Looking Back On 2019

Happy New Year, everybody and welcome to the new decade! I hope all of you had fun over the holidays, but now it is time to move forward. However, I want to look back on 2019 one last time before we say "SAYONARA 2019!" While 2019 does not seem like a whole lot happened, there have been some major events that took place this year for Godzilla and the franchise. Events such as witnessing an end of one era and the beginning of a new era, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters came to the big screen, and the reveal of TOHO's plan of expanding the Godzilla brand to other international countries.

Ever since the first trailer at San Diego Comic Con in 2018, we all knew that 2019 was going to be a big year for Godzilla as the marketing was in full force and never ending news for Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. January really kicked off the 2019 with a big surprise of toy leaks and one of the toys having a big spoiler revealing Burning Godzilla. Also in that same month, Godzilla: The Planet Eater was released on Netflix and turned out to be just as disappointing as the previous two animated Godzilla movies that were released in 2018.

From January all the way up to May 31st, advertising for Godzilla: King Of The Monsters was just non-stop with trailer after trailer, TV spot after TV spot, and news article after news article trying to build excitement for the movie.

My thoughts as a fan it was one of the most amazing spectacles and loved every moment. Godzilla's screen time in the film was about as much as the first movie, yet it was more evenly spaced out and never felt like I was being blue-balled for most of the movie. I wanted to see Godzilla and the movie delivered on that end. However, no movie is without their flaws.

There were easter eggs in the movie that were used as a device for the movie's story only to be under utilized or not explained enough. For instance, the introduction of the weapon called the oxygen destroyer came out of nowhere. It was originally introduced in the original 1954 film as a chemical weapon that killed the first Godzilla, but with dire consequences. In Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, however, there was a lack of explanation of what this version of the weapon could do and just seemed as though it was used as just another nuke.

The story itself was kind of weak where it stepped away from the realism aspect that Godzilla (2014) and Kong: Skull Island had and became more Sci-Fi. I did see Kyle Chandler's character (Mark Russell) as sort of a "Gary Stu" (a male character that has no flaws). Mark seemed to know a lot more about Godzilla than Ken Watanabe's character (Dr. Serizawa) and Dr. Serizawa is suppose to be the character that has studied Godzilla for most of his life working with the government organization, Monarch. The comedic timing in the movie had moments that were awkward. It mostly happens when an a serious or intense scene is happening and suddenly Thomas Middleditch or Bradley Whitford would say something witty or sarcastic just to be awkward and I kind of shake my head when those parts happen.

In my review for the movie, I said that these things were not as bad as others made them out to be and at times it isn't, yet in other times it is kind of that bad as there are parts that could have been done better or made a stronger impact. My final complaint is that I wish Rodan and Mothra had more time to interact with each other or with the other monsters. Rodan was hyped up to be this threat towards Godzilla from Michael Dougherty until he is on screen. He was so ridiculously weak that I felt bad for the monster not getting to show off how tough he really is. He is just getting his butt kicked left and right by Mothra and King Ghidorah. As for Mothra, she could have done a lot more in the final battle. At that moment when she sacrifices herself, she could have put the smack down on Ghidorah or at least used her stinger a few times before she died.

Overall, I enjoyed the Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. It was an improvement over Godzilla (2014), but there is a lot of room that could have been improved. It's definitely a movie I get a lot of entertainment from and I definitely put this up there in my top 5 favorite Godzilla movies.