Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Years after Godzilla’s attack on San Francisco, ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ starts with Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) working for the government. Part of the secretive Monarch agency, she discovers a way of controlling titans like Godzilla using alpha waves. However, there are deadly forces at play who would kill for such a power… 

… quickly splinters into a rudderless wreck in need of an iceberg.

After director Gareth Edward’s drab and listless ‘Godzilla’, writer/director Michael Dougherty promised fans a very different direction for ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’. With his sequel now staggering over the horizon, that wait is now over.

More action-led and set across multiple continents, Dougherty’s Godzilla strangely finds itself stuck in an altogether different gear. Whilst the countries change, all of them seem to be suffering the same perpetual storm of blue and orange. -Mid-town metropolis? Blue and orange. -Night time jungle? Blue and orange and so it goes…

Sadly, already having run out of colours, the same can also be said for its ideas. As its chipboard characters chafe against one another, there’s a loud grating sound that can be heard in every scene – the directionless dialogue. Similarly wooden and prone to breakage, ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ quickly splinters into a rudderless wreck in need of an iceberg. 

Bizarrely in keeping with Gareth Edward’s previously stellar casting of Bryan Cranston and Juliette Binoche, director Michael Dougherty throws the combined talents of Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe and Zhang Ziyi at the screen in the hope that some of their quality will stick. It doesn’t. Dwarfed with an increasingly impossible task of selling either empathy or credibility, it quickly emerges that Godzilla’s trumpet-like scream is the only decent line on offer. 

So, whilst Millie Bobby Brown survives by showcasing her impatience, sadly there is no escape for Kyle Chandler’s token alcoholic or Vera Farmiga’s naive scientist. Given their clatteringly assembled beats, some of the other characters wisely decide upon ‘noble sacrifice’ as a way to quickly remove themselves from your memory.

Slowly lurching across the finish line two hours and eleven minutes later, ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ hastily constructed set of justifications promises one final surprise. As headlines fall down onto the screen, the silhouette of another cinematic titan can be seen teasingly beating his chest beneath…

With actress Fay Wray definitely not available for the next Dark Universe outing, you can still safely expect some other corpses to be dug up in the name of entertainment.