The Reel Review
Godzilla is back, along with what seems like the entire MonsterVerse universe, in this third installment to 2014’s abysmally bad Godzilla and 2017’s also terrible Kong: Skull Island. The human storyline stars Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights), Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring) and Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) as a brainiac family of scientists in peril as the titans emerge from the depths of planet Earth to do battle in this twist-filled follow up. But let’s face facts – this movie really is about only one thing – monsters, monsters and more monsters, destroying cities around the globe.
Superfans familiar with the likes of the three-headed Ghidorah, Rodan and Mothra will be thrilled, seeing Godzilla and these other titans slamming into buildings as they do battle in an eye-popping orgy of CGI. As for the rest of us, well, not so much. There is just so much going on in dimly-lit battle scenes reminiscent of THAT episode of Game of Thrones that you will wish you had scorecards just to keep up. The film’s mind-numbingly moronic storyline is on par with the massively disappointing first two films, both of which made The Reelness’ Worst Ten Lists for their respective years, 2014 and 2017. The impressive CGI of the monsters is the only positive aspect of this otherwise boring film. If only it had included the hilariously bad English language dubs of the Japanese originals of the 1950s and 60s – that would have been entertaining. And poor Kyle Chandler, being forced to utter such mindlessly insipid dialogue with a straight face. THAT is acting.
REEL FACTS
• Oscar nominees Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water, Maudie) and David Strathairn (Good Night, Good Luck) are the only cast members from 2014’s Godzilla to return for this sequel.
• Originally Godzilla: King of the Monsters was scheduled for release on June 8, 2018, the same day as Bumblebee, but was repeatedly pushed back so as not to compete with blockbusters Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and Aladdin.
• Gareth Edwards, director of 2014’s Godzilla, was originally slated to direct this sequel, but dropped out in 2016.
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