“Godzilla: King of the Monsters” Movie Review

    There is just something about monster movies that brings a smile to my face everytime I watch them.  Even if they aren’t my favorite movies, seeing a giant monster destroy a city is fairly breathtaking.  Seeing a monster fight another monster is just that much better.  Kaiju films are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me.  Even though I didn’t catch it in theaters, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” was a bit of a must for me to watch.

    Set after the events of 2014’s “Godzilla”, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” starts with the scientific organization Monarch tracking the likes of Godzilla and Kong as well as several other titans who have yet to arise.  Monarch scientist Dr. Emma Russell has created a device that can communicate with these titans but the device is stolen by a terrorist organization who also kidnap the doctor and her daughter.  Soon the device is used to awaken the hibernating monsters.  Monarch soon enlists the help of Emma’s ex-husband Mark to figure out how to rescue Emma and stop the titans.  When everything else seemingly fails, Monarch must put their faith in Godzilla to restore the natural order.

    This film is influenced by the 1968 film “Destroy All Monsters” which sees Godzilla and several other monsters battle King Ghidorah.  This film scales back the monster mayhem a bit to focus primarily on Godzilla vs King Ghidorah with a smaller scale battle between Mothra vs Rodan also happening at the same time.  The monsters are the clear stars of this film but it was also nice that the human co-stars had a slightly more satisfying role to play in the sequel.

    On the subject of the human co-stars, this film primarily focuses on the Russell family played by Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler and Millie Bobby Brown.  Farmiga and Chandler both give good performances but it was a bit odd seeing Chandler in the role considering he also co-starred in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong”.  Millie Bobby Brown was wonderful in the movie and proved her career past “Stranger Things” is just beginning.  It was also nice seeing Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, and David Strathairn all return for the sequel.

    Michael Dougherty took over directing duties for the sequel and delivered a superior sequel.  This film is the third film set in this new monsterverse after “Godzilla” and “Kong: Skull Island”.  This movie will be followed next year by “Godzilla vs. Kong” which should be an interesting film considering how both Godzilla and King Kong are depicted as protagonists in their films.

    While I enjoyed how the Monarch organization managed to allow the human characters to appear in the film in a logical way without taking away from the monsters, the monsters were still what everyone came to see and they didn’t disappoint.  Toho favorites King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra all join the battle in this sequel.  Rodan is given the least screen time and feels almost like an after thought.  King Ghidorah on the other hand is the main antagonist and is depicted incredibly.  Still, for me, the main standout was Mothra, Queen of the Monsters.  I won’t go into spoilers, but one of the most emotional scenes in the movie for me involved Mothra.

    “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” doesn’t have much plot but also has the good fortune of not requiring much story either.  These monsterverse movies provide good old fashion spectacle and that is fine by me.  I would recommend this movie for anyone who just needs to sit back and relax.  Enjoy the show (down).

Grade: B

“Hellboy” (2009) Movie Review

    I really enjoyed Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy” film years ago and actually enjoyed the sequel, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”, even more.  I was always holding out hope that perhaps with time, a third movie to round out the envisioned trilogy would materialize.  There seemed to be some hope a few years back but del Toro began to accept the fact that most studios had no interest in a third Hellboy film.  Well, I guess they ‘did’ have interest in a reboot however, and Lionsgate moves forward with the remake without any of the original core players.

    The movie retells the origin of Hellboy but also focuses on the story of the Blood Queen Nimue and how the two interconnect.  Nimue was a powerful witch in the dark ages and was unable to be killed due to her dark powers.  The only person able to stop her was King Arthur due to his holy weapon Excalibur.  King Arthur chopped her into pieces and sent those pieces far away from each in hopes she would never be reunited with them.  The movie then shifts back to focusing primarily on Hellboy and in this movie, he is already an established agent of the B.P.R.D. and is sent on a mission to help kill three giants in Britain following a mishap in Mexico.  While on the mission, the hunters try to kill Hellboy before he manages to escape.  Hellboy is rescued by a friend named Alice.  While this is happening, a creature known as Gruagach has managed to recapture all of the Blood Queen’s pieces and now that she is whole again, it is up to Hellboy to stop her.

    Well, as you could probably guess from the description, there is a lot going on in this movie.  While some movies manage to handle complicated plots with a tightly paced script, this is just sadly a hot mess.  That is really sad because I like the character of Hellboy and enjoyed the other films Guillermo del Toro made featuring the character, this remake misses the mark though.  I am not completely sure why the filmmakers didn’t notice the film was all over the place during editing.  I feel like this movie could have been salvaged some in the editing room but perhaps the filmmakers felt the world building for a possible sequel was too important.

    Now, I did enjoy the cast for the most part.  David Harbour was enjoyable as Hellboy though I think Ron Perlman was better in the role.  I am not even sure why they felt the need to replace Perlman since the character is heavily in makeup.  Perhaps it is because of Harbour’s fame in “Stranger Things” but that seems odd since most people don’t know him by name and they put him in makeup which heavily resembled Ron Perlman’s Hellboy.  I like Ian McShane as well and he was fine in the role of Hellboy’s father but doesn’t quite fit the role.  McShane is gruff and doesn’t have the warmth that John Hurt had in the role before him.  Milla Jovovich was very over the top in this movie and I personally did not enjoy her in the film.

    This movie’s biggest fault however was that it almost felt like it couldn’t figure out if it wanted to be a complete reboot or a lose sequel and lacked it’s own voice.  The parts that were Neil Marshall inspired didn’t work, I thought Thomas Haden Church as the Lobster was terrible and took me out of the film.  The best parts of the film were the parts that felt lifted directly from Guillermo del Toro.  A lot of the creature designs and makeup effects were incredible.

    I wanted to enjoy this film but the movie was just a hot mess.  There were things you might enjoy about the film and it isn’t quite as bad as some critics made it out to be, but it wasn’t good either.  It’s a shame since the character deserves better.

Grade: D