I came out of Godzilla II feeling a lot better about it than when I went in. Are there too many humans in it? Yes, and in particular it could do without all of the family drama that feels glued on in appeal to an audience that has no business seeing a monster movie in the first place. (Vera Farmiga’s character… I don’t even know what’s going on there.) Are the monster fights smothered in darkness? Of course; we should all know by now that it hides a multitude of sins for hard-pressed CG artists. Do these things ruin the experience? Not even close to the point of exasperation. This is the direction the Legendary franchise hopefully wants to go in; not the cerebral pretensions of 2014’s seemed-good-at-the-time-but-in-hindsight-a-bit-dull Godzilla, or the cynical mean-spiritedness of Kong: Skull Island, but the popcorn crowd pleaser of the Roland Emmerich school (and I also suggest this film serves as an up-yours to said director of Godzilla ‘98).
Cross-posted from Letterboxd