It is that time of the year when Hollywood is ready to churn out monster movies, where behemoths engage in wanton destruction just to appease our savage pleasures. Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the sequel to the 2014 film Godzilla and the third instalment of Legendary Films' MonsterVerse. This shared universe was established in 2017 with Kong: Skull Island, and two years hereon, we will see Godzilla take on King Kong in, well, Godzilla vs Kong. So yeah, the makers have already spoilt Godzilla's fate for me in the King of the Monsters, even before I got into the screening. Godzilla 2 King of the Monsters New Trailer Reveals Existence of More than 17 Creatures – Watch Video.

But I am not here for spoilers; like many in the theatre where I watched Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I came to see some good monster bash-ups. Unfortunately, to get through that, I also have to bear through the human story.

So here, our supposed protagonists are the Russell's. The movie begins by showing us how the family was affected by the events of the 2014 film, when they lose their son in the carnage. Five years later, the family is now estranged. The mother, Emma (Vera Farmiga) works for Monarch, a secret organisation that tracks all the Titans hibernating below the Earth's surface. The father, Mark (Kyle Chandler) has left his home and is working as a nature photographer. Their daughter Maddison (Millie Bobby Brown) stays with the mother and is allowed to be a part of the Monarch activities, despite the danger involved in their activities.

Now, speaking of our eponymous hero, Godzilla is roaming around the world, coming and going out of the seas as he pleases. Emma, meanwhile, invents a device ORCA that allows her to communicate with the Titans through soundwaves. However, she, Maddison and the ORCA are kidnapped by Colonel Alan Jonah (Charles Dance), an eco-terrorist, and his team, who want to awaken the hibernating Titans. Now it is upto Mark to save his family and Godzilla to save the Earth from the rampaging monsters, led by a menacing three-headed King Ghidorah.

The 2014 film Godzilla was an unusual monster flick. It was a film that averted big monster fights throughout the screentime, cutting away from the action when things get interesting, only to deliver a satisfying, absolutely bonkers finale. The idea turned out to be very divisive. Keeping the big fight till the very end, while teasing us all the way, is like making us taste the food items sparsely for two hours, before dropping us right in the middle of a buffet.

The sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, digress from this approach. It gives fans exactly what they want to see, plenty of monster-on-monster action. Okay, not in a dirty sort of way, and yet there are enough innuendos.

So does that make Godzilla; King of the Monsters a better watch than the first one? Curiously, no!

Yes, there are some big positives in the movie. The monster action is pretty fun most of the time, until it becomes very one-note and predictable. There is a kind of beastly pleasure to be savoured when the three heads of Ghidorah bite into Godzilla's juiced up body. Yes, there are more creatures in the film than Godzilla, Ghidorah, Rodan and Mothra. The creature designs are terrific and some of their establishing shots are photographed so beautifully.

There is a mesmerising scene where Ghidorah stands on top of a volcanic hill with a wooden cross in the foreground. Another awesome shot is our first glimpse of a fully developed Mothra, with its bluish wingspan spreading across the skies. The movie is filled with such eye-boggling shots even when the cinematography takes a page out of Game of Thrones' The Long Night and covers most of the action in haze and smoke. Some of the sequences that show the Earth becoming a wasteland are spell-binding. Godzilla: King of the Monsters Has Monster Hero Stand Tall and Beam Up the Sky in This Awesome New Poster.

Another area where Godzilla: King of the Monsters scores big is the sound. The background score by Bear McCreary is almost therapeutic, a score fit for the monstrous kings it heralds on the screen. The sound design is equally phenomenal.

What drags the hefty Godzilla: King of the Monsters into marshes is the dumb premise and the human elements that push the plot around. I absolutely adore director Michael Dougherty's previous works in horror, like Trick r Treat and Krampus, especially how they bring their dour, but relatable human characters and mesh them into outlandish elements. Here, that fun factor is missing despite having some really talented actors in the cast.

Watch the trailer of Godzilla: King of the Monsters below:

The first Godzilla movie also had a similar problem, but my complaint there was different. Bryan Cranston's character had gotten our sympathies and attention, but the movie dispatches him off before the first act ends. In Kong: Skull Island, again, most of the main cast was comme ci comme ca, but we still had John C Reilly's madcap character to root for. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, we had little luck as such.

The Russells, who are our human protagonists, are quite an unlikable bunch whom we find difficult to root for. Interestingly, Godzilla: King of the Monsters had been promoted heavily on Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown. In the movie, though, she doesn't really have much to do except for some portions in the finale.

Instead, the actual lead is Kyle Chandler's Dr Mark, and he is made in the same mould as the characters of Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Godzilla and Tom Hiddleston in Kong: Skull Island. Well, you know the traits - an alpha male who can get in and out of any situation without any scratch.

We also have a main character with a big twist revealed in the first act itself - the said person has Thanos-like aspirations. The Marvel villain was a psychopath, which made him a fearful antagonist. But in King of the Monsters, the reasoning behind the character's motivations feels inexcusable and dumb, especially when things get out of hand and many lives get lost in the process.

Most of the supporting cast don't have much room to stand out, save for Bradley Whitford who gets to make some wise-cracks and Ken Watanabe, whose frequent fawning for Gojira still has its moments. Poor Sally Hawkins (she and Watanabe are the only actors to return for the sequel), though, gets a rough deal.

Thanks to these unaffecting human plotlines, Godzilla: King of the Monsters becomes a drag, especially in the middle portions. There is an underwater sequence before the action-packed finale that gets stretched too much. Not to mention, some of the plot elements are reminiscent of similar blockbusters. Like a sacrifice play in the second act harks us back to a similar stunt in Armageddon and The Core, but with minimal emotional impact. A main character is dispatched off the roster, in the same way, GI Joe: Retaliation did with Channing Tatum.

Yes, the monster elements give us child-like fun, but why are they interspersed in a morose narrative that gives us little to cheer?

And yet, inspite of my heavy disappointment, the conclusion, with a Godfather-like touch, raised my hopes for the upcoming sequel, Godzilla vs Kong. Just praying that the makers work out the plot elements in a better manner, instead of serving us yet another Batman vs Superman, this time in kaiju-style!

Yay!

- The Monster Action

- The Creature Effects

- Some Stunning Visuals

- Amazing BG Score and Sound Design

Nay!

- The Narrative

- The Human Characters

- The Editing

- Fan Service that Doesn't Serve the Purpose

Final Thoughts

Godzilla: King of the Monsters ekes out some fun by letting the mighty Titans lug at each other. And yet their mighty paws and claws can't defeat the biggest foe of them all - a mediocre script. At best, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is an expensive creature vs creature flick that takes itself too seriously and undoes some of the fun elements in the process!

Rating:2.5out of 5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 30, 2019 01:59 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).