Men in Black: International (2019) review

In 1990, the first installments of a new comic series, The Men in Black, was published by Aircel Comics. Created by writer Lowell Cunningham, the series focused on the titular Men in Black, a secret organization tasked with monitoring extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Soon after the completion of the series’ six-issue run, Aircel would end up getting acquired by Malibu Comics who, in turn, would be acquired by Marvel. And in 1997, the series was adapted to the big screen courtesy of director Barry Sonnenfeld and Steven Spielberg’s production company, Amblin Entertainment. Upon its release, the film, which starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as Men in Black agents J and K, respectively, was a big critical and financial hit, grossing over $589 million worldwide and earning the legendary Rick Baker his then-fifth Oscar for Best Makeup. The film would then spawn two sequels in 2002 and 2012, and while neither sequel was as well-received as the original, they were still both solid hits at the box-office. And yet, while it seemed like Men in Black 3 would be the final installment of the franchise, it has now come back in the form of a spin-off that isn’t the attempted crossover with the 21 Jump Street franchise that ultimately went nowhere. Instead, it’s a more traditional spin-off that focuses on new characters but is still set in the same universe. This time, directorial duties go to F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton, The Fate of the Furious) while Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson headline the cast in their second big collaboration together after Thompson made a big splash in the MCU as Valkyrie alongside Hemsworth’s Thor in Thor: Ragnarök. And just like in that film, they prove to be quite the dynamic duo despite this film’s admittedly major shortcomings.

When she was a child, Molly Wright (Tessa Thompson) and her family had an encounter with an alien that instantly attracted the attention of the secret organization known as the Men in Black. But while her parents were both neuralyzed as per MIB regulations, Molly managed to avoid that fate, thus leading her on a mission to prove the organization’s existence. Twenty-three years later, Molly finally manages to locate the Men in Black’s New York headquarters, where she convinces Agent O (Emma Thompson), head of the US branch, that she’s a perfect candidate for the organization given how she was successful in finding them. Thus, Molly is officially dubbed ‘Agent M’ and is sent to MIB’s London headquarters on probationary status. There, she meets the head of the UK branch, High T (Liam Neeson), who pairs her up with his old partner Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) on a mission to protect a member of an alien royal family. However, when the mission goes haywire and the royal family member is killed, MIB suspects that this is the work of a parasitic alien race known as the Hive whose previous attempt at invading the planet was thwarted by High T and H three years prior. Thus, H and M soon find themselves on a globe-trotting adventure to try and prevent another Hive invasion. In the process, however, they quickly realize that all this may be the result of a traitor within MIB’s ranks.

Since this review took a little while to get done, we’re at a point now where it’s become well-known that this film experienced quite a few nasty production issues. Most specifically, F. Gary Gray and producer Walter Parkes frequently clashed over the overall direction of the film to the point where the former repeatedly tried to back out of the production. Thus, it’s been reported that the version of the film that was released in theaters was Parkes’ intended cut rather than Gray’s, which would’ve been a bit more topical with its themes (i.e. some commentary on immigration). And to be perfectly blunt, it’s easy to see why Gray’s version of the film would’ve turned out a lot better because what we ultimately get is a generic retread of the previous Men in Black films. While it is based around new characters (with the only references to the previous films consisting of a few select cameos and some visual nods), the film maintains the same general plot structure of the last three films right down to having its finale revolve around a historic landmark (e.g. the Apollo 11 launch in Men in Black 3). The film doesn’t even live up to the International in its title as the strict adherence to the franchise’s formula prevents it from exploring more of the world of Men in Black despite this being the first installment of the series that isn’t primarily set in New York. At the very least, the film maintains the franchise’s quirky atmosphere when it comes to the antics of its various alien creatures even though this is the first entry of the series to not involve the makeup work of Rick Baker due to his retirement in 2017.  

