Biondi Noya

First of all, I am Team Godzilla for this movie (but I love Ghidorah more than Godzilla). Second, this movie is more about Kong's character development. Despite the title, you'll learn that this movie is focusing more on Kong. It's fair enough since Godzilla has two movies already. So no problem at all! PLOT

Let's go to the plot first, I might misplaced some moments in the exact order but here it is:

Kong was in his research containment facility dome, in Skull Island. He made a bond with a little girl named Jia, who was the last kind of Iwi people. Kong saved Jia from a disaster that happened in Skull Island before. Jia is also taken care of by Ilene, who is spending her time researching Kong etc.

Kong felt like being held in captivity and he doesn't like that. Eventually, he tries to break out of the dome.

Meanwhile, there's a facility of APEX in Pensacola, Florida. Godzilla suddenly comes and destroys the whole place. Bernie, a conspiracy theorist, ex-APEX worker, infiltrated the facility and discovered Mechagodzilla's eye during the Godzilla attack.

Bernie broadcasts his titan's theory podcast, and Madison is a loyal listener. Madison argues with his dad that Godzilla's being provoked by something, but Mark refuses to listen.

Walter Simmons & Ren Serizawa approach Dr. Nathan, proposing him to lead an expedition into Hollow Earth. And Dr. Nathan said that he need a Titan as both guide and guardian for the expedition. It ended up Dr. Nathan convinced Ilene to bring Kong along, saying that it would help humanity and Kong will find his true home. So they sedated Kong and bring him with an aircraft carrier and heading to Antarctica, the entrance to Hollow Earth. Maia, Walter's daughter hop aboard the carrier as APEX ambassador or something.

Kong finally reveals that he can communicate with Jia with sign languages.

Madison and Josh off to find Bernie. They are trying to find out the reason why Godzilla went rampage. Ended up they sneak into the Pensacola facility.

On the next day, Godzilla spotted Kong's squadrons. I'm pretty sure Kong is not in a sedation state like before. The human attack Godzilla first. Then Godzilla attack the human and Kong. They release Kong from his chain in the hope for theirs and Kong's survival. The humans helped Kong a lot but Kong still really at a severe disadvantage. Godzilla nearly drowned Kong but the humans help to distract Godzilla with some sort of bombs. Kong barely survives and lying weak on the ship. And then they played dead to escape from Godzilla, making Godzilla thinks he won. Godzilla leaves.

Madison and friends sneak into the facility and ended up inside a Skullcrawler eggs cargo. The facility sends the cargo to Hong Kong.

Kong was transported to Antarctica with choppers. He and the rest of Jia's team finally go into Hollow Earth. They are flying by HEAV.

In Hollow Earth, Kong fights with 2 Warbats. While he took the first one easily, the other Warbat takes the upper hand against Kong. But then humans help him by shooting missiles. Kong killed the Warbats, enjoying the head as his snack.

Kong and Jia's team finally reached a place that looks like a throne. There he got his axe and sitting on the throne. He put the axe on the ground and the axe charging itself with something that looks like Godzilla's atomic breath power.

Meanwhile in Madison and the team arrived in Hong Kong. They were led to a giant demonstration room for Mechagodzilla. Mechagodzilla got activated, piloted by Ren through the Ghidorah Skull. One Skullcrawler was thrown into the room for a fight test with Mechagodzilla. The mecha easily sliced Skullcrawler in half with his red laser beam, but then the mecha is out of energy and shutting down. They require more power to complete Mechagodzilla, which is that blue energy in Hollow Earth.

Mechagodzilla activation somehow caught Godzilla's attention.  He then swam to Hong Kong to look for the machine. There, he is probably connected to Hollow Earth’s blue energy and then he shot a mind-blowing atomic breath to the ground. And yes, it cut through the earth's surface all the way into Hollow Earth. Yeah, crazy.

Maia received the sample of the blue energy and sending the data online to Mechagodzilla's cockpit. She threats Jia, which causes Kong to get mad. Kong screams and the little bird-like monsters flying over the room to eat the humans. Maia tries to run but eventually got killed by Kong.

Godzilla's atomic breath suddenly blows through the room and surprises everyone inside. Kong then took his charged axe and leaves Hollow Earth to fight with Godzilla.

Godzilla is about to walk away from the giant hole (or tunnel) he made with his atomic breath. Kong jumped out and challenge him for another round. This time with his axe.

