make a monster opera, and that is absolutely perfect. This movie was so based and masterfully made from his vision of highlighting the monsters as more than silly people in big rubber costumes, and he got it done perfectly. Never have these monsters been done so well before outside of Japan. Dougherty came at this film with the love of a fan, which makes sense, as he's only wanted to make this movie since he was a young child. And what he made was one of the best and biggest monster brawls ever put on screen. He mastered the scale and dynamic actions, movements and feelings of these monsters in a way that no one has done. A film's direction and direction need to be perfect for any film, but especially for this genre. If your vision is off, the movie will be flawed. And his vision was spot on and I cannot thank him enough for it.Now, let's get onto that comment I said at the top of the review. "I believe Godzilla is a better overall movie, but King of the Monsters is a far superior Godzilla movie." Let me elaborate on that as I said I would. 2014's Godzilla is a really good movie. Its characters are not the most complicated in the world, but they work very well with a simple story that is based in a lot of sense, logic and reason. King of the Monsters is not wholly that way. It relies on a lot of convenience to get it done and finish strong. And guess what: I have no problem with that. Because while the story itself may not have been as solidly written or as soundly thought out as 2014's, it is a GODZILLA MOVIE. If you haven't figured it out: it doesn't HAVE to make perfect sense. If it does, awesome. Bonus points. But it doesn't HAVE to. When I think of Godzilla movies and plot, I think about Avengers: Age of Ultron. In it, Hawkeye says a really fantastic quote to Scarlet Witch that I think more people should think about when discussing scifi and fictional works in general. "The city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense," he says. Superhero movies and Godzilla movies very much operate on the logic of illogic, that suspension of disbelief behind almost every movie. But when you're dealing with dinosaurs the size of mountains, how in the hell can you expect everything to be perfect? I don't. So what I accept is simple: the story is not perfect. The characters are not perfect (but definitely very enjoyable, notably Bradley Whitford's eccentric Monarch scientist Dr. Rick Stanton). I went out of my way to explain how it can be surprising to many an audience member how well the people were thought out in the original Godzilla. Because you're just not going to get that in most movies. At most what you get in these movies is great monster action, an odd story and at max an interesting character or two. And that is EXACTLY what we get in King of the Monsters. The draw of the movie is not for a well thought out or fantastic story. I didn't expect that, and didn't even fully want that. So I am absolutely not let down by the downfalls of the story of the film. Because even if I did, I had so much fun.
I think the best way I can describe Godzilla: King of the Monsters is that it is basically the perfected version of a movie from the first series. This truly is everything I wanted out of these movies. Gorgeous cinematography that makes the monsters seem somehow even bigger than they truly are, effects that made them real and action for the ages. This is one of the finest and most lovingly made Godzilla movies of all time. Everything put into this movie was with absolute love and care. From the bottom of my heart, I love this movie. I will have to give it time to determine where it's going to fall on my top 10, but it will end up there in time. And now we count down the days as we await Godzilla's rematch with Kong until next year. And you bet I can't wait to see that one. Because if it's anything like King of the Monsters, it is going to be something spectacular.
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And there we have it. I feel a bit of melancholy to have this series all wrapped up, but this was really fun. I love this series, I love these movies, and I love that I stuck around to see them. Thank you to Toho for inventing one of the best fictional characters ever, thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed what I wrote, and thank you to all the crew members and actors, living or passed on who worked on these movies. My life and loves would be completely different if I did not love Godzilla, and I truly cannot thank enough. So thank you for sticking with me through all of this writing, and I hope that maybe I can crank out another one next March when Godzilla vs. Kong comes out. But until then, stay awesome. All hail the King.