Ultimately, though, the best part about this film is its main leads. After all, one of the definitive aspects of the original trilogy was the strong dynamic of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones (plus Josh Brolin in the case of the third film). And considering their excellent chemistry in Thor: Ragnarök, it’s easy to see why Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson were paired together once again to become the Men in Black franchise’s newest lead duo. It also helps that these two do end up providing a different kind of pairing when compared to J and K from the previous films. Thompson, for example, may be following Smith’s arc from the first film as the rookie MIB agent, but whereas Agent J was the genuine newbie who was gradually introduced to the concept of aliens living on Earth, Agent M is already well-versed in it when she joins the organization. As for Hemsworth, Agent H’s characterization isn’t that far off from how Thor was initially portrayed in his MCU debut; in other words, a charismatic playboy who doesn’t always think before he acts. And while the big reveal surrounding it is a bit too simplistic, there’s a decent little mystery as to why H hasn’t quite been the same ever since he and High T saved the world despite him continually being regarded as one of the organization’s best agents. M and H are then backed by a solid ally in Pawny (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani), the last survivor of a tiny alien race who ends up pledging allegiance to his new Queen, M, and is quite simply the primary source behind most of the film’s best humorous moments. Everyone else in the film, including Neeson as High T and Rebecca Ferguson as an alien arms dealer who has a notable history with H, is fine in their respective roles but they’re ultimately just ‘there’, for the most part.

I still have vague memories of the first time that I watched the original Men in Black. Obviously, I was too young to see it in theaters in 1997, but I did watch it when I was about eight or nine when it aired on TV one night whilst my family and I were over at a party hosted by a family friend. And while my mom warned me that the film may be a bit too scary given the various alien creatures that appeared in it, this didn’t end up bothering me in the slightest and I became utterly enthralled by it. This then led to me watching the second film (which may not be as good as the first but isn’t quite as bad as a lot of folks say it is) and going to see the third film in theaters, which gave us the great addition of Josh Brolin as a younger K and a genuinely sweet twist in the finale that highlighted the strength of J and K’s relationship. Men in Black 3 was even one of the very first films I ever reviewed on this site, so with that in mind, you could say that I’m a big fan of this franchise and was really looking forward to its newest installment. Sadly, though, Men in Black: International ends up being the weakest of the bunch, though to be fair, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s ‘bad’. It’s just that, as I pointed out earlier in this review, this film was heavily affected by its scandalous production issues to the point where the version of it that we ultimately got is a generic copy of the previous films instead of a more culturally relevant sequel as was initially the plan. Thus, despite the best efforts of the dynamic duo of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson (and a scene-stealing Kumail Nanjiani), Men in Black: International is the very definition of a ‘by-the-numbers’ sequel.    

Rating: 3/5

Dark Phoenix (2019) review

In the early 2000s, the superhero film genre experienced a major resurgence thanks to three films that were all based on Marvel properties, which were also notably the first majorly successful live-action films that the company had ever produced after most of their previous efforts were underwhelming, to say the least. In fact, some of them were so disastrous that they didn’t even get a proper theatrical release (i.e. the infamous 1994 adaptation of The Fantastic Four). But then there was the trio of 1998’s Blade, Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man in 2002, and the film that paved the way for today’s topic, X-Men, released in 2000 and directed by Bryan Singer. Despite both Singer and several of the film’s cast members admitting that they weren’t too familiar with the source material going in, the original X-Men was a solid critical and commercial success and helped the superhero genre evolve into the powerhouse that it still is today. Thus, the cast and crew returned for a sequel in 2003, X2: X-Men United, which was an even bigger hit and touted by many as a superior sequel. Not only that, but it ended on a note that teased a follow-up that would adapt one of the most famous X-Men storylines from the comics, The Dark Phoenix Saga, where X-Men member Jean Grey is corrupted by the full extent of her telepathic powers. However, as most of you know, this first adaptation turned out to be a bit of a disaster, mainly due to Singer backing out of the project to direct Superman Returns. Brett Ratner was hired in his place and the film that followed, 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, received a far more polarizing reaction from critics while being outright despised by fans for its handling of the Dark Phoenix storyline. This and the equally disastrous 2009 spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine effectively put the X-Men film franchise in a very rough spot for quite a few years.  

