[Movie] Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters [2019]

[Ihavewaffles]

Oddly this movie didn't have a thread until now after the premeire.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/
http://www.godzilla-movie.net/
https://twitter.com/GodzillaMovie

Synopsis

Godzilla
Following the global success of “Godzilla” and “Kong: Skull Island” comes the next chapter in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ cinematic Monsterverse: “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” an epic action adventure that pits Godzilla against some of the most popular monsters in pop culture history.

The film was directed by Michael Dougherty (“Krampus”), and stars Kyle Chandler (“The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Manchester by the Sea”) as well as Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air,” “The Conjuring” films); Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”) in her feature film debut; Bradley Whitford (“Get Out”); Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins (“Shape of Water”, “Blue Jasmine”); Charles Dance (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”); Thomas Middleditch (HBO’s “Silicon Valley”); Aisha Hinds (“Star Trek Into Darkness”); O’Shea Jackson Jr. (“Straight Outta Compton”); Oscar nominee David Strathairn (“Good Night and Good Luck”), with Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe (“The Last Samurai) and Golden Globe nominee Ziyi Zhang (“Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”).

The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species—thought to be mere myths—rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.

Dougherty directed from a script he wrote with Zach Shields, based on the character “Godzilla” owned and created by TOHO CO., LTD. The film was produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and Brian Rogers, with Zach Shields, Barry Waldman, Hiro Matsuoka, Keiji Ota, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira serving as executive producers, and Ali Mendes and Jay Ashenfelter co-producing for Legendary.

Behind the scenes, Dougherty’s creative team included director of photography Lawrence Sher, whose past credits include “War Dogs” and “Godzilla,” for which he handled additional photography; production designer Scott Chambliss (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Star Trek Into Darkness”); editors Roger Barton (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” the “Transformers” films), Oscar nominee Richard Pearson (“United 93,” “Kong: Skull Island”), and Bob Ducsay (“Godzilla,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”); costume designer Louise Mingenbach (the “X-Men” and “Hangover” films); and Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Guillaume Rocheron (“Godzilla,” “Ghost in the Shell,” and part of the Oscar-winning team behind “Life of Pi”).

A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, in association with Toho Co. Ltd., “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” hits Only In Cinemas. It will be distributed in 3D and 2D and IMAX by Warner Bros. Pictures, except in Japan, where it will be distributed by Toho; and in China, where it will be distributed by Legendary East.

Charles Dance <3


Loved the movie

teh feels, poor Mothrah..

[Ophenia]

To be honest I really disliked it. The same shit as the first imo: every fight is 2seconds of the monsters then 10 seconds of people's reaction or doing whatever.

At the very beginning when Godzilla first fights Ghidorah in Antarctica, at one point it gets knocked down, you don't even get to see the hit he took as you were focusing on the people being "ooooh, monsters".

At least in Godzilla 1 the ending was straight. They start fighting, you get to see the whole scene. In the end of this one, at one point there are FOUR Titans fighting (Mothra vs flying boii / Godzilla vs Ghidorah) in Boston, but the focus of most of the scenes is still on Mom and Dad looking for Daughter, as if we give a shit.

I liked some of the pictures (Mothra <3), the IMAX 4K was worth the price.
Too bad all the other Titans had 5-seconds screen time, and most of them are uninspired/unimpressive in terms of design and too often shown in close-up instead of wide angles.

And don't get me started on the amount of cliches!

[Poe]

I watched it.

Monster fight scenes were okay I suppose. I wanted to see more fighting and destruction in heavily populated areas. I wanted to feel the reign of terror crashing down upon the general populace as their world descended into madness and chaos. Instead I got a plot focused around a dysfunctional family.

The first Godzilla movie nailed it in the ending fight in that sense. The fact that in the final fight scene, they completely abandoned Boston before the monsters got to fight was kind of a let down for me, especially since they didn't show much of the titans destroying and reaping havoc on the cities around the world


It wasn't a terrible movie but it wasn't very good either. 4.5/10

[Ihavewaffles]

To be honest I really disliked it. The same shit as the first imo: every fight is 2seconds of the monsters then 10 seconds of people's reaction or doing whatever.

At the very beginning when Godzilla first fights Ghidorah in Antarctica, at one point it gets knocked down, you don't even get to see the hit he took as you were focusing on the people being "ooooh, monsters".

