TALKBACK: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) - SPOILERS -

[Joseph Goodman]

Based on the press, and details that had been revealed in the run-up to this film's release, I was expecting it to be $200 million fan-fiction, and it more than met that expectation... in all the ways I feared. It's a pastiche of moments from the franchise strung together with some of the most awkward, alienating, poorly-written dialogue and characterization I've ever seen in a mainstream film. The script is so carelessly written that one can imagine Mike Dougherty being one of those who holds the attitude, "It's just a Godzilla movie, no one sees those for the characters". The film is almost J.J. Abrams-like in its disinterest in letting story or characterization get in the way of being an old-fashioned ransom note paste-up of fan service setpieces. I can't imagine how this dialogue, or the rushes thereof, were approved, unless it was by Dailan Wanda execs who couldn't understand English well enough to tell how bad it was.

As far as the cast, the only player who made any of this dialogue sound like something an actual human would say was Charles Dance, but he probably says fewer words in the whole picture than I wrote in the previous paragraph. Stranger Things girl barely factors in to the proceedings, Farmiga switches to villain and back with no build-up as if she was a wrestler booked by Vince Russo, and Kyle Chandler has little to do but proclaim exposition. Serizawa continues to be a non-character with no function other than to gaze portentously, fiddle with his watch, and say a few Japanese words, with his sacrifice completely un-earned and un-established by anything the character has done in either film (which has been nothing). It almost goes without saying that I'd have rather seen the comic relief characters, Stock Wimpy Nebbish #1312341 (Middleditch) and not-Rick Sanchez (Whitford) pulled to the side and discreetly garroted.

Yeah, blah blah blah the special effects scenes are great, but really, what doesn't have great special effects these days? A film needs more than impressive CG set pieces to work, and sadly, this is all this film has going for it. At the end of the day, none of the critics who slated this film were misrepresenting what they saw, or were treating it unfairly, or failing to "get it"... its simply as bad as they say it is.

[TerranigmaFreak]

I had a blast! For better or worse, it's the total opposite of G2014. This is very much Godzilla's movie. They were not shy about Kong being the next monster to fight. Ghidorah has new powers... and holy "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!", it shocked me. I really liked his backstory too. Though to be honest, I don't see the big deal with having 3 different actors play the 3 heads. I barely noticed anything that would make each head stand out. There only a second or two of the heads snapping at each other and that was it.

[sentaison]

I absolutely loved this movie! The action was up there with Pacific Rim as far as monster mashing goes and the easter eggs and callbacks to Toho's kaiju history were awesome. I am going to see it again and of course there is a blu-ray purchase in my future.

[Dai]

[lhb412]

I'm thinking about what Dougherty said about there existing an initial 3 hour cut of the movie. I wonder if this version has more character development, more meat and lead-up to the big moments instead of the "bullet point" feeling we end up with?

Sekizawa would hide the exposition in scenes full of character. Think about the opening of King Kong vs. Godzilla at the TV studio where we are introduced to our two leads, the central theme and tone of the movie, and get exposition that leads up to both Godzilla and Kong's appearance - and you don't even know that's what you're getting! You're just enjoying a funny scene!

... oh, and it establishes he plays drums! Damn! He made it look so easy when everyone else has such trouble with making character scenes and plot scenes and humor scenes.

[william newell]

[Joseph Goodman]

[TerranigmaFreak]

I'd watch a director's cut of this. Hopefully more extended shots of the action too? I wanted more Mothra and Rodan.

[GFan]

I feel like A LOT of the human character scenes were trimmed to keep the movie at a faster pace and keep it from being more than 2 and a half hours long. I would love to see a 3-hour cut of this!

[TerranigmaFreak]

[lhb412]

^ Please God don't bother that man.

[tbeasley]

If you have the patience, here are more thoughts and observations in play-by-play/bullet point form –

[Mac]

It was worse than I imagined. I'm parroting another critic here, but it really does feel like a Heisei Godzilla film.

I will be happy when this bombs and we can be done with American Godzilla once and for all.

[Gentleman]

[Gwangi]

I go away for a few days and as I understand it, there is a great panic among the fandom regarding the Rotten Tomatoes scores, the box-office take, etc. I get it. I won’t leave you guys again!

This was like a thrill ride, but without going to an amusement park! Far from perfect and probably ends up being my third favorite of the Mosnterverse. But for the most part I enjoyed it.

For those coming here who had already prejudged it, and noticeably did not offer us any bullet points as to why they disliked it, I could care less of what you guys think. For those who gave a detailed list as to why perhaps you gave it a thumbs down, that I could understand better, even if I may disagree with some of the assessments.

