Spoilers Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Review and Discussion Thread

True, I did forget about that early scene, but I'm also allergic to using mental health as excuse for illogical motivations and decisions. Granted this is a monster movie, but I do wish that they had laid out the ground a little more about why Maddie was concerned about her mother before she went and made the big decision to wake up all of the monsters for the good of the planet.

Yeah, definitely. I served in the Navy, so these things stand out immediately to me (or I look for them like I did for his rank), especially in the last movie when there were some glaring errors that rubbed me the wrong way.

 

Fair enough, although, as noted, where would monster movies be if brilliant, well-meaning scientists didn't come up with really bad ideas?

 

Probably my favourite movie of the year so far. The use of their themes was perfect.
I even like that they took homage from the “overcharged” Godzilla from Destroyah with the read veins.

 

The movie was amazing, and the critics can bite me. I loved Millie Bobby Brown's character, and what she did to stop her mother and Jonah, the monster fights were amazing, the Easter egg revealing all of the Peanuts (as well as the reveal of Mothra with the classic song, or a bit of it.) The IMAX made it looks great, as it usually does.

Hopefull, the greatness continues with next year's Godzilla/Kong face off.

 

I do agree with some of the critics who say there wasn't enough of the monsters fighting. It's amazing. The franchise's tagline is "Let Them Fight," and the people making the damn movies can't figure out how to just do that.

Still, when you could see the monsters, it was spectacular, so A-.

 

A solid B for me. It was refreshing to see Mothra and other legendary kaiju like Gidorah and Rodan.

I liked the plot about restoring balance to life on earth. Humans, the dominant species, have had a drastic impact on the planet - overpopulation, war, pollution, depletion of natural resources. The kaiju are meant to neutralize threat to the earth.

But what didn't make much sense was the motivation of the character played by Vera Farmiga. She lost a son in San Francisco four years ago during the kaiju battle. Years later, we see her as a research scientist who has developed technology to control titans like Godzilla via bioacoustics. She then decides to ally herself with an eco terrorist organization bent on awakening every living titan on earth to rid the planet of the human disease. First of all, what has happened to her professional code of ethics? Second, aiding the terrorists should be the last thing on her mind, considering the loss of her son.

Other than that, the CGI and special effects were done well. It's probably best to look at this movie as a popcorn flick more than anything else.

 

I wouldn’t listen to critics. Most are stupid idiots that only care about boring Oscar movies.

 

Go to a matinee

 

Are those still a thing somewhere? Alas, our local theater charges the same price any time of day.

I'm jealous.

 

I thought KOTM was better than the 2014 Godzilla (but not the 1998 Godzilla) or Kong: Skull Island. I think the trailers were better than the film turned out to be. I don't think KOTM is a bad film, for what it is. It's an enjoyable enough popcorn movie that does deliver more monster action than Godzilla 2014 (which is one of my major criticisms of that film). However, I wish we had gotten even more monster action and less humans.

I really liked the production design, the visuals, the spectacle, and some of the monster fights. I liked the explanations giving for these creatures, the ties to Kong: Skull Island (though I wish there were more), and the mythology they are building. Even though I didn't always like the FX for King Ghidorah, I just thought it was such a cool villain. And I loved the name "Monster Zero".

I was not a fan of Millie Bobby Brown's Madison at all. I just thought she was shoehorned into too many scenes and I didn't get her Fenway Park plan at all. I liked Vera Farmiga (along with Charles Dance) the best of the cast and I liked what they did with her character. That was a neat twist. However when I thought about it more, it didn't feel right that she would sacrifice her scientist friend and all of the other Monarch scientists, etc. at first and that felt more like a storyline dictated misdirection than something organic to the character. Furthermore, if she was in league with Dance's Jonah, there could've been far more subtle ways to get him the device. Her motivations didn't quite make sense to me, however Farmiga sold me. I liked her monologue when she told Chandler, etc. about her plan.

