HOLLYWOOD—I thought this was perhaps not only the worst movie I saw in the year 2014, but perhaps one of the worst flicks that I’ve seen in a real long time. That flick was the remake of “Godzilla.” Was it the fact that the movie lacked star power? Nope. Was it the fact that the special effects were lackluster? Nope. The biggest problem with that flick was the narrative that had the pace of a turtle.
I mean it drove me crazy and it took more than an hour for any serious action to even take place in the movie. Heck, I feel asleep not once, not twice, but three times in the theater. Fast-forward 5 years later, and we have “Godzilla: King of Monsters” which is bigger, has plenty of star power, but is it any better than its predecessor?
The answer is: YES! However, if you’re expecting faces from the previous installment to appear you will be disappointed. The only returning players are Dr. Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) and Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe), everyone else is new to the mayhem of this dinosaur like creature. “Godzilla” at its core is all about science going wrong or people with sharp minds willing to go to extreme lengths to prove a point.
Has the audience seen a movie of such magnitude before in the past? Yes, but with “Godzilla” is like the perfect B-movie for a new generation. At the core of the narrative are doctors Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) and Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga). Mark is an animal and behavior specialist, while Emma is a paleobiologist who has found a way to communicate with ‘Titans.’
Yeah, that’s the name that has been given to these extreme creatures, which have been dormant for years, but are suddenly being awakened by Alan Jonah (Charles Dance). Is Dance feasible as a villain, yes, but it’s more a tale of you screwed me so I want to stick it to my country for it. The means do not justify the ends if you’re asking me to be fully honest. The audience is immediately drawn to the narrative when it becomes clear that Emma and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) have been kidnapped by Jonah, who wants to utilize the ORCA (a sound emitting device that can control the Titans), to unleash havoc on the Earth.
Godzilla is a bad guy that is good. He’s like Batman. People embrace him when in danger, but when they’re not, they want nothing to do with him. It’s a tale of convenience and when classic monsters like Mothra, Monster Zero, Rodan, Ghidorah are awakened, all hell breaks loose. The country is preparing for war, but they know only one monster can truly save them and we see some epic battles from massive creatures. What “King of Monsters” has that its predecessor lacked was better pacing.
Viewers are not forced to wait nearly an hour to see any action take place; things get moving at a fairly quick pace, not to mention we don’t have this elongated drive to extend character development that doesn’t have a major role in the story. Don’t expect something out of the ordinary with this flick; it brings nothing original to the table. It does excel at entertaining its audience for the perfect popcorn movie of the summer, and for that I can say “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” is a massive improvement over its predecessor.
