Review of Godzilla vs Kong
midlandsmovies • April 6, 2021
Godzilla vs Kong (2021) Dir. Adam Wingard
The fourth film in Legendary's “MonsterVerse”, Godzilla vs Kong is the long-awaited (for some) match-up between two monstrous icons of the big screen
The plot (as bare as it is), sees Kong trapped on Skull Island in a “virtual pen” (think The Truman Show’s massive self-contained dome) before the previously human-friendly Godzilla attacks a facility and they need Kong to protect themselves from the lizard’s provocations. Transporting Kong via sea, a large battle breaks out on a set of warships setting the scene for more explosive confrontations along the way.
Alongside this is the most perfunctory of people-plots where an evil scientist searches for a mysterious power source, a young deaf girl befriends Kong and a conspiracy theorist is proven right about hidden tech. And then this minimal character development is punctuated by city-wide punch-ups all orchestrated in glorious CGI.
But here’s my problem. I hate hate HATE the film’s aesthetic. Plastered in teal and orange (that was old hat a decade ago) the film’s human characters don’t occupy the same plane of existence as the CGI creatures and environments. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but my theory is that younger viewers accept these visuals as they’re akin to video game cut scenes.
Yeah, yeah, this is a pure 21st century “boomer” problem, but to me they’re not even close to standard depictions of reality. Of course, it’s a monster movie but rather than go for a full filmmaker’s vision (think of the neon-lit surrealism of Del Toro’s Pacific Rim) this movie has no craft or personality and seemed as bland as they come.
For fans, these concerns won’t matter one jot but for me, despite the visuals being a technical marvel, they look like utter barf so why should I care? And with my tired and jaded set of peepers, it looks worse than both Peter Jackson’s King Kong and Gareth Edwards Godzilla from years ago.
The film continues with one semi-interesting segment as it goes off the rails into full sci-fi territory as Kong enters the “Hollow Earth”, a kind of grimy Pandora from Avatar looking land where these Titans came from. With spaceships (wtf), we’re miles from Godzilla (2014) and it probably nods to the lore but I was too braindead to find out.
Kong floats in the sky owing to some gravity shenanigans (yes, he does) and then we get more Pacific Rim rip-offs with a mecha controlled by “drifting” with the neurons of a recovered monster skull.
The sets are cheap looking and the humans are kept conveniently behind glass or in rooms so they effects artists don’t have to comp them together in the same shot as the computer animation it seems. There are about half a dozen shots in 2 hours where both a human and titan are in shot together.
I can acknowledge that audiences are not going to see this for the drama but the lack of any connection (visually, technically or narratively) meant most of this movie simply wasn’t engaging enough.
At best, it’s a gamers-heaven with slightly-better-than-PS5-graphics and smack-downs galore, at worst it’s simply hot garbage. Ending with Man of Steel-levels of city destruction (and about as much concern for its population as that film too) Godzilla vs Kong was so not my cup of tea and another entry in this universe I couldn’t get involved in.
Less cinematic than a video game animatic, the film left me completely numb by the end. And despite some great actors (Rebecca Hall, Millie Bobby Brown, Alexander Skarsgård and talented newcomer Kaylee Hottle) the film filled me with sadness that this is the level of blockbuster we’re currently offered. A Legendary let-down.
★½
Michael Sales
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