Reign of Godzilla (2022)

Reign of Godzilla is a 2022 epic monster film directed, produced by and starring Clint Eastwood. Produced by Legendary Pictures and Malpaso Productions and

distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is a direct sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise, the fifth Godzilla film to be completely produced by a Hollywood studio and the fifth film in the MonsterVerse franchise. The film stars Eastwood, Hiroyuki Sanada, Willem Dafoe, Charles Dance, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Aisha Hinds, Bradley Whitford, Anthony Ramos, Lance Reddick, Rachel House and Alex Ferns. Dance, Jackson Jr., Hinds, Whitford, and Ramos all reprise their roles from Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), while Reddick reprises his role from the previous film, one of his final film roles before his death in March 2023. The film takes place between 2025 and 2026, and features Godzilla trying to continue his reign as King, but the renewed human threat of Apex awakens Biollante and Dagahra and the attracts attention of SpaceGodzilla, whom Godzilla, the Titans and Monarch must battle and cover up.

Two sequels to Godzilla (2014) were greenlit during it's opening weekend, with Gareth Edwards expected to direct both films. The third film was originally going to be called either "Destroy All Monsters" or "Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters" and was initially going to feature Kong as a major character. In May 2016, Edwards left both projects. MonsterVerse comic and novel writers Gregory Keyes and Arvid Nelson wrote the final draft of the film, and Clint Eastwood was announced as the new director for the film in November 2019. Filming began in Serengeti National Park in 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but filming eventually finished in August 2021 in Norway, revealing it's title November of that same year. Eastwood, Keyes and Nelson took inspiration from the Heisei Godzilla films (1985-95), as well as Matt Reeves' War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) and Shusuke Kaneko's Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999).

Reign of Godzilla premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on April 5, 2022, and was released on several markets, including the United States, on April 8 (concurrently with Sonic the Hedgehog 2), and in Japan on April 18. It grossed $1.417 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film in the MonsterVerse and Godzilla franchises and becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 2022 by the time it's theatrical run was over. The film received mixed but mostly positive reviews from critics and fans, with praise for it's visual effects, action sequences, music and acting, but criticisms being said about it's lack of human characters, screenplay and runtime. Among it's many accolades, the film won two out of four awards at the 95th Academy Awards, becoming the first Godzilla film to win one or more awards at the Oscars, being followed by Godzilla Minus One (2023).

A sequel, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, was released on March 29, 2024.

Synopsis[]

One year after his colossal battle with Kong, Godzilla continues his reign as King of the Monsters. Meanwhile, Apex Cybernetics, along with Alan Jonah and his "Hyenas," awaken the Titans Biollante and Dagahra, and lure in the primordial threat of SpaceGodzilla back to Earth, alerting Monarch. Godzilla goes on a globe trotting quest, wrestling with his darker instincts as he, along with Anguirus, Rodan and the other Titans must fight a difficult war against the humans and SpaceGodzilla.

Cast[]

Clint Eastwood as Dr. Henry Brody
Hiroyuki Sanada as Dr. Daisuke Honda
Willem Dafoe as Dr. David Stone
Charles Dance as Alan Jonah
O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Jackson Barnes
Aisha Hinds as Diane Foster
Bradley Whitford as Dr. Rick Stanton
Anthony Ramos as Anthony Martinez
Lance Reddick as Guillerman
Rachel House as Hampton
Alex Ferns as Mikael
Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Admiral Wilcox
Ron Smyck as Harris
Chantelle Jamieson as Jayne
Greg Hatton as Lewis
T.J. Storm as Godzilla (Performance Capture)
Allan Henry as SpaceGodzilla (Performance Capture)

Crew[]

Clint Eastwood - director, producer and actor
Albert S. Ruddy - producer
Jay Ashenfelter - executive producer
Herbert W. Gains - executive producer
Dan Lin - executive producer
Roy Lee - executive producer
Yoshimitsu Banno - executive producer
Kenji Okuhira - executive producer
Jen Conroy - co-producer
Tamara Kent - co-producer
Rick Carter - production designer
Doug Chiang - production designer
Ann Foley - costume designer
John "DJ" DesJardin - visual effects supervisor
Alessandro Ongaro - visual effects supervisor

Appearances[]

Titans and other superspecies[]

Weapons, vehicles and organizations[]

