Film Review: 'Godzilla vs. Kong'
When someone thinks of giant movie monsters, there are two cinematic behemoths that are almost certain to come to mind: King Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World and Godzilla, the King of the Monsters. These two monsters made their debuts in the 1930s and 1950s respectively, taking the monster movie genre by storm and sparking a phenomenon. These two would prove so popular, that in 1962, the Japanese production company Toho would create “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” pitting the two legendary titans against each other for the first time ever.
It has been almost 60 years since then, and it’s time for a rematch.
“Godzilla vs. Kong” is the fourth installment in Legendary’s cinematic Monsterverse, coming after “Godzilla,” “Kong: Skull Island,” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” Directed by Adam Wingard, this movie promises to pit the two colossal kings against each other in a city-destroying rumble. Does this film take the champion’s chair, or is it going to end up taking a dive? Let’s don our HAZMAT suits and find out.
The fights between Godzilla and Kong are as awesome as they are brutal, there was absolutely no holding back in terms of showing two animalistic monsters going at it.
“Godzilla vs. Kong” takes place after the events of “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” Godzilla now rules the titans on Earth, the evil usurper King Ghidorah is dead, and things seem to be relatively peaceful without the conflicts between humans and titans. At least, that’s how it should have been. The movie opens with Bernie Hayes, played by Brian Tyree Henry, a conspiracy theorist who is investigating a base managed by Apex, a powerful cybernetics company, with the intention of digging up a secret project they have been working on. Before he can get too far, the base is attacked by Godzilla in his first act of purposely destroying human-made structures and hurting humans. Once hailed as a savior, Godzilla’s motives are now called into question. Returning from “King of the Monsters” is Madison Russel, played by Millie Bobbie Brown, who teams up with Bernie to figure out what caused the usually heroic Godzilla to act so viciously towards Apex. This essentially acts as the B-plot of the movie.
The A-plot of the movie focuses on Kong. Since “Kong: Skull Island” took place in 1973, a lot of time has passed for everyone’s favorite giant ape. No longer a teenager, he is now all grown up, and is about as large as Godzilla! Unfortunately, Kong has aged much better than Skull Island, which has deteriorated to the point where Monarch, the organization which studies titans, has now placed him in a habitat. With this, Monarch makes the decision to return Kong to Hollow Earth, the birthplace of all titans as well as Kong’s ancestral home. With this, Kong journeys to rediscover his roots.
Regarding the plot, this movie is a massive improvement over “King of the Monsters.” The plot to “King of the Monsters” is essentially, “King Ghidorah wakes up, then shit happens.” Here, the approach to use an A-Plot relating to Kong and a B-Plot relating to Godzilla is an intriguing idea, and it makes it all the more satisfying when their stories cross over for their fights. The plots also provide some awesome details about this world’s history, such as there being a war between Kong’s species and Godzilla’s species for the titan throne (Also the reason for the versus part of the plot) and the audience also gets to learn more about the Hollow Earth that’s been mentioned in previous entries.
Speaking of war, it obviously would not be good versus movie if there was a lack of combat between our two contestants. This movie certainly does not disappoint in that regard. The fights between Godzilla and Kong are as awesome as they are brutal, there was absolutely no holding back in terms of showing two animalistic monsters going at it. Godzilla has his atomic breath and insane durability while Kong has his intelligence and agility, making for thrilling action scenes which are certain to get the blood pumping. A bonus is that these scenes don’t suffer from taking place at night in a storm, like most of the fights from “King of the Monsters” did. They take place during the day, except for the final battle in Hong Kong which, while it takes place at night, the colorful city lights are there to save the day! The fights are engaging, actiony and very creative, utilizing both monsters’ skill sets to the fullest. As always, the special effects and CGI are great, which is consistent with the Monsterverse, and this movie certainly holds nothing back in showing the audience some great visuals.
In terms of characters, they’re…adequate enough. In Kong’s plot, the main characters are Ilene Andrews, played by Rebecca Hall, Nathan Lind, played by Alexander Skarsgård and Jia, played by Kaylee Hottle. Jia is a deaf girl who acts as the only one who can effectively communicate with Kong through sign language, and thus, they have a close friendship. Jia’s scenes with Kong are cool, and Ilene has an almost mother-like relationship with her, making for some cute scenes. Lind gets a decent arc as well, but unfortunately, it is nothing too unique.
As for the B-Plot…Well, I never really found Madison to be a very engaging character in “King of the Monsters,” and now she is joined by Bernie and her friend, Josh, played by Julian Dennison, as they try and infiltrate Apex. In case you didn’t know Bernie was a conspiracy theorist, don’t worry, this movie makes sure that almost every single line out of this character’s mouth is some sort of conspiracy theory. It gets old very quickly, and Josh is just there to be comic relief in a movie that really does not need comic relief. The only interesting thing about the B-Plot is the mystery with Apex, the characters involved do not entertain me in the slightest.
Even if you’re not too invested in the human characters, there’s still Godzilla and Kong to look forward to! One of the best parts of the Monsterverse is the decision to actually give the monsters character and personality. During Kong’s plot, you can tell what he’s feeling, you can see what he’s thinking behind his eyes, and it is the same with Godzilla. This makes their recurring fights for the monster crown even more fun to watch as you can just imagine the type of trash talk they’re spouting as they roar and glare at each other.
All in all, Godzilla vs. Kong is a great time! It’s a nice entertaining time with plenty of monster action and plenty of other cool visuals and world bits! Unfortunately, America still doesn’t know how to make people interesting in monster movies, but the grand amounts of action and energy are there to pump you up and make you root for which monster king will take the crown!
I give Godzilla vs. Kong 8 Godzilla Axes out of 10.
