The Worst-Rated MonsterVerse Movie Has the Best Kaiju Battle (2024)

Of the many shared universes made in light of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) success, the MonsterVerse is arguably the only one that remained consistent in terms of both its quality and success. Beginning in 2014, this collaboration between American and Japanese studios reintroduced Godzilla and other classic Kaiju (now referred to as "Titans") to a new generation. This was done through movies and series that impressed critics with their hidden depths and blew fans away with their larger-than-life monster battles. The sole exception, however, seems to be Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

Despite bringing in three classic Toho kaiju — namely King Ghidorah, Mothra and Rodan — to fight with or against Godzilla, the MonsterVerse's third movie and first crossover went down as its most polarizing entry. Nowhere was this made clearer than its Rotten Tomatoes performance. To date, King of the Monsters has the MonsterVerse's lowest Tomatometer score on the review aggregator. Its strong Audience Score doesn't reflect its current reputation among longtime monster movie fans, who remain divided over it even today. Some felt that King of the Monsters was the giant monster movie they've always wanted, while detractors called it a slog whose premise was done better by the succeeding Godzilla vs. Kong. This is even though the movie arguably has the best Godzilla fight in the entire MonsterVerse.

Updated by Jordan Iacobucci on October 13, 2024: The MonsterVerse is bigger than ever, with shows like Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and films like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire expanding the kaiju-centric cinematic universe. While fans have come to understand the MonsterVerse despite its flaws, one underrated installment of the franchise deserves more credit. This article has been updated with additional information and adheres to CBR's current formatting guidelines.

Godzilla & King Ghidorah Had the Best Fights in the MonsterVerse

The Titans' Multi-Leveled Battle Was More Than Just a Main Event

Godzilla's and King Ghidorah's fight was King of the Monsters' central conflict. The two Alpha Titans fought for the throne and title of "King of the Monsters," and they also had an eons-long blood feud to settle. They fought three times throughout the movie, winning one round each before Godzilla came out on top in the end. To wit: King Ghidorah won shortly after breaking free from his icy prison in Antarctica, Godzilla clearly overpowered King Ghidorah in Mexico before the military fired the Oxygen Destroyer at him, and Godzilla emerged victorious in Boston after a long and grueling battle. It's difficult to pick which of the three rounds was the best, but together, they made up the MonsterVerse's best fight. This wasn't just because it was the classic Toho Kaijus' long-awaited modern update or because it was the MonsterVerse's longest battle, but because it was a fully realized, three-act story in its own right.

Each round coincided with a pivotal moment in the movie's story and was more than a fight for action's sake. Additionally, each fight between Godzilla and King Ghidorah revealed something new about them. For example, the first fight showed that the Titans were old rivals and equals in terms of raw power, while their rematch confirmed King Ghidorah's alien nature through his regeneration. Godzilla's and King Ghidorah's fights were also built up to, and not just a "main event" that the movie couldn't wait to get to. Although the other MonsterVerse movies' fights were also nothing short of spectacular, they had more footnotes bolted to the story's third act than their narrative's natural conclusion. Cases in point are Godzilla's animalistic instinct to kill the MUTOs in Godzilla (2014) and his team-up with Kong against Skar King in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Godzilla's fights against Kong came the closest in terms of substance since they established the Titans' rivalry, but they kept getting interrupted by a bigger threat like Mechagodzilla or Skar King. Conversely, Godzilla and King Ghidorah had an entire movie to let their vitriol simmer and settle things permanently by the movie's end.

The fights also complemented the Titans' characterizations in the MonsterVerse in a way that didn't rely exclusively on the human characters explaining everything verbatim. The MonsterVerse already boasts some of the most top-tier characterizations that these classic cinematic monsters ever got, with King of the Monsters arguably being one of the best. The movie treated the Titans as more than giant beasts or embodiments of natural disasters the way Godzilla (2014) did. Here, the Titans were characters with clear personalities and goals. Their fights were their respective journey's only logical endpoints. Godzilla's hatred of King Ghidorah was palpable, while the three-headed dragon's malice was made apparent in every appearance. Godzilla's mission to protect the Earth at all costs and King Ghidorah's desire to destroy it literally clashed whenever they fought, making their fights' stakes truly apocalyptic. King Ghidorah, being a living cataclysm, eclipsed the MUTO's natural threat and made MechaGodzilla's and Skar King's rampages look petty by comparison.

It also helped that Godzilla's and King Ghidorah's fights were set to the MonsterVerse's best soundtrack. To date, King of the Monsters is the only MonsterVerse entry that extensively uses Akira Ifukube's original score from Godzilla (1954) in its soundtrack. Composer Bear McCreary didn't just sample Ifukube's music and the other Kaiju's classic tunes; he also modernized them. This fusion of old and new music gave the Titans a new sense of identity that was still tied to their original legacies. Thanks to McCreary's work, Godzilla's and King Ghidorah's fights had a grandiosity that the MonsterVerse's other battles lacked. The fact that this approach wasn't reused in the succeeding MonsterVerse movies is one of the otherwise solid franchise's biggest mistakes.

