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[Review] ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ Has All the Giant Monster Fights You Can Handle!

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If you’re looking for monster fights, you’ll find monster fights aplenty in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The new film from director Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus) picks up after the events of 2014’s Godzilla, in a world where giant “titans” have been popping up like acne. It’s only a matter of time before Earth’s mightiest protector, Godzilla, shows up to pop them all, and Dougherty doesn’t make you wait for it.

We’ve got destruction in Scene One, a giant monster in Scene Two, and our first giant monster fight (of many) before the third act is even over.  It’s like Warner Bros. heard our collective complaints about Godzilla (2014) and unloaded three sequels worth of monster fights into one follow-up. I guess that’ll show us.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters stars Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel) and Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) as Dr. Emma Russell and her daughter, Madison. They’re stationed in a rain forest, waiting for one of the newly discovered “titans” to hatch. There are 17 titans that the organization called Monarch – which has been studying these creatures since the events of Kong: Skull Island – is aware of, and the group is trying to convince the U.S. government to treat Godzilla more-or-less like an actual god so he can protect them from the more dangerous leviathans.

Meanwhile, Dr. Russell has invented an “Orca” device which can be used to communicate with – and possibly control – these enormous creatures. But the second she successfully tests it, extreme environmentalist Jonah Alan (Charles Dance, Game of Thrones) kills everybody in the station and abducts Dr. Russell, Madison and the Orca. (Apparently they were all perched outside of Monarch’s doors, guns drawn, ready burst in or beat a hasty and embarrassed retreat if the Orca didn’t work today.)

Jonah Alan can’t be trusted with the Orca, because A) he’s a murderer, and B) he wants to use it to free the titans and make them wreak havoc on Earth, in order to save the planet from humanity’s climate-changing madness. To find Jonah Alan, Monarch needs to find the Orca, and for some reason Dr. Russell never told anybody else how it worked, so they enlist her ex-husband Mark (Kyle Chandler, King Kong), who helped design the device many years ago, to track its signals across the globe, as the bad guys free one monster after another.

There are a couple of unexpected reveals, but mostly Godzilla: King of the Monsters uses all of its build-up and mythologizing to justify flying around the world, chasing Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah as they fight each other and any other giant monster that wanders into their paths. Once the fighting starts it never stops for very long, and that’s a good thing, because even though the film’s supporting cast includes Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Bradley Whitford, Zhang Ziyi and O’Shea Jackson Jr., they’re all saddled with one-note characters who only exist to explain plot points or come up with new ones.

Even the main cast struggles. Kyle Chandler plays “the inexperienced outsider who repeatedly teaches a whole team of experts how to do their jobs,” a role that hardly any actor can get away with, and playing an American condescending to an international cast only makes it harder for him to be likable. Vera Farmiga has some nearly impossible scenes where she has to justify seriously iffy decisions, and she mostly gets away with it. But at least Millie Bobby Brown emerges unscathed, playing a girl whose ideas and identity are challenged, who then steps up to the plate, which may be a straightforward arc but at least it’s a complete and effective one.

So the human cast seems like they’re trapped in a 1990s disaster movie. They’re not the reason we’re here. We’re here for those giant monster fights and Godzilla: King of the Monsters has got them. Pretty much all of them. And they are unbelievably huge. Dougherty, his cinematographer Lawrence Sher (Joker) and the visual effects team have created vast leviathans who always look overwhelmingly gigantic, whether they’re in dangerously close shots or looming in the distance. Every fight features images that are suitable for framing, and the creatures themselves are so detailed that some – particularly Ghidorah – practically look like impeccable stop-motion.

There are multiple matchups, often between multiple monsters, and they wreck damn near everything in their paths. Godzilla: King of the Monsters is an impossibly huge movie, an exhilarating theme park attraction where the guides are all award-winning Hollywood stars. If you think of blockbuster movies like something that just happens to you, never mind thinking about it, this is a cornucopia of eye candy that’ll shake your seat and make you cheer. You’ll have a truly amazing time with Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

If, on the other hand, you treat blockbuster movies like any other movies, you’re going to be frustrated by the film’s failure to take advantage of its astounding ensemble, not to mention its deeply confusing messaging. Godzilla started out as a metaphor for nuclear destruction but the only people in this movie trying to prevent man-made disasters are the villains, who are also trying to start man-made disasters. By the time the film is over, it’s genuinely hard to tell if the movie is trying to tell us the eco-terrorists had a point or not. If King of the Monsters hadn’t played like a toy commercial it could have gotten away with some moral ambiguity, but instead, it comes across like a big muddle of contradictory ideas.

With that being said, let’s be clear (even if the movie isn’t): Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a big, kinda silly, but otherwise exciting blockbuster. It’s gorgeous, it’s epic in the extreme, and it features some of the most impressive monster fights you’ve ever seen. Maybe someday Americans will make a Godzilla movie that isn’t just “badass,” but which also works on another level and resonates in a meaningful way.

Until then at least we have Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which is, if nothing else, badass as hell.

William Bibbiani writes film criticism in Los Angeles, with bylines at The Wrap, Bloody Disgusting and IGN. He co-hosts three weekly podcasts: Critically Acclaimed (new movie reviews), The Two-Shot (double features of the best/worst movies ever made) and Canceled Too Soon (TV shows that lasted only one season or less). Member LAOFCS, former Movie Trivia Schmoedown World Champion, proud co-parent of two annoying cats.

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One of Clive Barker’s Final Convention Appearances Will Be at New Jersey’s Monster Mania in August

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Clive Barker

We told you earlier this month that horror legend Clive Barker is leaving the convention scene behind to focus entirely on his writing, with various upcoming projects in the works.

A series of final appearances from Barker will begin at Days of the Dead Chicago this month, and we’ve learned Barker will also be coming to Monster Mania in New Jersey.

Clive Barker will be signing at Monster Mania 59 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which runs from August 2 – August 4, 2024. Stay tuned for more info from the convention.

Barker’s official statement earlier this month explained, “… it’s time to focus entirely on writing. I’m not stopping public events because I’ve lost delight in meeting you all over the years. I’m as passionate as ever about sharing my imagination with readers and moviegoers around the world. In the very room where I’m writing these words, I have the manuscripts for a very large number of projects (Thirty-one of them), some very close to completion, others still telling themselves. There are some wild projects in this collection of works, whether close to finished or done. There are also stories that you all knew I would be finishing.”

“Abarat IV and V are amongst the books at my feet,” he continued. “So is the Third and final book of The Art and the sequel to The Thief of Always. There are also return visits to characters and mythologies you may have thought I would never return to.

“I hope I am still able to surprise you in the decades ahead.”

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