In the end, this was a monster movie, which… turned out to be a monster movie! As for the humans, I really liked Ken Watannbe, Kyle Chandler, Ziyi Zhang (clever way of making her as the twins) and Sally Hawkins, which was heartbreaking to see her eventual demise (same of course, for Watannabe). Millie Bobby Brown was OK. Vera Farmiga’s motives were somewhat confusing, but then again, so were Emmy Kano’s in “Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah”, a film that is somehow “loved” by many in the fandom. I’ve only seen two episodes of “Game of Thrones”, so I am not at all familiar with Charles Dance, but did find his villain somewhat cardboard.

As for the monsters themselves, I only wish we would have seen more of Rodan. Godzilla is great. Mothra is pretty awesome and Ghidrah, for the first time since the 1960s, is back to his gloriously menacing self!

Box office wise, it may underperform, it may not, but things will be OK. We still have one more movie in the cue, and I am betting that the Mosnterverse will continue on, but if not, then we had our fun, but it certainly will not be the end of Godzilla!

[lhb412]

[Russzilla]

[Russzilla]

The end scene got me thinking guys, could we possibly see Mecha King Ghidorah in Godzilla vs. Kong?

[Gwangi]

[Dai]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[Alpha OTS]

Checking back in to the forum here. Been away a long time.

Saw it yesterday. Really enjoyed it. I agree with many of the criticisms already stated here, some as strongly some not as. It fixed some things from 2014 but that came with problems of its own.

However there are two BIG positive things I see coming from this movie:

1. I can see a little kid eating every second of this up. In fact when I was hitting the rest room I heard a couple of kids talking with their dad and naming all the monsters. This is a very good thing for the fandom.

2. There was a TON of world building. That's really going to reinforce #1.

Cinemassacre has a youtube video up discussing this movie and their main gripe seems to be how every monster battle is in the dark and rain, especially Ghidorah who is constantly surrounded by a thunderstorm. This I definitely agree with. At first I was ok with the concept, but it really just muddied the screen too much. There are some cinematographic shots, but even those are in the dark.
There were some perspective shots, but they were unfortunately done in a way where it felt like the actors were in front of a green screen. It just didn't convey any scale. 2014 took better time with such shots and to me feels like a better overall movie. KotM seems to hit all the notes that 2014 was missing though. If only we could have some kind of merger of the two.....Vs Kong perhaps?

Really enjoyed everything with Rodan and the Rodan vs Mothra fight. The initial G vs Ghidorah fight was better than the finale one I thought. I was hoping for some more identifiable or better other random kaiju though. The trunkless mastodon was probably the best of that bunch, but I didn't really care for that design.

I'll finish by echoing Cinemassacre, please film Vs. Kong in daylight!

[gojira_fan]

Things I didn’t like.

1. Mothra was underused. The trailers show all her action for the most part.

2. Too many characters. Had they just focused on the Russell family and Serizawa it would have kept the plot more focused.

3. killing Sally Hawkins, although I suppose it was meant to be the shocking moment especially after she just saved Mark Russell

4. the music was buried in the mix, especially during adult Mothra’s birth. That should have been the moment to let Mothra’s song shine, instead you can hardly hear it.

5. Charles Dance’s character was underused. It would have been better to just let Emma be the mastermind.

6. There’s no sense of wonderment or buildup. The Mothra larva hatches 10 or so minutes into the film and Daugherty steps on the accelerator from there and really doesn’t stop.

7. Rain, rain, rain and night battles......



Things I liked

1. Serizawa, it’s a shame he had to die but his scene is powerful. And Ken Wantanabe is a fantastic actor and brought credibility to the series.

2. Ghidorah, this is the best performance / rendition of the monster. Each head had its own personality.

3. The same for Rodan, minus the multiple heads.

4. The family drama. Had they just focused on that, I think people might appreciate the story more.

5. The nod to the Shobijin with Zhang Ziyi’s character’s family history. Although it was somewhat awkwardly inserted in.

6. The Kaiju battles were fierce and well done.

7. “You’ve gotta be "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" kidding!” Yeah I laughed.

8. The use of the older Godzilla roars from the Showa era.

9. The opening logos, my seat actually shook.


[kiryugoji04]

[tbeasley]

I feel like people were expecting more of a interpersonal drama between the human characters when it was always going to be more of a fun, action oriented assemble. I mean, for most Godzilla movies it's human drama interspersed with monster action, but here it's human and monster action, although certainly not in the insufferable Final Wars kind of way.

Another thing - people are forgetting the monsters are characters too!