The second battle happens, Kong gives a good fight. The long battle scene ended with Kong using his magnificent axe to hit Godzilla's head like what we saw in the trailer. It did knocks Godzilla down, but also does throw Kong far away. Dr. Nathan said, "Looks like round 2 goes for Kong." but I personally don't see it like that. Why? Because in just around a minute (or less), Godzilla stands up like nothing happens (I'll have details about this later) while Kong is getting ready up in the building to jump like a wrestler. The battle continues but likes for only a minute or so. Godzilla attacks like a beast, and it ended up Godzilla stomping Kong's chest. They roar at each other as we saw in the trailer, but Godzilla spared Kong and he leaves Kong dying.

Madison and friends got caught up by APEX and they were brought to meet Walter. Walter explains that Mechagodzilla is the true alpha, an APEX. Since they got the data from his daughter, they can now fully activates Mechagodzilla. Ren refuses for security reasons but Walter insists.

Mechagodzilla got activated. But it has malfunctioned and goes rampage on its own. Killing both Walter and Ren. Madison and friends watch Mechagozilla breaking out of the facility and wreaking havoc in the city.

Godzilla who seems to be still wandering around looking for his target finally sees Mechagodzilla. They engage in battle.

The dying Kong got revived by Dr. Nathan, blowing HEAV as defibrillator on his chest. Jia then tells Kong that his enemy is not Godzilla, but Mechagodzilla. Kong fixes his broken left arm and helps Godzilla.

Godzilla really at a terrible disadvantage against Mechagodzilla. Just the moment before Mecha about to do Kiss of Death to Godzilla, Kong jumps off and saves him. They both finally teamed up together to fight Mechagodzilla.

Mecha is about to drill Kong's head. Then Josh uses the alcohol to break down the computer that connects to Mechagodzilla. Mecha's drill tail stopped functioning, Godzilla shoots his atomic breath to Kong's axe, charging the weapon with his energy. Kong delivers the final blow to MechaG and pulled the mecha spine out of its body. Then he fell to the ground, exhausted from the battle.

Madison reunites with his dad. Dr. Nathan, Illene and Jia are about to take a rest for a while, but suddenly Godzilla roaring again and stands up. Kong stands up in super exhausted condition, he roars back while Godzilla keep getting close. Until Godzilla stands still, Kong looks at his axe and then he drops it. Godzilla roars one more time and swims back to the sea.

The movie ends with Kong finally back home in Hollow Earth and seemingly becomes the King there. And the humans finally built a facility there.

The battle analysis, who is stronger and the winner according to the movie.

Since I’ve watched it three times, I paid more attention to the visual aspects. Monster expressions and stuff. I'll write down some points here from what I saw that might clarify some things:

Their expressions and gesture. Kong expresses his feeling like humans. He expresses fear, panic, and pain when battling with Godzilla. It's obvious and undeniable. First, when Godzilla stomps Kong in the second battle, Kong's expression truly breaks my heart. You'll get to think like "Okay Godzilla, enough." or at least I did. Second, right after the battle with MechaG finished, Godzilla is standing up and roaring, and Kong immediately getting ready. But you can tell when he’s holding the axe, he's in fear since he's very exhausted. You'll get sympathetic with Kong, you just can't help that. Godzilla on the other hand only expresses angry, angry, and angry expressions. And angry again. The only time we see him in fear is only when he was saved by Kong from MechaG who is about to kill him with Kiss of Death. He also in pain when MechaG hits him with the red beam. Oh, he also grins when his atomic breath hits Kong. Please pay attention to their expressions, it does say a lot!

The battle damages. While Godzilla does split some blood when he got hits by Kong, the fact that the atomic axe epic blow did almost nothing serious to Godzilla really surprised me. Godzilla did knocked out by the blow, just to rise up again in the next minute. You just can't see serious battle damage on Godzilla despite his legs got stabbed by the axe, or after getting that epic atomic axe blow. Nothing to be seen, nothing. We even a close up shot of Godzilla’s face after that, like literally no damage to be seen. And I say that those two are the most critical hits given by Kong that pisses off Godzilla. However, you can tell that Godzilla is in big trouble once he fights the OP MechaG. Compare how impactful that fully charged atomic axe final blow to MechaG’s red beam damage. Atomic axe explodes EXACTLY in Godzilla’s face and you can’t see any damage in his face when we have a close up shot of his face later on. While MechaG’s red beam hits Godzilla on his chest and the damage looks obvious, even Godzilla expresses pain. Yes, did I mention that expressions will say a lot before? Kong, on the other hand, has obvious battle damages from Godzilla's fight and even more so when fighting with MechaG.

