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.
Godzilla and King Kong are two of the most iconic movie ‘monsters’ and both have featured in numerous films over the years, with a couple of recent movies attempting to revive the appeal of these classic characters. It’s not a massive surprise then that a way to bring the characters together in one movie would be contrived and ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ is the result. This is the kind of movie that gives you exactly what you expect and if you’re down for gigantic creatures beating lumps out of each other, then this is worth a watch. If you’re expecting nuanced character development and clever writing, best to look elsewhere.
The plot, for what it is, centres around Godzilla carrying out random rampages and the attempts to use Kong to help retrieve an energy source that can stop him from deep within the earth. Alongside this there are varying competing agendas amongst the human characters, although this is kept secondary for the most part. What I can say for ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ is it does what it sets out to do very well and it’s a significant improvement on ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’, which was a real slog to sit through. This is a lot of fun and it doesn’t take itself too seriously, trusting in the strong visual effects and an in built attachment to these creatures to entertain the audience. The human characters are a sideshow but that’s OK – this is a film all about spectacle and it delivers it. It’s a film you can enjoy in the moment, even if you’ll likely have forgotten everything about it a couple of hours after the credits have rolled.
‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ is an improvement on the last couple of ‘Godzilla’ films (which wouldn’t have been hard!), and whilst it has little to offer besides the aforementioned monster fights, sometimes that mindless escapism is all you’re looking for and this mostly does the job in that regard.
Rating: 3/5
Directed By: Adam Wingard
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobbie Brown, Rebecca Hall, Bryan Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza González, Julian Dennison, Kyle Chandler and Demián Bichir
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