‘Creature features’ have been a staple of film for many decades,
and when it comes to this particular genre, there are two cinematic monsters who
reign supreme. First, there was King Kong, the titular 24-foot-tall prehistoric
gorilla, dubbed the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’, who debuted in the 1933 film
of the same name directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. With
groundbreaking stop-motion effects by Willis O’Brien and an iconic finale in
which the title character scales the Empire State Building, King Kong quickly
became one of the most highly regarded films of all time, undoubtedly inspiring
numerous generations of filmmakers. Case in point, in 1954, another giant
monster came onto the scene known as Gojira, a 164-foot-tall radioactive reptilian
beast. Created in the wake of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the
tail-end of World War II, Godzilla (which is the character’s English-translated
name) also became a landmark for both the monster genre and the art of special
effects while simultaneously revolutionizing the genre of Japanese giant
monster films AKA Kaiju films. Following their quintessential debuts,
both characters would go on to appear in several other films over the years.
The original King Kong, for example, was notably remade twice; one
in 1976 starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange and the other in 2005 directed
by Peter Jackson. As for Godzilla, he would end up appearing in a whole bunch
of follow-ups with the character’s parent company, Toho, producing over 30 sequels
that span 4 distinct eras and saw the King of the Monsters face off against new
and exciting creatures such as King Ghidorah and Mothra.
But while these two towering icons have mostly operated on
their own accord, they did notably appear together on-screen in Godzilla’s
third official cinematic outing, 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla.
Primarily spawned from a story outline from Willis O’Brien that had King Kong
fighting a giant-sized version of the Frankenstein monster, this concept evolved
into a figurative and literal ‘clash of the titans’ that ended up being one of
the Godzilla franchise’s most popular installments. But now, nearly six
decades after the original’s debut, the ‘King of the Monsters’ and ‘The Eighth
Wonder of the World’ are back at it again in Godzilla vs. Kong, the
latest installment of Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse series
which reimagined the titular characters for a worldwide audience. It all began,
of course, in 2014 with the release of the second attempt at an American-made
adaptation of Godzilla after the infamous 1998 adaptation directed by Roland
Emmerich. A sequel would follow in 2019, Godzilla: King of the Monsters,
while King Kong headlined his own cinematic reboot two years prior with Kong:
Skull Island. For this latest installment of the franchise, directorial
duties go to Adam Wingard who, like his immediate predecessor Michael Dougherty
(who directed King of the Monsters and has a story credit for this film),
is mainly known for his work in the horror genre, having directed films such as
the 2011 slasher You’re Next and the 2014 thriller The Guest. In
short, it goes without saying that this has been one of the most anticipated
films in recent memory, and while there are plenty of instances where it showcases
some of the MonsterVerse’s most common shortcomings, Godzilla vs.
Kong still manages to be a delightfully entertaining crossover event.
With humanity now fully aware of the existence of gigantic
creatures known as ‘Titans’, much of their attention has been geared towards
learning more about the Titans’ homeworld, Hollow Earth, that’s hidden
directly underneath the planet’s surface. This includes Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir), the CEO of
tech conglomerate Apex Cybernetics, who recruits geologist Nathan Lind
(Alexander Skarsgård), a former member of the Titan-studying organization Monarch,
for a mission to travel to Hollow Earth and retrieve a power source that they could
potentially use to deal with Godzilla, who has recently been on a series of
inexplicable rampages around the world. As part of the operation, Lind recruits
Monarch linguist Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), who has been monitoring the
apex predator of the mysterious Skull Island, Kong, and has also been looking
after the island’s last native, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a young deaf girl who has
a unique friendship with Kong. But, as to be expected, their journey to Hollow
Earth soon results in Kong crossing paths with Godzilla, thus putting Lind and
his team in a time-sensitive situation as they race to give Kong a fighting
chance against his incredibly imposing adversary. Meanwhile, Madison Russell
(Millie Bobby Brown), her best friend Josh Valentine (Julian Dennison), and
conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) go undercover to investigate
into Godzilla’s recent attacks, which leads to them uncovering a sinister plot
by Apex that could result in devastating effects for both them and the Titans.