Kong really gives a good fight. Kong lands many hits to Godzilla but you won’t find one that can throw the lizard away. In the other hand, Godzilla sent Kong flying more than one time. Kong uses a circle rooftop of a building as his shield like a buckler to defend himself from atomic breath, that was awesome movie shot indeed! Godzilla undeniably stronger but I gotta give props for all Kong’s agility and cool maneuvers! I mean, he has those human-like heroic moves!

In terms of intelligence and thinking. I believe Godzilla also analyzes his fight with Kong, while this is just my opinion. Godzilla learned that Kong’s axe can absorb his atomic breath. That is probably why he goes to feral mode and not using his atomic breath but instead moves so fast to play at the same pace with Kong. YET I don’t believe that Godzilla is roaring to make Kong bows to him. It’s more likely he is telling Kong that he’s not looking for him, so just stay away. And Kong’s respond is just being like a kid who will never listen to everyone (except Jia). 

Adam Wingard said there is one winner, then I clearly see what he meant. Godzilla will fight Kong in 2 matches;

A. Aircraft carrier scene where Kong almost drowns by Godzilla. Note that Kong only got sedated on the first day he was brought to the carrier. When Godzilla comes, he was in full force already but the humans just still locked him. Unbreakable chains due to sedation effect? Well, even in full stamina Kong find it hard to pull out his axe from the building right after he missed his first attack in Hong Kong.

B. Hong Kong battle where Godzilla stomps him. If you watch carefully, note that Godzilla was not intended to fight Kong. He’s about to walk away to seek for his true target, yet Kong roars at him. Godzilla only bluff with his tail slap to the ground, only to get an intimidating response from Kong. Who charges first? Kong.

Godzilla won both, but the second round will have a clearer outcome.

So the winner of the battles is definitely Godzilla. BUT... Kong’s level of expressions and the way of how the plot goes, Kong is definitely the STAR/HERO in the movie. I mean we can see Godzilla does grin (for the first time ever) after he hits Kong with his atomic breath. In the other hand, we see Kong smiles when he eats a lot of fishes during the Aircraft Carrier. From here, we can see which one is more brutal and which one is more adorable. That is why I said Kong is like a kid. I admit I am Team Godzilla all the way, but I can’t help to like Kong after watching this movie.

Yes, the movie starts with Kong and it ends with Kong.

MECHAGODZILLA

Let’s come to Mechagodzilla. Starting from his design.

He looks like a hybrid of Terminator x Godzilla. He has long arms, incredibly powerful red laser beam, missile launchers, drill-tail, and some sort of jet-pack booster on his back. He is definitely bigger than Godzilla, and the strongest of all these three. He easily split Skull-crawler into half. Like, literally OP.

Logically you can argue Godzilla is tired after his fight with Kong, but the visual indicates the opposite (look at how he still in a prime condition during daylight, I’ve watched the movie three times and I’m failing to miss any obvious battle damage after his second fight with Kong). But well, Godzilla has no chance against MechaG anyway.  It’s a fact that if not because of the humans, MechaG would kill both Kong and Godzilla. He is KO-ing Godzilla first and right after that, he is about to make a hole on Kong’s head with his drill-tail. I feel like MechaG needs more screen-time, but well, the title is Godzilla VS Kong so it’s understandable.

It’s lovely to be able to see Ghidorah (Kevin) skull in the movie by the way. MechaG cockpit was indeed Ghidorah’s skull. Good homage to the original movies. Just to remind you again that I was more into Ghidorah than Godzilla. HUMANS

Team Kong: Jia, Ilene, and Dr. Nathan. Transporting him here and there, help the Kong’s fight against Warbat and Godzilla, etc. They really support Kong to the fullest. As for Jia, SHE IS THE HUMAN STAR. Her relationship with Kong reminds me of Toothless and Hiccup. Very innocence and pure-heart. Sounds like the main protagonists? Because they are in my opinion.

