Godzilla: King of the Monsters Review Round-Up

The Hollywood Reporter

"While monster nerds tally appearances by lesser-known (or maybe brand-new) Titans and cheer the battles between the main attractions — suffice to say that Queen Mothra isn't as fragile as she looks — the film gives Maddy a shot at saving the day and Mark a chance to save her while she does it. The film puts just about the right emphasis on this familial plot: If we can't have comic relief, at least viewers can occasionally rest their eyes from an onslaught of beautifully designed CGI mayhem. News footage seen during the closing credits tries to imagine a world in which calmed-down Titans become a part of everyday life before flashing on a tantalizing cave painting: It seems that even in prehistoric times, humans fantasized about who would win in a showdown between a giant ape and a giant lizard." - The Hollywood Reporter

IGN

"Right from the start, Godzilla: King of the Monsters makes it clear that it is not going to be another hide-the-monsters exercise like its predecessor, 2014's Godzilla. Whereas that movie, which rebooted the king of the monsters for modern audiences, aimed for a more contemplative if stingy approach to portraying the iconic beast, this new film gives us a huge scene -- with a huge monster! -- within its first few minutes.

The message is clear: This Godzilla movie is gonna be wall to wall with the monsters, contemplativeness be damned." - IGN

Slashfilm

"Mass extinction has never looked so gorgeous. Over a period of 132 mind-numbing minutes, Michael Dougherty's Godzilla: King of the Monsters lays waste to humanity with stunning tableaus colored in ghostly blues and faded golds, resulting in visual landscapes worthy of Aivazovsky's brush. It's a pity the world built around all that jaw-dropping monster mayhem is so damn dull. Cities are leveled, Lovecraftian monsters reign supreme, and the only thing I felt was a bad case of ennui. The ultimate kaiju smack-down shouldn't be this boring." - Slashfilm

Bloody Disgusting

"If you're looking for monster fights, you'll find monster fights aplenty in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The new film from director Michael Dougherty (Trick 'r Treat, Krampus) picks up after the events of 2014's Godzilla, in a world where giant "titans" have been popping up like acne. It's only a matter of time before Earth's mightiest protector, Godzilla, shows up to pop them all, and Dougherty doesn't make you wait for it." - Bloody Disgusting

Variety

"There are a lot of timeless movie monsters, but Godzilla, in the dozens of Japanese films that featured him, always raised a metaphysical question: Was this 165-foot-tall, beady-eyed, radiation-breathing T.-rex-meets-lizard-king, with bony sculptured plates running down his back and skin like raggedy carpet, an awesome creature to behold despite the cheesiness of the special effects that created him? Or because of the cheesiness?" - Variety

New York Post

"See, there is endless exposition here, when all we want are monster fights. While we get a few very cool monster fights, there are simply not enough monster fights. Next time, please, more monster fights.

The big, final scaly skirmish takes place in Boston, but unlike Roland Emmerich (from Broderick's "Godzilla"), director Michael Dougherty doesn't have a flair for clobbering landmarks. While we see Fenway fall, we never get to see Faneuil Hall stomped on or the Tea Party ships in Boston Harbor sent flying. Beantown is indistinguishable rubble before you know it. The whole movie is indistinguishable rubble." - New York Post

Kodak

"It's fitting that the first few minutes of Godzilla: The King of the Monsters are a flashback. The movie, which is a sequel to Legendary Pictures' 2014 Godzilla, feels like a natural evolution of the previous film. In some ways, it's a better movie—rather, a better Godzilla movie. In other ways, it's not.

Gareth Edward's Godzilla was proof that Hollywood no longer was confusing kaiju with dinosaurs à la Roland Emmerich's 1998 film. This was a movie steeped in the lore of Godzilla, and perhaps fittingly for a reboot, it appeared to be heavily influenced by Toho's 1954 original. The new Hollywood take was moody, ponderous, and for many fans, short on monster fights. Its sequel sure ain't." - Kotaku

io9

"Ever since its haunting first trailer wowed San Diego Comic-Con last year, Michael Dougherty's King of the Monsters has presented itself as an artful paean to the inherent beauty of its monsters. Everything from "Clair de Lune" to tasteful orchestral covers of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" has soundtracked footage of Godzilla and his kaiju cohorts, inviting us to consider the poetry behind the carnage unfolding. But while the film itself does indeed revel in the destruction its gigantic namesake and its monstrous rivals to the throne bring with them, it doesn't really have anything poetic to say about that calamity, beyond acknowledging that watching a giant, three-headed dragon barrel towards an atomic-breath-spewing radioactive monstrosity is completely and utterly awesome." - io9

IndieWire

"At least Godzilla seems to remember who he is — all the better to gear up for the next MonsterVerse film: 2020's "Godzilla vs. Kong" — and when the biggest monster of them all appears, he slips right back into his role as Earth's most unlikely defender. Godzilla's interest in saving humanity never made much sense, but it's this CGI creation with no dialogue that gives the film the continuity and character it lacks elsewhere. When Godzilla lights up his nuke-powered tail and lets loose his interminable scream, for just a moment, the MonsterVerse has something to offer." - IndieWire

Entertainment Weekly

"I was tempted to start this review with some long, thoughtful wind-up about how every generation gets the Godzilla movie it deserves. But why bother tip-toeing around what needs to be said and said clearly right off the bat — Godzilla: King of the Monsters is not a good movie. In fact, it's a pretty terrible one. Don't shoot the messenger, Kaiju fans." - Entertainment Weekly