THIS sequel to the 2014 monster spectacular Godzilla picks up the story a few years after Godzilla’s massive battle with the insect-like monsters called Muto (massive unidentified terrestrial organism) in San Francisco.
People are still dealing with the ramifications of that turmoil, including Emma Russell (Farmiga), who lost a child in that battle.
Now a scientist who once worked for Monarch (a secret organisation which hunts monsters and tries to contain them), Emma has created a machine called Orca, that can not only communicate with these monsters – who have since been given the nickname of Titans – but also, on some level, control them.
While visiting a Monarch lab to see a giant caterpillar-like creature called Mothra, Emma and her daughter Madison (Brown) use the Orca to turn the creature docile.
Suddenly, the lab is attacked by Alan Jonah (Charles Dance) and his eco-terrorist paramilitary group, and Emma and Madison are kidnapped.
The group intends to use Orca to wake up the other Titans in a warped bid to save the planet by destroying it first.
Monarch bosses Drs Ishirō Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) call in Emma’s estranged ex-husband Mark (Chandler) to locate the Orca – which he helped create the prototype – and ‘save the world’.
Some aspects of the story will leave you scratching your head, but the sight of Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Rodan will get fanboys and fangirls in a tizzy. Bear McCreary’s sweeping film score helped too.
Adding humour in an otherwise dire global situation are supporting characters such as sarcastic crypto-sonographer Dr Rick Stanton (Bradley Whitford), Monarch’s wide-eyed director of technology Dr Sam Coleman (Thomas Middleditch), as well as Monarch’s straight-faced mythologist Dr Chen and her twin Dr Ling (both played by Zhang Ziyi).
The movie has good action moments when the Titans battle it out. There are some emotional moments too, courtesy of the talented cast.
Still, this is a movie for those who really love Godzilla and his fellow Titans. By the way there is an end credit scene that may have some bearing on the third Godzilla flick.