Team Godzilla: Madison, Bernie, and Josh. Godzilla barely got help from humans. Ouch. Madison and her friends are not helping Godzilla in a meaningful way like humans did to Kong. Instead, they are just investigating what is actually going on and have faith that Godzilla is not the bad guy. Team Mechagodzilla: Ren, Walter and Maia. This is not official, I just made it up since they are the APEX guy. They are the one who responsible for Godzilla’s rampage. Walter is the owner of APEX and Maia is his daughter. Ren is the pilot of Mechagodzilla. The name APEX seems to represent that human is actually the ‘apex species’.

But here’s the thing, Josh and Bernie (Team Godzilla) who were actually saved Kong from MechaG. When MechaG is about to drill Kong’s head, they are the one who throws alcohol into MechaG consoles, making the MechaG goes malfunctions. During that scene, Godzilla is already knocked out.

I have to disagree when people said the humans had nothing to do with the plot. No, they played big role for the monsters. They helped Kong a lot, and they help us to understand Kong’s character development. They also build MechaG, so technically they help us to to Godzilla went rampage. They are the actual trouble. hahaha HOMAGE ELEMENTS

1. In TOHO movie Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II; MechaG was built based on the corpse of MechaGhidorah. Here MechaG is piloted through Ghidorah skull.

2. Eat your vegetables. Kong made Godzilla eat his Axe handle.

BATTLE RESULT:

1. Aircraft Carrier: Godzilla leaves while Kong is lying weak on the aircraft carrier.

2. Hong Kong: Godzilla leaves while Kong is dying.

3. MechaG: Godzilla & Kong had to team up. But Godzilla is the underdog here. Kong does the final blow to MechaG, thanks to Josh and Godzilla.

4. Post MechaG: Kong drops his axe and stays silent. He’s not even punching his chest. Godzilla took the final roar and leaves. Kong then happily jumping around in Hollow Earth, there he does punching his chest. Godzilla won against Kong on their 1v1 rounds, but Kong is undeniably the main-star and the hero. He won people’s heart, including me as Team Godzilla. I’m happy that he finally got his home and kingdom to rule in Hollow Earth.

THINGS THAT IS NOT MY CUP OF TEA

It’s too personal, but the act where Kong explores Hollow Earth is not really my cup of tea. It still works fine for me, but once the Warbat fight scene is over, I think it became the low point of the story. Probably because the pace is really fast before and suddenly it goes really slow. That is the only flaw for me personally. Other than that, I’m good!

PLOT-QUESTIONS

There are few plot questions that hopefully have the answers if the Monsterverse continues:

1. When Kong and his team enter Hollow Earth, they are going through some sort of wormhole. But when Godzilla shot his Atomic Breath from the Earth’s surface straight into Hollow Earth, does it cut through the wormhole? Because if it does, then Godzilla’s Atomic Breath is insane.

2. What happened to the previous titans that were stated ‘defeated’ at the opening of the movie? 3. Kong’s Axe origins and that glowing Godzilla symbol that circles in Hollow Earth?

And for the final question, I got it from my friend but I find it pretty interesting;

4. The humans explain alpha titans here and there. Well, that is according to humans. BUT who is the true alpha according to the titans themselves?

The Plot

Monarch managed to create a device named ORCA. It's a device that could emit frequency to communicate to the Titans (kaiju term on this movie). After successfully using it to calm down larva Mothra, the device is stolen by a group of eco-terrorist to wake Ghidorah in Antarctica. Monarch sees Godzilla threatened by something and they decide to follow him. They fly with their mothership named Argo to Antarctica. The eco-terrorist with the help of Dr. Emma Russel wakes Ghidorah up. Godzilla approach Ghidorah and they engage in a fight. After knocking Godzilla down. Godzilla wakes up but Ghidorah manages to fly away.

The Monarch then flies to Isle De Mara. On their way to Mexico, Emma explains to Monarch that this is the only way to restore the balance of planet Earth. Then she awakens Rodan who is slumbering in a volcano. Rodan's roar turns to call both Godzilla & Ghidorah. The Monarch then successfully lured Rodan to follow them. They bring Rodan to Ghidorah who flies in the middle of a thunderstorm. Ghidorah knocked Rodan out. Ghidorah turns to Monarch, but Godzilla ambushes him. They both fight underwater and Godzilla is taking advantage, he even decapitated one of Ghidorah's head. Unfortunately, the US Navy is launching a new prototype weapon named Oxygen Destroyer. The missile hit both Godzilla and Ghidorah. Ghidorah survived the blast and flew away, while Godzilla is heavily damaged and seemingly get killed. Ghidorah regrows his head and awakens other Titans. Rodan returns to Ghidorah, submitting himself to obey Ghidorah as an Alpha.