It wasn’t until 2011 when the series officially saw a comeback thanks to X-Men: First Class, a prequel/soft reboot directed by Matthew Vaughn that featured a cast of newcomers playing younger versions of the series’ established characters. And despite some initial skepticism from audiences, the film was a surprise critical and financial hit upon its release. This then paved the way for 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, which saw Bryan Singer return to the franchise for the first time since X2 and combined the ensembles of both the original trilogy and First Class in a loose adaptation of the popular Days of Future Past storyline from the comics. The film also notably established a major bit of retconning by setting up an alternate continuity that ignored the events of The Last Stand. Because of this, writer/producer Simon Kinberg (who also wrote The Last Stand) hoped that this would pave the way for a more faithful Dark Phoenix adaptation in the future. And despite the generally mixed reaction towards the next installment of the franchise, 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, plans were officially set into motion for a new adaptation of the Dark Phoenix storyline. Not only that, but the film would also end up serving as Kinberg’s directorial debut after it was made clear that Apocalypse would be Singer’s last entry in the series. Thus, here we are now with the latest X-Men film, simply titled Dark Phoenix, and by all accounts, this will be the final installment of the main series (not counting the long-delayed New Mutants film that’s currently set for a 2020 release) following Disney’s purchase of 20^th Century Fox earlier this year. And yet, despite this, reports of some extensive production issues, and an overall chilly reception, Dark Phoenix is ultimately another solid entry in the franchise even though I do agree that it still isn’t the proper Dark Phoenix Saga adaptation that it could’ve been.

It is 1992 and the relationship between humans and mutants has started to prosper thanks to the continued heroic efforts of telepath Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and the X-Men. However, during a mission where the group rescues the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour, team member/telepath Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) endures the full force of a mysterious solar flare. Against all odds, Jean survives this event but her telepathic abilities end up getting amplified in the process, and to make matters worse, it also allows her to break a mental block that Charles had placed on her when she was younger to hide her memories of a car crash that she accidentally caused that resulted in the death of her mother. Thus, having realized that some of her most trusted allies have been keeping secrets from her, the more volatile aspects of Jean’s powers begin to take effect. This is then complicated further by the arrival of an alien race known as the D’Bari, led by the mysterious Vuk (Jessica Chastain), who seeks to harness Jean’s ‘Phoenix’ abilities for her own sinister purposes, resulting in the X-Men taking on their most perilous mission yet as they find themselves having to face one of their own. And if that wasn’t enough, Charles’ past efforts to ‘protect’ Jean end up causing a major divide amongst several members of the group, with the situation only being agitated further once the always unpredictable Erik Lehnsherr AKA Magneto (Michael Fassbender) gets involved.

As noted in the intro, one of the biggest issues that fans had with The Last Stand was its handling of the Dark Phoenix storyline, which was mainly due to it ultimately being a combination of two radically different storylines from the comics. The other storyline that was adapted for the film was Gifted, a six-part miniseries that was written by none other than Joss Whedon that focused on the introduction of a ‘mutant cure’, which meant that neither storyline got the proper attention that it should’ve since the film had to juggle them both at the same time. By comparison, this new film is technically a more faithful adaptation of the Dark Phoenix arc despite only having one major sequence that takes place in space and not including some of the storyline’s important characters. Namely, it doesn’t feature the Hellfire Club (although they did appear in First Class and were technically wiped out by the time Days of Future Past rolled around) and changes the prominently featured alien race from the Shi’ar to the D’Bari. However, a different issue then comes into play as the film doesn’t quite give this storyline the emotional poignancy that it could’ve had. It goes without saying that the transformation of Jean Grey from hero to villain proves to be devastating for the X-Men, especially her love interest Scott Summers AKA Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). But in the film, it’s treated like your standard hero/villain conflict, and thus, is quite lacking in terms of depth. At the very least, this film’s technical aspects fare a lot better. Despite this only being his first directorial effort, Simon Kinberg does a nice job with the action sequences and the whole film is backed by a suitably intense Hans Zimmer score.  

A lot has been said about how most of the main leads in this film who have been with the franchise for quite some time now are clearly not as enthusiastic about it as they were back then (that and a lot of jokes about how they still look as old as they did in First Class despite that being three films/in-universe decades ago). And yet, for what it’s worth, the returning leads of the franchise are still just as good as they’ve always been in these films, primarily because they continue to be the ones who get the most character development even though it does become a detriment to others. James McAvoy, for example, continues to shine as a more flawed Xavier compared to Patrick Stewart’s version of the character from the original trilogy, especially in this instance given that this whole plot is the result of his best intentions coming back to haunt him. Then there’s Michael Fassbender, who is still quite arguably the biggest standout of the First Class era ensemble as the emotionally charged Magneto. Jennifer Lawrence, meanwhile, continues to be solid as Mystique, who maintains the direction of her arc in Apocalypse by further embracing her leadership capabilities and being more protective of the younger members of the team. However, as some of this film’s trailers have implicated, her role in the plot is much smaller this time around. And finally, there’s Nicholas Hoult as Beast, who arguably gets the most prominent story arc that he’s ever had in this series due to his growing frustrations with Charles over his handling of Jean’s predicament and the devastating results that they yield.

