Notes & Nuggets: Godzilla: King of the Monsters

· The purpose of this post is to give some thoughts on Godzilla: King of the Monsters. There’s two reasons why this movie is deserving of a post: (1) “Game of Thrones” is over, and I haven’t posted anything lately since I’ve been reading a 1,200+ page book for over a month and am currently…(checks Kindle)…GOOD GOLLY I’M ONLY 45% OF THE WAY DONE?!?! I’m going to have to think up a whole lot of filler! And (2) I grew up a huge Godzilla fan. Godzilla movies seemed like they were always on Channel 11 after school, and I remember watching them with my sister and then acting them out. I started collecting VHS tapes of the movies in college and would invite friends over to introduce them to the madness (I still remember the time senior year where I missed the first hour of my own Godzilla vs. Megalon party waiting for a lost pizza guy to show up). As the years went by, I learned about the different iterations of Godzilla movies, and how some of them (notably Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and Giant Monsters: All Out Attack) were actually quite good. What I never counted on, though, was a great movie. Hollywood picked up the property in the 90s and failed miserably (later Toho movies even trolled that attempt). But then, in 2014, there was an honest-to-goodness great Godzilla movie. I was so psyched to see the director (Gareth Edwards) take the property seriously. Not only was this movie so good that even my father went to see it (!), but it made a ton of money worldwide, ensuring a sequel. A sequel was granted, and then…Gareth Edwards dropped out (to make the best Star Wars movie ever, but still!). So, let’s see what Michael Dougherty can do.

· Couple things to set this up: We know going in that there will be at least three other “titans” (they can’t use “kaiju” because they don’t want to confuse universes with Pacific Rim) in this movie. First is Mothra: Star of her own Toho movie, then all-around good-guy, dangerous in both silk-worm and moth stages, friendly with humans, summoned by tiny twin women (oh my – can you imagine if they put the twins in this movie too?!?!). Then there’s Rodan: He can also fly. Not a lot else – his main feature is really that whenever they make that opening shot of life on Monster Island he’s always hanging out on a volcano squawking (although, to be fair, he had his own Toho movie too). Then, there’s the big heavy: Ghidorah. He needs his own bullet point.

· One of the potential problems with this movie, besides trying to sell the audience on four Toho kaiju, is moving too quickly through the villians. Ghidorah, besides being a bad-ass three-headed two-tailed flying electricity-breathing dragon (not to mention one of the few Godzilla characters who isn’t a giant-sized version of an existing animal), is Godzilla’s arch-enemy. He’s the one creature who spells the most trouble for Godzilla, and truth be told Godzilla usually can’t take Ghidorah down by himself – he usually needs help from Mothra or Anguirus. We all know that the studio is setting this all up so the last film in the trilogy (because, or course, everything is a trilogy) will be Godzilla vs. King Kong. While that’s a great matchup, that only happened one time on film. Godzilla vs. Ghidorah should be the third film – that’s like Batman vs. the Joker (and yes, I know that was the second Christopher Nolan film…BUT STILL!). Godzilla vs. King Kong should be the fourth, extra film – that’s more like Batman vs. Captain America.

· So, on to the film itself. But first, trailers! Main takeaway: The trailer for It: Chapter 2 is creepy as hell. I’m not going to say why – I didn’t even know what movie it was for until halfway through – but it will haunt you.

· The movie starts out with a cool premise – there are apparently a lot of kaiju containment units scattered across the globe – meaning there’s a ton of kaiju out there, resting for now. And ripe for being activated by nefarious ne’er-do-wells, like Mothra is here. Nice setup!

· They do a good job with silkworm Mothra here – gentle and friendly to humans, but also capable of vicious violence. It seems like everything Zack Snyder wanted to do with the DC Cinematic Universe Mothra was able to do in one scene.

· So they put together a compelling silkworm Mothra and she…makes a cocoon against a waterfall so she can disappear for half the movie. Um, what?

· The undersea base off of Bermuda is perfect for a Godzilla movie – technically marvelous and completely nonsensical. Godzilla then buzzes the base. What’s he doing in Bermuda? For the sake of Toho, couldn’t they have set it off of Okinawa or something? Maybe if they did that…they could also discover King Caesar! Look it up!

· You know, I thought they were going to be subtle about the inevitable Godzilla vs. King Kong matchup, but they must have mentioned “Kong” or “Skull Island” at least 26 times in the first half hour. They certainly want to make sure you know where we’re headed!

· You’ll notice I haven’t said anything about any of the human characters in this movie yet. I would say that’s both unintentional and intentional at the same time.

· Ghidorah awakes! That’s a cool version of Ghidorah – a little CGI-ish, but pretty believable. Nice to see him fully realized on the big screen!

· The fight in the Arctic (or Antarctica – I don’t remember) bolsters the earlier point – under normal circumstances, Godzilla cannot defeat Ghidorah one on one. I’m glad to see them taking that to heart.

· By the way, as I’m writing this it’s been a week since I saw this movie. I’m going to skip a couple things because I can’t remember the order that they happened.

· For some reason we go to Mexico, where Rodan is waking from his containment unit. In the Toho movies, Rodan seemed kind of like Godzilla – bad-guy kaiju in his own movie, good-guy kaiju in a group setting. Here he’s…I guess the same? Maybe it’s just weird to see it so condensed – going immediately from destroying the Mexican village to fighting Ghidorah. Not sure if we should be rooting for him or not, although I always do (As a kid, I remember once playing one of those games on the boardwalk on the Jersey shore, and one of the prizes was a framed picture of Rodan. I have no idea why, and I totally didn’t then, but if Rodan was selected by the same tastemakers who brought you giant stuffed teddy bears and Budweiser mirrors, I figured he must be one hell of a kaiju.).