I also was iffy on Kyle Chandler's character. I didn't like how he interrupted people all the time, though I see the why for him being in the film, often providing exposition as well as providing more of a human core to the film. In a way, he reminded me of Bryan Cranston's character in the 2014 movie though Chandler's story turned out much better and he even had an arc (don't remember if Cranston's did). I wish we had gotten more of Joe Morton's scientist and a clearer tie to his character being the same one portrayed by Corey Hawkins in Skull Island. I also wish more had been done with Zhang Ziyi and the twin thing. I learned online that that's something connected to Mothra from the Toho films, but it felt like the inclusion of the twins was such a random thing that was more distracting and led nowhere in KOTM.

In addition to Zhang, a lot of the large cast was underused or not well-utilized, and I thought none of Bradley Whitford's character's jokes landed. And if they were going to kill off two of the 2014 Godzilla characters I wish they would have given them more to do in this film before they did so.

For the end credit scene, I wish it had been King Kong. The scene they went with could've been right at the end of KOTM, then put Kong at the very end.

 

My local theatre has both matinees weekends before 5:00, and bargain Tuesday, where tickets are $5 all day.
And in the summer (starting June 11), free re-shows of G&PG-rated movies Tuesday through Thursday.

 

I agree with this in general except for one thing: Nuclear power and the way kaiju react to it is pretty crucial to the plot, and they don't really explain it much because it was already a major plot point in the first movie. If you pay close attention to what they say and do, you can figure it out anyway, but if you get distracted at the wrong time it could be confusing. If you don't feel the need to see the first movie, you just have to understand that:

Spoiler: Godzilla 2014

Kaiju feed on nuclear power, they can track it from far away and it can be used to bait them. Also, nuclear energy can allow them to regenerate from a severely damaged state.

Funnily enough, Godzilla 2014 was the first movie I ever saw in 3D, and other than the rain of ashes, I was totally unimpressed with it from the beginning. I also haven't seen a single 3d film since that was worth the trouble (for the 3d), but I usually wind up having to see it anyway because the timing of the 2d options is always bad for my schedule. For the record, though, G2014's 3D was worse than KotM. This was just there and largely neutral, but that movie was saddled with 3D applied to shots that were clearly never intended to have it and were actively worsened by it.

The plan was never actually to rid the earth of humanity. She was supposed to release the titans gradually, giving people time to evacuate and such, and the titans very influence would be able to fix ecological damage just by their existing. If you pay close attention to the newspaper articles in the credits sequence you can see that the plan was actually right, too. Releasing the titans did fix the planet. Her break with the eco-terrorists only came when Ghidorah didn't live up to the eco-friendly expectations and tried to actively reshape the planet and exterminate humans. She was never down with that, the eco-terrorists apparently figured it was our just desserts and the health of the planet was more important or something.

Also, I don't think you can throw the loss of her son out there as a reason she shouldn't be doing this. His death was literally her motivation to understand the Titans. She's one of those people who can't stand loss or mourning, so when faced with tragedy she looks for purpose instead. Anything to make death 'make sense' or 'achieve something'. And she found exactly that, so felt compelled to act on it.

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For my personal reactions, I enjoyed the movie a lot. It's definitely one of the best Godzilla movies and it's beautiful and highly entertaining.

I don't agree with the whole 'characters are boring' thing at all. I loved Vera, Millie and Kyle and Serizawa's death was incredible. Everyone else was fine, which is all they needed to be because they weren't the stars.

I do agree with one criticism I saw which was that they should've held their shots longer. Things like the birth of Mothra (and various others) are beautifully realized, but they're so eager to cut to reaction shots that they don't let the moment breathe.

And I do feel a little disappointed about the monster side of things - not because there wasn't enough monster stuff but because it was too segmented. The trailers and the story both led me to expect a big team-up at the end, but it never happened. Having the final fight be Mothra injecting Godzilla with Rodan's power and then Godzilla almost instantly curbstomping Ghidora was a bit of a let down.