Monarch
- G-Team
Apex Cybernetics
Hyenas
Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicle
Godzilla's Mega Armor
ORCA-Z
USS Argo
Maser Canon
Osprey
General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper
HMMWV
K21
K1 Tank
Bell AH-Cobra
Boeing CH-7 Chinook
KAO-RQ-101 Songgolmae
Ratel IFV
Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier
Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer
Iowa-Class Battleship
K9 VIDAR
M270 MLRS
AW101 SAR Queen
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIA

Locations[]

South Korea
- Seoul
- Incheon
- Jeju-do
Australia
- Queensland
  - Sunshine Coast
  - Brisbane
- New South Wales
  - Sydney
Hollow Earth
- Monarch Outpost 1
Tanzania
- Serengeti
- Musoma
Kenya
- Nairobi
Red Sea
Germany
- Hamburg
Denmark
- Wadden Sea National Park
Norway
- Telemarkskanalen Natur-og Kulturpark
- Valdres Nature and Culture Park
- Vossevangen
- Bergen
North Sea
Tyrrhenian Sea
Italy
- Rome

Animals[]

Red-Crowned Crane
Mandarin Duck
Humpback Whale
African Lion
Plains Zebra
Blue Wildebeest
Masai Giraffe
African Bush Elephant
Olive Baboon
Thomson's Gazelle
Reindeer
Musk Ox
Arctic Fox
Golden Eagle

Soundtrack[]

Mark Mancina composed the score for Reign of Godzilla, returning to collaborate with Clint Eastwood after their previous film together, Cry Macho (2021). Mancina wanted to make his score similar to his work on Disney's Tarzan (1999), and also adapts slow, reverbed versions of Akira Ifukube's Godzilla theme and a few other themes from his previous Godzilla scores. Taking influence from Shirō Sagisu's score for Shin Godzilla (2016), the soundtrack also recycles a few tracks from Koichi Sugiyama's score for Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989). Godzilla's theme for the film was released as a single on March 24, 2022, by WaterTower Music, titled "Godzilla's Roar." The full soundtrack was released concurrently with the film on April 8, 2022.

Track listing[]

A Godzilla Fanfare (Written by Akira Ifukube)
South Korea Under Attack
Godzilla Rests
Requiem / [Godzilla vs. Biollante]
A Space Godzilla
Enter Henry Brody of Monarch
Biollante / [Godzilla vs. Biollante]
Titans Awaken
Tracking Biollante (Written by Akira Ifukube)
Bio Wars / [Godzilla vs. Biollante]
Across The Hollow Earth
Shimidah Attack
Outpost 1
Godzilla in the Serengeti
Asuka / [Godzilla vs. Biollante]
Dagahra Attacks
Countdown / [Godzilla vs. Biollante]
Godzilla's Roar (Written by Akira Ifukube)
The Trek (Written by Akira Ifukube)
Scramble March / [Godzilla vs. Biollante]
Biollante's Advance
Norway
Planning
Godzilla and the Titans (Written by Akira Ifukube)
Apex Faces the Music
Mega Armor (Written by Akira Ifukube)
Super X2 / [Godzilla vs. Biollante]
The Duel (Written by Akira Ifukube)
Godzilla and SpaceGodzilla
Biollante's Requiem
Victorious Godzilla (Written by Akira Ifukube)
The Reign (Credits Suite) (Written by Akira Ifukube)

Additional music[]

"What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong (Featured in the First Trailer and the Opening Scene)
"I'll Be Seeing You" by Jimmy Durante
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears (Used in the Second Trailer and in the Film)
"Light My Fire" by The Doors
"Ode to Joy (from the Symphony No. 9)" by Ludwig van Beethoven (Used in one of the TV Spots)

Release and reception[]

Theatrical[]

Reign of Godzilla had an early access screening or "fan event" on March 24, 2022. The film's Russian release date, originally scheduled for April 10, was postponed until further in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Reign of Godzilla held it's red carpet premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on April 5, which included a 22-foot statue of Godzilla, recycled from 2014. Afterwards, it was released in several countries and markets, including the United States, on April 8, releasing concurrently with Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and was released in Japan on April 18 via Toho. It was released in 2D, 3D, IMAX, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX and Cinemark XD. Reign of Godzilla is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for "Creature violence, intense scenes of destruction and language."

