Godzilla: King Of The Monsters (2019) Dir: Michael Dougherty
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It's been a while since I've watched a monster film, but I have wanted to watch this Michael Dougherty directed sequel for a while now. I liked the 2014 film, along with the other 'monsterverse' films I've seen so far. That's not to say they were great films, just ones I enjoyed - I hoped for the same here.
The writing was just abysmal, not least because of some pretty egregious exposition. It was painful. The previous 'Godzilla' film wasn't the best written film ever but even that looks like a masterpiece compared to this. Characters made so many unnecessary and weird decisions, and the film heavily relied on its monsters to carry its narrative.
On that point, the monsters did at least look cool, and their fight scenes were admittedly quite entertaining. It's just a shame that everything else around it was so mediocre. The action worked hard to save the film from itself, but they could only do so much.
Kyle Chandler was fine, but nothing more, in his leading role. I can't say I was all that impressed, but he did have some okay scenes here and there. Honestly, he was easily outdone by his co-stars. His best scenes came towards the end of the film, but there just wasn't enough consistency.
Vera Farmiga was better, but not by a huge amount. I like her as an actress, but this role didn't suit her as much as others have done. She did make her scenes better, but I would have loved to see what she could have done with a much better screenplay.
Milly Bobby Brown was the only person who gave a consistently good performance. I don't always enjoy her acting, but I think she was composed and easy to watch here. She had the best acted scenes, and stood head and shoulders above the rest of the cast.
Although they all had rather mixed performances in their supporting roles, I still feel that mentions are due for the likes of Ken Watanabe, Zhang Ziyi, Sally Hawkins, Bradley Whitford, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds and O'shea Jackson Jr.
Overall, I can't hide my disappointment for this film, unfortunately. I kept relatively moderate expectations, but still found myself left wanting. The action sequences had promise, but the story around them failed to incite any sort of interest.
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