Meanwhile, in another place, Mothra has transformed herself from a cocoon into her butterfly form. She then flies to some ocean where coincidently meets with Monarch. She tries to call for Godzilla, and Godzilla is responding, proving he's not dead. The Monarch then sends a team to help regen Godzilla, who is located undersea. Dr. Serizawa sacrifices himself by manually detonating the nuke, which revives Godzilla and increases his power.

In Boston, Madison is stealing the Orca and broadcasts the device in Fenway Park. The frequency managed to calm down the Titans rampage. Ghidorah comes to Boston to destroy the Orca. Right before he wants to blast Madison, Godzilla fires his atomic breath, throwing Ghidorah and saves Madison.

Godzilla then engaged in the third battle with Ghidorah. In the middle of battle, Mothra arrives to help Godzilla, but she is intercepted by Rodan. Rodan was then stabbed critically by Mothra. The bird is seemingly dead, but the butterfly is heavily damaged, leaving her to stand weak to help Godzilla. Ghidorah overpowers Godzilla, and Mothra sacrifices herself to shield Godzilla from Ghidorah. The destroyed butterfly turns into ashes and rains down to Godzilla, transferring her energy to help Godzilla. Ghidorah then tries to kill Godzilla and absorb his life-force.

Mark, Emma & Madison then lure Ghidorah away with Orca, trying to get Godzilla to heal. Emma drives away with Orca, allowing the Monarch people to escape. Ghidorah follows Emma, and Godzilla is recovered. Godzilla turns into Fire Godzilla (I believe it's Burning Godzilla), he's glowing red and melting everything around him. He blasts some sort of nuclear energy pulse to Ghidorah twice before finally he kills Ghidorah and reverting to a normal state. After that, the Titans arrive and bow down to Godzilla, including Rodan.

Few years after, the eco-terrorist is buying a Ghidorah dead-head in Mexico.

The End

Reference to the Originals

Now based on the plot, I want to point out some that really pay homage to the originals (outside the ‘newspaper ending credit’ because it's too fast to follow).

1. Dr. Serizawa is a character from the original Godzilla 1954. He founded Oxygen Destroyer and sacrificed himself to killed Godzilla with that weapon. He killed Godzilla underseas, wearing a very similar deep-diving suit. Now In this movie, he's the one who believes in Godzilla. He also the one who sacrifices himself to resurrect Godzilla.

2. Ghidorah is a space dragon, true to the original Showa. His most powerful attack that when he eats powerplant, is referring to Grand King Ghidorah from Rebirth of Mothra 3 (1998). He blasts the gravity beam through his mouth and wings. In the original Showa era movies, Godzilla alone can't defeat Ghidorah. It's also presented here. Also when he tried to kill and absorb Godzilla's energy is referring to Kaizer Ghidorah from Godzilla Final Wars (2004).

3. Dr. Illen & Dr. Ling is referring to the original twin-fairies, who have faith in Mothra (1961) and other movies.

4. Godzilla's fire form (or Burning form) is directly taken from Godzilla VS Destoroyah (1995). His pulse blast attack also appears in Godzilla VS King Ghidorah (1991).

5. Mothra's death often occurs in the original movies.

6. The discovery of one of Ghidorah's head is referring to Godzilla VS King Ghidorah (1991). Instead of only one head, the originals had his full body except for the missing middle head.

7. The music theme for Godzilla & Mothra is faithful to the original.

The Cut Flaws

The perfect movie doesn't exist. No matter how good it was, it has flaws. Through 5 times of watching it, here I try to identify where the flaw occurs in the movie in terms of the cuts.

1. The first one is Oxygen Destroyer's blast impact seems not that powerful. I do think it could cause collateral damage to anything around it.

2. The scene when Godzilla is dropped from the sky by Ghidorah. Madison and friends are opening her mouth in awe, while the dust is blowing through them. They should close their mouth when it happens, or at least cough afterward.

3. Godzilla's final energy blast that killed Ghidorah. It looks immensely powerful, so the impact on everything near him should be more devastating than that.

