ReviewGodzilla II: King of the Monsters film review – Millie Bobby Brown is only high point in dark, foggy monster movie
- Godzilla returns in this dreary monster thriller, plagued by terrible CGI and rotten dialogue
- Millie Bobby Brown is the only stand-out in her role as Vera Farmiga’s daughter
2/5 stars
“Long live the king,” mutters Vera Farmiga’s scientist Dr Emma Russell as she comes face-to-face with Godzilla in Michael Dougherty’s gloomy, rain-sodden and, frankly, impenetrable action-adventure.
On this evidence, it might be better if the giant lizard expired; this latest incarnation is a flop almost as gargantuan as the creatures that populate it.
Part of Legendary’s ‘MonsterVerse’ that has already brought us Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla (2014) and Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of the Monsters promises more monsters for your eyes to feast on – as long as you’ve got X-ray vision, that is. The film is so dark and foggy, it makes that Game of Thrones episode everyone complained about look like a ray of sunshine.
It’s the sort of film where the humans – military, scientists – spend the entire duration gathered around monitors, their faces lit up by LED displays. When the film opens, Farmiga’s Emma and her daughter Madison (Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown) are ensconced in China, in an outpost belonging to Monarch, the shady organisation that runs across this loose-fitting franchise.
We soon learn that Emma has reconstructed a gizmo called the Orca, developed by her husband (Kyle Chandler), which can lure these monsters from the deep with its sonar signal. Enter Charles Dance’s ex-British colonel-turned-“eco terrorist”, who marches off with mother, daughter and device; there’s a plot afoot to use these creatures to restore the natural order of the planet.