Unfortunately, the newer members of the cast who had promising debuts in Apocalypse don’t get as much to work with this time around even though the First Class era films have done a lot better than the original trilogy when it comes to showing the X-Men working as a team. As alluded to earlier, Tye Sheridan doesn’t get any opportunities to truly delve into the emotional turmoil that Scott is going through over Jean’s actions even though he had one of the best emotional moments in Apocalypse when he learned about his brother Alex’s death. Alexandra Shipp also gets heavily underutilized as Storm, a fact that Shipp herself has openly acknowledged in recent interviews. Heck, we don’t even get a lot of fan-favorite Quicksilver (Evan Peters) this time around, which means that there’s sadly no new standout running sequence set to music like in the previous two films. At the very least, Sophie Turner does manage to do a solid job handling Jean’s psychological dilemma even if this film’s writing doesn’t exactly match her dedication to the role. But then we come to this film’s main antagonists, the D’Bari, who are, unfortunately, some of the weakest villains in the franchise’s history. Jessica Chastain does her best with what she’s given as their leader Vuk, but without much explanation of their backstory or their plans, they’re just a bunch of nameless thugs for the X-Men to fight. I will say, however, that the finale, where the X-Men fight the D’Bari on a train, is a solidly done action sequence, which is saying something considering that this was the biggest aspect of the film’s extensive reshoots due to the original ending supposedly being too similar to the likes of Captain Marvel and Captain America: Civil War.

At the time of this review’s publication, Dark Phoenix currently stands as the worst-received installment of the X-Men film franchise; yes, even more so than The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And with a lackluster turn at the box-office (to the point where it will apparently be out of most theaters very soon), it’s clear that most audiences are just waiting for the series’ inevitable reboot into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But is it really that bad? Well, not really. It’s competently made from a technical standpoint and everyone in it does a good job with the material that they’re given. However, while it’s far from being the disaster that many are saying it is, it’s still a sign that the X-Men franchise is running on fumes at this point. While it may technically be a more faithful adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga when compared to X-Men: The Last Stand, it never truly has the chance to delve into the psychological and emotional aspects of its storyline. In other words, as it is presented in this film, the conflict of Jean Grey going rogue has about as much urgency to it as Thor: The Dark World. With all this in mind, if this is truly meant to be the last installment of the X-Men film franchise as we’ve known it since the start of the new millennium, then I will openly admit that it’s probably for the best. And while I may be in the minority when it comes to liking this franchise, I do look forward to seeing how Kevin Feige and his team will incorporate these iconic characters into the MCU.

Rating: 4/5

Rocketman (2019) review

What more can be said about Elton John that hasn’t been said already? For the past five decades, he’s been one of the most iconic figures of the entire music industry. With over 300 million records sold worldwide, he’s currently amongst the Top 5 best-selling artists of all-time with classic hits like “I’m Still Standing”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, and “Tiny Dancer”, and of course, that’s just to name a few. Aside from that, he’s also provided the soundtracks for films like Disney Animation’s smash hit The Lion King and DreamWorks Animation’s The Road to El Dorado as well as the music for Tony Award-winning hits like Aida and Billy Elliot: The Musical. Outside of the world of music, he’s also played a huge role in combatting HIV/AIDS through the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which has raised over $450 million since 1992. And now the story of his life is being brought to the big screen in a film that shares the name of his 1972 classic, Rocketman. John serves as an executive producer on this production while his husband David Furnish is one of the film’s main producers. Directorial duties, meanwhile, go to Dexter Fletcher, a long-time veteran of the film industry who started out as an actor but has recently transitioned into directing with films like Wild Bill and Eddie the Eagle. It’s also worth noting that this isn’t Fletcher’s first time working on a musical biopic as he came on board to finish last year’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody after Bryan Singer was fired two weeks prior to the end of filming. And while that film may have ultimately attracted a mixed critical reception, Rocketman has been fittingly praised as a lively musical fantasy all topped off by a phenomenal lead performance by Taron Egerton as the one and only ‘Rocket Man’.

