Godzilla vs. Kong Review

The MonsterVerse has been building up to this event for years, the ultimate clash between America and Japan’s greatest monsters. After such a long wait a question has arisen, was it worth the wait?

Following the events of the previous movie, Godzilla is the undisputed King of the Monsters. This has led to Monarch putting Kong in captivity to protect the ape from the kaiju. Godzilla seems to have gone rogue when he attacks an Apex Cybernetics facility in Pensacola, Florida. This leads to Apex’s CEO, Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir) pitching an insane proposal: take Kong to Hollow Earth and get him to lead them to a power source that can defeat Godzilla. Simmons recruits the discredited scientist Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) and Kong’s carer, Ilene Williams (Rebecca Hall) for the expedition.

The MonsterVerse started out with a lot of promise. 2014’s Godzilla was a weighty disaster film and Kong: Skull Island was a fun, pulpy monster movie with a massive budget. However, Godzilla: King of the Monsters did a lot of damage to the franchise because the critical reaction was mixed with some of the reviews (including my own) being highly negative. It was also a box-office disappointment and cast doubt on the future of the franchise. Godzilla vs. Kong was already in production when Godzilla: King of the Monsters was released. The critical and commercial response for Godzilla vs. Kong was a lot more positive.

The story was stonkingly stupid! At best it could be argued the filmmakers were harkening to stories like Journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Lost World, but it came across like a Saturday Morning Cartoon or an Asylum movie. This was a film that showed the Earth being hollow and there was another world under the planet’s crust where gravity was reversed. Even for a film that featured a giant monkey fighting a nuclear-powered dinosaur, this was ridiculous. There was so much technobabble being spouted that it would make the writers of Star Trek and Doctor Who blush.

The journey had the potential for wonder and exploration. The story involving a corporate conspiracy didn’t hold that much interest. I kept forgetting it was happening until the film cut back to the three-character were infiltrating the Apex facility. It shows that this subplot could have been cut without having much bearing on the film.

The conspiracy storyline felt like something from a Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich film. Considering Emmerich’s work on the 1998 version of Godzilla that’s a bad sign. Brian Tyree Henry’s role as the comedy relief conspiracy podcaster filled the same role as Woody Harrelson’s character in the disaster film 2012. Skarsgård’s character filled a popular role in Emmerich’s films: the misunderstood genius.

Most people who go in to watch Godzilla vs. Kong don’t really care about the story. They just want to see the lizard and the gorilla having a massive punch up and the film delivered. Director Adam Wingard avoided the mistakes that previous filmmakers made. He doesn’t cut away before we get to see the good stuff (Godzilla (2014)) or overload scenes with weather effects (Godzilla: King of the Monsters). Wingard and his team ensured audiences could tell what was happening with the big beasts fighting each other. They keep the high level of special effects that one would expect from a MonsterVerse movie. There was so much collateral damage that it led to questions about how many people would have died during the film?

Compared to King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs. Kong was a scaled-back film. King of the Monsters had about a dozen monsters plaguing the world, Godzilla vs. Kong only had two. The writers knew there was no need to overly complicate things. Godzilla vs. Kong was the shortest film in the MonsterVerse.

Godzilla vs. Kong was meant to be a silly popcorn blockbuster with many actors who were just cashing in a paycheque. Yet there was still an attempt at an emotional core because of the relationship between Kong and Jia (Kaylee Hottle). Jia was able to communicate with Kong through sign language. There was a scene of awe when the film showed Kong using sign language for the first time. I can’t imagine how difficult it was for Hottle because this was her first acting role and she was having to act with a CGI creation.

Godzilla vs. Kong did what audiences expected from it, deliver a big CGI spectacle and that’s what most people wanted.