4. I don't think any person is brave enough to face Ghidorah as Emma and Madison did. Emma is chased by a dragon that is bigger than a building, and so with Madison. I think everyone would be passed out in such situation.

5. Ghidorah's gravity beam that attacked Madison in Fenway Park radio tower is weaker than it is supposed to be. That gravity beam should immediately blow the building.

6. Mark is looking at Mothra who flies outside the Navy boat, suddenly he already inside the boat.

7. It's not a flaw but we don't have the cut of Madison's very first trailer "Hello? Is anybody there?".

8. Some people bring up the problem with the logic of how Godzilla can stand in the water when he roars after get resurrected. If only they know Godzilla's other greatly absurd skills, that wouldn't be a problem. :D

The Storytelling

The original Godzilla 1954 movie is dark and depressing. But the rest of the movies take Godzilla in many different directions, and the most well-known of them is the monster's brawl. It has become the tradition of Godzilla movies, while not always. It's known among fans that if you're watching Godzilla movies, it's the monster's brawl that you're looking for. Most of the stories are absurd and not like that blockbuster-Hollywood-style. Most of them but not all.

Godzilla 2014 marks the debut of the first Hollywood movie that stays true to the original Godzilla. The movie is directed by Garreth Edwards. His way of directing the movie is slow-build, revealing the monsters to the audience bit by a bit. It's more like watching a human perspective on Godzilla. I think this way of storytelling works very well for me, although I also agree that there's not enough Godzilla in Godzilla movie even at its climax scenes. However, Gareth's style has made it introduce Godzilla as a very big monster.

Now Godzilla King of the Monsters is directed by Michael Dougherty. Mike is a true fan of Godzilla, I can assure you. He throws more monster scenes in the movie. WITHOUT forgetting to pay respect to Garreth's style of directing since he did it first. I've watched the movie 5 times, and I think he's balancing Garreth's style into what the fans wanted. The fans wanted more monster scenes. I think he did a good job of doing a balance of respecting Garreth's style and fans' demands. For me, you get a good amount of monster scenes still with the human perspective.

I'll make a comparison to MCU Avengers for now, since it's a very popular franchise. Now in some context, Godzilla King of the Monsters felt like Avengers, they have many BIG characters in one movie. However, MCU has the chance of introducing each one of the heroes through each own movie. And it's made in Hollywood (which has a greater chance to be known worldwide).  In terms of Hollywood-made, Godzilla, unfortunately, doesn't have this chance although he spanned 32 movies already from TOHO. Add that to many of his absurd movies, making it even harder to access the general audience. He managed to be made in Hollywood in 1998, but it's not the true Godzilla that the fans hoped for. You don’t get enough introduction to each monster in Hollywood. For the general audience who have less knowledge of Godzilla, this could present a problem.

As for the story writing and plot, I don't find any problem with enjoying this movie despite any cut flaws. If you compared it to other original Godzilla movies, the story of this movie is made more sense and acceptable. Even I saw kids love it and it’s nice! Sure as a fan it would be cool to see if Godzilla does his silly things like dancing or flying kick, but I'm not sure the general audience would approve.

Where to Watch

So here in Indonesia, I watched the movie in 5 different cinemas. 3 standard cinemas, 1 IMAX, and 1 Dolby Atmos Cinema. If you want a superb quality for the image, go for IMAX. But if you want to really feel the roars and explosions, then go for Dolby Atmos. 

I personally found Dolby Atmos is the best experience for watching the movie.

Personal Conclusion

My very first introduction to Godzilla is from his toys and I love him ever since. Then my first experience of his movie is The Invasion of Astro Monster, also the first time I learned his absurdity and silliness. But that doesn’t stop me from being a fan, instead, I dig deeper into his lore and find it fascinating and entertaining. I was a huge monster fan after all.

So in my opinion, Godzilla King of the Monsters is the best Godzilla movie produced in Hollywood ever. It's the movie that I've wanted to watch for so long. It's indeed the ONLY movie that truly I hyped for this year. The music score is amazing, the VFX is amazing. Seriously, the music alone is outstanding. Go check them out on Watertower Music channel on Youtube.

 As a true fan of Godzilla, I'll rate this movie 15/10. But if I put myself as a casual viewer and as objective as I could it would be 8/10. Great Sci-Fi Fantasy movie.

