Godzilla II: King of the Monsters Review

 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com)

If you thought that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 22 installments was something, check out this statistic: King of the Monsters is the 35th film to bear the Godzilla franchise name. It’s not even the first film to hold that sub-title, with the re-dubbed version of the original 1954 picture named as such for its Western release. This time around, it’s the sequel to 2014’s simply-named Godzilla – although, were it not for the presence of Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins and the eponymous “unit” himself, it’d be difficult to tell. Whether it was original director Gareth Edwards’s exit or not is unclear, but it cannot be denied that from the start this feels more like a soft reboot than a direct continuation of events. 

Between a rock and a three-headed hard place
(source: Warner Bros.)

The intention of sequels is surely always to be bigger and better, and if nothing else Godzilla II: King of the Monsters is certainly game to fulfill that intent. Though Godzilla did take on some megabeasts (or “MUTOHs”) last time out, they weren’t exactly on the level of his more famous foes. Here we get some real titans, with a global audience treated to the kind of monster battle royale usually reserved for Godzilla’s native audience in Japan. Long time fanatics should be thrilled to finally see a big-budget slug-fest between our hero (yes, hero) and his iconic nemeses Rodan and the three headed (King) Ghidorah. The popular “Queen of Monsters” Mothra also enters the fray on the side of the king.

This is a film unafraid to embrace the colossal destruction that comes when monsters use a big city as their Colosseum, a trademark of Toho Studios films that flies in the face of recent criticisms for blockbuster city showdowns. Switching coasts after San Francisco saw havoc five years ago, the oft underused city of Boston takes its turn as a titanic playground. Perhaps that last sentence should come with a spoiler warning, although anyone coming into a Godzilla film unprepared for mayhem on a city-wide scale may perhaps have found themselves in the wrong movie theater.

Somewhere, there’s a message about who the real monsters are. Somewhere..
(source: Warner Bros.)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s when the film strays away from that tried-and-tested carnage heavy formula that it suffers. Though director Michael Dougherty (Krampus) goes to great lengths to ensure there is plenty of Godzilla screen time (a key criticism of Edwards’s effort), there are large parts of the film that severely sag until the monsters arrive, particularly the world-building opening act. Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga and Kyle Chandler provide familiar faces as they get a flashback-story introduction to solidify their tragic connection to Godzilla, until the sorrow stops and all three fall prey to an ecoterrorist group that serves as the human antagonists.

This group, whose evil actions undermine what might actually be a valid point about the ecological state of the world, is led by Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) who never really gets a chance to flex his villainous muscles. Like many others, he’s guilty of standing in bunkers and wondering what the big beasts are going to do next; unfortunately, that leads to a LOT of sitting in the cinema and wondering what the big beasts are going to do next.

The king has risen
(source: Warner Bros.)

When King of the Monsters plays to its title, it’s a very fun (and very loud) summer flick full of brawls and destruction that are truly epic. These battles commit to the monsters and their unfathomable powers, with inconsequential humans rarely making the foolish move to intervene. It’s when the humans do intervene in the story that the film loses its grip over its bloated 132 minute runtime, and though there is much more Godzilla here than there was previously, the human peril-titan ruckus ratio could still use some work.