By Brett Blake A sequel to 2014's GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS is nothing special on a screenplay level, but it does deliver spectacular monster-on-monster action of a scale that is truly impressive and an incredible amount of fun. The plot finds a nefarious eco-terrorist group attempting to unleash a hoard of dormant giant monsters on the planet in hopes of curbing mankind’s mismanagement of the world. Faced with the prospect of untold millions of lives being lost in the process, Monarch, the organization tasked with tracking and monitoring the monsters, must find a way to bring Godzilla, seen as humanity’s defender, into the fray to battle the formidable creatures. There’s a bit more to the story than just that, but it’s all a person really needs to know, because GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS does not exist to deliver an intricate narrative that is engaging on its own terms. It exists to deliver titanic monster action... which it does (and then some). In the previous film, there was the sense that Godzilla was some kind of externalized manifestation of nature itself, a primal force of unfathomable and mythological proportions. That aspect, not just with Godzilla, but with the rest of the monsters involved, as well, is mostly absent from KING OF THE MONSTERS. What’s strange, though, is that the script repeatedly emphasizes the idea that these ancient beings are part of the planet’s history, godlike beings who walked the Earth long before mankind... but this just doesn’t translate into the actual filmmaking and depiction of the the creatures. The last movie doesn’t make that idea nearly as explicit (in terms of exposition), but it conveys it so much more directly just by how Godzilla himself presented on a visual level, with an extreme amount of mystery, awe, and majesty. Where KING OF THE MONSTERS compensates for that lack of evocative grandeur is in pure spectacle, which it offers in spades. If some felt that the 2014 film was lacking in proper monster confrontations, this movie comes out swinging almost immediately with big-scale monster brawls. This 100% delivers on its inherent promise of seeing giant creatures battling for superiority while inflicting obscene amounts of collateral damage. It takes ideas and concepts that the classic Toho Godzilla movies toyed with (in all their wonderful man-in-suit charm), honors them, and then executes them with the advanced technological tools that Hollywood blockbusters have at their disposal in 2019. It’s a monster clash on a grand scale, and the real feat that director Michael Dougherty has pulled off is that the action never gets stale or boring or redundant. Each fight and setpiece looks and feels distinct, which goes a long way towards stopping the audience from being overwhelmed. There’s variation and variety, and it is ridiculously entertaining. Seeing Godzilla battle (and/or team up with!) some of his classic rogues gallery like Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah is just a pleasure. Composer Bear McCreary’s score is also a highlight of the production. In addition to honoring the same sort of “sound” that Alexandre Desplat brought to the previous film, McCreary also takes us back into Godzilla’s musical history by incorporating themes that the legendary Akira Ifukube wrote for some of the early Japanese films in the series. The result is a score which is propulsive and exciting, and McCreary once again proves that he’s one of the more underrated film score writers working today. The movie does have a problem in the same area most GODZILLA movies have a problem: the human storyline is nothing terribly impressive because the focus is on the monster stuff. To its credit, the screenplay wants the human drama to be compelling, and it spends a fair amount of time trying to get us to be invested, but it’s all rather inert. The cast here is terrific, packed with very capable performers, but they’re given very little to work with; for some viewers, this will be seen as an unforgivable waste of talent, while for others it, will be brushed aside because the action is strong enough to overcome it, Now, if I’m being completely honest, I have to admit that I still prefer the 2014 GODZILLA, which I have gradually come to believe is one of the best blockbusters of this decade. I prefer the mystery and the slightly more serious mythological weight of that movie, but I am also comfortable saying that KING OF THE MONSTERS is a rollicking monster adventure that I found to be a ton of fun.
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