Director: Michael Dougherty
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Runtime: 132 Minutes
Main Cast: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds
Plot: Following on from the events of 2014’s Godzilla, crypto-zoological agency Monarch are left defending themselves against criticism from the government as well as a bigger threat in the form of the three-headed King Ghidorah.
My Thoughts: I knew I would regret not seeing this in the cinema. Not because it was a cinematic masterpiece, in fact, it was far from it, but the monster scenes are just so damn cool. Yes, they’re quite dark – although not nearly as dark as I expected after all the reviews, or maybe I was remembering that GoT episode where I could see naff all – but I’d rather that than be able to see too much CGI.
Where it falls flat however are the humans. I’m quite happy to have a story arc there, it’s needed to be honest otherwise the movie would be an assault on the senses, but I just didn’t care enough about any of the characters other than Madison, played by Millie Bobby Brown. Also, it could well be because I’m a big fan of hers because of Stranger Things, but I felt like she out-acted everyone else there without even trying. She’s too good for this movie.
At the end of the day though, I watched King of the Monsters because I wanted to see destruction and monsters, and I got plenty of that. I wasn’t bored at any point (although I did keep checking Twitter to see who won Love Island) and so really…my expectations were met! Am I crazily excited for the next Godzilla movie? Not really. Will I go and see it anyway? Absolutely – and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.
Best Bit: I’d heard that Mothra was a fan favourite but wow – isn’t she just stunning? In fact, all of the monsters are stunning. I also loved how in the credits, the monsters are listed with the other characters and are credited as playing themselves. That made me chuckle.
Worst Bit: Was I meant to laugh when that pilot ejected himself from his jet to avoid being eaten only to fly up into the monster’s jaws and get devoured? Because I did. That was hilarious. Also – anything that came out of Dr. Rick Stanton’s mouth made me cringe. What a gross character.
Fun Trivia: On the map showing the monarch sites for all the found titans, there is an area over Scotland as a nod towards the Loch Ness monster.
My Rating: 3 and a half moths fluttering around your bedroom at night. Just be glad they’re normal-sized…
YES, I really had fun with this one too! Mothra was super adorable and Millie did a great job with what little she was given to do. That’s a good point about this GoT episode – next to that thing everything is well lit.
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I think after reading so many people saying it was dark I was expecting it to be like, pitch black, haha!
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I really, really had fun with this movie. It was such a cool callback to so many of those big monster flicks of the past. Really anxious to see it again.
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It was so much better than I thought it was! Those monster fight scenes were just so damn awesome. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch the 2014 one again now to be honest.
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I’m one of the guilty ones who didn’t enjoy it because it was too dark. I couldn’t see anything. Watching monster shaped shadows fight against a near-black background just wasn’t my cup of tea. Still, I MIGHT give it another chance when it hits home video. Maybe it’ll look better on my TV. Or maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment.
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It definitely was dark!! I think our TV has some weird smart feature though that tries to lighten dark scenes so that probably helped a lot!
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I’m still iffy about as I haven’t seen the previous film as I’m more interested in the older Godzilla movies now that Criterion is about to release a box set of the film series as their 1000th release.
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I haven’t seen any of the older ones but my husband is a huuuuuge fan of them!
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The humans in this movie kind of sucked lol. But I enjoyed the monster fights. I think we landed in about the same place
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Yeah you know what, the monsters were cooler than I expected they would be. Kind of gutted I didn’t see it on the big screen now!
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I was having all the fun watching this! All I could expect is more monsters and more destruction. At times, I don’t even remember that there are human characters to root for. The Mothra song is lit anyway!
Great review!
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Yessss! The monsters we’re just so cool this time around 😀
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