Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) - USA
Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)
There is a lot of problems with the latest “Godzilla” follow up and the monsters are the least of our worries. Director Michael Dougherty fails to instil the fanatic pacing of its predecessor and in turn registering an interesting attempt to continue the series as with those gap years before the slightly awaited “Kong Vs Godzilla” showdown. The result in a half baked film where we care little of the aftermath of its characters and even less so for the monsters. It’s a shame as some of the monsters tag fight scenes are actually fun and impressive, but it lacks a cutting edge or edge of the seat moment to keep the audience entertained for the duration.
Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins comes back for the sequel as Monarch project scientists, but never are given enough meat in their roles. The focus is instead on the two doctors played by Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga and the fate of their daughter (played by Bobby Brown). None of these characters are interesting enough for us to care about and when something happens or danger appears, the audience reactions remain largely remote. Zhang Ziyi makes a welcome, but thankless small role.
All in all, in terms of monsters and disaster blockbuster, this one fails on many grounds and more often remain on semi-cruise control where monsters fight each other as Godzilla rise to the occasion to protect the human race from extinction and powers of the three headed dragons and many others around the world. There are fun moments and those are mostly linked with the gigantic fights, but the human scenes are largely uninteresting and blend. There are better genre films out there.
I rated it 5/10