I've been watching movies since before I could walk and since I've retired from the big Insurance Industry after 38 years, I have watched more movies than I care to admit. Yet, people still come to me and say 'hey Mike, what's a good movie?' and of course I give my views.
So I said to myself, self, you have a Blogger account. Create a new blog with movie reviews.
And thus I do so now.
And the first movie (because I saw it yesterday) is:
GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019)
*** (out of 5) - add a star if you are a Godzilla Geek
But still it was Godzilla and along with Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster, that made me happy. Whenever these played on our local television station (usually WOR-TV, channel 9), my friends and I would sit in one another's house after school or on the weekend watching these monsters ravage Japan.
(I'm also going to mention here - as an aside - that I am one of the few who liked - not loved - the 1998 Roland Emmerich Godzilla, simply because the Big G destroyed New York and the movie had a very funny New York sense of humor - I am fully aware that Roger Ebert panned the movie and said "Going to see "Godzilla" at the Palais of the Cannes Film Festival is like attending a satanic ritual in St. Peter's Basilica." - so this like is on me, as a Godzilla fan - or, more likely, a Roland Emmerich fan)
I also enjoyed 2016's Japanese reboot of the franchise, Shin Godzilla. I may follow up on a separate review because the movie really deserves it but what I marveled at was the fact the filmmakers combined a Godzilla movie and yet managed to focus on Japanese politicians and bureaucrats fumbling around to deal with this disaster with uncertainty and lack of direction (I don't think I am going out on too much of a limb when I say that this is a veiled critique of the Japanese government's response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster)
Anyway, to the new movie.
Sort of - Legendary Pictures has this movie as (at least) the third entry into their Monster-verse which began with the Godzilla reboot from 2014, continued with Kong: Skull Island and which will (may?) conclude with next year's Godzilla v. King Kong.
I really cannot understand why many of the critics derided this movie - it should be noted that the Rotten Tomatoes score was in the 40% from critics but in 86% from moviegoers. A lot of the criticisms appeared to be along the lines of the film having too much focus on the humans and not enough focus on the monsters - I am not going to pretend I understand that- If you just want destruction, go to a demolition derby. Plus monsters don't talk - they roar, so you need humans around for exposition.
This movie picks up at the end of 2014's Godzilla and then fast forwards a few years. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) live apart from Madison's dad (Kyle Chandler), who are estranged because Godzilla's destruction of San Francisco took their young son. What sounds and feels like an earthquake causes Emma and Madison, who are having a nice quiet breakfast chat about their dysfunctional family, to look up from their little breakfast nook and we see that they are near an Aztec (or is it Incan? I could never tell) Temple which is an outpost for Monarch, the organization that has been looking for these Titans since the 2014 film. Emma takes Madison to the outpost where we see that there is some movement and birthing of a large creature whom we come to know is Mothra. Emma's work surrounds a device called an Orca which replicates audio signals and creates an Alpha signal that quiets down and controls the Titans. And, of course, in pure movie tropedom, she activates the Orca right before she and Madison are about to pummeled by this new larva. And then with more movie trope-dom, eco-terrorists led by the always suavely evil Charles Dance storm the facility.
You have to thank these eco-terrorists for doing this because without them there is no movie - their insidious plot is to awaken all of the Titans (sounds like release the Kraken, no?) to destroy most of the improvements added to the earth so that the earth will turn into its lushly foliaged self that it was before man destroyed it (because what else are eco-terrorists going to do, right?)
Well, enter estranged dad, Mark, who used to work for Monarch and off goes the military and Monarch personnel in search of Godzilla who is our only hope to destroy all of the other Titans that Dance and his eco-terrorists have released. Aisha Hinds has a great role as a Colonel in charge of the military expedition and the always great Ken Watanabe reprises his role from the first two movies as Ishiro Serizawa (it is unclear if he is the same Dr. Serizawa as in 1954's Gojira or if he is the son of the prior Doctor) and pulls it off with such sincerity, echoing Shimura's role in the first movie. Vera Farmiga is good as the anguished mom and Kyle Chandler is getting some heavy dad mileage out of his recent movie roles. Good in supporting roles are Silicon Valley's Thomas Middleitch and TV's Bradley Whitford. The cast gives what they need to give.
That's the plot- it's fairly threadbare but who cares? My belief is that I give as little plot as possible to avoid any spoilers; however, the city that gets destroyed this time is Boston, in case anyone wondered.
If you are going to see a Godzilla movie, you should know that you will like this - My biggest complaint is that, unlike Shin Godzilla, which took place in bright sunlight and had the opportunity for some great cinematography, the movie here - as with 2014's Godzilla - is filmed darkly, for the most part. The skies are clouded over and I don't know if this is supposed to be some metaphor for a hard fought battle or a way to dull the edges of the special effects. Perhaps this is my only complaint with the film- and it is a minor criticism at that.
I along with others applauded when the movie was over - and not in a bad way.
I'm still getting used to the idea of Godzilla as a good guy but that is not a difficult hurdle for me to surmount. The pure joy was in seeing the four movie monsters from my youth, updated and hitting the screen again and fighting each other. The special effects were just great - Godzilla loomed large, Rodan looked every bit the Pteranodon he was and Ghidorah was especially evil looking. What was really impressive was the beauty given to Queen Mothra. In the original movies, she looked like a larva and than a large moth - here they gave her an iridescence that finally gave Mothra her due. And the final scene whetted the audiences appetite for more destruction in the upcoming films
I enjoyed it - it was just the right lenght, moved briskly and kept the viewer engaged.
Go see it - Great summer fun.
THERE IS A POST-CREDIT SCENE SO STICK AROUND
3/5 (or 4/5 if you are a Godzilla geek)
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