Raised by separated parents with messed up family dynamics; Brown has no scope to show her true talents. Her character is awfully underwritten, making it way too similar to the famous Eleven she plays in Stranger Things.
To say that this movie was devoid of logic would be an understatement. The head scientist of Monarch, Emma, believes that the solution to war, over-population, poverty and global warming is to unleash these monsters on to the world to restore its natural balance. Emma claims that human beings are the infection and the planet must be handed over to its rightful rulers – aka genetically modified super-species created in secret science laboratories all over the world. Her motivations for her actions defy science and common sense both. If you ask me, the money spent on making this movie might better have been donated to solve these global problems instead. That would make far more sense than Emma’s arguments. However Emma does see the light of logic rather conveniently when her daughter Maddie, played by Millie Bobbie Brown, tearfully exclaims, “You’re a monster!”
The foreign/alien invader king, Kethora, looked all too inspired by Daenerys’s three dragons from Game of thrones. Combine them into one and you have the antagonist of Godzilla. It’s all a little too unoriginal, in short. They claimed that King Kethora was dangerous because he was foreign but how was he foreign when he was released in an overly dramatic scene right in front of us? How would you know the genetic coding of an alien super-species when you created it much like you created Godzilla? You sit there waiting for the plot to tie up but mostly to no avail.
It’s unfair to expect that the technical team could uplift the entire movie from CGI animation when little to no work was done on-ground to evolve the plot
The ending sequence of the movie deserves a fanbase of its own. A nuclear weapon is launched to revive Godzilla from his under water retreat, meanwhile discovering ancient carvings, mummies and remnants of Roman Empire, proving that all the legends and stories were true all along. One scientist thoughtfully states that symbiotic relationships between different species are not uncommon. Hence Godzilla was brought back to Earth not only to kill the foreign invader Kethora, but also to make his girlfriend, a hybrid butterfly-bee super species Mothra happy – so she won’t avenge his death. How romantic! In order to calm down the newly awoken Godzilla, the protagonist Kyle establishes a deep soulful eye contact with Godzilla and I kid you not, it works. He immediately moves on to respond to his awakening call and kill Kethora, who is meanwhile busy trying to make unsuccessful attempts to kill Maddie. And Maddie’s smile when she sees Godzilla come to her rescue seems awkwardly cheeky – but the subsequent series of events proves that it was in fact a lighter start.
Truth be told, we have seen enough sci-fi movies to separate the good ones from bad ones.
The background score could have very well been taken from an old Indie movie. The special effects designed to keep you on the edge of your seat make you want to keep on checking the time instead, due to their sheer stupidity. There is the loud thumping of Godzilla moving around, buildings falling like pieces of a child’s block set, fire breakouts occasionally replaced heavy rainfall, characters jumping around seamlessly from one part of the world to another but always arriving on time to save their own family members. It’s unfair to expect that the technical team could uplift the entire movie from CGI animation when little to no work was done on-ground to evolve the plot.
There is a solid fan base for this genre of cinema but to feed them such mindless fodder would be to test their loyalty.