Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Short description
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a 2019 monster film about the crypto-zoological agency Monarch and its attempt to deal with a group of ancient creatures that awaken and compete for dominance over the planet. The central conflict pits Godzilla against the three-headed King Ghidorah, while Mothra and Rodan are drawn into the struggle. At the same time, Monarch scientists Emma and Mark Russell, whose daughter Madison is also caught up in events, try to understand and influence the creatures. The fate of humanity hangs on which of these beings prevails.
Directed by Michael Dougherty from a screenplay he wrote with Zach Shields, the film was his third feature after Trick 'r Treat and Krampus. It stars Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Zhang Ziyi and Bradley Whitford, among a credited cast of 91 and a crew of 146. Produced by Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and Alex Garcia, it was made for a budget of 170 million USD and took 387 million USD worldwide, a return that fell short of its cost. The film's 5.2/10 critics' rating from 351 reviews sits below its audience scores: 6/10 on IMDb from 228,000 votes and 6.7/10 on TMDB from 6,908 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- The Godzilla corpse found at the beginning of the film was originally planned to be discovered in Siberia, not the Philippines, but this idea was changed due to a similar scene in Zack Snyder's science fiction action film "Man of Steel" (2013), where Henry Cavill's character finds a Kryptonian starship frozen in ice. The creators of that film reworked the scene, and frozen King Ghidorah is discovered in Antarctica.
- When working on Mothra's appearance, Michael Dougherty wanted to create something, in his own words, "beautiful, feminine and elegant, but at the same time potentially dangerous, looking like a goddess." Dougherty tried to adhere to the color palette of Mothra's image from the 1961 film ("Mothra," Ishiro Honda) and leave similar eye-like spots on the wings. The latter were specifically given a shape that resembles Godzilla's eyes, thus emphasizing the connection between the monsters. Mothra resembles a real moth, and her legs are long enough to defend against other monsters.
- Michael Dougherty came up with the idea to add Behemoth to the plot (in biblical mythology, this is a demon of carnal desires, especially gluttony) and made him a companion to Kong, because he believed that too many monsters from the “Toho” studio were reptiles and insects. He based it on a mammoth – due to his own fascination with mammoths and because he needed a huge, hairy creature whose appearance would show that it could survive an ice age. Initially, Behemoth was a giant mammoth with six tusks.
- Near Godzilla's underwater temple, a skeleton can be seen. It is the skeleton of Anguirus, who sided with Godzilla in some films.
- While working on Ghidorah's appearance, director and screenwriter Michael Dougherty wanted to create something "unique," but still reminiscent of Ghidorah. That's why he constantly consulted with specialists from Toho Studios to ensure the monster's new look remained recognizable. He also studied images of various reptiles, especially the king cobra, to add realism to Ghidorah.
- Mothra's cry in the film is a processed version of the cries of the same monster in the original Toho Studios films.
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