• Review by Kaya Savas - July 2, 2019

Bear McCreary has been working away, delivering awesome score after awesome score for the entirety of his career. His work has mainly been in video games and television, but after his superb score to 10 Cloverfield Lane he is thankfully getting more and more film work. And that’s not to say that TV and games are inferior to film, it’s just a different type of canvas for a composer to create on. A 90 - 120-minute movie is a lot different than several seasons of TV or an 18-hour game.

Bear seems to have been born to score a Godzilla movie, he truly is a child at heart and loves to create worlds. What’s a more childlike rip-roaring action movie than Godzilla? Toss character development out the window and focus on the grandiose action and visuals. That’s what the score does, and man is it a fun ride.

You’d think the score would lack emotion since the film repeated the same mistakes as the last one when it comes to giving us some human characters to invest in, but this score is packed with emotion. This is the type of blockbuster score that is heavy on themes and melody. Bear embraces the musical history of Godzilla by referencing Akira Ifukube’s original theme. The same theme that Michael Giacchino lovingly homaged in Cloverfield.

We get lots of cool elements such as chanting vocals, throat singing, and taiko drums that help create fantastic builds. Bear’s score is not just a wash of action either. He is able to infuse wonder and awe in equal measure, which leads to the music giving the audience some hair-raising chills.

This is the definition of a “roller coaster ride” of a film score. It’s pure fun that represents the best of Bear’s “young at heart” wonderment and his skills as a storyteller. You can feel the passion behind every note, and it keeps this bloated CGI brawler afloat. Godzilla: King Of The Monsters is pure popcorn escapism that won’t leave you braindead afterwards.

• 4/5