By Patrick Bartlett (Twitter: @alleywaykrew)
This is probably very old news to anyone whose read my stuff before but to the unitiated: I feel like I should point out my absolute LOVE for monsters before I wade hip deep in this review of “Godzilla Vs. Kong”. My earliest interests that I can recall have been comic book characters and monsters. I love all monsters, great and small. As far back as I can remember, I recall being enthralled by the original 1933 “King Kong” and every “Godzilla” movie I could get my hands on. Having said that, I’m trying to approach “Godzilla Vs. Kong” as objectively as I can here…but it’s impossible to be totally objective. I can’t help it. I love these characters and I’ve been waiting for this movie for years now. Hell, if we’re being totally honest, I’ve been waiting for this possibly my entire life.
Sticking with honesty…I don’t think anyone’s walking into “Godzilla Vs. Kong” for the plot or the human characters…but in case you were wondering what it’s about, I’ll try to sum it up as best as I can. The three previous movies in Warner Bros’ MonsterVerse have led to this. Since “Kong: Skull Island”, Kong has grown from an adolescent, albeit already pretty gigantic ape, protecting the denizens of Skull Island to an absolute monster of a beast that’s more than outgrown his home. Kong is making early attempts to escape the containment being provided by Monarch (best described as the government’s kaiju division basically). Meanwhile, Godzilla has gone from ostensibly protecting humans by walloping giant creatures as they attack (Godzilla becoming known as the king of monsters in the process) to causing wanton destruction in major cities for seemingly no reason. On their way to deposit Kong within the “Hollow Earth” that apparently resides between the surface and the core, Monarch, with the help of a team from the multinational Apex Cybernetics corporation end up running afoul of Godzilla. Godzilla destroys most of their fleet, along with fighting and nearly killing Kong before eventually being led to believe that his destruction was once again total and moves on. The Monarch/Apex team hobbles on and gets Kong to Antarctica. When they arrive, Monarch convinces him to enter the portal to the “Hollow Earth”, with the team following close behind. However, unsurprisingly, the multinational Apex corporation’s motives weren’t exactly benevolent and they fulfill their true goal of sending the power signature within “Hollow Earth” back to the surface for reasons that I’d love to talk about but if you’ve managed to avoid finding out all that’s been given away by marketing this point, you deserve a really cool surprise reveal. Anyway, Godzilla senses the energy, which leads to yet another city’s destruction with Kong as seemingly the only hope as protector in a rematch for the ages.
Okay, so… yes, that is A LOT. Ultimately though, does it really matter? I guess it depends on your approach to a film like this. With most films, character is generally the part that’s most important to me. However, with the exception of the original 1954 “Godzilla”, in pretty much every kaiju movie I’ve ever seen… the plot doesn’t really matter all that much. Not when I was a kid and not even now. This isn’t a Linklater film. The human characters also don’t really matter. They exist to keep things moving smoothly from scene to scene but they’re generally not what I walk away remembering. I’m watching something like “Godzilla Vs. Kong” to watch big action sequences with giant monsters beating the hell out of each other. The good ones deliver what I’m looking for exactly how I’m looking for it. “Godzilla Vs. Kong” is unquestionably one of the good ones. There’s slightly more time spent on plot and character than I feel like is completely necessary but ultimately: “Godzilla Vs. Kong” is all that I hoped for. The fight scenes and the action are so much fun that even with the other characters and plot occasionally bogging things down more than they really need to… when you finally get to the big monster fights, I at the very least had a huge smile on my face and was even jumping up and exclaiming “FUCK YES” a couple times. The film is called “Godzilla Vs. Kong”. That’s what you’re watching for. In the end, the premise is titanic beings beating on each other in epic fight scenes and this film absolutely delivers that.
For the record, I don’t know how to say this without sounding like I’m damning them with faint praise but the whole human cast is totally fine. With the exception of my not really understanding why Kyle Chandler is there except that he was in the last Godzilla movie…there really isn’t a weak link in the main cast. The best way I can think to put it is that this film is basically a Kong story and a Godzilla story mashed together and I guess I can say that I ultimately enjoyed the Godzilla story more. That may be due to either because a. I do actually like it better, b. because I slightly prefer that character or c. the main cast of Millie Bobby Brown, Brian Tyree Henry and Julian Dennison (who seems like he should also have 3 names for symmetry but whatever) is the most entertaining humans of the lot. I guess I can’t completely say for sure why but I never found myself bored during any of those bits like I very occasionally did during the Kong part of the story. I can’t say that I enjoyed any of the Kong or Godzilla diversions as much as I enjoyed those glorious action scenes though. I remember really liking the original 1962 Japanese “King Kong vs. Godzilla” as a child but rewatching it recently, it wasn’t all that I believed a fight between two of the all-time great movie monsters could be. “Godzilla Vs. Kong”, however, is the fulfillment of the promise of that title.
The credit for all of this working as well as it does almost certainly goes to Adam Wingard. I’ve liked all of his films up to this point but he’s generally done small to mid-budget horror stuff until now. I wasn’t sure how he would adjust to something of this scale. I was hoping for the best and was rewarded for that faith. You’d think his directorial voice could be lost like I feel Mike Dougherty’s was in the last MonsterVerse release, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”, but Wingard manages to make “Godzilla Vs. Kong” not only feel like a progression of the films that preceded it but also making a uniquely Adam Wingard film. His signatures are all there while creating something on a legitimately epic scale. It’s a hell of a tightrope to walk but it’s safe to say that he has proven that he’s more than capable of bringing what he’s been doing for years now to a much wider audience than my fellow horror nerds.
I definitely had fun with “Godzilla Vs. Kong” and feel like my expectations were met but this is a hard movie to review. I once read a quote by Roger Ebert where he said something to the effect of “when you ask if ‘Hellboy’ is any good, you’re not asking if it’s any good compared to ‘Mystic River’, you’re asking if it’s any good compared to ‘The Punisher’.” Granted, I prefer both “Hellboy” and “The Punisher” to “Mystic River” but that’s neither here nor there. Pretty much the best way I can think of to approach “Godzilla Vs. Kong” is to understand what you’re walking into. If you’re like me and you’re looking for an action-packed movie with giant beasts fighting while human characters fill in whatever’s necessary to get you to the next big action scene: “Godzilla Vs. Kong” certainly is that. This is pure popcorn entertainment, an incredibly fun time that totally delivers on its premise.
To find out where this film is available to stream, click here: Just Watch