Mini Film Review – Godzilla: King Of The Monsters

I have just been out to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters; and it was pretty good! Set after the events of the 2014 film, this film sets the stage for the latest round in one of the biggest rivalries in the history of cinema: Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. The Monsters are Fantastic, their screen presence is Glorious and their fights are real Clashes; but the film does have some struggles. One of the things that was criticized a lot about the previous film was a lack of screen presence for the title character. Well, now a lot of critics are already saying there is too little of the humans in this film (‘make your mind up!’). Now I don’t agree to that, as there is actually lot of screen time for both humans and monsters, however there are long gaps in between. When the monsters take to the screen, they capture the audiences attention for good reason, they put on a real show. When the humans take to the screen, they too are working with what they have to do their best; however it just feels like the humans take up too much screen time; they are hogging the limelight in other words. Even when we get to the final battle, the focus does shift too strongly in the humans favour, making the final battle a bit too long. The final battle has some awesome moments, but could be quicker to the punch, and as the film is sort of building up to the Clash of the Titans, it could feature more heavily on it, making the fight a strong one; and not necessarily an overly long one! The casting too is a bit iffy; the marketing of the film has kept it’s focus on Millie Bobby Brown‘s situation and relationship to the events, however whilst other characters get plenty of screen time, she receives a lack of development, meaning that when she takes a stand, you really don’t care and wonder why on earth she is there! The film keeps it’s human attention on one side, and in many reasons should have kept it there, because that was working. Charles Dance was a pretty cool bad guy though and will be nice to see more of him in the future, plus Kyle Chandler and Ken Watanabe put on a good show too.

Whilst it’s not what I may have hoped for, there is still something good about this film; the Monsters. When they are on the screen they don’t disappoint. One thing that does a little is that I think on the monsters part, there’s too much, and too little focus on the four big stars. Whilst the focus of the fights stay rightly so on Godzilla and King Ghidorah, it feels like Mothra and Rodan have been pushed to one side, minor mentions like the other monsters in the film; if it was more focussed on just those four Monster Mega Powerhouses, then this film could have been much more pure and primal. It’s still pretty good though! It’s worth sticking round to the very end for and overall it’s still very enjoyable, the finale especially. While it’s not the best Godzilla film (at the moment, my opinion may change the next time I see it), it’s still a pretty good one!