Home media[]

The film was released on digital platforms on June 20, 2022, and on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray on July 5, 2022. Reign of Godzilla became available to stream on HBO Max on the following day.

Box office[]

Fandango announced that pre-sales for Reign of Godzilla were among some of the best of 2022, making it the best for a Godzilla and MonsterVerse film on the site. AMC Theatres announced that 215,000 people bought first-day tickets at their theater chain.

Reign of Godzilla made $1.417 billion worldwide, making it both the highest grossing Godzilla film and the highest grossing MonsterVerse film ever as of 2022, and also becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 2022, beating Universal's Jurassic World Dominion.

Critical reception[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "A classic 90s-style Godzilla adventure that manages to go it's own unique path and delivers all the kaiju-rich action fans want to see." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 56 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 89% and a 86% "definite recommend."

Seth Green, who made a cameo in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, praised the film and T.J. Storm's performance. Heisei Godzilla star Megumi Odaka also praised the film and compared it favorably to superhero films, stating: "It's a gorgeous, well made monster epic with a sort of Superhero film style it that I surprisingly liked." Many critics praised the visual effects, action scenes, music and performances. However, it met criticism about the human characters not having much screentime, the screenplay and it's nearly 3 hour runtime.

Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times criticized the film, saying: "The Human characters are only the side, and many of them beyond the 'main cast' only exist to be squashed like ants. This film has little meaning and metaphor, kinda disrespecting the legacy of the original Godzilla in 1954." Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) director Adam Wingard also criticized the film, stating: "While I love Godzilla, he isn't supposed to be a main character or as sympathetic as Kong." Wingard also criticized the runtime, stating that MonsterVerse films "should be 1 to 2 hours at best. If you go to almost 3 hours, it feels overstuffed."

King of the Monsters director Michael Dougherty praised and defended the film, and said that he didn't understand the criticism for it's runtime, stating: "So people are okay with Peter Jackson's 2005 King Kong remake to be more than 3 hours long, but if Reign of Godzilla is near that runtime, people draw the line?"

Several critics criticized the screenplay. IndieWire suggested that Clint Eastwood should have used Godzilla (2014) as a reference point for the screenplay and the gravitas of the monster scenes.

Controversies[]

The film is, according to many fans of both the MonsterVerse and Godzilla franchises, one of, if not the "most polarizing film" in both franchises. The film was a subject to controversy ever since it was announced that the film would focus on Godzilla and the Titans, rather than it's Human cast, and that the film would have similar themes to that of Godzilla: King of the Monsters but would mostly be themed to Animal Rights. Gareth Edwards, the director of Godzilla (2014) and the initial director planned for both King of the Monsters and this film criticized it, saying: "Human characters are the most important part of any Godzilla film, the franchise is supposed to be human-centric, it makes the world of Godzilla lived in."

In the years following 2022, many critics and fans compared the film, favorably or unfavorably to certain Godzilla films, such as the original 1954 film and eventually Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One (2023), but mostly unfavorably. Shin Godzilla co-director Hideaki Anno also gave a negative response to the film, stating: "Like that 1998 film, this film tries too hard to reasonably sympathize with a giant monster. Godzilla should be a walking natural disaster, not a superhero, but who knows, my opinion could change one day." In contrast, Second Shin Godzilla co-director and Shin Ultraman (2022) director Shinji Higuchi defended the film, saying: "Godzilla is as versatile a character as Batman. It's completely okay that it won't be like Toho's depictions of Godzilla all the time. I'm happy for Reign of Godzilla's success." Michael Dougherty also defended the film and Clint Eastwood's creative decision to make Godzilla the main character, in contrast to Gareth Edwards and Adam Wingard's criticisms.

In January 2024, via his Twitter/X account, Takashi Yamazaki finally spoke about Reign of Godzilla, saying that Godzilla Minus One served as a "wake up call" to make fans and critics realize that Human characters are the most important part of a Godzilla film, and that Reign of Godzilla "did not use Godzilla properly." Godzilla Minus One actor Ryunosuke Kamiki also criticized Reign of Godzilla.

In October 2025, Kong: Hollow Earth (2023) and Godzilla x Kong: Supernova (2027) director Grant Sputore both praised and criticized the film, criticizing Godzilla being the "main character," and says that his film may be better.