Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Official Trailer 1

[Graham Kennedy]

Just saw this with Ian.

Pro : Monsters and lots of them. Monster fights! Most happen in the dark/in clouds, etc, but not nearly so dark as in the first movie. You could see what was happening at all times, the camerawork was not horrible. And the fights are awesome. Godzilla is his grumpy old self, and he's awesome. At some point somebody makes a comment that he's been hitting the gym; a common complaint in the last movie was that he was fat (they based his body shape on a bear), and I think they've thinned him down some.

Con : the people remain the weak point. We had human villains, and we didn't really need them. Last movie we had Dullface McGenericSoldier, this time we have Boring Grudgedad and Precocious Daughter. Who cares? And most especially...

Mommy scientist, who basically murdered tens of thousands and almost caused the extinction of humanity. But she changes her mind, and has a heroic sacrifice, so that's okay. Not happy about that; I didn't want 'redeming sacrifice' for her, I wanted 'Carter Burke in Aliens'.

And wow, Monarch got a MASSIVE budget upgrade. In the 70s Kong movie they were days away from shutdown. In the first Godzilla movie they're like a handful of scientists. In this movie... they're Shield. Complete with a flying aircraft carrier, dozens of bases around the world, etc. Seriously, if they'd had space stations and cities on the moon it wouldn't have felt out of place. Weird.

Still and all, I like me some giant monsters punching one another in the face, and this movie delivered! Yay!