Remember the Titans

"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" (2019) is a sequel to "Godzilla" (2014), and the third film in total in the so-called MonsterVerse series (I haven´t seen the fourth one yet). I didn´t find it particularly interesting, except for a few Lovecraftian references, but I suppose I´m a bit too old for monster films! 

The concept of the MonsterVerse is that a primordial breed of "titans" have been awakened from their underground slumber. The monstrous creatures are studied (and sometimes chased) by a secretive government organization known as Monarch. These cryptozoologists believe that humanity can co-exist with the Titans, indeed that the world somehow belongs to them rather than to us (compare the Old Ones in Lovecraft´s horror fiction, but with a more positive spin). Naturally, the more regular military disagrees and rather wants the monsters dead, buried and gone. 

"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" introduces a rogue faction, headed by a former military officer who has become an eco-terrorist. With the help of a Monarch turn coat, the mad colonel wants to use the Titans as WMDs to wipe out large portions of humanity, thereby restoring the precious ecological balance of our planet. Unfortunately, the plan goes awry when it turns out that one of the titans is really a gigantic space alien, known as King Ghidorah, who can telepathically brain-wash the other monsters with the goal of destroying *all* humans, presumably including Monarch and the deep ecologists themselves...

One of the plot twists is that Godzilla is on our side ("for now"), and so is Mothra, a bizarre and over-sized insectoid extravaganza. When Godzilla loses the first round of fighting against Ghidorah, and flees to the ruins of an ancient city at the ocean floor (Atlantis?), Monarch helps the titan by "doping" him with a nuclear explosion! In the dramatic finale, Godzilla unleashes the nuclear energy, incinerating the alien dragon once and for all (unfortunately together with most of Boston). Or so we hope, since MonsterVerse will probably just continue this franchise until we all drop dead...

Since "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" was made in 2019, it´s of course very politically correct, with female scientists, Black female military officers (one of them fat), and a super-smart young girl who looks like a boy. The Titans have sex across the species barriers and turns out to have an ecological consciousness, helping humanity to save the coral reefs and making the deserts bloom?! It´s therefore quite ironic that a more classical Hollywood save-the-nuclear-family petty drama also forms part of the plot. 

In the end, not even the Hollow Earth and Eldritch angles could save this production for me. The family drama was just annoying, the mad military man isn´t mad enough, and there are just too many monsters (and nuclear bombs). It probably isn´t a relevant criticism of a scy fy flick, but "King of the Monsters" comes across as *unrealistic*. In real life, kids aren´t that smart, nor do fat women become military commanders. But perhaps Japanese scientists really do carry out kamikaze missions? A further exploration of the Titan mythos would have been more interesting, but I suppose the American audience want to see woke mayhem in the neighborhood of Boston...