It’s too bad that Godzilla: King of the Monsters features far sludgier CGI than the two previous MonsterVerse installments—2014’s Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island—because the muddy imagery fails to capture the grandeur of the movie’s ambitious lineup of classic creatures: Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. Bathed in murky blues and bleary rain, none of them register with the awesomeness they deserve, to say nothing of the title “hero,” this time defending his turf against the new titans. The human story—involving a tug of war between two divorced scientists (Vera Farmiga and Kyle Chandler) over their teen daughter (Millie Bobby Brown)—is uninvolving to say the least, though I did appreciate how the various expeditions they’re on treat Godzilla and company like specimens: analyzing acoustics, measuring vitals, tracking locations. There are moments when Godzilla: King of the Monsters resembles a fantasy version of a National Geographic documentary—except those tend to deliver far more stunning visuals without any special effects whatsoever.
(3/23/2024)
