Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Let's address the biggest Titans in the room first. As a summer blockbuster that deals with superspecies behemoths brawling each other in the midst of cities, explosions and destructions, Godzilla: King of the Monsters does its job fairly well. Rodan chasing squadrons, the 3 sequences of Ghidorah grappling with Godzilla, Rodan trying to obliterate Monster Zero, Mothra kicking Rodan's ass and all 4 of them coexisting in the epic climax are what majority of the general audiences paid their money to watch.

Next, the visual effects. Spectacular! All the 17 species we see have cool designs. Mothra's birth from cocoon before turning into a full grown moth, Monster Zero spitting electricity, the many rebirths of Godzilla, Ghidorah growing a new head and Gojiro's intimidation display are some of the best computer graphics generated imagery you'll see in 2019, although minor parts of it here and there do look unfinished. Sound designs are magnificent, Bear McCreary's score is lively and Lawrence Sher's cinematography is the work of God!

If you walk into the screening hall for this film expecting quality writing and characters, you're definitely in the wrong place. Characters in this story are non-existent. Their motivations and actions pendulum from one to another. The human characters here are merely vessels to carry the plot along and make sure the Titans fight. Either that, or they are there to spill expositions. By far, the biggest nonsensical decision made in this picture would be Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) deciding to awaken a hibernating Titan, so that these monsters could battle one another and kill billions of people in the process. Just have a think about this for a second. We should be glad that, at the very least, the plot does throw this idea into a major debate. But, this does not divert us from the fact that the writers penned this so that audiences could witness these Titans biting each other's heads off. They geared for spectacle at the expense of solid writing and characters. Titans claimed as the Earth's defense mechanism is a notion that shattered the Willing Suspension of Disbelief of this universe.

Due to the characters behaving as such, events that put them on danger are bland and non-exciting. We don't feel for them, at all. Powerhouse performers like Charles Dance and Sally Hawkins were wasted. There's absolutely no computable sense of geography in this feature either - humans and monsters travel across the world easily, no matter how far apart these places are. It's confusing! Unnecessary jump scares are predictable.

Casting Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown as mother-daughter was a good call since both of them do look alike. Some of the choice and arrangement of words in dialogues are catchy. The physical plot itself does sustain our interest to keep up with the narrative, not gonna lie.