If You Love Fun, You’ll Love Godzilla

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Godzilla. I’ve watched the Japanese films and loved all of them, from the puppets of the past to the modern CGI Shin Godzilla of recent years. America has had little success with Godzilla. There’s that 1998 tragedy that ruined the giant fire-breathing lizard, and the 2014 reboot that focused too much on the humans instead of the GIANT FIRE-BREATHING LIZARD.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters learned from it’s first outing: Do not focus on the people. We want monsters, we want fighting, we want badass CGI to get our blood flowing. That’s exactly how I felt watching this movie. It was everything I wanted. I love King Ghidorah, I love Rodan, and I absolutely adore Mothra. These three, and Godzilla, were done glorious justice at last in American cinema.

I’ll start by saying this is not an award-winning movie by any means. The good thing is that the movie knows this. The 2014 movie insisted on trying to develop complex characters, storylines, and emotional tensions. This movie does none of that. The characters have some baggage and backstory of course, but they don’t focus on it too much. The drama serves to get the characters from Point A to Point B, nothing more. The plot is similarly easy to digest. The monsters are all over the world, only to be released to “cleanse the planet” of overpopulation and start over. They all answer to King Ghidorah, the three-headed golden dragon, and run rampant all over the globe. It’s up to Godzilla (and Mothra, who is always a lovable monster) to challenge Ghidorah and kill him to be the king that restores balance to the planet.

I wanted to go big for this film, so I saw it in Imax. Let me tell you: This movie is insane. My heart was pounding and I was totally into the destruction going on. I appreciate mostly that this movie realized what it was; this is an action-packed CGI monster brawl, not a boring drama. Everything was explained to the audience clearly, the one liners and quips were good and got a laugh out of the audience when needed. The important thing was the absolute madness that was giant monsters fighting each other and roaring at loud volumes. There were bright lights and decapitated dragon heads, and all the other glorious things you’d expect from a killer kaiju movie.

To build off the excitement, the CGI was perfect. Ghirodah was frightening and snake-like, Mothra was cute but deadly, etc. They captured the scale of how massive these creatures were and put it on screen in a way that would make longtime fans like me gasp. Ghidorah’s lightning attacks were awesome, Godzilla’s blue fire breath was a delight as always, and Mothra was a literal queen. No, seriously, she’s the “Queen of Monsters”, so her and Godzilla are somewhat of an item? Couple goals. I want to give a special shout out to Rodan, the fiery pterodactyl-looking creature that’s always been a Godzilla favorite. His introduction is a scene where he busts out of a volcano and chases our human companions over the ocean. There are fighter pilots tasked with defeating Rodan, but obviously to no avail. This scene was amazing. I loved seeing Rodan with fire and lava dripping from his wings. He was diving and spinning and it was jaw-dropping to watch when he finally collided with Ghidorah in mid-air. It gave me goosebumps.

My favorite moments, however, were all about Godzilla. I love the big lizard for a reason. I need to talk about that roar. It’s iconic. They have an incredible build-up to it every time. The camera pans up slowly to Godzilla’s face before he lets out a mighty roar. It sends shivers up my spine and makes me stare at the screen with an open smile. Every. Single. Time. It’s like the joy a child feels in a superhero movie. That atomic breath knocking Ghidorah off his feet gave me the same reaction. Godzilla is a beast, and I love watching him kick ass. He’s a monster, but he represents nature and a sense of balance. Godzilla comes out every once in a while to destroy some greater threat, and then he disappears into the ocean again. You can’t help but root for him. At the end, he obviously emerges victorious. All the monsters remaining gather around and bow to him. I almost screamed. The movie cuts off there, without any follow-up with the human characters. It’s just Godzilla in the middle of a decimated Boston roaring to the heavens. They certainly knew what we wanted to see. The credit role also teased the inevitable meeting of Godzilla and King Kong. I’m totally Team Godzilla, and I can’t wait for this match-up to happen too. They set up the next film perfectly.

Another fun way they honored the original films was in the theme music. Godzilla's music was completely absent in the 2014 film, but they brought it back for this movie. When Godzilla rises out of the ocean to fight Ghidorah one more time, the blast the music through the speakers and I almost lost my mind with excitement. I was super pumped, and I'm pretty sure the guys sitting next to me thought I was having some kind of convulsion.

I also want to mention the one emotional moment that I appreciated. At one point, Godzilla is underwater, dying and in need of radioactive energy to get back on his feet. The humans have to deliver an atomic bomb to give him his power back. Unfortunately, they have to do it by hand; someone must be sacrificed. Ken Watanabe’s character, Serizawa, the best human in the film I might add, takes on the burden. He was also the best part of the 2014 movie, being the one human who said Godzilla was a force of good that they needed to trust. He knows he’ll die as he activates the bomb. Godzilla stares at him, and Serizawa touches his nose. He says in Japanese, “Goodbye, old friend.” It was a little touch of character that carried over from 2014 that I loved. Watanabe was great in this role. I like him as Godzilla’s number one cheerleader. He’ll be missed in future films, at least by me.

Overall, Godzilla was a joy. It was such a fun ride. I’m going to see it again, probably even in Imax too. I highly recommend it for a night out if you want to see something that doesn’t require much brain power to enjoy. Godzilla fans will certainly enjoy themselves.