Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hours, 11 minutes
Director: Michael Dougherty
Quick Impressions:
This movie would be better as a music video staring Millie Bobby Brown. I can see that making a present day FX thrill ride about all these monsters must have been a Herculean labor of love. (You can tell that the filmmakers put their hearts into their work when you see each of the Titans credited as himself in the cast list at the end.) I know the real stars of the movie are the Titans. I get it.
But the one with star quality is Millie Bobby Brown. My husband also thinks more of the film should have focused on her character. His reasoning is that her character is most interesting, which is true. My related opinion is that the camera loves the actress herself. That kid looks good on screen. She looks like she was born to star in summer blockbusters. I don’t know if it’s an innate quality, something she’s doing, something the camera and lighting are doing for her. For whatever reason, she commands the screen every second that we see her. (It’s like watching an 80s era Indiana Jones.) She looks like she was born to have amazing adventures.
And as I watched, I could not help thinking that the movie could be improved by cutting out all the footage not featuring Millie Bobby Brown. Of course, if you did that, you’d lose the story. That’s why I suggested turning the remaining footage into a music video. This is an especially good solution since the music is Godzilla‘s unseen star. As my sixteen-year-old aptly put it on the way home, “I’m not gonna lie, the soundtrack is fire.” The score is perfect, too. (And I still love that “Go, Go Godzilla” song that plays over the end credits.)
The Good:
I saw the 2014 Godzilla. I think I even reviewed it. But I swear that going into this sequel, all I could remember about the first one was that once Bryan Cranston died, the movie got dramatically less interesting. (Also Elizabeth Olsen was in it, though I remember nothing she said or did.) I’ve seen Kong: Skull Island, too. It also failed to make much of an impression on me. (I do remember the entire cast of that one, but only because my mother watches it all the time.) I think of these two films as good but not great (light-years better, though, than that Matthew Broderick disaster of my youth).
Though I have nothing against old Japanese monster movies, I wouldn’t call myself a Godzilla fan. I don’t know all the lore. I certainly haven’t read any books. (Are there books?) I saw this movie because my husband was excited to take our older two kids, and I never say no to a movie. Plus it has a big cast (even though it largely wastes them), and who can resist that final trailer featuring the eerie, instrumental version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”?
At first, this film impressed me a lot. I loved the economy of storytelling in its opening scenes. Our introduction to the Russell family is fantastic. I love what we initially see on Madison’s laptop and the snappy conversation about breakfast.
“Great,” I thought. “This is off to a much better start than I ever dreamed. The story is unfolding nicely. The dialogue is pretty good. The camera loves Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown. It’s all so efficient and neat.”
Unfortunately, things soon got messier. I can’t say that I loved the Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but I did love Ken Watanabe. His character seemed like such a strong, positive force, keeping his peers focused forward, moving in a positive direction. His very presence seemed to give the film shape, structure.
I also found his performance itself simply outstanding. “What a great actor he is!” I kept thinking. “He’s even acting across a language barrier, and he’s giving the strongest performance in the film by far.” (Note, though, that Millie Bobby Brown seems to have the potential to give the strongest performance in the film but isn’t given the chance. Vera Farmiga’s face is acting up a storm, too, but often her actual lines fail her.)
I loved Watanabe so much.
When another of my favorite characters died (pretty abruptly), I thought in worry, “Okay, if they kill off Ken Watanabe, I am done watching this movie. I’ll just go to sleep instead.”
As it turns out, I did almost fall asleep near the end (not in protest, just by accident). My daughter (who, in fairness, might have an ear infection) kept protesting too much that she didn’t find the movie boring, then fell asleep on my shoulder. Because she was sleeping on me, I began to feel sleepy myself. Plus, the loud, ceaseless cacophony of the climactic battle scenes was so incessant that for me, it turned to white noise. I might as well have switched on a Sleep Godzilla (you know, like a Sleep Sheep) to put a baby down for a nap. The unwavering wall of sound made me long to doze. My eyes kept begging me to shut them, but my intellect would insist, “No, no! There’s no dialogue! You’ll miss something. Just try to focus on Millie Bobby Brown!” In the end, I resisted the urge to slumber, but it wasn’t easy.
Besides Watanabe and Brown, the actor playing the most promising character is Ziyi Zhang, or as I apparently know her, “The girl who’s not Michelle Yeoh from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” sometimes also known by me as “The Chinese actress from Memoirs of a Geisha.” (Remember? Everyone was so mad that they didn’t cast a Japanese actress?) The whole time, I was pretty sure I was right about Zhang’s identity, but I had to wait until after the movie to be absolutely certain. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her.)
Zhang gives a great performance as a character who seems born to serve the story. (I swear, some characters don’t even seem to know themselves why they’re involved at all.) Zhang’s character is so interesting, and she plays the role with fitting seriousness. (This isn’t a joke. Godzilla is a being of some dignity, and the fate of the planet is at stake.)
Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga also give good performances, though both their characters frustrated me so much. Charles Dance is a welcome addition to the cast. (Let’s face it. He’s a welcome addition to any cast, always willing to bring the menace. I can’t remember if he always played villains before Game of Thrones, but he certainly seems to gravitate toward sinister characters now.)
I also enjoyed Sally Hawkins and Aisha Hinds. We needed more David Strathairn. (And why was CCH Pounder even in it? Blink and you miss her! She’s in the trailer just as long as she’s in the movie!) I spent half the film trying to place Anthony Ramos. He’s good in a small role and also plays Lady Gaga’s friend in A Star is Born. I liked O’Shea Jackson, Jr., too. He has a great line late in the film.
As I said before, the music is amazing, probably the strongest aspect of the movie. Bear McCreary’s score is excellent. The end credits led me to believe that earlier, existing themes for each of the Titans were incorporated into the new score. Whatever McCreary is doing, it’s working. And each new song in the soundtrack is cooler than the last. I also remember thinking that some of the shots looked cool, but then we came home and watched 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time, and now I can barely remember Godzilla‘s cinematography at all.
Best Scene Visually:
The last thing Godzilla does to his ultimate enemy looks pretty awesome, but I think I prefer the not Egyptian part.
Also fantastic is when Ziyi Zhang’s character stands spellbound, watching something.
I like, too, the way someone is discovered by those frantically searching through rubble.
Best Action Sequence:
What happens in Antarctica is good in retrospect. At the time, I felt frustrated and confused, wondering if I had missed something, or if the scene didn’t make sense. I do think there was potential for improvement here, but there’s one bewildering moment that is a nice move, storywise.
The final battle scene is also pretty great (if you can stay awake).
Best Scene:
The parts with Millie Bobby Brown are the best, both individually and collectively. Whether she’s fretting over email, burning breakfast, flipping off Tywin Lannister, or any of her later, spoiler heavy heroics, she shines, and her scenes shine around her.
The Negatives:
Late in the movie, Kyle Chandler yells out, “It looks Egyptian!” That made me so annoyed and kind of sums up my general irritation with his character.
First of all, no, it does not look Egyptian at all (unless “Egyptian” is the word he uses to describe anything ancient. I mean, if he also says his great-grandmother looks Egyptian simply because she is old, then okay. Otherwise, I remain annoyed).
After the movie, I thought, “Why did that irritate me so much?”
Swiftly, I realized, “It’s because he has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about at all, and yet he just has to say something. Keeping silent is never an option for this guy. He just can’t help himself. He must yell out his interpretation of everything.”
The thing is, they’ve got this chain of command, this well-oiled machine, but then some guy who has been off hanging out with wolves to avoid facing his own traumas suddenly shows up and insists on being deferred to, taking charge of every conversation, interrupting everyone, making every decision. Granted, sometimes he has some good ideas. Sometimes. But he tries to dominate the conversation and overrule others’ decisions all the time.
I just feel like maybe the Russell family has helped enough. Maybe they should step back. Maybe in the future, they should not be put in charge of so many things.
Also, although I like Bradley Whitford as an actor, his character here ultimately did not work for me. I wanted to like him. I tried. But he just wasn’t as funny as the movie clearly wanted him to be. I think we were meant to find the character off-kilter and endearing, whereas I simply found him annoying.
Thomas Middleditch was less annoying, but his jokes kept not working, too. So often, I felt the crushing weight of dead, empty silence where I was almost positive audience laughter was supposed to go.
I also thought Vera Farmiga’s character needed a bit more development. She’s a fascinating woman, but all we can do is look at her face and imagine her complexity. Her acting is excellent, but the script fails her.
And in a movie about monster battles, I wanted more battles. Maybe there were more battles. Possibly I just zoned out during those parts thinking about symbolic, philosophical interpretations of the whole thing. Sometimes a lot of noise and confusion overwhelms and loses me. (But I think the battles should have kicked it up a notch.)
Our son said afterwards that he thought one reveal should have been delayed, letting suspense and confusion build, rather than giving us quick answers in a ridiculously convenient confession that both he and I simultaneously compared to the way a Bond villain would reveal himself.
Overall:
Godzilla: King of the Monsters has amazing music and a great (though underutilized) cast. You’ll leave convinced that Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown was meant to be viewed on the big screen. She obviously has a future in movies, and I would pay to see another one of these Godzilla movies, too, especially if Charles Dance returns. I won’t lie. This film won’t knock you off your feet, but it will provide an exciting soundtrack for a comfortable afternoon nap. Some of the monster fights are pretty good, too. It’s a loving tribute to a time tested Titan.