Film Review - Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is directed by Mike Doughtery who directed Krampus back in 2014 and was a writer on X-Men 2 and Superman Returns and the story here concerns a machine called the Orca which has the audio of every known Titan to exist and when the Titans do rise and wreak havoc on the world Godzilla must now re-emerge to assert his place as King.

Godzilla is not a bad movie to watch but it was also one that I felt was very meh and very forgettable but before I delve more into those aspects of the film I want to first touch on the positives and first and foremost the monster battles in this movie are a lot of fun whether its Godzilla roaring and breathing fire or King Gidorah and its 3 heads (“Will you forget the Head Slicing Thing” from Hercules came to mind when I watching his fights) or Mothra with her graceful beauty or Rodan the fire god these creatures really get to strut their stuff in a very large scale way and I really enjoyed that aspect of the film.

I also enjoyed Bradley Whitford’s performance as one of the Scientists in the movie but here is where I will delve more into the negatives and first and foremost comes the screenplay, a lot of it feels very clunky in terms of its storytelling and characters, the character motivations seem to change from one subplot to the next, a lot of the human characters feel very underwritten as if the screenwriters (and Mr Doughtery is one of them) didn’t really know what to do with a lot of them but had to do something with them to keep the budget down and minimise the monster fights within an affordable price tag.

And this movie boasts a great cast aside from Mr Whitford, you have Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown (who really looks like a young Ms Farmiga), Charles Dance and Ken Watanabe and almost all of them are wasted with little to nothing roles and while I was watching them I just kept getting the “Aww man not them” feelings as their roles just felt so flat and meaningless after a while and it’s a real shame.

And that was Godzilla: King of the Monsters and its not a bad movie just for me a very meh and forgettable one, 2 out of 5.