[HorrorScience] Godzilla King of the Monsters (2019)

Recently, Legendary Pictures released the sequel to godzilla (2014), call Godzilla King of the Monsters (Godzilla King of the Monsters). A somewhat unfortunate title, since it can be confused with the American version of the first film of godzilla (which in the United States was called Godzilla King of the Monsters) or with the second Godzilla movie, which in Spain was called Godzilla Strikes Back – King of the Monsters.

The conservative attitude with the title is maintained in the "casting" of monsters in the film, since for this sequel the return of the most popular monsters from the classic Japanese series was announced: The dragon King Ghidorah, the giant moth Mothra and the monstrous Pterodactyl Rodan.

Normally this decision would be a bit unfortunate for me, since these characters appear in many Godzilla films and I would have preferred the return of any less prolific monster (like my beloved Hedorah or the incredible Biollante). However, since it is an American film and its plot is developed with a very different tone than most Japanese films, the fact that the classic monsters would return generated great expectations in me.

After the events of the previous film, MONARCH (the group of experts in charge of keeping the monsters they have found hidden and inactive) are going through very difficult times, as the government pressures them to place their organization under the command of the military to kill the monsters, something to which the experts oppose, since they consider that the monsters are a key element in maintaining balance on the planet.

One of its experts, Dr. Emma Russell, has managed to create a device called ORCA, which allows her to communicate in a basic way with the monsters, which allows her to have some control over them, supposedly to avoid greater evils.

While Emma tests her invention on Mothra's larva, some mercenaries enter the laboratory and kill everyone present, except Emma and her daughter, who apparently become hostages of what appears to be an eco-terrorist organization.

The rest of MONARCH knows that with the ORCA in the wrong hands the world could be plunged into chaos, since the device also allows the awakening of latent monsters, which according to the organization's investigations, number almost twenty.

Those bad predictions soon come true, since the first monster awakened is the largest predator, a three-headed dragon known as Monster Zero, which is in a state of hibernation in a glacier in Antarctica.

With the awakening of the dragon (whose official name is King Ghidorah), the rest of the monsters are activated naturally, since it seems that this monster has the ability to influence the rest, subjecting them to its will, because it is a super-predator whose origin does not seem to be Earth. The planet's apex predator (Godzilla) sees Ghidorah's awakening as a natural provocation and it seems inevitable that both monsters will fight for control of the planet. Civilization will witness the awakening of the monsters and its cities will suffer the consequences.

It must be admitted that Legendary has taken its “monsterverse” very calmly, the first film was godzilla (2014), the second  Kong Skull Island (2017) and now comes the third (and penultimate, at least for now) part Godzilla King of the Monsters.

5 years to make two Godzilla films is something unthinkable for the Toho company (which used to release one film a year) and it is also a long time if we compare it to the usual pace of the most famous sagas, which seem to want to release as many films as possible in the minimum amount of time. However, for me, it is a perfectly acceptable pace and prevents me from becoming bogged down with the same thing.

The main doubt I had about this film was whether they would have learned from the mistakes of godzilla (2014), which turned out to be a serious film, with a promising beginning, an impressive ending and a boring, tedious middle part that encouraged people to stop watching the film due to the lack of interest aroused by its human protagonist and how short the monster parts were. Fortunately, I can say that they took note and improved that aspect significantly.

The beginning of the film is marked by human drama (once again) and makes you fear the worst, in fact that is the slowest part of the film, but it is also true that little by little the situation of MONARCH is being shown, the tension between the governments and it and the effectiveness of the “communicator with monsters” called ORCA.

The human parts have never been my weakness, and honestly, I think they could have easily eliminated between 15 and 30 minutes of them, without the film suffering (avoiding, in the process, that it lasted the two hours that it lasts) but it must be admitted that, as far as possible, the human minutes are much more entertaining once the film has advanced, since we see the opposing sides and the consequences of playing "talk to the monsters." It is to be applauded that humans are planning and acting to try to avoid the misfortunes caused by monsters, which makes even the most passive character from the previous film (Professor Serizawa) somewhat more active and important in this sequel (where, by the way, they do not miss the opportunity to make their “Let them fight” joke).

Some characters are even interesting or funny at times and that is much more than could be said for its prequel (except for the exceptional Brian Cranston). What does persist is the habit of making the protagonists live through dozens of extreme situations, coming out, for the most part, well despite how impossible it may seem, but that is something to which one is already accustomed (doesn't that happen to practically all the protagonists of all the films?).

In the previous film, the best monster scenes were reserved for the end and a large part of the audience harshly criticized it, because if they had been distributed better, they could have prevented the central part of the film from being so boring and bland. Well, here the monster parts alternate with the human parts, in fact you could say that the monster parts start timidly, but then they totally steal the film, because before the final battle we will have already seen incredible confrontations that surpass what was seen in the final battle of the previous one.

On this occasion, Legendary Pictures has dared to treat the theme of monsters with the seriousness of the previous film, but without losing the crazy tone of films like Destroy All Monsters (1968) and by that I mean that they have not hesitated when it comes to multiplying the number of monsters in the film even though that might seem ridiculous or unnecessary, although it is worth clarifying that when push comes to shove, there are only 4 main ones.

