Movie Review: Godzilla vs. Kong

chekohler (70)in #movie • 3 years ago

As movies start to roll off the lot again after 2020 I think a lot of studios have felt the need to rush their products back into production, to save money on reshoots and to start making an income from these IPs that have been stalled for the last year.

Hollywood is not about quality, it's about quantity, they can push out the garbage and we'll watch it, and give them a second chance should they reboot it in a few years time. It's all about a wash, rinse and repeat. In an industry devoid of ideas and looking to follow Marvels template of rehashing success with the same IP's the Monsterverse has limped along from movie to movie.

The first instalments like Godzilla and Kong Skull Island, were by no means perfect movies, but they were fun, entertaining, had a bit of a story, limited human involvement and placed the monster as the centre of the film. As we moved towards the sequels like Godzilla King of Monsters and now Godzilla vs Kong, they've started to distance themselves from the good parts of the formula and emphasis the bad.

I do think the CGI budgets have taken a knock and we can see it in the quality of the films, perhaps that's why they are giving humans more screen time to extend the films run time and perhaps bring some human star power to bring in people who are not a traditional monster fan.

Since I've already seen the previous three films in the franchise and there's not much else to watch these days, I thought i'd give it a shot.

Poster for Godzilla vs. Kong

Image source: - godzillavskong.net

What is Godzilla vs. Kong about?

The movie is the inevitable battle they've been leading up to all franchise long and the epic next chapter in the cinematic Monsterverse. The movie finally pits two of the greatest icons in motion picture history against one another - the fearsome Godzilla and the mighty Kong - with humanity caught in the balance. The story begins many years after the events of Kong Skull Island and a few years after Godzilla King of Monsters.

These two titans have been kept separate for years and since our last visit to Skull, Island Kong has grown tremendously. The scientists at Monarch have built a biosphere for him, but he still seems to be unhappy and has a yearning that he cannot explain, well since he's a big ape. Eventually, the plot conveniently finds a wormhole to a new dimension the "Hollow Earth" that may be a gateway to Kong's actual home and for humans a source of infinite energy.

Monarch takes Kong to this gateway and in the process of transporting Kong he faces off with Godzilla.

The two battle it out in 3 rounds throughout the movie with each one getting a shot in on the other until they realise, they have a mutual enemy the humans, or rather the "bad" humans who want to see these titans made extinct and take their rightful place as rulers of the Earth.

Trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong

What I thought of Godzilla vs. Kong

There's almost too much focus on Kong the movie is first set up in a way that Kong is the protagonist we support and Godzilla this mindless antagonist who has turned on the human race. The story becomes predictable in how the battles will result as the two titans fight it out, for no other reason than them being titans and the audience paying to see this. The story doesn't even explain why Godzilla would seek out Kong in the first place nor how they are both parts of this Hollow Earth theory.

Kong is naturally at a disadvantage against Godzilla, but later gets some power upgrades in the form of a weapon to help even the score, lord knows where this game into being but okay. Now that they are on equal footing they eventually duke it out before the movie then totally flips on you with the introduction of a human-built titan that becomes sentient and turns into a sort of Mecha Godzilla.

The main character's motivations weren't even fleshed out before they flipped it in the 3rd act and I didn't even think a character like Mecha Godzilla was needed at all to make it a good film. In fact, it took away from the storyline and felt like two separate films were getting mashed together.

My rating for Godzilla vs. Kong

The movie briefly touches on concepts never really explaining anything, it just sorts of rolls on from scene to scene without much clarity and the pacing is totally off.

What also bothers me is the size of the monsters, sometimes they as big as a building other times they small enough to fit on ships or into tiny holes in a mountain. The human characters have very little stake in the movie, they aren't very likeable and you feel nothing for them, so I don't see whats the point of their screen time and the number of characters they keep adding, you won't even remember any of their names.

The battles are naturally the highlight of the movie and the CGI is decent and sometimes not, the movie is by no means a thinking man's flick, it's just sheer mind-numbing action and good fun at that. You can see the movie has been tailored to a younger audience as well as China to try and extend the viewership and lowing the product quality but yeah, that's the same for many movies these days.

All in all I'd give it a 6 knockouts out of 10