(originally posted April 17, 2021)
possible
mild
spoilers ahead
just saying
I really liked this one. A lot more than Godzilla (2014) or Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). To be honest, I remember watching Kong: Skull Island (2017), which is also in this series, but that’s about it. Not sure what that says, but apparently it didn’t make a big impression on me. Of course, I’ve re-watched the other two recently so that may be part of it. Not all though.
first there are the battles between the two titans
The monster fights in Godzilla vs Kong (2021) are absolutely phenomenal. The way the distinct fighting styles of Kong and Godzilla are emphasized are simply spot-on. Mainly because it makes for some fantastic fight moments. There is also a clear winner but… well, let’s just say that while Godzilla and Kong probably won’t become best buds anytime soon they do sort of call a truce at the end.
The Hollow Earth elements, both storyline & visuals, were also extremely well done. And an interesting, intriguing development. For one thing, it’s a perfect replacement for Monster Island. The “island of monsters” concept has never made sense to me. I don’t care what universe it’s in and it seems to crop up in a lot of them. Pretty sure both DC and Marvel Comics have their own variations of the idea and it’s always struck me as just weird. But here, though, Hollow Earth being where all the monsters come from in future movies? Yeah, I can see that and I don’t care if it’s even more illogical than an island. I want that. I need that.
and then, of course, there’s the humans
Another thing I liked about this one was that the people are there to explain what needs to be explained but not annoyingly there. And I’ll say this up front, anyone who thinks there was too much people stuff in this one hasn’t watched very many Godzilla or kaiju (big monster) movies. Because “people running around being annoying idiots” is a thing that’s in most of them. To varying degrees. To be honest, this one did much, much, MUCH better than Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). By the end of that movie I either wanted to smack or downright kill a couple of the humans myself.
There are, though, a couple of absolutely great human moments scattered throughout. The little girl’s relationship with Kong almost steals the show. Several times. The stupid, emphasis on extremely stupid, human bad guy got exactly what he deserved in a very nice build-up scene where everyone but him knows exactly what’s going to happen. Perfection.
Yeah, this one was good. I want more from this universe and I wasn’t sure I’d say that before I watched it.