The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. The King of the jungle vs the Ruler of the seas. Fight night. Let me tell you, it lived up to the hype. Godzilla vs Kong is good old fashion fun.
The epic next chapter in the cinematic Monsterverse 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.
When people ask me why I love going to the movies so much, it for movies like Godzilla vs Kong, it’s why we go to the movies. Movies like this should be experienced on the biggest screen possible, with the volume so high it almost hurts your ears. I’m so happy I got to watch this in IMAX, the first movie I have been able to watch in a theatre since July and only the second movie I have seen since the pandemic began. I was like a kid on Christmas watching two of the meanest and biggest monsters this world has to offer throw down.
We revisit the Monster-Verse that start all the way back in 2014 when the first Godzilla came out and things have grown immensely since. Here we are almost a decade later and the fate of the world is being decided by the biggest showdown we have ever seen. Two titans and rightful rulers in their own minds. Have decided it’s time to settle this debate of who is the alpha dog once and for all. When you walk into a movie that is titled Godzilla vs Kong, well, you want it to live up to its name and the movie does just that. The movie wants you no matter the age to feel like a kid again, we all did it, smash our action figures together, pretending it was the biggest battle of all time. Now we are seeing it play out in real-time. Because when the action hits, it’s just simply breathtaking. I can’t stress enough how gorgeous the fight sequences were. The use of color, the surrounding landscape, the fight choreography which was the biggest boost from previous movies, makes it all so enjoyable. We are talking about a massive jump in quality between the fights in King of The Monsters and this, it was blowing my mind. Director Adam Wingard knows what we want to see. The fights are clean and crisp, you can tell exactly what is going on and the use of POV shots and the immense power during some sequences is the best of that stature since Pacific Rim. The last 20 mins are some of the best-looking movie footage I have ever seen on the big screen and I can’t even imagine what movies are going to look like in 10 years.
Like always, the biggest flaws of these movies are the none essential human characters. These movies always have them and it’s what grinds the fans gears the most. It’s difficult at least right now to have a movie of this size and proportion without the help of some human interactions and plot. I think they are okay and don’t weigh the movie down too much, but again, the problem isn’t the human characters, is just there are always 3 or 4 too many of them. Kyle Chandler and Millie Bobby Brown return as the heads of Team Godzilla, while they had Bryan Tyree Henry and Julian Dennison to their roster. I’ll focus on their team because right away, I love Kyle Chandler but he’s so underused to the point he didn’t need to be in the movie. He adds nothing and it’s just a prime example of screen time wasted on one human character where we want more Kong or Godzilla. Now for Team Kong, we get an all-new team of Alexander Skarsgard, Rebecca Hall, and the stand-out of the human side of things Kaylee Hottle. She plays Jia a deaf survivor of the Skull Island tribe who is Kong’s friend and communicator. I didn’t even mention any of the evil humans that round out the cast, Eiza Gonzalez, Shun Oguri, and Demain Bichir who all felt a little too cartoonish. Eiza Gonzalez who I love is another character we could have done without. Is the plot a tad silly? Of course it is, but it’s a movie about a giant monkey and a giant lizard kicking the living shit out of each other, what do you expect?
When you have a movie with a versus in the title that usually means one shall reign supreme. Would I say there is a winner here? Yes. But I would also say that gets tossed out the window about 5 mins later. Remember there is another monster lurking in the shadows awaiting both of our titans. Where the Monster-Verse goes from here remains unclear, but I think this was a jolt of lightning the franchise needed because this thing even with the pandemic going on is going to be a success.
Overall, Godzilla vs Kong is all the hoopla you would want from such a movie. It’s big, it’s loud, it’s fun and most of all it looks beautiful. Clearly, some changes might have been made after King of The Monsters, but Adam Wingard really encompassed what makes both of these characters special. Pays respect to the past while embracing the future.
Just remember Kong bows to no one.
Godzilla vs Kong = 87/100