At least in Godzilla 1 the ending was straight. They start fighting, you get to see the whole scene. In the end of this one, at one point there are FOUR Titans fighting (Mothra vs flying boii / Godzilla vs Ghidorah) in Boston, but the focus of most of the scenes is still on Mom and Dad looking for Daughter, as if we give a shit.

I liked some of the pictures (Mothra <3), the IMAX 4K was worth the price.
Too bad all the other Titans had 5-seconds screen time, and most of them are uninspired/unimpressive in terms of design and too often shown in close-up instead of wide angles.

And don't get me started on the amount of cliches!

I hafta say I agree a lot, especially after seeing this review..

[Usagi Senshi]

I'm going to go see it on Monday, mostly as partial birthday gift to my cousin (who's been a huge Godzilla fan since the mid 80s).

[Shadowferal]

If you're going in thinking that there is going to be a lot of human moments then I think you're deluded.
I'm going in to watch monsters fighting other monsters.
That's what this is all about.

[mvaliz]

If you're going in thinking that there is going to be a lot of human moments then I think you're deluded.
I'm going in to watch monsters fighting other monsters.
That's what this is all about.

Diehard Godzilla fan here for over 40 years - I went in just to watch monsters fighting other monsters as well and fully dismissed the negative reviewers. While I still disagree with the negative reviewers on RT, I do sadly agree with the above posters here. Despite what the positive reviewers say on RT, the stars were really once again the humans, not the Monsters. Dare I even say they were moreso in this one than 2014. Every scene was about the human characters surviving, never just focusing straight-up on the monster fights.

In 2014 Godzilla, it felt basically like "1 minute of Monsters, 5 minutes of humans, repeat".
in 2019 Godzilla, it felt basically like "15 seconds of monsters, 40 seconds of humans, repeat".

It feels like it should be a mathematical net-gain, but it's so constantly split-up so often by the human scenes that it gets marred. What I wouldn't do for just one 5-minute sequence of just Godzilla fighting without flipping to the damn human characters...

Even in the final battle was marred with them constantly flipping back to the family/other characters or what should've been an epic throwdown be marred by being recorded from the perspective angle of the human family. Another thing is that's ALL we ever got was monster-fighting when they were on-screen. Now, before you quote me out-of-context as that doesn't sound bad saying "don't you WANT more monster fighting?"... let me explain: For example, we actually never get to see the classic scene of Ghidorah flying over a city just Gravity-Beaming the crap out it. Whenever he was on screen, it was either Ghidorah directly trying to kill the human characters, or fighting a monster. Never just a glorious "Oh, look at you city - mind if I NUKE THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!!!" moment. The closest one we got to that was Rodan flying over the city, of which 95% of was totally shown in the trailers. =/

Now, I did enjoy the movie for what I got - or at least insofar that it could've been worse for an American production involving Ghidorah, Rodan and Mothra. However, I felt it really had a lot of lost potential due to overuse of having the human characters involved every 40+ seconds or so. =(

If you're going in thinking that there is going to be a lot of human moments then I think you're deluded.

That's the problem. They did have a lot of human moments... a LOT of them, and they constantly interrupted the fights. =/

[Crillam]

In 2014 Godzilla, it felt basically like "1 minute of Monsters, 5 minutes of humans, repeat".
in 2019 Godzilla, it felt basically like "15 seconds of monsters, 40 seconds of humans, repeat".

Good way to put it, they have improved. However a big problem is still that the characters sucks. You don't care about them and then they try for force drama but it does not work because yeah... you don't care.

In the end I did have a good time watching this. Last battle was great and when Rodan showed up for the first time was also pretty sweet. This movie was 2h long, the could have cut 30 min of the humans and have an even better movie IMO.

[mvaliz]

Good way to put it, they have improved. However a big problem is still that the characters sucks. You don't care about them and then they try for force drama but it does not work because yeah... you don't care.

In the end I did have a good time watching this. Last battle was great and when Rodan showed up for the first time was also pretty sweet. This movie was 2h long, the could have cut 30 min of the humans and have an even better movie IMO.

Having read this, I wholeheartedly agree. they could've kept the monster scenes and just removed a good chunk of those human cut-scenes and it would've worked MUCH better IMO.