In the county of Middlesex, England, a young Reginald Dwight (Matthew Illesley as a young boy, Kit Connor as a teenager) starts to develop a passion for music. And while he doesn’t get much encouragement from his emotionally distant mother Sheila Eileen (Bryce Dallas Howard) and his frequently absentee father Stanley (Steven Mackintosh) due to his time in the Royal Air Force, his loving grandmother Ivy (Gemma Jones) brings him to lessons at the Royal Academy of Music. Several years later, ‘Reggie’ (Taron Egerton) decides to embark on a solo career after spending several years with the R&B band Bluesology. He ends up changing his name to ‘Elton John’ and is signed to a deal with publisher Dick James (Stephen Graham) and manager Ray Williams (Charlie Rowe). He is then paired with songwriter Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell) and the two begin to craft multiple hit tunes that turn Elton into one of the biggest recording artists in the world. During this time, he also strikes up a relationship with John Reid (Richard Madden), who not only becomes his new manager but also his lover as Elton begins to further embrace his identity as a homosexual. In the process, however, Elton starts to develop nasty drinking and drug habits that threaten to undermine his relationships with his friends and family.  

It’s been said that musical biopics tend to be one of the trickier film genres to truly get right. While there have been plenty of well-received musical biopics over the years like the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton, many have noted that almost all these films tend to abide by the genre’s typical tropes. This includes everything from segments where the main characters fall on hard times (usually due to drug use) before going back to doing what they do best to montages that cover their rise to fame without really delving into how that came to be. By comparison, Rocketman goes about things a little bit differently. To be clear, it’s still very much a traditional musical biopic that goes through the genre’s usual story beats. However, director Dexter Fletcher manages to work around this by giving the film a fun visual style, and that’s very much apparent in its musical numbers. Some sequences see Elton performing alongside his younger self and in another, his performance of ‘Crocodile Rock’ is such a big hit that it briefly results in him and everyone in the audience levitating into the air. But most importantly, all of them do a great job in capturing Elton John’s signature flashy style, and this is then matched by the film’s excellent handling of his story. Compared to some of the other films of this genre, Rocketman is a lot more upfront about the various struggles that its subject has gone through, namely Elton’s drug and alcohol addictions. Plus, whereas Bohemian Rhapsody was widely criticized for its handling of the portrayal of Freddie Mercury’s sexuality, Rocketman is more open about Elton John’s, resulting in stronger emotional poignancy.

In a way, the stars were truly aligned when it came to Taron Egerton playing the role of Elton John. Not only did John have a notable cameo in Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn also happens to be one of this film’s producers), but Egerton performed a standout cover of “I’m Still Standing” in Illumination’s Sing. Thus, it goes without saying that Egerton does a fantastic job performing all of John’s classic songs. At the same time, he also does a great job when it comes to both replicating John’s extravagant stage presence and conveying the emotional turmoil that John sometimes found himself in. He also benefits greatly from the strong connections that he creates with his co-stars, namely Jamie Bell as John’s long-time partner Bernie Taupin and Richard Madden as his manager/lover John Reid. Thanks to a strong performance from Bell and the excellent camaraderie that he and Egerton share, the film does a wonderful job exemplifying the strength of Elton and Bernie’s friendship, especially due to it establishing that the latter is quite arguably the only one to fully accept Elton’s sexuality. This is then effectively contrasted with Elton’s relationship with John Reid who, despite forming a romantic relationship with him, proves to be a considerably toxic toll on his life. In other words, it’s a role that provides a nice change of pace for Richard Madden, who’s usually known for playing more heroic characters (e.g. Prince Charming in Cinderella).

In January 2018, Elton John announced that following a three-year Farewell Tour, he would officially be retiring from touring to spend more time with his family. As such, now is quite arguably a perfect time to attempt an Elton John biopic, and the one that we get is easily one of the best of the musical biopic genre. Even as someone who has gone on record saying that I did like last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody, I do concur that it wasn’t exactly the definitive Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic that it could’ve been. With that in mind, Rocketman does go about the whole ‘musical biopic’ thing a lot better even if it still abides by the genre’s well-established tropes. However, unlike some of the other musical biopics that have been made over the years, Rocketman is one of the genre’s most openly honest affairs as it balances out its emphasis on Elton John’s career highs and lows so that we can fully understand everything that made him the legend that he is today. And thanks to some excellent direction from Dexter Fletcher and a visual style that deftly honors its subject’s eccentric flair, Rocketman more than lives up to its tagline of being based on a ‘true fantasy’. But, of course, the biggest highlight of this film is its star, as all the charisma that made Taron Egerton the breakout star of the Kingsman franchise is on full display in what is easily the best performance of his career to date. As such, don’t be surprised if he ends up being a major frontrunner in next year’s Best Actor race just like Rami Malek was last year after playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. 

