The Haters are Wrong on ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’

“GoDziLLa: KiNg oF tHe MoNsTeRs iS BaD bEcAuSe ThE hUmAnS aRe BaD” Shut up. The Godzilla sequel needed to deliver on one front and one front only: Does Godzilla fight other big monsters? Yes. And is it epic? Yes, yes it is.

Big monsters, known as titans, are being released to destroy the world and there is only one hope left for humanity to stop them, and his name is Godzilla.

I believe the disparity on Rotten Tomatoes (as of writing this) between the critic score, 40%, and the audience score, 83%, speaks volumes with what to expect going into this film. The monsters look great, the fights between them are awesome, and the film itself has several epic moments; for serious Kaiju fans, there is plenty of fan service and Easter eggs to digest. King Ghidorah, Zilla’s rival, is a total menace. Some films are destined to be great, some are meant only to entertain, and Godzilla: KOTM does exactly that: entertain.

Subpar writing is never excusable, sure, and the film is loaded with forgettable characters and cheesy one-liners (Millie Bobby Brown’s entire vocabulary for the film is the word s***), but none of that takes away from the complete visual spectacle Godzilla is. Kong: Skull Island suffered from the same faults that are being attributed to this film and the critics were much more generous then, so what gives? I am not saying this is a perfect film, but it isn’t bad either. The more important criticism of the film is it does suffer from some slower pacing at times, and it does take a little bit before it reaches the epic fights I mentioned. Honestly though, the complaints regarding the human characters and story are overblown, they’re at least tolerable and the plot does find ways to surprise.

King of the Monsters is tentpole Hollywood at its finest and I am looking forward to seeing Godzilla and King Kong square off next year.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is streaming now on HBO Max

Author: Teddy Frederick

Movies have been my passion since I was a young teenager. I had realized how much I loved going to the theater and watching something on the big screen, and I wanted to feel that sensation as often as possible. I began seeing as many movies as my schedule and wallet could allow, and in wanting to give back to the film community and myself, I wrote film reviews. I first posted them under the audience reviews of Rotten Tomatoes; if I ever go back to those posts now I cringe at the writer I used to be. In 2018, I had the idea to start my own space to post my content and thus Movie Reviews Today was born. I am a film and media studies student at Arizona St. University. I am also a three-year shift supervisor with Starbucks. My hope is to soak up as many movies and movie knowledge as I can moving forward and to share my passion with my readers. View all posts by Teddy Frederick