EDIT: and, again, same here - I did enjoy what I got. I've just realized that I can't agree with either the Negative or the Positive reviewers as they both seem to get what they focus on wrong, particularly on RT, and feel sad that there was so much potential there that was lost that would've been regained from some simple better editing choices. =/

[Shadowferal]

This sounds rather disappointing...*sigh*

[Ihavewaffles]

This sounds rather disappointing...*sigh*

Oh, you will still be entertained, take the criticism with a grain of salt..it gots bigass monsters blowing shit up a'plenty, and the humans aren't cringy like Pacific Rim 2, so this movie I would still recommend to watch, a movie doesn't have to be 10/10
There's plenty of cool shit in this movie, I wouldn't miss it for the world

[prwraith]

I loved the shit out of this. though I could have used more monster fighting. Loves the little details.

Def wanted more of the original theme song.

- - - Updated - - -

This sounds rather disappointing...*sigh*

Don't listen to these whiners, it was fantastic.

[Stormcall]

As a Godzilla fan for 34 years(I saw Godzilla '85 in the theater as a birthday present) I enjoyed it. The human stuff is basic Godzilla movie human stuff. There's a ton of monster action, easily enough to keep me happy. Would I like some of the human stuff cut for a more extended sequence focused solely on the monsters? Absolutely. But even as is, I am quite happy with it. There are a lot of nods to some of the earlier movies, including the original Gojira, Godzilla vs Destroyah, a brief appearance by the classic Ghidorah roar, the classic Godzilla theme music...fun stuff for longtime fans.

[Ihavewaffles]

Def wanted more of the original theme song.

this one?

[Asphyx22]

I was honestly severely disappointed in this film. I enjoyed the last movie despite its flaws. It's really all the human characters that kill it for me. The script writing was very weak imo. The monster fights themselves were pretty good, but they started to get a little too floaty if that makes any sense. The first movie did a good job illustrating how big and heavy these creatures are. In this one, they move a bit too fast for their size.

Idk if it was my theater (I doubt it), but the audio mixing for the music was bad too. It felt like there was a wall of sound whenever music played. Couldn't decipher the score all that well whenever chaos ensued.

4/10

[Shakadam]

Didn't even know they were making another one. The first one was a pretty solid 4/10. Watchable but only just. Kong: Skull island was just godawful though, easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

[the game]

I liked it. it was fun.

[Nathreim]

It was excellent. If you complain about human characters in a Godzilla film you are missing the point of all Godzilla movies. The human characters aren't even that bad the only ones that really suck are the mother and father. Serizawa was excellent.


The score was great as was the CGI. Plenty of Godzilla fights in this film for any G fan. Its a 8.5/10.

[prwraith]

this one?

yup needed lots more of that.

[Zeek Daniels]

It was excellent. If you complain about human characters in a Godzilla film you are missing the point of all Godzilla movies. The human characters aren't even that bad the only ones that really suck are the mother and father. Serizawa was excellent.


The score was great as was the CGI. Plenty of Godzilla fights in this film for any G fan. Its a 8.5/10.

This movie was hot garbage. I was really excited to see this one after they had said that they wouldnt be hiding the monster fights like the first film. And i really liked the first film. But this one SUUUUUUCCCKKED. I mean seriously? it feels like the first 30 minutes are a complete waste. Its all human nonsense. Then you see the monsters for like 5 minutes then back to humans again for another 40 minutes, then monster fight for 10 then humans again, then monster fight at the end. WTF is this movie. The mom and daughter are complete idiots. The Mom and her power point presentation was absolute horse shit. Her motivations absolute horse shit.

All this movie needed was Charles Dance saying "long live the king" after releasing monster zero and then Ken Wantanabe saying "let them fight" and that would have been enough human story for this movie. But nooooo we need an emotional core to ground ourselves to characters. Fuck those characters. All of them sucked except for dance and wantanabe. WE DONT NEED A FAMILY STORY. WE NEED A MONSTER FIGHT.

Now i understand you cant show 2 hours of monster on monster action. Thats fine. You have heroes "Monarch" studying Titans and Villains "Dance's group" releasing them with some mind control device so they can rule the world blah blah blah. The heroes try to thwart the villains plans but fail multiple times before succeeding. The Titans fight it out each time the heroes try to stop the villains and the fights go pretty much how the titan fights went in this movie.

I give this movie a 5/10. 5 for the monster fights 0 for scenes with humans and no monsters.