Godzilla vs. Kong

This culmination of the “MonsterVerse” series lacks any subtly, but it certainly delivers on its promise of a climatic showdown between these Titans of cinema. It may not be as fun as Kong: Skull Island, or as dramatic as Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but it at least doesn’t feel like a simple rehash of the earlier films either.

Premise: After Godzilla inexplicably attacks an Apex Cybernetics facility, Monarch decides that it’s time to relocate Kong from his sanctuary on Skull Island. While zoologist Dr Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) oversees Kong’s welfare, Dr Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) hopes that Kong could be the key to finally unlocking the secrets of the Hollow Earth.

Review:

First things first, if you’ve not enjoyed any of the previous “MonsterVerse” films, then Godzilla vs. Kong is unlikely to convert you with this final instalment. It is, after all, a film about a giant lizard battling an oversized ape for … reasons? So with that in mind, I’m reviewing this film from the perspective of someone who’s enjoyed the previous instalments in the series, and who was looking forward to seeing where this (potentially final chapter) went.

Unfortunately, even from that perspective, I’d say that Godzilla vs. Kong is still only a “middling” film. Yes, it’s better that 2014’s Godzilla (which suffered from a number of issues), but I don’t think it’s as good as either 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters (which had a genuine nostalgia factor, an inventive plot and engaging human characters) or 2017’s Kong: Skull Island (arguably the best film in the series in terms of pure entertainment value). Godzilla vs. Kong is clearly trying to be “fun”, but unlike Kong: Skull Island, it seems to do so at the expense of any real drama or tension, meaning that the film feels the most corny of any in the series.

“…the VFX are arguably some of the best in the series…”

This cheesiness is not helped by the CGI depictions of either Godzilla or Kong on screen. In Kong: Skull Island, Kong himself was portrayed by mo-cap veterans Terry Notary and Toby Kebbell, both of whom had worked on the excellent Planet of the Apes series. They knew just how to move to make Kong genuinely feel like he was a 100-foot-tall gorilla, rather than just a man in a (CGI) costume. However, in Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong was instead mo-capped by animation supervisor Eric Petey, and the result is that Kong doesn’t feel like a giant ape at all any more, he just moves like a man pretending to be an ape. His movement is all wrong, and as minor an issue as it sounds, the “fakeness” of Kong’s animation really took me out of several key scenes. Similarly (although admittedly, to a lesser extent) the switch from T.J. Storm’s mo-cap performances as Godzilla (in Godzilla and Godzilla: King of the Monsters) to this film’s entirely CGI’ed Godzilla also takes away some of the physicality of the giant lizard’s movement.

That’s not to say that I want to disparage the CGI in any way – I actually think the VFX in Godzilla vs. Kong are arguably some of the best in the series, and it has the fewest “murky” action scenes where you can’t actually see what’s going on. We finally get see more of the Hollow Earth that’s been talked about in the previous films, and when it’s time for the Titans to go head-to-head, the clashes certainly don’t disappoint. It’s just a shame that, as good as the VFX are, the way Kong moves and acts makes him look like a man in a fancy dress costume, no matter how good the CGI is.

“…the film delivers a number of impressive action set-pieces…”

Issues with the performance capture aside, the film’s weakest element is its plot, which doesn’t even really ever provide a satisfactory explanation for why Godzilla and Kong have to fight, other than a vague reference to their respective species having an “ancient rivalry”. Godzilla in particular feels underwritten compared to the “character development” he was given in previous films, as the focus has clearly shifted more to Kong’s perspective in this film. But everything takes a backseat in service of manufacturing a reason for the two Alpha Titans to clash, and in this respect, the plot is so paper thin, it almost feels like the writers have just given up and said: “You want to see them fight, but does it really matter why they’re fighting?”

And maybe it doesn’t matter. This is a film called Godzilla vs. Kong, so the audiences are arguably more concerned with whether or not the film delivers the spectacle that the name promises, rather than whether or not the creatures’ motivations are fully explained. And there’s no denying that the film does deliver a number of impressive action set-pieces, including a final act that has some surprises in store for long-term fans of the original Godzilla films.

“…Millie Bobby Brown, Brian Tyree Henry & Julian Dennison provide some very welcome comic relief…”

The human cast admittedly don’t have a huge amount to work with, and although Rebecca Hall and Alexander Skarsgård are saddled with most of the exposition, Millie Bobby Brown’s returning character Madison Russell, alongside new characters played by Brian Tyree Henry and Julian Dennison, provide some very welcome comic relief and many of the film’s (human-based) highlights. Demián Bichir plays the other main new character, but the talents of Eiza González and Lance Reddick feel wasted in very minor roles.

All in all, the film is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just incredibly one-dimensional and cheesy in places. But as long as you’re okay with that going in, there’s a lot of fun to be had. Godzilla vs. Kong’s greatest weakness is its flimsy excuse for having the two Titans clash, but ironically, their confrontation is also the film’s greatest selling point.

Originally Godzilla vs. Kong was intended to be the final instalment of the “MonsterVerse” series, although the financial success of this film means that may not necessarily still be the case. It does, however, explain why there is no post-credit extra scene in this film, which instead ends with a coda that could happily serve as the conclusion to the series.