Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Monster
Rating: 1.5/5
A Monstrous Cash-Grab
I was starting to really enjoy these monster movies until Godzilla: King of the Monsters came out. This movie is really not great. Although in its 2h 12m runtime it has seemingly the most Monster v. Monster action, which is what these movies are about, the human part of the story drags this film so far into the dirt.
There are like 20 human characters in this movie, for no reason. I can’t even keep track! By the time a conversation is over, I have just figured out, “oh yeah, that’s that one guy who was there earlier”. Look, I understand that if this were really to happen, a lot (more than 20) people would be involved in trying to figure it out. This is a movie though. I need one to three main characters that I can really stick to in a consistent plot progression. I don’t even have to like them, just don’t confuse me. Millie Bobby Brown’s character Madison, and her parents are the three more main characters, but they’re not good characters. I think the filmmakers knew that and that’s why there are so many side characters that saturate every scene, and that’s what makes this confusing. In this film, whenever they cut to the humans, I yawned. It was boring, I didn’t particularly care about their involvement in this and how they affected it, they were just extremely unlikable.
In this film’s two predecessors, Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island the filmmakers were pretty on point with the power of these monsters. If a huge monster destroys a building, people inside and out of it are likely to perish. In this film, human military soldiers basically withstand being right next to a monstrous plasma fire breath laser thing, which would surely burn them to a crisp. You know how I know that? Because it happens in this film! Just because I character is “more important” to the filmmakers in this film, shouldn’t give them unrealistic plot armor.
The technology in this film is absurd. It takes place in 2019, five years after the Godzilla movie. In the Godzilla movie humans were operating on 2014 technology. I made a big note of that in my review of that film. In King of the Monsters, the humans are working with some 2075 technology with some insane aircraft, holograms, and more. It’s not believable and it almost makes it seem like there’s not really a challenge for these characters at all.
Overall, this film is so boring. The pacing is horrendous. The film has these hero monster shots, some of which are good, but in contrast to other monster films, they are not nearly as successful. I was disappointed by this film because it falls into a habit of bad human storylines and boring plot progression. I hope they learn why their other two films were more successful and stick to that formula. Would I watch this again? No, I’ll save my time and money. Should you watch this film? No, don’t bother.
Tony King