Godzilla's & King Ghidorah’s Fights Were Overshadowed by Their Movie’s Polarizing Elements

Godzilla’s Second MonsterVerse Entry Struggled to Balance Two Very Different Kinds of Movies

The "problem" with King of the Monsters was that it tried to be the best of two versions of the MonsterVerse but sadly failed. Specifically, it combined Godzilla's (2014) grounded approach and topical social commentary with the exciting monster battles that Kong: Skull Island delivered. King of the Monsters was also a clear response to the backlash against Godzilla (2014), which general audiences and longtime Godzilla fans found too self-serious and oddly averse to the very concept of action for their liking. Not only did the sequel increase the number of monster brawls and showed Godzilla as much as possible instead of hiding him in the shadows, but it featured more classic Toho Kaiju than before. Despite the filmmakers' noble efforts and some of the best depictions of Toho's beloved Kaiju yet, these were still not enough to elevate King of the Monsters beyond just being good enough.

King of the Monsters' critical and financial performances were lukewarm at best. Critics took issue with the prioritization of spectacle over characterization and story. The human characters' lack of depth was also called out. Meanwhile, most Kaiju fans were still not impressed by the sequel's fights and were annoyed by the MonsterVerse movie's abundance of human characters. Their main issue was how it was almost impossible to see what was going on in the monster fights because the Titans were so obscured by the elements and collateral damage. Not helping matters was how the only sources of light were the Titans' respective auras or environmental effects like fire or lightning. Worse, the movie kept cutting back to random people's reactions in the middle of a brawl. These didn't just undermine the fight's tension but outright ruined the whole movie for some viewers. This was very much the case for Godzilla's and King Ghidorah's three fights, especially during their final encounter in Boston.

Even if every encounter was properly built up, Godzilla's and King Ghidorah's fights still fell short of expectations. Despite the sheer awe and epic scale that their clashes evoked, it was still difficult for even general audiences to lose themselves in the moment because of the lack of visibility and how the movie's editing kept stalling the momentum. It's also worth noting that King Ghidorah's death was, and still is, the sequel's biggest mistake. Although Godzilla asserting his dominion over all monsters by killing his usurper made sense, it was still a massive waste for the MonsterVerse to kill Godzilla's nemesis so early into its continuity. King Ghirodah's severed head (fondly nicknamed "Kevin" by fans) being turned into Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Kong barely made up for the demonic three-headed dragon's demise.

Godzilla's and King Ghidorah's fights may have had a satisfying narrative throughline, unforgettable moments, and some of the best-accompanying music ever heard in a Godzilla movie, but these were not enough to redeem King of the Monsters' biggest pitfalls. It's far from a bad movie, and it's truly unmatched in parts, but its divisive legacy is sadly understandable and justified. Put another way, the sequel isn't for everyone and is arguably made for a very specific kind of Godzilla and monster movie fan. That being said, King of the Monsters still has the best Titan fight in the entire MonsterVerse. It's for this reason alone that the movie doesn't just deserve a rewatch or two but some belated retroactive appreciation as well.

The MonsterVerse Needs to Revisit Godzilla: King of the Monsters

The Franchise Needs to Embrace Its Most Controversial Film

The third installment of the MonsterVerse may not be its most popular, but the franchise can't continue to ignore Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Aside from a few minor references and the return of several characters, including Millie Bobby Brown's Madison Russell and Kyle Chandler's Mark Russell, the MonsterVerse has avoided picking up the loose story threads left behind after King of the Monsters. Most notably, the film's post-credit scene reveals that Charles Dance's ecoterrorist Alan Jonah has obtained one of King Ghidorah's severed heads. This clearly sets up Jonah as a potential future antagonist, while simultaneously hinting that Ghidorah could be resurrected in later installments. However, the MonsterVerse seems to be afraid to fully embrace its most controversial film.

Other franchises have fallen into this same trap, ignoring previous installments that fans didn't particularly like. However, certain cinematic universes have recently tried a different approach that seems to work better. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made a habit of embracing some of its less popular entries to improve them retroactively. The Incredible Hulk, for example, was Phase 1's least popular movie but has recently seen a resurgence in the MCU with the reintroduction of many of its chief characters and lingering storylines. The MonsterVerse needs to take this approach with King of the Monsters, which is better than many people give it credit for despite its shortcomings. A franchise about kaiju fights and monster team-ups doesn't need to be embarrassed about embracing its more controversial entries.

Rather, the franchise should look for opportunities to fix its past mistakes, reopening certain loose ends from King of the Monsters to improve the film in audiences' eyes. There is plenty to love about Godzilla: King of the Monsters, even if fans and critics didn't necessarily see that at the time of its release. In addition to its many epic fight scenes, the sequel has character and a distinct visual aesthetic that makes it far better than people give it credit for. The MonsterVerse doesn't need to run away from this film—it needs to embrace it.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

PG-13

Adventure

Fantasy

The crypto-zoological agency Monarch faces off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah.

Director

Michael Dougherty

Release Date

May 31, 2019

Cast

Kyle Chandler , Vera Farmiga , Millie Bobby Brown

Writers

Michael Dougherty , Zach Shields , Max Borenstein

Runtime

2 Hours 12 Minutes

Main Genre

Action

Production Company

Warner Bros., Legendary Entertainment, Toho Company