Godzilla: King of the Monsters Review
Godzilla movies are a staple in my family. When I was a kid, my dad and I watched the old Japanese movies on laser disc (like record-sized DVDs. Seriously, it was a thing.) The old movies were very story-driven and had much more value than people realized, even though they were old and kind of corny. There were actual plots involved in most of the old movies, regardless of popular belief that they were just movies about chaos and destruction. I won’t lie, as a kid and as an adult, I watch them for the chaos and destruction. Who doesn’t? But in my old age of 29 now, I can appreciate a little story behind the destruction. That’s what Godzilla: King of the Monsters brought to stage: a little story and a lot of destruction. There was a decent story of a guy who lost his son, and his wife and daughter had left him since 2014, when the first Godzilla movie took place. This was okay and added to the value of the movie slightly.
Now, the real story took place among the beasts themselves. I’m talking about Godzilla and his arch nemesis, King Ghidorah. The movie stayed true to the classics by explaining that Ghidorah was an alien being that was brought to Earth thousands of years ago to take over the world. The creators of the movie did a great job of re-introducing Ghidorah to the story. He was frozen in Antarctica, under the ice. He gets woken up by some bad guys and then all hell breaks loose. Godzilla shows up and they immediately throw down in a heavyweight matchup. At this point in the movie, it was unclear as to why Godzilla was so pissed off at this creature, but it was well explained later in the movie. It was nice to have some context and reason to the madness of these two just breathing fire and shooting lighting-bolts at each other. The destruction and chaos were very good in this movie. There was plenty of it, and there was a part of me that was totally ok with watching Fenway Park get flattened in the middle of all the insanity.
Godzilla vs. Ghidorah in the 1960’s films
The movie did a great job at reviving an old nemesis, while also opening up the story for many new monsters to be introduced into this universe, including King Kong, who was mentioned several times throughout the film. It’s safe to say that Godzilla vs. King Kong will be happening on the big screen, we just don’t know when yet. They’ve had their battles before, but I think it will be a little better this time around, considering the 1962 movie was very… well, just cheesy as hell. To be fair, most movies were back then. The movie also didn’t overkill with monsters. They introduced Mothra and Rodan as well as Ghidorah in this movie. The other two flying beasts had some pretty awesome mid-air battles and added just more mayhem to the flick, without overwhelming the audience with monster fights that had no value to the actual story.
“King Kong vs. Godzilla” 1962. I guess they thought Kong would look cooler without a neck….
I’m going to guess that the post-credit scene was hinting at Mecha Ghidorah: a robotic reincarnation of the three-headed alien monster. But we’ll just have to wait until the next movie to find out. Overall, I’m going to rate this movie a 7.9 out of 10. I’ve always loved Godzilla movies and I think this one is a must-see for science-fiction fans, like myself. The Godzilla franchise feels like its in good hands and heading in a good direction.
Written by Andrew Silvers
Twitter/Instagram @asilvers55