#AFRAIDF

[theparanaturalenby]

TOMORROW.

[gojuo]

ONE DEGREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream - Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Balance. Balance is an important theme in this latest entry into the MonsterVerse; the balance between the kaiju, here dubbed Titans, and humanity is brought up quite a few times over the course of the film and plays a major role in the plot, and interestingly it is even reflected in a meta sense. As the Titans and humans must ultimately find a way to coexist, critical thrashings of this film have been met with audience praise, all due to a story that gives us an equal amount of human drama to the monster fighting we all know and love. To quote a character from another blockbuster cinematic universe, “Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.”

As mentioned before though, critics tend to despise this movie, especially in comparison to their more positive response to the 2014 film. It’s easy to see why; that film was much more focused on the human drama and kept the monsters, including the titular one, out of the spotlight. In my opinion, the movie is pretty ambitious but ultimately very dull, with some great ideas and characters that are shoved to the wayside for extremely boring leads, which seems to be a problem with Gareth Edwards as a director (I have the same issues with his other big film, Rogue One).

Now, this film on the other hand… director Michael Dougherty is a man I know I can trust. As the creator of Trick ‘r Treat and Krampus, this is a man I know can deliver on entertaining human interaction and awesome monster sequences. And while the critics seems to think he failed at that, I say he did an excellent job. This is probably one of the most fun Godzilla movies I have ever seen, and certainly America’s best effort.

Now, the plot is… honestly kind of inconsequential. You’re not really coming to a Godzilla film for the plot, you’re coming to see big monsters lay the smackdown on each other. That being said, the plot isn’t exactly bad or anything; like I mentioned. The themes of balance, the eco-terrorism, the human struggle stuff, none of it is awesome. But the human portions of this movie really only ever reach a level where it keeps you interested but only because you know that there’s going to be some big monster fighting coming out of this. Ken Watanabe and Charles Dance are really carrying the film, with Ziyi Zhang and Millie Bobbie Brown putting forth a lot of effort; Zhang ultimately ends up subtly filling an iconic role that I won’t spoil here, so I can’t help but love her. Sadly, most of the rest of the cast can’t measure up; even Sally Hawkins, a great actress, is not given much before she is unceremoniously devoured by a recently-awakened Ghidorah not even halfway through the film.

And then of course there is Vera Farmiga’s character. Farmiga is a good actress, and she does her best to sell her character and make her at least mildly entertaining, but the attempts by the movie to portray her character in a sympathetic light despite her heinous actions is kind of cringeworthy. By the end of the film I was really praying that she wouldn’t make it out alive, and I was genuinely afraidf the movie was going to try and justify her hypocrisy and arrogance by allowing her to live through this and be happy with her family. She’s an idiot on a colossal scale.

But enough of that; let’s talk about the real stars of the show, the monsters. There are a lot of new kaiju mentioned or hinted at in this film, but we sadly don’t get to see many of them. The ones we do see, though – Behemoth, Methuselah, and Scylla – have awesome designs that pay tribute to lesser known kaiju from the old Toho films while being interesting and unique enough to instill a bit of interest into what they could do in the future. And yes, while these are only a small handful of newcomers, leaving about a dozen unseen onscreen, and while these new guys don’t really do much more than cameo, there is hope they could be major players in the future, something I’d certainly be happy to see.

Godzilla is, of course, as amazing as ever. It’s incredible how much emotion and personality they are able to capture from the Big G just from how he moves, how he squints, how he carries himself… if you’re looking for a great character in the film, look no further than the titular Titan. He has enough character to make up for any of the human cast’s shortcomings. This time he is joined by his old friends, with some interesting twists. Rodan, for instance, who has traditionally been one of Godzilla’s allies, here is a sniveling toady to whoever is the toughest monster in town, and follows Ghidorah for much of the film. While not presented as wholly evil, he is certainly presented as much more unscrupulous, bloodthirsty, and instilled with more of a “might makes right” attitude than ever before. Rodan also seems a bit more intimidating than usual; perhaps it’s the fiery elements added to his design, or perhaps it’s because he’s as big as a battleship. Who can really say?

King Ghidorah is significantly more straightforward, but he still incorporates elements rarely seen on him in the franchise, most notably his incredible healing factor. Ghidorah probably rivals Godzilla in the personality department; you can really feel the sadism and evil radiate off of Ghidorah with every action he takes. He’s smart, he’s sinister, he’s deadly, and he seems to utterly revel in the destruction he’s causing. In short, this is Ghidorah exactly as he should be.

And of course there is Mothra. Mothra is a testament to this movie’s greatness. She is the first kaiju we see, as a massive, adorable catterpillar, and as you can imagine, she grows into the most stunning piece of visual effects in the entire film. Every single time Mothra appeared to save the day, every single time she graced the screen with her beautiful theme and her glorious glowing wings, I started to cry. She is simply a stunning, flawless gem of a Titan, an utterly perfect and prtistine being too good for the world she is thrust into. Her screentime is limited compared to her costars, but she of course makes the most of every single second she has, and as I’m sure you can guess she does indeed end up saving Godzilla’s bacon in the most awesome manner possible. She truly deserves her title as “Queen of the Monsters.”

This was a fun film. The stuff I heard was bad from the fans wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined, and obviously the critics were a bit too pompous for their own good here. I will say if you prefer the more philosophical Godzilla films that focus more on how humans deal with giant monsters, you may not care for this quite as much. But if you love these films for the spectacle, the fun, and the characterization of the Titans themselves, you’re most likely going to have a good time with it. And as I mentioned, the human stuff isn’t necessarily bad, but it mostly feels like moderately interesting filler to pace you for the real good stuff.  

The setup for sequels in the credits is awesome, as is the credit joke where it states Godzilla, Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra all played themselves, but I think there is one thing that the credits offers that cements this as one of the best entries in a great franchise like Godzilla: it finally, FINALLY puts a version of the Blue Oyster Cult’s epic tribute song to Big G in the credits, this one with vocals by Serj Tankian no less. If that doesn’t sell you on this movie, I don’t know what will.