This article brought to you by Rim Chiropractic and Mountains Community Hospital
By Nathan Hurlbut
Godzilla is back, and he’s brought some friends with him this time. Well, not exactly friends actually, which makes this follow-up to 2014’s “Godzilla” packed with enough jaw-dropping action and mind-blowing special effects to please the most discriminating monster movie fans. That is, even if everything else about the movie pales in comparison to the actions of the mighty title lizard himself.
Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) has designed a device called ‘ORCA’ that is able to communicate directly with the monstrous-sized creatures called ‘Titans’ that lay dormant in various locations on Earth. Emma and her twelve-year-old daughter Madison (Millie Booby Brown) are subsequently kidnapped by an eco-terrorist organization led by Alan Jonah (Charles Dance). They intend to use the device to awaken all the remaining Titans on the planet, including the fearsome Monster Zero, who is a direct threat to Godzilla’s ‘King of the Monsters’ status. The resulting chaos leaves Godzilla as the only hope to save the very future of mankind itself.
One question I have is this: how did a modern-day Godzilla movie end up with as great a cast as this? It certainly represents some kind of blockbuster coup, making it a shame this talented ensemble is given more to work with.
For example, Academy Award nominated actress Vera Farmiga (for 2009’s “Up in the Air”) plays the supposedly conflicted Dr. Emma Russell here, although the material she is given to work with here illuminates her inner struggle about as much as a Tokyo blackout. Meanwhile, the extraordinarily talented Sally Hawkins, recently nominated for an Oscar for her role in “The Shape of Water” (2017), has her character Dr. Vivienne Graham unceremoniously dispatched with little more than a “deceased” label plastered under her image on a computer screen.
You’ve also got Ken Watanabe bringing his usual degree of gravitas to his role as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, who expresses his love for the big lizard in a sacrificial act that actually provides one of the most moving moments in the film. It’s an emotional event that actually manages to trump any of the so-called ‘family’ moments between mom Emma, daughter Maddy, and dad Mark (played by Kyle Chandler, who ratchets the intensity level up to eleven here) that are supposed to provide the heart of the movie.
The movie essentially boils down to a love letter to Godzilla himself, so all you human characters and your respective actors better know you’re going to have to take a back seat to the real star here. It’s as if the filmmakers took all the youthful enthusiasm they had for these spectacular monster movies as a kid and sought to create the ultimate tribute film.
There is certainly a level of monstrous majesty to the so-called ‘Titans’ here, and the various giant creatures really are wondrously awesome creations. Watching the pterodactyl-like Rodan emerging from a Mexican mountain like a volcanic eruption, and then streak across the sky shimmering with molten lava seeping out from under his scaly skin is certainly quite a spectacular event.
Likewise the battle scenes are thrillingly staged, and watching the confrontations between these massive creatures surges more adrenaline through your body than a fresh Red Bull. Director Michael Dougherty employs enough fog and hazy murk to make the action that much more visually dazzling and mysterious at the same time. Anyone who doesn’t find themselves seduced by the level of spectacle here in these magnificent action sequences will be sorely missing out on the film’s most successful quality.
That’s because the film’s other qualities fall a bit short in comparison. It might have helped if screenwriters Zach Shields and Michael Dougherty (who also directed) weren’t so intent on pumping the movie full of one-line quips, as if they were desperately trying to create the “Casablanca” of giant lizard movies. Alas, they did forget that a certain level of wit is necessary to make a movie quote memorable, and that’s an area that this particular kaiju movie generally comes up a little short. At least it’s helpful that the main characters can frequently say with dead certainty exactly what the motivations of an enormous radioactive lizard are at any given time to help move the story effortlessly along.
Meanwhile plot contrivances abound, like a conveniently open intercom that allows Madison to hear every word of her mother Emma’s private conversation with eco-terrorist leader Colonel Jonah. The ease with which this twelve-year-old is subsequently able to make off with the ‘ORCA’, the prized source of the movie’s entire plot, from right under the noses of violent terrorists does strain the film’s credibility a tad.
So you may groan at the one-liners, and you may not care about the fates of many of the characters. You may even wonder if the film’s plot has been hijacked and is being held for ransom, hidden somewhere deep in the ocean near Godzilla’s underwater lair. However, if you’re able to get in touch with your inner ten-year-old, then “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” will turn out to be quite a thrilling ride indeed.
Rated PG-13