All sound and fury

Johnson Thomas

Godzilla rises once again and this time he has competition from other Titans who appear to have woken from their aeon’s deep slumber and are ready to regain their hegemony over other living beings. Michael Dougherty’s sequel to Gareth Edwards' 2014 film suggests there is a MonsterVerse at play here.

The narrative posits numerous dangerous beasts lurking within the precincts of Monarch sites against a broken family - two scientists studying the Titans, Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), estranged wife Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), their surviving daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown), some eco-terrorists led by Alan Jonah (Charles Dance) and Monarch’s research team led by Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe). 

Mark returns to civility when he learns about Emma and Madison’s kidnapping but will he be too late to stop the destruction unleashed by Emma’s latest creation – the Orca, a sonic device that can soothe or enrage Titans by imitating their screeching calls?

The eponymous radiation-breathing monster is called upon to save the day and he, with fellow titans take over the screen in its entirety – leaving the humans with very little to do other than play catch-up. Computer generated effects can take a film only thus far and we see that clearly in this green screen aided savage depiction of rampant destruction. While the monsters look impressive, they don’t generate affect – even the ones setting out to save the world. The action here is largely incoherent with far too many monsters hogging screen space. Indistinct plotting and incomprehensible histories cripple the involvement. The havoc caused is impressive but the science is totally unintelligible. 

The pacing is inconsistent and the helming, in spite of the impressive visuals and sound and fury fireworks, leaves you largely unaffected. The dark and wet atmospherics does lend some gravitas to the telling but it’s all in vain. The film’s many monster-on-monster fight scenes feel rather indistinct, blurry and difficult to follow.  The large-scale showdowns feel totally uninvolving. All those epic visuals are lost in a sea of orchestrated chaos. You might appreciate the technique involved but it’s unlikely that you will enjoy its result.