by XvGojira » Sun Aug 11, 2019 6:15 pm
Realized I never put my two cents in here either. I enjoyed the heck out of the film. After my first viewing I was very much overly hyped about it. 10/10, Best evar! etc etc. But the more I thought on it, the more I mellowed. Honestly, I think it's going to end up as an average rated/ranked in my book. While I understand why some hate it, I don't find those elements offensive enough to knock it further. I found the characters watchable and entertaining even if they were just boilerplate, paint-by-numbers, characters. I never had a hard time following the monster action in this film but I will say that no matter what he does Michael Dougherty couldn't capture the same majestic feeling Edwards did when he filmed the monsters. It just feels like he was trying to make it more "cool" than majestic. And it really felt like he was throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the movie. Almost like this was the one and only chance to get these elements into the series before it ends. The Oxygen Destroyer, a form of Burning Godzilla, barely touched on world-wide monster mayhem. All he was missing was a form of Godzilla offspring, a mech, and an alien invasion to hit all the standard Godzilla tropes. It does make GvK's supposedly one-on-one brawl seem insignificant, like if the next F&F movie only used motocross bikes.
The "their radiation heals the world" came out of nowhere to me and took me out of the film. It happened at close to the mid point of the movie so I wasn't expecting such an important plot point to be pulled out thin air. If it was referenced in the exposition dump news cast or the Senate hearing at the front of the film I could have accepted it more.
Dr. Serizawa's sacrifice didn't seem needed to me. With how big the explosion was it seemed like they could have just set a timer on the nuke and dropped it where the sub was (or shot it out in the vehicle Serizawa was sent in) and had the same affect on Godzilla. I mean if it exploded and only took out the chamber Godzilla was chilling in, sure then I could see it needing to be point blank. But it destroyed all of "Atlantis", so I don't think being a mile (or less than by my impression of the distance) would make THAT much of a difference. So, let me put my tinfoil hat on, with Legendary being bought by the Chinese conglomerate Wanda and having killed off a fan favorite Japanese character played by a Japanese actor and having a Chinese actor in a bigger role in one of their other "franchises" it makes me suspicious of them killing off another fan favorite Japanese character played by a Japanese actor and having a Chinese actor playing a prominent role (technically two roles but one is less prominent but also acts as an Easter egg/fan service) yet again. Will Ken Watanabe be killed off and replaced again in the Detective Pikachu sequel? Sorry, I just like Ken and Serizawa and felt that his death was needless and motivated more by Chinese interests than improving the movie. I mean, we went from having Serizawa/Watanabe and Graham/Hawkins heading Monarch/this franchise to having Kyle Chandler and Millie Bobby Brown. I thought Kyle played Mark as best he could and his character is more watchable than Ford Brody, and I like Millie Bobby Brown but Madison didn't do a lot for the majority of the film (and sort of being in on the eco-terrorist thing muddles it all up). I don't think their characters can bring the same gravitas that Watanabe or Hawkins did to their roles, as minor as they were in both films.
Although I will say I am probably one of the few people that liked Bradley Whitford/Dr. Stanton. He's just one of those actors who I enjoy watching.
I feel like if there was someone who was over seeing the franchise as a whole (eg Marvel Studios Movies) and not installment to installment (eg DC movies) they might have reigned Dougherty in and created a bit more of a focused film that might have presented the characters and their motives better and might have had more room to check in on the other Titans and give the movie a more global feel. And it would have been nice to have some main locations that weren't just Monarch bases/vehicles.
The sound design is mostly great. Love that they brought Godzilla standard roar into the mix along with his new roar. Mothra sound pitch perfect but Ghidorah and Rodan are a tad lacking. There are moments (but not enough) when there's some elements that makes him sound a bit more unique than a modern generic dragon/monster roar. It's like they were afraid general audiences wouldn't like an updated version of his cackle so they hid it under so much mixing and other sounds that you can only really hear it once or twice and becomes more of an Easter egg than anything else. But Rodan just sounds like modern stock monster roar. Like if you put together a mix of modern monster roars, I'd have a hard time telling if it was Ghidorah, Rodan, or one of the Pacific Rim kaiju.
So yeah, in the long run this is just smack dab in the middle. An enjoyable and fun with more compelling characters than in the previous film, not horrendous, boring, or offensive but nowhere near top tier.