 

We always see matinees at our theater, the regular price is just to much at this point.
Saw the movie this morning, and I enjoyed it. I can't really remember the 2014 movie well enough to judge based on it, but I did enjoy Skull Island more than this.
I thought the human story was pretty good, not amazing, but I enjoyed it enough that I didn't mind when we were focusing on them rather than the Titans. If nothing I else, I at least like the characters enough that I actually wanted to see them survive their encounters with the Titans. I did not expect the big twist with Vera Fermiga's Emma, so that was a nice little complication to the story.
I was really disappointed they killed off Serizawa, he was one of my favorite characters, and I was kind of hoping he'd be the Nick Fury of the modern Monsterverse movies.
The one really standout part of the movie was the visuals, there were some absolutely gorgeous scenes.
I would have been happier with a bit more monster action, but what we did get was awesome, some of the best I've seen in a movie like this.
I voted A- in the poll.

 

It's still a Godzilla move. Even the best Japanese versions have NEVER had much of a real plot. (Usually, I could care less about the 'Human' side of these films...I just want to see giant monsters smashing buildings (and each other)). YMMV.

 

I realized I'm in the same boat as I didn't remember anything either but they fill you in pretty well on what's happening that you should be OK.

*** SPOILERS here on out ***

I was so confused when she pulled the trigger on Ghidorah because it took me a bit before I realized it was supposed to be a heel turn for the character. I kept trying to understand why she did that not realizing it wasn't supposed to be a *good* thing.

I guess it's par for the course for big action movies but everything was so close, they fly so low and close to the kaiju, all the waves and explosions and everything is like 10 feet away from all the characters and things. Like does a nuclear bomb require being detonated five feet from the target? Couldn't they have just launched a missile into that location? Is the fallout that contained? I get the dramatic reasons here like the blast door on Discovery but sometimes it got a bit claustrophobic.

However, that said, it's about all you'd want from a kaiju movie: lots of monsters fighting, ridiculous plots, over-the-top action and so on, takes on the original Godzilla theme and Blue Oyster Cult, Dolby surround Godzilla screams, the oxygen destroyer and so on. While there was a nod to them they needed that Moth-uh-ra Moth-uh-ra Dongankasaindamu (don't hate me Japanese speakers) song. I saw the matinee (yes!) in our local theater which has a colossal screen that did it justice (now just one scene during the day...). I don't think it will convert anyone to Godzilla but those who like 'em should enjoy it.

Did anyone else try to read the credits really quickly before they got redacted?

Is having the Japanese character quoting a fortune cookie progressive or problematic? (not really serious here folks...)

 

i genuinely disliked this movie (as well as kong: skull island), but loved the 2014 godzilla. the more conservative approach of the first one sat well with me, but i know it didn't with the vast majority of moviegoers and king of the monsters was made for them, not me.

given that love of the first one, i didn't like the aesthetics, the use of character, or the story in king of the monsters. i don't usually have problems following complicated (or poorly executed) stories, but i really didn't pick up half of what @grendelsbayne just laid out, so thanks for that. you make me want to give it another shot when it hits digital.

 

These being the same critics that blasted Man Of Steel & Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice for having way too much butt-kicking and not enough human story-wow, I should be listening to these critics a lot more.

 

The idea there was that he would wake up the other Titans, and that their awakening would end up repairing all of the damage we had done to the Earth. That was where the whole thing with them showing all of the plant and things regrowing in San Francisco and the other destroyed cities from the first movie. The Titans attacks were supposed to set off a cycle of rebirth that would fix everything we had done.
That was why it was so important that King Ghidorah was not from Earth, because he was not going to bring about the rebirth the other Titans did, instead he was just causing destruction.

 

Yup, definitely! I wish they stuck with the headlines just a little longer because I had a hard time reading them fast enough.

I read that scene as Serizawa deliberately mocking fortune cookies.