Godzilla King of the Monsters: Kaiju throwdown

Let me say this right out of the gate, I am incredibly biased towards this film and franchise. Godzilla has held a special place in my heart, and I have enjoyed nearly ever entry of the long-running series of films. King of the Monsters brings a lot of the classic monsters into a big budget rumble that is a joy to watch, despite some issues involving the plot and human characters.

The fights in this film are absolutely incredible, with the first fight of Ghidorah and Godzilla being a masterpiece that even gets fan service points for using the classic Godzilla theme from the old Toho films. Rodan and Mothra also have some fun fights, especially against each other, but the main centerpiece is the Godzilla Ghidorah battles, and each one is built up incredibly well, and each ends up being satisfying in their conclusion. The fights are helped by the fact that all the Kaiju look unbelievable, with Motha being the highlight. She has never looked better in her history, and to see her in all her glory is awe-inspiring. The price of the ticket is worth it alone to just see these battles on the big screen.

The plot is stupid. Something about eco-terrorists wanting to use the Titans to save the world. It is honestly just there to push forward the creatures to their next battles, which is honestly how has always been. Let’s be blunt here, many of the Toho plot lines were much more absurd than this one and make this one look brilliant. In other words, Godzilla fans won’t mind the plot too much. However, the one major issue is the human characters are just kind of there. None of them particularly stand out, and whenever something good or bad happens to them, it is hard to care. It doesn’t help that the dialogue is at best generic, and at worst horrifically cringe-inducing. One character switches sides multiple times during the film, and honestly it is hard to care.

Despite the plot problems, the main core of the film is still outstanding and that is the battles. Each battle brought me back to a kid watching guys in suits fight each other and loving every minute of it. The fights in this make the child in me genuinely happy. In the end, these battles do a lot in making up for the lackluster plot and human characters. This is a film that is worth seeing in the theater, just to see the glory of the fights with a giant screen and booming audio.

3.75 / 5