Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review, now with 2021 movies.
From many years ago, i've talked about Godzilla, i've talked about Kong and both of them are in Monsterverse series that we all know. Ever since we love Godzilla and Kong, its definitely no secrete that they're gonna make a movie of these guys in combat on the big screen.
"Godzilla vs Kong" is a 2021 Kaiju film is directed Adam Wingard, produced by Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Brian Rogers, Mary Parent, Alex Garcia and Eric McLeod,written in screenplay by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, then story written by Terry Rossio, Michael Dougherty (Yup, the same guy who did Godzilla: King of the Monsters) and Zach Shields.
Ever since we heard the announcement of Godzilla facing against Kong, we're highly anticipated with the battle of two icons, its another crossover of East vs West. However, the movie got delayed a lot, ranging from changes and even the outbreak from the virus, so they chooses for not only release the film in theaters, but also available in renting digital download and streaming service like HBO Max.
Of course, its not the first time we have the battle of two icons, there's the 1962 "King Kong vs Godzilla" by Toho that its nice to having those two fighting each other for the first time, even though before we have a CG, we have a fun and silly battle between to guys in monster suits. Though the ending is debatable for who win the battle, its more like "You decide" conclusion element.
So, with all that said, will this movie bring us a epic battle of these two big monsters, or is it a waste of potential to having other monsters?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
For the plot in this movie, its surprisingly interesting, while the human plot that despite its improved, but its still flawed like before.
It picks up after "King of the Monsters" five years later, where Kong was monitered by the Monarch with a giant dome on Skull Island, which they were told that the citizens in Skull Island are wiped out from the storm, except for one deaf girl named Jia who only speaks with sign language. Meanwhile a cybernetic company called Apex are creating secret experiment, not before Godzilla came out nowhere and going rampage at Pensacola. Meanwhile, a geologist and cartographer Dr. Nathan Lind was told by Apex CEO named Walter Simmons about the plan of going a secret world called "Hollow Earth", Nathan was hesitant at first due to his brother's death, but he accepted the plan, but only he needs one monster to going in there, which is Kong. So its up for the Nathan Lind with other members like Dr. Ilene Andrews and her adopted girl Jia to bring out Kong to Hollow Earth without the risk and the secret truth of Godzilla's rampage.
Story is surprisingly good and curiously creative for expending world in Monsterverse, mainly with the Hollow Earth element for the origin or possibly why Godzilla is posing a threat like you know, like any Godzilla films out there, even though i still consider Godzilla as an anti-hero, appearing what he wanted, rampage or facing against evil monsters. Not mention, i also like the chemistry between Kong and Jia, since with Skull Island's citizens are all gone from the dangerous storm, they treated like a father and daughter figures with their sign language, which is nice and kinda cute at the same time.
However, like King of the Monsters, the story with the humans are pretty underwhelming for its execution. Despite that i appreciated the chemistry between a little girl and a giant ape, but the human plots with finding the secret in Apex with conspiracy theorist Bernie and the same girl from the previous movie Madison. Sure, i do appreciated of the expansion world where we're going to Hollow Earth, but again, the human elements are pretty underwhelming. I think its no secret this movie's main focus is either Kong or Godzilla. However, the movie is kinda miss the mark of the identity that Godzilla is the main focus in the title "Godzilla vs Kong", when in reality, the main focus is Kong, i mean it would've been ok to put the opposite of the title of the movie as "Kong vs Godzilla", either that or to avoiding confusion from the 1962 version's title.
Despite some problems of who's the main focus and poor executed human plot points, but the story is fascinating for say the least.
The Presentation
Aside from the writing flaws, i think it safe to say that the production of this movie is pretty good.
For the filming location and the setting, they're quite nice looking and rather a nice fit, since they picked a locations for the setting like Hawaii for Skull Island and Australia for factory and other locations like city in Brisbane. Though we though its their two locations, but they also filmed in Hong Kong as their final shooting.
Of course, aside from the real locations, there's always a CG background and i find them to be fascinating, especially the setting design of Hollow Earth, which i though its gonna be looking like hell with demons and stuff like DOOM, but it looks pretty different that i've never imagine. But im not gonna explain what it looks like for avoiding spoilers.
As for the action scenes, well its surprisingly all over, raging from Godzilla's threatening rampage, the presentation of Hollow Earth and the famous round 1 of Godzilla and Kong beat themselves up both in and out of water with battle ships and aircraft carriers. Of course, the final battle is pretty cool, but also brutal as hell, but again, no spoilers.
