Other Monsters in Godzilla movies

B.) Godzilla is a monster who fights other monsters and prevents us (kind of) from being destroyed and we still feel guilty about it.

This new Godzilla remake splits the difference and makes him one thing toward the start, and something else in the middle and the end, but is fairly light on the guilt trips.

There’s several human, non-Godzilla-centric conflicts in the movie, but the primary one that concerns G. Zilla is this: a couple of other giant monsters called MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Object) want to mate and start breeding more MUTOs. Godzilla’s appearance then, is described by Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) as possibly “restoring balance to nature, ” and Godzilla is characterized as an “alpha predator.” Effectively, the job of the Big G is really just acting as birth control for other monsters. Cutely, these two MUTO’s nuzzle each other when they meet up, but faster than you can say “Godzilla, ” Godzilla is on the scene to monster-block their love fest. And though this premise sounds ridiculous, for the purposes of having post-hibernation prehistoric monsters fight with each other, it’s a fairly reasonable conceit and also succeeds in softly vilifying the MUTOs while putting Godzilla in a more heroic light. Is it creepy that Godzilla is so anti-sex? A little.

Even though there’s a slow burn on getting a good look at Godzilla himself (bizarrely, I’m fairly sure the MUTOs have more screen time), the scenes he is in are great. The fights between Godzilla and these creatures are totally exciting, and (refreshingly) not overly long. The moment when Godzilla’s signature blue lightning activates is thrilling, and Godzilla’s defeat of the final MUTO by snapping its jaws open serves as a kind of reverse homage to King Kong’s 1933 defeat of the T-rex on Skull Island. It’s terrifying and badass. (Even in a spoiler review, I can’t and won’t ruin the best and most hardcore part about this scene.) And while I wished there was one more Godzilla vs. Other Monster scene, the fights we got here were satisfying, fresh, and familiar at the same time.