· By the way, I love this version of Rodan. As I said before, in the Toho movies you only really see him sitting on a volcano on Monster Island. I love how this movie really brings out the connection to the volcano, with the lava dripping off of him as he flies over the town. Great way to make him seem like a threat. Anyhoo, he gets schooled by Ghidorah.

· I love love love that shot of Ghidorah perched on the top of the volcano with the cross in the foreground. MEET YOUR NEW GOD!!!!

· Monarch is really quick to dub him “King Ghidorah”. Not a fan of that, for two reasons: (1) They didn’t call Godzilla “King Godzilla” in the last movie (although he has “God” in his name – but then why didn’t they call him “God Ghidorah”?); and (2) in Toho cannon he’s called “King Ghidorah” after receiving his cybernetic enhancements, not for beating Godzilla. This is an important distinction, people!

· Nobody noticed that a tropical storm appeared in the Atlantic all of a sudden? Doesn’t anyone watch the weather anymore?

· So Tropical Storm King Ghidorah and his servant…Rodan (that was quick) are on the attack, but they’re at least partially thwarted by Godzilla. Godzilla loses the battle (again, in-canon), but bites off one of Ghidorah’s heads. Ghidorah goes on to win the battle and…regrow his head?!?! What the hell? Not only was it cool in the Toho movies to see Godzilla take out individual heads, but the heads become a factor in the storytelling (as that becomes the reason for the cybernetics, creating King Ghidorah). I think they could have gone in a different direction here.

· Moth version of Mothra emerges and looks pretty cool. Also, apparently Godzilla and Mothra…have a thing. Look, if you read my “Game of Thrones” posts you know my thoughts on shoehorning in love angles every time men and women come together (HA!). But between kaiju?...Let’s just move on.

· Godzilla is critically wounded, but apparently has just enough energy left to swim to his hidden sanctum. Ken Watanabe follows him there, even though the radiation will kill him, because apparently he read the rest of the script.

· Let’s talk about the sanctum. Yes, it’s very cool to see an undersea city with carvings and statues of Godzilla. Only question is, who did the carvings and statues? If there were enough Godzilla sightings to create artwork and architecture around him, that must have been a pretty dangerous area! I guess it’s supposed to be like his own Skull Island, but at least King Kong had a purpose there (keeping other kaiju from coming out of the ground). Godzilla, as we’re reminded several times, is more a of force of nature. Not to mention, if the island/city/whatever attracted Godzilla because of the radiation…wouldn’t all of the inhabitants be dead? Didn’t anyone else watch “Chernobyl”?

· The nuke explodes, it re-energizes Godzilla, and now he’s going nuclear! Total rip-off of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, but it’s cool to see. It also gives us our excuse for how Godzilla can defeat Ghidorah in single combat. Nicely done.

· By the way, there’s WAY too much human stuff going on in this movie that we don’t need to talk about. The funny thing about it is that this is the thing that makes it the most like a Toho movie: You could just fast-forward past all the human stuff and watch the movie in 25 minutes without missing anything important.

· So the final showdown will happen in Boston. At least they’re not going to sacrifice an important city AMIRITE?

· Holy moley this human story – can’t we declare a truce while the monsters duke it out? When they put the term “20 Minutes Too Long” in the dictionary they’re going to put a picture of this movie next to it. I was barely keeping my eyes open here.

· Finally, monster fight! Godzilla vs. Ghidorah, and Mothra vs. Rodan. I don’t know if I like Mothra’s chances here. I mean, he’s a moth – a giant one, but much too delicate to really…oh, never mind, Mothra just stabbed him.

· Godzilla is angry, super-powered, and about to explode – makes a great combo. He does the Superman routine with Ghidorah, charges him, and explodes. What a sacrifice! What commitment! And unlike Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, there’s no Godzilla Jr. to take his place – they actually ended the whole franchise right here! Nice twist!

· Nevermind, he’s still here. I guess he just rode that nuclear explosion out. I bet Indiana Jones survived it too by jumping into a fridge.

· Since Ghidorah’s gone, I guess it’s safe to…wait, Rodan is back! He survived the stabbing, and he’s ready for fisticuffs! He’s…oh, wait, he’s now he’s bowing to Godzilla. Can he just pick a damn side? Rodan’s not exactly the kind of guy you trust to check in with your girlfriend when you’re out of town.

· Now some of the other monsters are coming to pay homage to Godzilla. That giant spider who’s always on Monster Island! And Anguirus! Or is that Gamera? The don’t’ have a good shot of him so I can’t tell. Also, the spider woke from Arizona, and Anguirus/Gamera came from Germany. How did they both get there at the same time? Or were they just standing around in Quincy waiting to see how the fight was going to turn out?

· THE END. Or is it?!?!

· I like how the newspaper headlines in the credits capture more of what it’s like to live in a kaiju-filled world. Then we get our post-credit sequence. I bet it’s going to have something to do with Kong. Instead…it’s the terrorists buying Ghidorah’s head. Is that going to tie into cybernetic Ghidorah? Or maybe MechaGodzilla? Not sure what to make of this.

· Anyway, that’s the movie. Overall, honestly, kind of meh. But you know what, as a lifelong Godzilla fan I’ll take a meh movie just to see fully realized Hollywood versions of Rodan and Ghidorah. And I think my buddy Keith said it best “If it’s a movie with giant monsters, and maybe giant robots, I’m watching it”.