It’s Monday, March 29th and I’ve just finished viewing this new monster flick so here’s my earliest hot take: This film is BONKERS. It felt like our beloved kaiju and our favorite giant ape were tossed into a snowglobe with some other monsters, big cities, lush islands, and various other landscapes, A LOT of special effects, and a few unnecessary human side-plots and just shaken silly.
There were several moments where the plot didn’t quite make sense, but it was loud and flashy and hey, there are MONSTERS fighting everywhere! SO MUCH SMASHING!
GODZILLA VS. KONG pays homage in equal parts to the old Japanese GODZILLA films as well as classic King Kong scenes, and wow, does it have lots of fun doing that.
I’m a big fan of both Godzilla and Kong and have enjoyed the 2014 & 2019 GODZILLA films as well as 2017’s KONG: SKULL ISLAND, the latter of which I just watched this past weekend to prepare myself for this fight fest. I’ve been cautiously optimistic about this film because sequels often get bigger and louder, but rarely better. Here’s the hard truth: As a story, this film is probably the weakest of the MONSTERVERSE. It doesn’t really even feel like it’s trying to be coherent as it throws just about everything but the kitchen sink into the mix.
BUT DO YOU LIKE MONSTERS FIGHTING BECAUSE IT HAS MONSTERS FIGHTING?!!
By halfway through I’d resigned myself from making sense of the various exposition dumps of science from the human characters. Once they explain why Godzilla and Kong are a) alive here on earth and b) in the same vicinity of one another, they mostly lose their purpose of even being in the film. Sure, Alexander Skarsgård is a fine actor AND great to look at, and Millie Bobby Brown is one of the best up & coming young thespians, but do I care about either of them in this film? Hard NO.
Godzilla’s name might be first in the title, but for me, this was much more of a Kong movie. He’s the heart of the film, while still remaining big, scary, and badass. In keeping with the spirit of being #SpoilerFree, I will only add that one of my most favorite characters from classic Godzilla history turns up too. Seeing this character again lit up my eyes, made me cheer at the screen, and in the end, made this film go from an “experience whenever” to an “experience now”. As I said, it’s BONKERS and it makes absolutely no apologies for being so.
GODZILLA VS. KONG premieres in theatre AND on HBOMax Wednesday, March 31st. If you’re feeling safe enough, get out and support your local theatres!
