Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Director: Michael Dougherty
Stars: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown
Runtime: 131 minutes

Synopsis: The crypto-zoological agency Monarch faces off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah.

Performances: 3/5
Screenplay: 2/5
Special Effects: 4/5
Costumes/Makeup: 3/5
Editing: 2/5
Cinematography: 4/5
Score/Soundtrack: 3/5
Entertainment Factor: 2/5

Verdict: The trailers promised us a poetic epic. We got none of that.

The sequel to 2014's "Godzilla" and newest entry in the now established MonsterVerse was in a lot of people's most anticipated movies of the year list despite the universe's mixed reception up to this point. The main criticism people, including me, had about the first "Godzilla" as well as "Kong" was the fact that the human characters, which the films throw their main focus on, are rather two-dimensional and uninteresting. "King of the Monsters", unfortunately, suffers from the exact same issue.

The film is definitely at its best when it is centered around the Titans. It's epic, beautiful to look at, and it will make any fan of H.P. Lovecraft's work smile. But sadly, that's just a small part of a 2 hour movie centered on the humans trying to deal with these monsters. And boy did they lack dimension. Everything that involved any of them was incredibly dull and poorly written. The dialogue between them was not in the least engaging and a lot of the decisions made by them are either cheesy or nonsensical.

"Godzilla 2" was most certainly a let down despite a few cool moments, and suffers mainly from the same issues as its predecessors. It's yet another entry in a frustrating franchise that holds huge potential but that is ultimately ruined by the lack of cool Titans and focus on boring human characters. Ken Watanabe's character says it best in the first film: "Let them fight".

FINAL GRADE: 4/10