GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS - Matinee Majesty

As the most recent entry in the shared Toho "Monsterverse" franchise (also including 2014's Godzilla and 2017's Kong: Skull Island), King of the Monsters very obviously aims to be "The Avengers of Giant Monster Movies."

It's. . .not quite that good.

It does, however, handily manage being "The Independence Day of Giant Monster Movies," and I absolutely mean that as a compliment.

I've been enjoying the recent 'Zilla-adjacent films thus far, albeit with reservations. I found the story and characters of the 2014 reboot lacking, especially compared to the visual majesty of the (sadly limited) monster spectacle, and while there was more personality to Skull Island, thematic heft and defined character arcs were somewhat thin on the ground. King of the Monsters strikes a gleeful Saturday morning cartoon balance between the two, offering arch-but-defined characters making deliberate choices with clear consequences against the backdrop of the most insane collection of blockbuster kaiju spectacle put to film.

Beginning with the assault on San Francisco during the finale of Godzilla '14, this story opens with a family that has been broken by the uncaring destruction wrought by the "titans." Mark and Emma Russell (Kyle Chandler and Very Farmiga, respectfully), researchers for the monster-hunting Monarch organization, lose one of their two children during the conflict between Godzilla and the MUTOs. Five years later finds the world reeling to keep up with the realization that monsters exist, the United States government angling to shut Monarch down and destroy the creatures, and the Russell family separated by distance and trauma. Mark would be all too happy to see the titans destroyed, but Emma has continued research on the "Orca," a bio-sonar device that might help them communicate with the enormous creatures. However, just as the device is tested on the larval Titanus Mosura, a group of eco-terrorists (led by Charles Dance in fine Lannister form) kidnap Emma and daughter Madison (Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown) and force them to use the Orca to awaken the titans that Monarch has been tracking and studying.

Because this obviously brings the burned-out Mark back into the Monarch fold in order to help find his estranged wife and daughter, the film turns into a race against time as one side attempts to corral Godzilla into stopping the monsters that the other side unleashes in the hopes of bringing a balance back to the world, with unexpected betrayals, military interventions, and heroic sacrifices along the way. This feels like a version of what The Avengers might have been without Joss Whedon's gift for memorable dialogue and ensemble dynamics, but the barrage of the rampaging Ghidorah and Rodan and their clashes with the big G still feel like a definite culmination the way that movie did. And while the film has all the subtlety of a 100 meter tall radioactive dinosaur, it deliberately establishes the theme of striking a balance in your environment between active negligence and unthinking destruction tied directly to the shared trauma of a family unit, and - 

Look, it's a giant monster movie about parenting. Right down to Brown's Madison having to reject the toxic ideologies of her parents, and synthesize their better natures into a path to cooperation with the titular King. The rest of the cast is largely saddled with '90s Disaster Movie levels of archly obvious characterization, but are largely game for it anyway. Ken Watanabe (returning as Dr. Serizawa) and Bradley Whitford strike a perfect tone between grave narration and winking savvy between them, Aisha Hinds is notable in a Nick Fury-esque role as the commander of Monarch's super-plane base of operations, and Zhang Ziyi sneaks up as an MVP both through her mixture of wryness and wonder as well as a character detail that's sure to make longtime fans of the series flip.

For everyone else? Well, your mileage may vary, but there's no doubt that King of the Monsters delivers on the promise of Giant Monster Fights With a Side of More Giant Monster Fights. Monsters fight military hardware, they fight other monsters, some of them create natural disasters so that the film can throw in disaster movie set pieces that both keep the affair pacey while also selling the sheer size and impact of these ludicrously powerful creatures. The creatures themselves are also sold as genuine animals (albeit of unimaginable size) with defined attitudes and personalities and even loyalties. Director and co-writer Mike Dougherty, who arrived confidently on the scene with Trick 'R Treat and solidified his voice as a genre talent with Krampus, manages to explode onto the blockbuster scene like a kid who's been let lose in the candy store with $200 million dollars and is intent that everyone else have as much fun as he does.

And I had a blast. It's energetic and fun and earnest and very obviously in love with the source material and that really solid me on it. If you're sick of giant pieces of CGI smashing other pieces of CGI in an exploding CGI city, it might not be for you, but. . . it's a Godzilla movie. And it's a damn awesome one.