GODZILLA VS. KONG (2021)
Updated: Dec 13, 2022
A Monster Romp that Delivers Exactly What It Promises and Little More
Grade: B-
Godzilla vs. Kong is the fourth entry in the “Monsterverse,” a series of movies based on the classic giant monsters Godzilla and King Kong. The series began in 2014 with Godzilla and was followed by Kong: Skull Island in 2017 and Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019. These movies established a world where gigantic creatures called Titans, who once roamed the earth long ago, have returned and are affecting mankind’s future on the planet. The biggest common thread between the movies is Monarch, a human organization devoted to studying the Titans. Godzilla vs. Kong seems to exist for the sole purpose of pitting Godzilla and Kong against each other for the first time since 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, and in that regard it succeeds admirably; in most other areas, though, it's less than successful.
Set five years after King of the Monsters, the film opens with Kong, the giant ape introduced in Skull Island, being held in isolation on his island home by Monarch personnel, who are afraid he will cross paths with Godzilla if he leaves. Meanwhile, Godzilla suddenly attacks a facility for a cybernetics company whose CEO approaches Nathan Lind, a man who believes in the existence an ecosystem at the center of the earth, to help them find a powerful substance there that he says can help mankind against Godzilla. Lind enlists the aid of Monarch scientist Ilene Andrews, who is studying Kong, and convinces her to have Kong transferred to Antarctica, where he can guide a team to the earth’s core. Meanwhile, young Madison Russell, who witnessed Godzilla’s last adventure, suspects he attacked the cybernetics facility for a reason. She teams up with a facility employee named Bernie Hayes, who has doubts about the company, and they uncover a shocking conspiracy that threatens Godzilla and the Titans.
Godzilla vs. Kong’s biggest weaknesses include the thinly written human characters and the generic story elements. Two of the new characters, Hayes and Lind, are given brief backstories and very little time to identify with them. Other characters simply exist within the film and do little more than move the plot along; this in and of itself would not be too bad, except that there is nothing original about them. One example is Madison’s friend, Josh, who is joins her and Hayes on their mission. Josh is the only one who expresses concern about the dangers before them, and naturally Madison and Hayes ignore him every time he brings them up.
The main story is also quite predictable. Hayes is a conspiracy theorist and we know immediately that his suspicions are correct; movies about conspiracy theorists who are wrong are far and few between. And if you are familiar with the Godzilla mythos, it shouldn’t be too hard to guess what the company is working on. When the plot is finally revealed, audiences are likely to roll their eyes, for it is one of the most generic bad guy plots in movie history, and the final fate of the main villain will surprise literally no one.
One of the few human characters who succeeds in being more than just a cutout is a young, deaf Skull Island native named Jia, who forms a bond with Kong and is even able to communicate with him. Even though similar characters have been featured in movies before, Jia’s scenes with Kong are still moving and develop the ape as a benevolent monster.
Despite its shortcomings, Godzilla vs. Kong seems to know what its audience wants: to see Godzilla, Kong, and a monstrous conflict between them. In this way, the film benefits from its less-than-two-hour runtime by largely skimming over the cliched stories and characters; we have little time to be annoyed because the movie is trying to get us to the entertaining parts.
And entertaining they are. The film features two big fights between Godzilla and Kong, one at sea and one in Hong Kong. The latter is the fight that really gives people their money’s worth as the monsters lay waste to the city in their struggle. Kong swings between skyscrapers to avoid Godzilla’s atomic breath, and he has with him a large axe he picked up on his trip beneath the earth to even the odds. The action is exciting, destructive, and epic; in short, it is everything audiences want to see.
Godzilla vs. Kong is not a particularly smart or clever film. The human characters and the plot are nothing to brag about, and more casual viewers might forget they even saw the movie a day after watching it. But the movie is successful where it counts. It’s got Godzilla. It’s got Kong. It’s got a guest appearance by another classic monster from the Godzilla series. And it’s got some of the most terrific and well-staged monster fights in movie history. And that’s what most people are looking for who sign up for a movie called Godzilla vs. Kong.
Director: Adam Wingard
Producers: Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Brian Rogers, Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Erin McLeod
Screenplay: Eric Pearson, Max Borenstein
Cast: Alexander Skarsgard (Dr. Nathan Lind), Millie Bobby Brown (Madison Russell), Rebecca Hall (Dr. Ilene Andrews), Brian Tyree Henry (Bernie Hayes), Shun Oguri (Ren Serizawa), Eiza Gonzalez (Maia Simmons), Julian Dennison (Josh Valentine), Kyle Chandler (Dr. Mark Russell), Demian Bichir (Walter Simmons)
Rated: PG-13 (for intense sequences of creature violence/destruction and brief language)
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