In my review for Godzilla (2014), I expressed my respect for how well the movie treated the Gojira creature's mythology, but I also pointed out its overreliance on flat human characters and relative lack of monster action. There was plenty to like, but still room for improvement, which Kong: Skull Island, its sibling-in-the-same-universe, managed to deliver. So relative newcomer Michael Dougherty of Krampus fame would have been wise to follow that same direction. Unfortunately, he and co-writer Zach Shields take their inspiration from the wrong sources.
I am totally fine with a monster movie that trades some logic for good spectacular action, but Godzilla: King of the Monsters (GKotM) cuts way too much corners with too little pay-off. First that screenplay, which begins with the ultimate cliché of a family torn by tragedy, signified by the well-known trope of the mother telling her child that she knows times have been hard, but that it will get better from here on. I hoped the same for the rest of the story, but unfortunately, it feels as if the screenwriters just received some storyboarded scenes of cool monster fights, and were tasked to somehow glue these together. But even with a pretty lengthy running time of 132 minutes, they didn't succeed in crafting a well-balanced plot.
And so we're stuck with a story and characters that literally go all over the place at breakneck speed, where ridiculous plot holes and nonsensical developments keep piling up: sending in civilian scientists with armed troops to reclaim a base from eco-terrorists (you should secure it before letting civilians in, especially those you went at great length to obtain because they have essential knowledge); emphasizing how natural the presence of the Titans on Earth is, yet one of them - surprise! - turns out not to be from Earth, but it is somehow still able to commandeer the other Titans (and it has an extra cool head-regeneration feature, no less!); using an oxygen-destroying bomb (they don't even attempt to explain this one) against a creature that has been preserved in ice for millennia (a silly trope on its own) without access to, well, oxygen; a kidnapped girl that can somehow escape from a closely guarded building with a precious but unguarded MacGuffin; and perhaps the worst: a giant reptile that can survive a atomic blast next to its head. And romantically hooking up with a moth under the guise of a 'symbiotic relation'.
This would be less of an issue if the movie had a playful tongue-in-cheek tone like Rampage (2018), but alas, it takes itself way too seriously to make me forgive such bad writing (those criticizing season 8 of Game of Thrones for that reason should take notes). The dialogue is cringe-inducing at times, and some sparse moments of attempted levity and humor often feel misplaced (yes, that's you, Bradley Whitford). The story continuously attempts to create some amount of gravitas by forcing in the drama through its characters, but I actually felt sorry for such a waste of a good cast. Sally Hawkins and Ken Watanabe had obviously already signed on for the sequel, explaining why they're stuck in a pulpfest that can't put them to good use. Hawkins is criminally underused and then unceremoniously ditched; Watanabe is the only one who can say his hammy dialogues and still make them sound somewhat dignified. Too bad that the makers were too busy conceiving a convoluted exit for his character, which involves a dying Gojira, a serendipitous system of Atlantean underwater tunnels, and a submarine that works fine apart from a conveniently defective firing mechanism (kudos for that analogue timer on the bomb, though. Nice retro touch).
Charles Dance must have been in desperate need of a paycheck to accept the role of the worst motivated eco-terrorist ever (even the movie is unsure whether his goal is getting profit through Titan DNA, or restoring the Earth), and Milly Bobby Brown only gets something important to do near the end, before she is relegated again to something that her divorced parents can reconcile over. Kyle Chandler probably gets the biggest spotlight, while Vera Farmiga has the potentially most interesting part as a scientist who goes to some extreme lengths for a greener Earth. However, this twist comes just as left-field and unmotivated as most others, given that we never really get to know their characters. And much of the flimsy character development amounts to very little anyway, since everything gets hastily wrapped up in a frenzy of monster violence in the end.
Had that latter part been done right, then this could still have been a bad yet amusing creature feature. But I was barely able to get a clear idea of what happens during these scenes, in between all the mayhem and explosions. Time and time again, young filmmakers fall into that deathtrap where they go full Bourne: they confuse shaky camera work, extreme close-ups, fog, rain, dark lighting and messy editing for gritty realism. I say it one more time: realism is good, but when it renders a movie unwatchable, it defeats the purpose, especially in a popcorn movie such as this. I don't mind a bit of shaky cam when used sparingly, but here, the camera man seems to suffer from permanent tremor. During crowd shots on the ground, it is understandable, but what is the purpose of doing this for aerial scenes? Do they suppose we believe that there is a shaking DP holding a camera in mid-air? They should take example from James Cameron, or more contemporary, Joe and Anthony Russo, who understand the geography of action scenes, so that you always know where everyone is in the shot, and can keep track of what happened.
