6.5 / 10. Amazing CGI Kaiju in sight and sound, incredible big battles, but the script and acting are lacking in some areas

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the monster Thunderdome-esque film sequel to Godzilla (2014).

It’s directed by Michael Dougherty and co-written by Dougherty with Zach Shields, and is the third film in Legendary's MonsterVerse, the 35th film in the overall Godzilla franchise.

Shady crypto-zoological agency Monarch bite off more than can chew when they must now tackle a whole team of kaiju, including Mothra and Rodan, who are awakened by ultimate ancient three-headed kaiju King Ghidorah. They all face off against each other using Earth as their battleground and risk destroying the world. Here the enemy of my enemy becomes my friend as they need Godzilla’s help ...

The CGI Kaiju are amazing in sight and sound and their awakening scenes are breath-taking. They pulled out all the stops for these epic, incredible battles with Mothra, King Ghidorah, Rodan and Godzilla himself, among others. It was a great monster brawl spectacle, paying homage to the original Toho Godzilla movies.

I know it’s a monster movie, but it’s got to have more to hold your attention than just the monsters, and a script to support it, and a big twist was a little obvious. Some things a bit far-fetched, there’s got to be some believability:

1. They just happened to be near where they used to live and Madison got there on foot whilst utter carnage goes on around her. Massive titan battle outside your old house and you go there. Wouldn’t you keep going and get the Hell out of there?

2. People standing at the back of an open aircraft, and not getting knocked about by turbulence or even wobbling a bit.

3. Godzilla’s nuclear blasts not creating a blast big enough to bother them on said aircraft and they just watch on from about a mile up? Just watched Chernobyl too, and saw what happens after a massive nuclear explosion – come on.

I preferred Godzilla (2014) which had less of Godzilla but a more engaging story.

The acting isn’t great either, from some actors who are usually amazing, i.e. Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown, (as Dr’s Mark and Emma Russell and daughter Madison).

Charles Dance as Alan Jonah was a worthy villain, always a great b*stard, he could’ve had more to get his teeth into though. I love Ken Watanabe’s Dr Ishiro Serizawa, he is always mesmerising and has the best voice ever.

I’d like to have heard and seen more about the Kaiju’s origins, which is brushed over quite quickly. Godzilla’s creation is cautionary tale of the effects of the abuse of nuclear power, and obviously that’s still an important message. It is alluded to once more here with Dr Serizawa’s mention of his father’s watch which stopped at the time the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The next film will be Godzilla vs Kong, just hope they can step it back up and keep it interesting, or it will become too samey now we’ve seen a lot of Godzilla and what he can do - and aren’t Godzilla and Kong now both ‘good’ guys??

Team Godzilla.