Thank you, Michael Dougherty, Legendary & Warner Bros for making such great movie. I really love it.

Gotta admit that Godzilla movies aren’t that accessible for everyone. It’s not like the average movie you want to watch. There are movies with a very serious tone like the original Godzilla (1954 - Showa), Return of Godzilla (1985 - Heisei), then Shin Godzilla (2016 - Millenium or probably Modern Reboot). These 3 are probably the best movies that focus on Godzilla as a disaster with a good movie plot, with the original 1954 as the best.

Now for the review of the movie, Legendary’s version of Godzilla King of the Monsters. This movie is a blast. I’m serious when saying it. Sure, there are flaws here and there, but it just a great movie.

First, let’s start with the monsters. They’re not called kaiju or monster here in the movie. They’re animals, they are so enormous and categorized as Titan. And they do have animalistic behavior (intimidation display, obedience reaction to alpha) just like, well, animals. This aspect of the movie bring it closer to reality and as an adult, I happened to like it a lot. Like, I knew that Godzilla movies can throw ridiculous non-sense stuff to you (he flew, he danced, he talked) and I’m ready for it. But this animalistic concept just makes me happy.

Godzilla is very well depicted. The facial expression is so good. Michael Dougherty really takes the torch from Garreth Edward’s Godzilla design and makes it to the next level while staying faithful to the original. He’s bulky but in a very good way. And when he becomes Burning Godzilla, it just mind-blowing. Burning Godzilla has a super heat-radiation that can melt-down anything that closes enough to him and that was jaw-dropping. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but when Dr. Serizawa touches him that close with affection, Godzilla was just as adorable as a pet. He was the best Godzilla depiction from a Hollywood movie.

King Ghidorah is absolutely, absolutely terrifying. Personally, he was the actual reason why I love this movie. His design is one of the best among other Gidorah designs. His face is really terrifying. He was a three-headed dragon and each of the heads greatly displays a different personality. Sometimes they’re interacting with one & another and I LOVE IT! Every time he flies, he generates hurricanes and storms to surround him and people mistook it as bad weather. Truly a good representation of the “Living Extinction Event”.

Now as a big DRAGON-FAN; I’ve never felt this satisfied to watch a dragon in a movie. Sure there is ‘How To Train Your Dragon trilogy, but it’s for kid or family. And the dragons aren’t even scary. I even tried to catch up with Game of Thrones all 8 seasons, just for the sake to watch dragons in a movie. I used to think that Drogon was the best depiction of a dragon in this modern-cinema era. But Ghidorah is really, totally, absolutely a dragon depiction that I wanted to see in a movie. You can tell that I’m more into Ghidorah than Godzilla when you’re reading this, and that’s true. Oh, for a true dragon fan, Ghidorah should be considered as Wyvern with 3 heads.

Mothra is stunningly beautiful. To be honest, I never into Mothra before. I watched Godzilla movies and saw her dies so many times. Yet she doesn’t really get me. There are many other versions of Mothra on her solo movies from Toho and none of them really catch me. But in this movie, she was stunningly beautiful. I personally think this is the best Mothra design ever. Her expression in both Larva & Butterfly forms in this movie is also very good.

Rodan is also very cool. He was a giant pterosaur-like with lava-like blood flows through his vein. He was depicted as in my opinion, a wild animal that only obeys the strongest alpha. His signing in the moment is really faithful to the original. Just like Mothra, it’s the best design of the monster ever.

Now for the monster brawl. It’s just sooo good! When I was a kid, I smashed dinosaur & monster toys. And this kind of monster brawl is what I wanted to see as an adult. And they delivered it, in my eyes, perfect. I particularly get goosebumps to the scene where the humans are leading Rodan to meet Ghidorah. And Ghidorah’s intimidation display to Godzilla when they first met in Antarctica. This is definitely ‘the meat’ of the movie. This is why you actually want to see Godzilla movies, for the monster action.

And for the plot and human narrative, this is probably the weak point for casual viewers. The plot is pretty basic, someone wants to set free the titans to restore the balance of the planet and goes horribly wrong. You don’t get exposed to any deep character development here. The human narrative is generic. BUT if you have watched all previous absurdity and silliness of TOHO Godzilla movies, the story in this movie is much more acceptable. After all, it’s true that the monsters are the selling points and they keep this into a tradition.