This is a movie from the writer/director who co-wrote X-Men 2, arguably one of the better superhero movies ever made, so how he could deliver such a confusing mess with GKotM is a question that will hopefully be answered in the coming years (I place my bet on studio interference). This film commits some of the gravest movie sins in a long time, so CinemaSins, Honest Trailers and How It Should Have Ended have their work cut out for them. I rate this 5.5, and that is being generous.
I am totally fine with a monster movie that trades some logic for good spectacular action, but Godzilla: King of the Monsters (GKotM) cuts way too much corners with too little pay-off. First that screenplay, which begins with the ultimate cliché of a family torn by tragedy, signified by the well-known trope of the mother telling her child that she knows times have been hard, but that it will get better from here on. I hoped the same for the rest of the story, but unfortunately, it feels as if the screenwriters just received some storyboarded scenes of cool monster fights, and were tasked to somehow glue these together. But even with a pretty lengthy running time of 132 minutes, they didn't succeed in crafting a well-balanced plot.
And so we're stuck with a story and characters that literally go all over the place at breakneck speed, where ridiculous plot holes and nonsensical developments keep piling up: sending in civilian scientists with armed troops to reclaim a base from eco-terrorists (you should secure it before letting civilians in, especially those you went at great length to obtain because they have essential knowledge); emphasizing how natural the presence of the Titans on Earth is, yet one of them - surprise! - turns out not to be from Earth, but it is somehow still able to commandeer the other Titans (and it has an extra cool head-regeneration feature, no less!); using an oxygen-destroying bomb (they don't even attempt to explain this one) against a creature that has been preserved in ice for millennia (a silly trope on its own) without access to, well, oxygen; a kidnapped girl that can somehow escape from a closely guarded building with a precious but unguarded MacGuffin; and perhaps the worst: a giant reptile that can survive a atomic blast next to its head. And romantically hooking up with a moth under the guise of a 'symbiotic relation'.
This would be less of an issue if the movie had a playful tongue-in-cheek tone like Rampage (2018), but alas, it takes itself way too seriously to make me forgive such bad writing (those criticizing season 8 of Game of Thrones for that reason should take notes). The dialogue is cringe-inducing at times, and some sparse moments of attempted levity and humor often feel misplaced (yes, that's you, Bradley Whitford). The story continuously attempts to create some amount of gravitas by forcing in the drama through its characters, but I actually felt sorry for such a waste of a good cast. Sally Hawkins and Ken Watanabe had obviously already signed on for the sequel, explaining why they're stuck in a pulpfest that can't put them to good use. Hawkins is criminally underused and then unceremoniously ditched; Watanabe is the only one who can say his hammy dialogues and still make them sound somewhat dignified. Too bad that the makers were too busy conceiving a convoluted exit for his character, which involves a dying Gojira, a serendipitous system of Atlantean underwater tunnels, and a submarine that works fine apart from a conveniently defective firing mechanism (kudos for that analogue timer on the bomb, though. Nice retro touch).
Charles Dance must have been in desperate need of a paycheck to accept the role of the worst motivated eco-terrorist ever (even the movie is unsure whether his goal is getting profit through Titan DNA, or restoring the Earth), and Milly Bobby Brown only gets something important to do near the end, before she is relegated again to something that her divorced parents can reconcile over. Kyle Chandler probably gets the biggest spotlight, while Vera Farmiga has the potentially most interesting part as a scientist who goes to some extreme lengths for a greener Earth. However, this twist comes just as left-field and unmotivated as most others, given that we never really get to know their characters. And much of the flimsy character development amounts to very little anyway, since everything gets hastily wrapped up in a frenzy of monster violence in the end.
Had that latter part been done right, then this could still have been a bad yet amusing creature feature. But I was barely able to get a clear idea of what happens during these scenes, in between all the mayhem and explosions. Time and time again, young filmmakers fall into that deathtrap where they go full Bourne: they confuse shaky camera work, extreme close-ups, fog, rain, dark lighting and messy editing for gritty realism. I say it one more time: realism is good, but when it renders a movie unwatchable, it defeats the purpose, especially in a popcorn movie such as this. I don't mind a bit of shaky cam when used sparingly, but here, the camera man seems to suffer from permanent tremor. During crowd shots on the ground, it is understandable, but what is the purpose of doing this for aerial scenes? Do they suppose we believe that there is a shaking DP holding a camera in mid-air? They should take example from James Cameron, or more contemporary, Joe and Anthony Russo, who understand the geography of action scenes, so that you always know where everyone is in the shot, and can keep track of what happened.
This is a movie from the writer/director who co-wrote X-Men 2, arguably one of the better superhero movies ever made, so how he could deliver such a confusing mess with GKotM is a question that will hopefully be answered in the coming years (I place my bet on studio interference). This film commits some of the gravest movie sins in a long time, so CinemaSins, Honest Trailers and How It Should Have Ended have their work cut out for them. I rate this 5.5, and that is being generous.