  

Rating: 4.5/5

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) review

When it comes to the most iconic monsters in film history, none arguably stand taller (figuratively AND literally) than the gigantic reptilian creature known as Gojira AKA Godzilla. Ever since he first hit the big screen in 1954 with his titular film debut, Godzilla has become a staple of pop culture thanks to his numerous film appearances courtesy of Toho Co., Ltd. As of 2019, there have been 32 official installments in Toho’s Godzilla franchise that span over the course of four separate eras. However, for many years, Godzilla wasn’t exactly as popular in the U.S. as he was in Japan. While several installments of the series did see a U.S. release either via a traditional American redub or substantial re-edit (e.g. Godzilla, King of the Monsters, the 1956 U.S. release of the original 1954 Godzilla film), others didn’t see a proper domestic release until they were released on home video several years later. It wasn’t until 1998 when the character was finally given a film adaptation that was primarily geared towards U.S. audiences. 1998’s Godzilla was directed by Roland Emmerich and did generally well at the box-office upon its release, grossing over $300 million worldwide. However, it was ultimately a major dud with both critics and audiences, with many fans lamenting the fact that this version of Godzilla barely resembled the character due to its drastically different design and general lack of the character’s traditional abilities (e.g. his atomic breath). Instead, many felt that the film was blatantly trying to match the success of Jurassic Park, right down to a finale that copied several key elements from Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic. Toho wasn’t too happy about the film, either, to the point that, when the character appeared in 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars, it was renamed ‘Zilla’.

The next big attempt at an Americanized version of Godzilla came in 2014 from director Gareth Edwards. Compared to the 1998 film, the 2014 Godzilla made a considerable effort to create a far more accurate rendition of the title character, and for fans of the franchise, it seems as if the film managed to succeed at doing just that. However, while the film was a solid success with critics and audiences and grossed over $500 million worldwide, it turned out to be rather polarizing due to its overall handling of Godzilla, namely because of his general lack of screen-time in favor of the film’s less interesting human characters. But now the King of the Monsters is back in the fittingly titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and while it’s only the second of these recent Godzilla films, it’s the third installment of an ever-expanding cinematic universe known as the MonsterVerse. This new series also initiated a reboot of the King Kong franchise with 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, and these two iconic creatures are set to duke it out in a 2020 crossover, Godzilla vs. Kong. But first, we have the second Godzilla film, which sees the title character interacting with several of his iconic monster co-stars from previous Godzilla films, including Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. This time, directorial duties go to Michael Dougherty, a long-time screenwriter whose writing credits include a pair of X-Men films (2003’s X2: X-Men United and 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse) and 2006’s Superman Returns. He made his feature-length directorial debut in 2007 with the horror anthology flick Trick ‘r Treat, which has since gone onto become a cult classic of the horror genre along with his 2015 effort, Krampus. And yet, despite his best efforts, Godzilla: King of the Monsters doesn’t quite live up to its goal of fixing some of the biggest issues that fans had with its 2014 predecessor.

It has been five years since the events of the original Godzilla. After the incident in San Francisco where the city was ravaged by Godzilla and a pair of creatures known as MUTO’s, the secret government organization known as Monarch has been pressured into revealing what they know about the existence of these monstrous creatures, who they refer to as ‘Titans’. During this time, Monarch paleobiologist Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) attempts to establish a method of communicating with the Titans via a device known as the ‘Orca’ that can replicate their vocal frequencies. However, while monitoring the birth of a giant larva, Mothra, Emma and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) end up getting captured by a group of eco-terrorists led by former British Army colonel Alan Jonah (Charles Dance). Utilizing Emma’s device, Jonah plans on unleashing all Titans on Earth as a way of bringing balance to the natural order when it becomes apparent that humanity will end up causing their own demise. This results in various monsters being unleashed including the ‘Fire Demon’ Rodan and the most dangerous of the bunch, ‘Monster Zero’ AKA King Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Dragon. To undo Jonah’s actions, Monarch recruits the help of Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), Emma’s ex-husband and Madison’s father, since he had a hand in developing the Orca prior to their divorce. But, of course, it’s only a matter of time before the one and only Godzilla gets involved as well.

