The story focuses on the mysterious Monarch organization, which we’ve seen glimpses of in the previous films. But this time, we’re right there with them for every classified mission.
The first few scenes don’t waste any time with expositions and goes straight to the action. It gets right into the no-hold-barred deathmatch and doesn’t bore you with a bunch of people engaging in longwinded conversation!
The human characters are distinctive enough that you may actually feel something if they got hurt. But you probably wouldn’t be invested as much unless it was the big lizard itself. The main humans are scientists Dr. Mark Russel (Kyle Chandler), Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), and their teen daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown). The couple created the Orca, a machine that can communicate and control the Titans (creatures like Godzilla) using bioacoustics. These Titans are suddenly awakened and are raring tocorrect mankind’s true-to-life toxic meddling of Mother Nature with some good ol’ curb-stomping action.
The Monarch staff must now contain the situation. Returning from the first Godzilla film are Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins (who enjoy cuddling up next to CG creatures as shown in Detective Pikachu and The Shape of Water) as Monarch’s heads Dr. Ishiro Serizawa and Dr. Vivienne Graham. The rest of the Monarch staff are a mix of stereotypical action movie archetypes but make for a racially and realistically diverse cast. We also enjoyed Charles Dance’s role as mild-mannered eco-terrorist Alan Jonah involved in the awakening of the Titans.
Once the kaijus are awakened, it doesn’t take long for them to startflexing and taunting each other as if they’re spandex-wearing wrestlers. (We may have seen a chokeslam executed with utmost proficiency). With every thunderous roar, violent smash, and earth-shattering clash, you are left in awe at these ancient super-species. You’ll become fully aware of your miniscule size as if you’re the puny human characters running around the massively scaled battlefield.
But not even the lightning-spitting Ghidorah could compare to Godzilla’s badassery. Once that iconic Gojira theme starts booming in the background and that bulked-up, atomic-breathing lizard juices up those blue-backlit-spikes, you can’t help cheering.
The film’s tone is a great balance between the franchise’s gritty beginnings and the lighthearted camp of its later installments. On the downside, there were some human backstories, conflicts, and drama that we’d rather do without.
Even though we were wowed by the visual spectacles of the movie the camera work could get dizzying at times with everything going on. While they tried going for substance, the message about environmental awareness and manmade destruction gets lost amidst the fast-paced kaiju action.
Godzilla is a visual effects spectacle with a monster scale productionstraight from the imaginations of fans that grew up playing with action figures. It’s an enjoyable popcorn flick whether as part of continuity or a standalone film.
For an immersive and visceral experience, we highly recommend watching Godzilla II in 3D or at least a cinema with a sick surround sound system. Long live the king! (Stay for the after-credits scene!)