Review of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) by Jaustin14 — 30 May 2019

Of the 30+ Godzilla films made in the last 65 years, approximately 3-4 of them have been intended to be serious" as allegories or satires. The rest of them are silly, over-the-top monster mash films catering to our inner child, and these films have a very distinct style that often transcends broad B-Movie tropes alone. Doughtery's film taps mostly into the latter, but it is also a highly enjoyable love letter to the entire franchise, from two clear references to the 1954 original to a final battle hybridizing elements of "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2" and "Godzilla vs. Destroyah." This film is a blast if you go into it with proper expectations. Remember that the "serious" side of the Godzilla spectrum has been covered in two unique ways since 2014 (one a light environmental allegory and exercise in restraint, the other a lo-fi political satire). This one, on the other hand, strives to channel the most entertaining aspects of the Showa and Heisei films; it's Toho-style popcorn entertainment at its finest, and to view it with any type of lofty critical eye is to appear synonymous with some of the film's overly serious, unintentionally funny dialogue.

Sure, there have been some truly bad films that have been bailed out this way by fans (look at you, Bay-directed Transformers films), but hollow, robotic human characters are still better than overtly annoying, sometimes racist ones. Doughtery's human characters are here to dictate the flow of monster fights, and that's what they should be doing. Do their arcs leave something to be desired? Sure. Is the film's narrative messy? Oh yes. But these complaints are all but meaningless in a film featuring a giant atomic lizard, a three-headed alien dragon, a giant moth, a pteranodon, and bunch of other ridiculous **** (keep an eye out for the woolly mammoth kaiju). Just go see this film and have a blast, and if you're out of touch with this longstanding franchise, watch any title with "vs." in the title to properly prepare yourself.