Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a 2019 American monster film directed and co-written by Michael Dougherty. It is the third film in Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise, following Godzilla (2014), and the 35th film in the Godzilla franchise. Dougherty wrote the script with Zach Shields and Max Borenstein. The film runs 132 minutes and carries one tagline: “Long live the king.”
It is a sequel that spends most of its runtime trying to outgrow its predecessor, and it mostly does.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
The Orca and the Russell Family
The plot turns on a device called the Orca, which emits bioacoustic frequencies to attract Titans or alter their behavior. Dr. Emma Russell is a paleobiologist working for Monarch, the Titan-studying organization. Her daughter Madison watches the birth of a giant larva named Mothra, and Emma calms it with the Orca.
Eco-terrorists led by former British Army Colonel Alan Jonah attack the base and abduct Emma and Madison. Monarch scientists Dr. Ishirō Serizawa and Vivienne Graham bring back Dr. Mark Russell, Emma’s ex-husband, to track them down. Mark blames Godzilla for the death of his son Andrew in San Francisco, and he does not want the job.
Kyle Chandler plays Mark. Vera Farmiga plays Emma. Millie Bobby Brown plays Madison. Ken Watanabe returns as Serizawa, and Zhang Ziyi plays Dr. Ilene Chen and Dr. Ling.
Titans Rise in Antarctica and Mexico
The Monarch team follows Godzilla to Antarctica, where Jonah plans to free a three-headed Titan codenamed “Monster Zero.” Emma frees the creature. It kills Graham and other Monarch personnel, fights Godzilla, and flies off.
Emma then contacts Monarch from a bunker. She argues that all the Titans must be awakened to heal Earth from human environmental damage. She points to Monarch research showing Titans can terraform and replenish ecosystems using their radiation. Madison begs her to reconsider. Emma awakens Rodan in Mexico anyway.
Monster Zero defeats Rodan and goes after the Monarch team. Godzilla ambushes him and severs his left head. The U.S. military fires a prototype weapon called the “Oxygen Destroyer,” which appears to kill Godzilla but does not affect Monster Zero.
A Cast Built for Scale
The film stacks recognizable actors into supporting roles. The result is a deep bench that the script rarely gives enough to do.
- Bradley Whitford plays Dr. Rick Stanton
- Sally Hawkins plays Dr. Vivienne Graham
- Charles Dance plays Alan Jonah
- Thomas Middleditch plays Sam Coleman
- Aisha Hinds plays Colonel Diane Foster
- O’Shea Jackson Jr. plays Chief Warrant Officer Barnes
- David Strathairn plays Admiral William Stenz
Two Monsters, Two Jobs
The film’s two central Titans are not built the same way, and the difference matters more than any single fight scene.
| Titan | Role in the story | What the film does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Godzilla | Returns as the counterweight to Monster Zero | Ambushes Monster Zero and severs his left head |
| Monster Zero | The three-headed Titan Jonah frees in Antarctica | Kills Graham, fights Godzilla, defeats Rodan |
The Human Argument
Farmiga has said Emma views Godzilla the way one views Mother Nature. Her line is that when devastating natural occurrences come, it is because the environment has been mistreated and is showing righteous anger. Farmiga also described Emma as a “DJ for the monsters,” and said the character figured out a way to communicate with them.
That is the film’s real idea. Emma is not wrong that the planet is in trouble, and the film knows it.
Production and Dedication
The sequel was greenlit during the opening weekend of Godzilla (2014), with Gareth Edwards expected to return for a trilogy. Edwards left the project in May 2016. Dougherty and Shields were hired to rewrite the script in October 2016, and Dougherty was announced as director in January 2017.
Principal photography began in June 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, and wrapped that September. The film is dedicated to executive producer Yoshimitsu Banno and original Godzilla suit performer Haruo Nakajima, both of whom died in 2017.
Where the Film Lands
Godzilla: King of the Monsters was released theatrically on May 31, 2019, to mixed reviews. The praise went to the visual effects, the action sequences, the cinematography and the musical score.
The criticism is fair, and it is not about craft. It is about the human material. The Russell family story is the engine, and it stalls whenever the monsters leave the frame.
The Titans are the point. Dougherty stages them at a scale the 2014 film kept hiding, and the Antarctica sequence and the Mexico sequence both deliver. Monster Zero is a genuine escalation, and severing his left head gives Godzilla a win the film earns.
The Oxygen Destroyer is the sharpest idea in the script. The military fires it at Godzilla, it appears to work, and it does nothing to Monster Zero. That is a clean, cruel joke about human confidence, and the film does not undercut it.
What does not work is Emma. Farmiga plays her with conviction, and the argument she makes about healing the planet is the most interesting thing in the movie. But the film never decides whether she is a villain or a prophet, so she ends up neither. Madison’s pleas land harder than anything her mother says.
The supporting cast is a waste. Hawkins, Whitford, Dance and Strathairn are all capable of more than the film asks, and Graham’s death registers only because the film needs a body.
This is a better movie than its reputation suggests, and a thinner one than its cast promises. It is worth watching for the Titans and the Oxygen Destroyer, not for the Russells.
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