Starring Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Sally Hawkins, Bradley Whitford, Thomas Middleditch, David Strathairn, Charles Dance, Aisha Hinds and O’Shea Jackson Jr.
Written by Michael Dougherty & Zach Shields.
Directed by Michael Dougherty.
★★
The Godzilla movies can’t ever seem to get the human characters right. The last movie didn’t do much for me because I didn’t think Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s central soldier character was very compelling, and it was almost halfway through the movie before Godzilla showed up. This time around, we get monsters galore right away, but we keep having to cut to pesky humans with their bad dialogue and overwrought reactions. (This director really loves starting with the actor’s back to us so they can turn around dramatically.)
After the last movie, Godzilla has disappeared, and the company that monitored him - Monarch - is looking for him and other potential titans. Truth is, Monarch knows where several titans are; it’s just that most of them are laying dormant. Ah, but one terrorist gets a hold of Monarch’s technology that will awaken them. More baddies for Godzilla to fight.
If you swapped this cast out with the cast from The Meg, it wouldn’t be much different.
I will give a movie the logic it establishes within its own universe. I will give it the titans. I will give them the origins of all the creatures. Now, the plot has to make sense after that, and it rarely does. From the opening scene that rips off Batman v. Superman to the convoluted motivations of most of the characters to the murky, smoke-filled battles where it's hard to invest in what's transpiring, you have to go dumpster-diving to find the pleasures.
I will give a movie the logic it establishes within its own universe. I will give it the titans. I will give them the origins of all the creatures. Now, the plot has to make sense after that, and it rarely does. From the opening scene that rips off Batman v. Superman to the convoluted motivations of most of the characters to the murky, smoke-filled battles where it's hard to invest in what's transpiring, you have to go dumpster-diving to find the pleasures.
How are the titans? Pretty cool. Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah are all here, plus others. I wish the movie had lived up to their potential.
P.S. The three stars from Straight Outta Compton were O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell. Jackson was in this. Hawkins and Mitchell were in Kong Skull Island. All three of their characters are still alive, and Godzilla v. Kong is due in 2021. Don't squander this reunion, Warner Bros!
