What I’m Watching: Godzilla King of the Monsters

Date: 6/11/2019

What I’m watching: a really stupid but sometimes entertaining summer movie.

In theaters: Godzilla King of the Monsters

The world can be divided in many ways but one of those ways would be two groups: those who love giant monster movies and those who think they are pretty silly.

I straddle those two groups. “King Kong” (1933) is the most prominent and among the earliest such films (1925’s “The Lost World” might qualify as the first) and Kong never fails to move me no matter how many times I’ve seen it. I’m supremely impressed by the animation wizardry of Willis O’Brien, the great soundtrack and the haunting final line about beauty killing the beast.

I loved the most recent Kong movie (“Kong of Skull Island”) and Guillermo del Toro’s homage to the genre, “Pacific Rim.”

At their best the films can be used for vehicles to make social comments and at their worst they are simply about special effects that create an illusion of a giant beast stepping on people and buildings.

The original 1954 “Godzilla” was such a hit both here and in Japan it spawned an entire genre of film, which the Japanese dubbed as “kaiju.” The word translates to “strange beast.”

As a kid living at Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa I watched a fair amount of Japanese TV and many of the shows revolved around giant monsters and the heroes who fought them. As a sixth-grader they were not my favorites because every show seemed to be essentially the same: monster manifests itself, crushing people and buildings and the good guys stop it.

I did wonder at the time about the technicians who were charged with building those miniature towns and the actors who had to perform stunts and fights.

Friends of mine who are much bigger fans have lured me to several more recent kaiju films, including 2016’s “Shin Godzilla,” which proved to be the least entertaining giant monster film I had ever seen.

So it was with some trepidation that I went with my friend Mark Masztal to see the most recent incarnation of Godzilla, but, hey, he was paying. “Godzilla King of Monsters” continues mythology from its prequel “Kong of Skull Island” about giant monsters that are dubbed “titans” here. They are determined to have been around well before human history and they have challenged one another for dominance.

Although the screen play tries to add some depth to the film with a story line about a divided family, a group trying to bring about the end of the world by releasing the titans and the struggle between Godzilla and the three-headed flying dragon Ghidorah, it is only the latter part of the story about which we can care.

Essentially it’s like watching a wrestling match with a bad guy and a good guy.

The screenplay is muddled when it comes to the humans and the cast seems to just roll with it. I’m not sure exactly what Paleobiologist Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) is all about. She seems to be an ally of Godzilla as compared to her ex-husband Dr. Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) who blames the beast for the death of their son.

Although the CGI monsters scenes are impressive there are moments in the film that test your ability to believe. For me the ultimate was the finale set in Boston where the city’s population was evacuated by helicopter at Fenway Park. A city of 750,000 people? Seriously?

It just was dumb.

So, come for the monsters and stay for the monsters because the human story is poorly written to say the least. And yes, there is a scene at the end of the credits that is so supremely stupid I regret the few minutes of my life waiting for it.