Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Review

After gestating over the fact that many critics have severally panned 2019’s “Godzilla King of the Monster” I felt it was necessary to understand why this was occurring and I came up with several would be reasons for the huge disparity between the critic reviews and that of the general audience. It would be extremely hyperbolic to proclaim that the critics did not “get” the film and it would also be an over exaggeration to say that the audience fully understood every nuance that the film had to offer, in actuality the film itself is not a flawed masterpiece but has, with the loyalty of the fan base, manage to satisfy the appetite of fans of the genre and, in time, might be appreciated and hailed as a proclamation of monster film art.

“Godzilla: King of the Monsters” is a film directed by Mike Dougherty a Godzilla fan creating a film for Godzilla fans, with this fact comes the criticism that the film has no meaning whatsoever besides to throw several millions of dollars at a CGI infused monster mash. In actuality the film faithfully acts as a celebration of the franchise and has several nods to almost every past iteration of the titular monster, from using music from the original Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube to taking a narrative strain from 1995’s “Godzilla vs Destoroyah,” whether or not this nostalgic fan service is overbearing might vary on the person, but to say it doesn’t work to elevate the film in key moments would be a denial of how necessary sound is in films like these. The film is paced like that of one of the 90s Godzilla films that knows what it wants to do and will work at a frantic pace to get to the part of the film that the audience paid to see, because of this many scenes with the human characters might come off as bland and unnecessary, but having a film that is nothing but monster fight scene after fight scene would not do the genre justice; it would be like having a “Rocky” film feature a montage of him defeating every one of his opponents, losing the gravitas of the importance of each encounter.

The film falls flat narratively because, once again, the film is made by a Godzilla fan for other fans of the giant monster, the film’s strengths are not in its ability to tell a story but how to tell its story. The strongest points of this film are the visuals, sound design, and every time the monsters are on the screen. The plot of this film is only there to service the explanation as to why the monsters are acting the way they act throughout the film, the plot does not service the human characters and should not be seen as the determining factor as to whether or not the film is good or not. The humans may be one dimensional because they are not the focal point of the film, but they have redeeming factors and minor to major character developments that feel earned. Ken Watanabe’s somber performance as Ishiro Serizawa might be one of the few that greatly impacts the plot of the film without being too overbearing or cringe inducing. The character is motivated by his love of every living thing, this extends to the giant Titans trying to re-establish natural order, and because of this appreciation of nature his character arc ends with him sacrifices himself to revitalize the downed Godzilla, his “old friend.”

One of the common things that are apparent in many critic reviews are those that are dissatisfied with the portrayal of Godzilla and how many see this film as a character assassination piece. The character of Godzilla has had a very sorted past that saw his first outing being an allegory of the nuclear umbrella placed over the world after World War II and shifting to the force of nature that has sworn to protect Earth from any would be conqueror foolish enough to challenge the king of monsters in later entries. Godzilla has gone from being the sole antagonist to reluctant protagonist in many of the films and shows just how flexible the monster is and the recent American films have shown that at a faster rate which might explain why the critics wouldn’t believe this depiction of Godzilla. Creature of the atom or not fans of the franchise can rationalize the reason Godzilla no longer reflects post WWII fears as his shift from nuclear symbol to a more contemporary icon works for the creature and films in the franchise, whether or not the critics of today want to accept this earned shift in tone reflect what is said in many reviews.

This film is an exercise at working the suspension of disbelief of the audience and is fueled by the believably that the plot works or not. Overall the film is a pretty solid attempt at continuing Legendary Pictures Monsterverse and has giving the fans of the genre incentive to prepare themselves for next year’s Godzilla vs Kong.