One of the biggest complaints towards the previous Godzilla film was its overall lack of monster-related action. While it did have some genuinely incredible sequences of Godzilla fighting the MUTO’s, these scenes didn’t really occur until the end of the film, and any scenes where they fought beforehand ended up cutting away from the action right before they got started. Thus, fans will be happy to know that it’s an entirely different story with this new film. For starters, there aren’t any noticeable instances where the film cuts away from a monster fight that’s about to happen, and there are also a lot more scenes of Godzilla fighting the likes of King Ghidorah and Rodan rather than just a single fight between them all near the end. Simply put, the monster fights in this film are excellent and are matched by some equally terrific visuals… and yet, it still feels like the film doesn’t focus on its monsters as much as it should. Like the previous film, it tries to balance out the monsters with its human characters but ultimately focuses more on the latter. It also doesn’t help that this film’s plot can be quite a mess at times. Whether it’s because of a completely extraneous human villain or a heavily uneven tone that often makes it way too serious for a film of this nature, the film ends up having an extremely sluggish pace at times since most of the scenes with the humans are just exposition dumps.

This whole ‘focusing more on the humans than the monsters’ thing was another big issue that fans had with the 2014 film as they found the main human characters (namely, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Lt. Ford Brody) to be incredibly bland save for Bryan Cranston’s Joe Brody, who gets killed off very early on. And yet, to that film’s credit, Ford Brody was always the main character rather than it trying to focus on several characters at once. By comparison, King of the Monsters has a very stacked ensemble cast on par with the big ensemble of Kong: Skull Island, and while everyone’s fine in their respective roles, most of them have little to work with because of the incredibly convoluted narrative. From this cast, Kyle Chandler is arguably the most developed of the bunch (even though that’s not really saying much) as Mark Russell since the plot revolves around him trying to rescue his ex-wife Emma and their daughter Madison. Had the film primarily maintained focus on those relationships, there probably could’ve been some decent emotional depth to tie into the larger monster story. Instead, Vera Farmiga is tragically undermined by her character’s confused motives while Millie Bobby Brown surprisingly gets little to do despite having plenty of experience dealing with monsters thanks to her role on Stranger Things. As for everyone else, they’re just ‘there’, from Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins reprising their roles from the previous film as Dr. Serizawa and his assistant Dr. Graham to Bradley Whitford as a wise-cracking crypto-sonographer and Charles Dance as the previously mentioned human antagonist who’s quite frankly completely unnecessary.  

         

Now, despite all that I’ve said in this review, I want to make it clear that if you’re a fan of the Godzilla franchise and you’re just going into this looking for some awesome monster action, then you’ll probably love this film. Instead of what happened with the 2014 film, where Godzilla had limited screen-time and only one major fight scene with monsters that weren’t even some of his most iconic foes, this film more than delivers when it comes to seeing some of the franchise’s most iconic monsters duke it out. However, as much as it tries to fix the issues that fans had with the 2014 film, it ultimately still feels like Godzilla and his fellow monsters are playing second-fiddle in their own film when it should really be the other way around. Like the previous film, King of the Monsters tends to focus more on its human characters but doesn’t give them any legitimate character development to work with in a film that also suffers from having an extremely underdeveloped plot. Because of this, I’d dare say that the 2014 film did a much better job handling the character of Godzilla. I’m not saying that it was perfect, by any means, but it could be argued that director Gareth Edwards’ ultimate intent was to pay homage to the original Godzilla from 1954 by treating its giant monster attacks in a serious manner. And at the end of the day, that film’s serious tone felt much more appropriate when compared to this film, which doesn’t quite leap at the prime opportunity that it had to revel in some of the Godzilla franchise’s more over-the-top antics. As such, I’m sorry to say that I found Godzilla: King of the Monsters to be rather underwhelming, and yet, that isn’t stopping me from looking forward to Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020. Let’s just hope that it ends up being a heck of a lot better than this one.

Rating: 2/5