Godzilla vs Kong knows exactly what kind of film you’re
here to see, and as always, this franchise more than delivers when it comes to
its monster-based action sequences. In fact, this one even manages to surpass all
its predecessors, especially the Godzilla films, by having multiple
sequences take place during the day rather than at night, and even when they do
have a night-time action sequence, they’re lit far better than the ones from
previous films. Tonally, this film is more in line with the generally light-hearted
Kong: Skull Island rather than the more serious Godzilla films,
and while it is admittedly a bit jarring to see the returning characters from Godzilla:
King of the Monsters partake in some of this film’s wackier antics, it’s
also arguably a far better route to go for a film of this nature. However, as
entertaining as this film is, it goes without saying that it maintains one of
the most recurring problems that the MonsterVerse has faced over the
years in that all that great action can’t entirely make up for its mediocre
plot. In this instance, we have what is probably the franchise’s most sci-fi
heavy premise to date given everything revolving around Apex Cybernetics and
the journey to Hollow Earth… and yet, it still manages to feel like a complete afterthought
with a bunch of extraneous characters and plotlines. But like I just said
earlier, the fact that this film is more upbeat in tone than the previous films
helps to alleviate much of that since, at the very least, it’s not trying to
take itself too seriously.
As always, the human element of the MonsterVerse films
has never been the point of the franchise. Case in point, Godzilla
vs. Kong follows in the footsteps of Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla:
King of the Monsters by featuring an impressively stacked ensemble cast… and
doesn’t really give any of them anything of value to work with. Still, for what
it’s worth, I do think that this film handles the human side of its story better
than King of the Monsters, where I’d argue that the human plot was even
more poorly executed than usual. Obviously, Godzilla vs. Kong isn’t that
much better by comparison, but there are a few decent character moments here
and there, namely via the friendship between Kong, who’s basically the main
character of the film, and Jia, the last surviving member of Skull Island’s Iwi
natives. Newcomer Kaylee Hottle and Rebecca Hall headline the film nicely as
Jia and her adoptive mother Ilene, respectively, in what is probably the
franchise’s best example of human characters who have a strong connection with one
of the title characters. Everyone else in the cast from Alexander Skarsgård to
Brian Tyree Henry is just there, for the most part, but they work well enough
with what they get. This includes the returning Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle
Chandler from King of the Monsters as Madison Russell and her father
Mark, and while Chandler is sadly limited to an extremely minor supporting role
this time around, Brown thankfully isn’t sidelined like she was for most of the
previous film. Granted, her role here is arguably the most prominent case of
the film’s ‘extraneous’ plotlines, but at the very least, she does get more to
do this time around.
If you’ve been following this site for a while, you might
recall that my thoughts on the MonsterVerse have varied considerably
from film to film. Overall, I thought that the first Godzilla from 2014 was
a solid kick-starter for a new cinematic universe style franchise a la the MCU.
Sure, it didn’t have much of the title character and the main human protagonist
was the very definition of a bland and generic lead but at the very least,
director Gareth Edwards did a fantastic job of mirroring the serious tone of
the original Godzilla film from 1954, especially when compared to the franchise’s
campier follow-ups. As for 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, it’s easily my
favorite of the first three MonsterVerse films. While it was arguably a
major case of style over substance, its unabashedly extravagant visual style
helped make this full-on homage to 1970’s war films an incredibly entertaining
watch. Conversely, the second of the MonsterVerse’s Godzilla films,
2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, was a film that, unfortunately, I
wasn’t too big on when it first came out, and upon my most recent re-watch…
well, nothing’s really changed on my end. Granted, I fully understand why this film
became such a hit with fans of the franchise, namely due to how it delivered on
many of the things that they didn’t get from the first film such as the sight
of Godzilla fighting some of his most iconic adversaries such as King Ghidorah.
Overall, though, the film suffered immensely from some incredibly sluggish
pacing, and while the lack of any decent character development is to be
expected from this franchise, this is one instance where I’d argue that the
human side of the story almost derailed it entirely.
I’m happy to report, however, that I’m far more positive
towards Godzilla vs. Kong, which is basically the cinematic embodiment
of the MonsterVerse franchise in a nutshell. From a visual perspective,
it goes above and beyond to present some of the most exciting action sequences
involving cinema’s most iconic monsters. But from a narrative perspective, it’s
barely held together by a bare-bones plot, and while the film does boast an
excellent cast, said cast is just there to help move things along. Thus, at the
end of the day, it ultimately comes down to how everything came together in the
end, and this is where I’d argue that this film turned out to be a lot better
than Godzilla: King of the Monsters, especially when it comes to these
films’ overall tone. Whereas King of the Monsters took itself a bit too
seriously, Godzilla vs. Kong fully understands that what we’re mainly
here to see is the awesome sight of a giant monkey punching a giant lizard in
the face. Thus, while it’s undoubtedly the MonsterVerse’s most
undemanding installment to date, its lighthearted tone and far more vibrant
color palette compared to some of the other installments of the franchise helps
to make up for the usual narrative shortcomings, for the most part. In other
words, Godzilla vs. Kong is an incredibly fun popcorn flick whether you’re
watching it at home via HBO Max as part of Warner Bros.’ simultaneous
theatrical/streaming plan for its 2021 releases or in theaters, where it has arguably
been the most successful blockbuster that’s been released since the start of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rating: 4/5
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