For the monsters appearance, its no secret that Kong and Godzilla look remain the same, sure they have some update appearance like Kong with scars and Godzilla's upgrade skins. As for the other monsters around, sadly, they never brought them back like Rodan, Behemoth, Scylla, MUTO number three, Methuselah nor even what happen to the new egg from Mothra, which is pretty disappointed that i just wish they could've give us more Titans from the previous films than just Godzilla and Kong. What we have instead is a flying cobra-like dragon and possibly a small version of The Giant Claw (but at least their looks aren't as ugly like the original flying battleship). Btw, before the film was released, there's a rumor that this movie have MechaGodzilla, which im easily hesitated in the first place based on its purpose, but again, no spoilers for conformation. Oh, they also brought back Skullcrawlers, so... Yay??
While the presentation gave me my nitpick with plot holes like the lack of Titans from "King of the Monsters", the presentation of this movie is pretty good, for the most parts.
The Characters
I think it safe to say that the Titans have better development than the underdeveloped humans, for the most parts.
When it comes to Godzilla, from before like "King of the Monsters" or even his Monsterverse debut, he's more like an anti-hero where he fought numerous evil Titans like MUTOs and even Ghidorah, which many people might considered him as like a god. Here in this movie, his anti-hero goes chaotic that he went into a threat at the humanities, for what reason he does that is just beyond me or even the fans.
As for Kong, he's also sorta being good towards humans, even if they pushed the line at the big ape. But this time, thanks to Jia like a daughter figure, it seems that he's somewhat giving a respect at the humanity, especially to giving a sympathetic element that he wants home after his Skull Island being taken by the Monarch with dome.
As for the humans, with the exception of Jia (played by young Kaylee Hottle) being the last person on Skull Island and a daughter figure from Kong which i appreciated, they're pretty forgettable foe their lack of purpose or anything. Despite their acting are fine.
There's Dr. Nathan Lind (played by Alexander Skarsgård) who's a reluctant cartographer and geologist for his study of Hollow Earth with Kong, Dr. Ilene Andrews (played by Rebecca Hall) who's a Monarc member of Linguist, Bernie Hayes (played by Brian Tyree Henry) who's an employee in Apex with his conspiracy theory that nobody cared, Walter Simmons (played by Demián Bichir) who's a typical evil big boss of Apex organization against anybody on his lay (let along Monarch), Maia Simmons (played by Eiza González) who's a top tier executive and daughter of Walter, Josh Valentine (played by Julian Dennison, aka Russell Collins from Deadpool 2) who's a cowardly nerd about Godzilla and Ren Serizawa (played by Shun Oguri) whos the son of Dr. Serizawa who sadly served by purpose what so ever in this movie.
But for whatever reason, Madison Russell (reprised by Millie Bobby Brown) and her dad Dr. Mark (reprised by Kyle Chandler) returned in this movie, but again, they're pretty much forgettable since "King of the Monsters" based on lack of context on their appearances.
While the monsters and Jia herself are fascinating, but its just that the humans are involved felt like a cardboard cutout crowd for pandemic sporting events.
And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, Godzilla vs Kong is a pretty good film to having two icons in ultimate fight. The story is pretty good, the presentation looks fantastic, despite the dark cinematography have some problem that i almost forgot to tell and the writing is not bad. Although i like the development of Jia, Kong and Godzilla, while the rest of humans, despite they may have some developments, but its their writing purpose is pretty much poorly executed in the final result and some other monsters from previous film like King of the Monsters don't make any returns.
If you're a fan of Kaiju film involving two iconic monsters, this is definitely for you, like it won't disappoints you. Or maybe watching the 1962 version by Toho if you love guy in monsters suits.
Sadly, this movie has a controversy, its not just the movie itself, but rather a war between this movie and the Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League, mainly because when Godzilla vs Kong came out, the film was well-received by critics and audience like myself included, but then army of Snyder's cut went after GvK with review bombs in order to destroy this movie. Look, i like DC superheroes, but there's no excuse to make war against either critics or a movie competitor (which GvK is distributed by the same company with Snyder's cut, Warner Bros). So for the love of god, DC community or maybe Kaiju community, please stop making war to picking side for who's better or else...!!
Sorry for my ranting, its just that whenever there's a controversy that pinched my nerve, il point it out.
Anyway, for my rating, im gonna give this one an 8/10. I would've gave it 7, but as a fan of Kaiju film, il give it a bit high.
So this ends of my movie review after my long hiatus, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
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