I would also like to applaud the enormous number of nods to old movies of Godzilla in this one are subtle things that a fan will recognize, but that the new viewer won't even notice. It feels like twenty Godzilla movies were watched when writing the script and honestly, I think the result is very satisfactory.

The soundtrack will also please fans of the classic stage, as not only is a new (and very epic) version of the classic Godzilla theme released, but the classic Mothra theme is also slightly touched upon, and the Godzilla theme by the group Blue Oister Cult is even included, which if I remember correctly was also played in the first American Godzilla that came to the cinema (godzilla 1998).

So this film not only corrects the bad things of the previous one, but even surpasses the good ones. Furthermore, the spectacle offered by the monster fights makes us This movie is one of the best monster movies ever made. y eso algo muy difícil teniendo en cuenta que supera la treintena. Godzilla King of the Monsters es una película americana en planteamiento, pero con muchísimas ganas de mostrar lo que hizo grande a esta franquicia en las películas japonesas.

No será perfecta, pero sinceramente, es de lo mejor que he visto en películas de monstruos gigantes, desde hace mucho tiempo.

También hay que tener en cuenta una cosa, Godzilla King of the Monsters es un tipo de película totalmente diferente a lo que vimos en Shin Godzilla (2016), de la misma manera que Godzilla Vs Monster Zero either Destroy All Monsters son películas totalmente diferentes a la película original de Godzilla de 1954. Por eso creo que esta película puede llegar a dividir al público dependiendo de lo que busque, de la misma manera que sucedió con Shin Godzilla.

En mi opinión, Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Rey de los Monstruos estarían en un TOP 5 de películas del personaje, lo cual significa que esta última década ha sido la mejor en toda la historia del personaje, algo totalmente impensable hace 20 años.

Ahora solo queda esperar que Godzilla VS Kong (que teóricamente se estrenará en 2020) cierre el circulo con un broche de oro, ya que a partir de ahí, las siguientes películas dependerían de las negociaciones que haya entre Legendary y Toho (la empresa japonesa que creó al monstruo).

Algunas curiosidades (intentaré no poner nada que afecte a la trama spoiler):

• Rodan aparece en un volcán, justo tal y como sucede en su película original Los hijos del Volcán (1956).
• El Destructor de Oxigeno es el arma que mató a Godzilla en la película de 1954, aunque en esa ocasión fue creada por el profesor Serizawa, no por los militares.
• El director se planteó que Serizawa llevase un parche con motivo de algún accidente, para parecerse más a la versión de 1954, pero se desestimó la idea al pensar que parecería una parodia de Nick Furia.
• Las ruinas que hay bajo el mar han despertado todo tipo de especulaciones y posibles homenajes. Hay quien dice que homenajean a los Seatopianos (de Godzilla vs Megalon) o a el Imperio Mu (Binge) e incluso que la estatua alada que se ve en una zona concreta, es Pazuzu, el demonio de la película The Exorcist.¿Pazuzu entre las ruinas?

• Cuando Godzilla brilla de color rojo en la parte final de la película, es un homenaje al “Burning Godzilla” de Godzilla Vs Destroyah (1995) de la misma manera que el ataque que efectua al final de la película es muy similar al que hacía en Godzilla 2000 (1999).
• Pese a no mostrarlo claramente y no incluirlo en la parte final de la película, se puede ver a King Kong en varias escenas.
• La hipótesis del origen de Ghidorah como especie invasora y extraterrestre es exactamente el origen de su primera aparición en Ghidorah the three headed dragon (1964).
• Ghidorah es llamado Monster Zero, en honor al nombre que le pusieron los extraterrestres en Godzilla VS Monster Zero (1965).
• El director explicó que cada cabeza de Ghidorah tiene nombre, la del centro Ichi, la de su derecha Ni y la de su izquierda San (también conocida como Kevin).
• Una de las cabezas de Ghidorah (Kevin) actúa de manera distinta a las otras dos durante muchas de las escenas, si os fijáis en ella podemos ver que saca la lengua, ataca más tarde que el resto o mira hacia otra dirección, motivo por el cual la cabeza central ha de corregirla a rugidos y mordiscos. Es un pequeño detalle, pero en internet se ha convertido en un popular meme.
• Hay varias escenas que se han interpretado como un homenaje a las diminutas hadas idénticas que se comunicaban con Mothra y la despertaban para proteger el planeta. Como por ejemplo, cuando la investigadora japonesa explica que su familia lleva varias generaciones en MONARCH, pueden verse fotos de sus familiares, dando la particularidad de que todas son mujeres y siempre salen dos de cada generación. Aunque sin duda, lo más rebuscado es que en la Mothra tallada en la piedra se pueden intuir dos siluetas humanas encima de ellas, algo que puede ser pura casualidad y formar parte del diseño del monstruo o simplemente, un homenaje muy oscuro, del cual solo se darían cuenta los que revisan cada escena con lupa.