Review Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters film review by KoldWarKid62

No real spoilers here, btw.

Wow, where do I start with this? Let me say it’s blowing my mind just how badly this movie is projecting to do. I’m hoping things pick up for it, I really do, because I loved it, and I can’t say what the last Godzilla movie I loved was. This is a love letter by a true fan for Godzilla fans, and it shows in every aspect of it, from design, attitude, music, Easter Eggs, etc. Is it a perfect movie? By no means. It definitely has its flaws, no question. I have a couple of nitpicks. The first would be that I think Dougherty tries to cram so much into two hours. It moves at breakneck speed from one action beat to the next, without giving its viewers a chance to catch their collective breath and get to know some of our great human cast. This movie would have been well served having 15-25 minutes added for some human interaction/exposition, or perhaps editing down a bit, but my druthers would be for the former. Yes, I’m actually asking for more human scenes! I liked the human characters in this one. They just need to be fleshed out more.

My other nitpick is that Rodan and Mothra were grossly underused. They were awesome for the brief times they were onscreen. I personally would have liked to see more of them. Maybe in a director’s cut?

As to why it’s underperforming, sure, the critical response has not helped it’s case, but I personally think (and I predicted/felt this 5 years ago), that the underwhelming response from the general movie-going audience to G ’14, coupled with the five year gap between movies is playing as big a part, if not bigger, in how this is doing now. And that’s a real shame, because this movie deserves so much better. In fact, at this point, and I know it’s still quite early, on RT, the critical score is at 40% and the audience score is at 88%. The finals for G ’14 were 75% and 66%, respectively! Kong: Skull Island’s were 75% and 69%, respectively. A bit of a disconnect I’d say. It will be interesting to see where those numbers fall when all is said and done.

In the meantime, I’m bummed about it, but it’s out of my control. I would love to see the MonsterVerse continue beyond GVsK, but it’s not looking good right now.

On the upside, it was great to see my beloved Boston leveled. Luckily I’m an hour north now!