Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

This latest Godzilla movie is actually a sequel to the last Godzilla movie from Hollywood released  in 2014. Those of you who have watched the earlier movie (I re-watched it recently to prepare for this new one) might recall that it was actually very good. It had a tight storyline with characters whom we can relate to, plus some astounding set pieces involving the destruction of Hawaii, Las Vegas and the epic showdown in San Francisco. It still looked and sounded awesome the second time around when I re-watched this.

So I was all geared up and ready to take on the latest Godzilla anticipating even better things given the advancement of the CGI and sound technology over the past 5 years. Unfortunately, this one ended up being quite a mess. The film opened with a familiar scene from the end of the last movie, amidst the destruction of San Francisco, but it was just to provide a loose link to the earlier movie. It moved quickly to the present, and introduced us to the new characters (played by Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown) and monsters mixed in a convulated plot that made little sense. The acting was nothing to shout about. Ken Watanabe reprised his role as the all knowing but quite useless Doctor Ishiro, and made to just stand and look in awe at the mayhem, apart from the cringe worthy script he was forced to utter. Zhang Ziyi was the token Chinese actress, playing the role of a really smart scientist in the team. Her role was basically a redundant one, and Ziyi, who showed such promise in her very first film with Zhang Yimou's The Road Home, performed like an amateur memorising and delivering her lines without emotions. Charles Dance was a welcome member to the cast but his villainous role was 1-dimensional and simply not up to his class. He can definitely do much better. Finally there was Millie Bobby Brown, the brilliant young star of Netflix's Stranger Things. She was totally wasted here and I could see that she was trying hard to make her role significant but the horrible script just didn't make it possible for her character to be anything more than just another cardboard character. My personal feeling is that any one episode of Stranger Things was better than this movie.

The monster battle scenes were relentless this time. However, the producers seem to have played it "safe" this time by having most of the mayhem take place in less crowded surroundings. The 2014 movie had very impressive effects showing massive destruction of the city skyscrapers in San Francisco, and to a lesser extent the destruction of Las Vegas and Hawaii. The set piece at the end in Boston, was mainly covered by a thick layer of cloud dust. There also seems to be more titans and monsters thrown in the mix this time but I have to admit I was confused as to what exactly was happening during the monster battle most of the time. It all just seem like a noisy mess to me.

All in all, Godzilla: King of the Monsters will probably appeal to those who like their action movies loud and noisy and not bothered by the details. For me, this is yet another example of Hollywood excesses which amounts to less in terms of satisfaction.