Godzilla vs. Kong

 

RATING: B

The MonsterVerse is up to its fourth movie now, and this is the one they've been trying to build toward--an opportunity for Godzilla and King Kong to be in the same movie together, and punch each other in the face. 

On its face, that premise may sound a little preposterous. Since when would King Kong even be big enough to go toe-to-toe with the massive Godzilla, for starters? To be fair, there actually was a "King Kong vs. Godzilla" movie made back in the days of the original Japanese Godzilla movies (back when it was just dudes in rubber suits), so there is at least a precedent. And they did set themselves up for a bigger Kong to begin with--he was definitely larger in Kong: Skull Island than usual, and they said he was "still growing" in that one. So, at least in this universe, this is plausible. 

Anyway, if the idea of these two juggernaut monsters fighting each other doesn't particularly appeal, you're not going to have a very fun time here--because that basically is the premise, and not a whole lot else. Of course, one frankly shouldn't have been expecting much of anything highbrow from this sort of movie anyway. 

What sets up the big fight is Godzilla suddenly going rogue and attacking a city--for the first time in the series. While some realize there must be a reason as Godzilla only attacks when provoked, others wish to simply come up with a way to fight back. The result is Kong getting released from Skull Island--and Godzilla immediately seeks him out, because apparently this world isn't big enough for two apex predators/titans. Turns out there's more going on here, though, as there's a conspiracy going on involving a mega-corp to wipe out the titans for good. Because this world also isn't big enough for humans and titans! Which, in real life, would actually be kind of true--but in this universe, they've established that it actually is big enough (somehow). 

This movie does indeed deliver on the premise, and then gives us more as well. Much like Batman vs Superman before it (except this is a lot better) and other such movies/events, once the two main characters duke it out a little bit, they then have to team up to fight an even bigger threat--which some already knew who that was, thanks to leaks. But let's just say that, for multiple reasons, this movie ends up going into more sci-fi territory compared to its predecessors than one might have otherwise expected. 

One big plus about this movie is that it knows exactly what kind of movie it is and doesn't try too hard to be anything else. One of the primary criticisms of previous movies has been underwhelming and uninteresting human characters--presumably in an attempt to make the movies more than just monster movies. The problem was, they tried a little too hard. The 2014 Godzilla movie actually sort of worked in that regard somehow, while King of the Monsters tried to do a balancing act between the awesome monster fights and the human backdrop that causes the plot--with quite shaky results. Here, the humans are not as important to the storyline--and while most of them still aren't particularly interesting, the movie is ironically a little better off for it, as it's not pretending to be something it's not. The movie knows what we're here for. 

And that's another thing--there's some improvements on the monster fights too. Another criticism of previous movies was the fact that most of them took place at nighttime. Not really the case here--only one fight *starts out* at nighttime, and it's still lit up by the neon Hong Kong skyline (yes, Hong Kong is the main city that gets laid to waste by the fighting monsters here). Otherwise, most of our other fights or general monster action takes place in daytime, and this definitely helps with the quite awesome battle scenes. These improvements alone might be enough to make it the best movie in the series so far, though it's close. 

Other pluses in the movie include a good soundtrack by Junkie XL, and among the human characters, the little girl Jia stands out due to her connection with Kong. Also, Rebecca Hall at least seems like she's enjoying herself. (Yes, Eleven's actress returns in this movie, but she feels oddly tacked on here.) Also, the visuals in this movie are superb; in particular, the Hollow Earth that's been briefly alluded to in passing in previous movies (it's okay if you forgot about it) is visited, and the scenery there is astounding. 

Godzilla vs Kong is a surprising success for the MonsterVerse--it delivers on what you should expect and gives some bonuses too, and isn't dragged down too much by the humans (save for the subplot involving Eleven and the conspiracy theorist hacker). Credit to Adam Wingard for making the kind of popcorn action movie that we all wanted, without dumbing things down much or dramatizing too much of things we don't care about. It's not exactly an intelligent movie, but it's hardly brain-dead either and is quite a bit of fun. Fans of the franchise, monster/kaiju movies, or just fun escapist popcorn action movies in general will want to check this out.