Godzilla vs. Kong Movie Review
Nathan Swank
April 6th, 2021
It has been far too long since we had a proper mindless blockbuster to ease our troubles away. It’s funny to think that I have been craving this very thing. GODZILLA VS. KONG is the big dumb movie our world both deserves and needs right now.
After GODZILLA (2014), KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017), and GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019), GODZILLA VS. KONG is the fourth installment of the recent Kaiju monster universe. Once considered the world savior, Godzilla makes a coastal appearance to wreak havoc. This prompts a plan to release King Kong who has been held secret in a Truman Show-esque paradise captivity of sorts. The idea is that Kong will either lead humanity to something that can defeat Godzilla in a hole that leads to a wild mystical land in the middle of the earth called Hollow Earth or defeat Godzilla himself.
There are also a couple of human subplots. The good – Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a deaf little girl who has a relationship with Kong and seems to be the one person able to communicate with him. Jia is under the care of Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and following orders from task force leader Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgard). The bad – Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) and best friend Josh (Julian Dennison) track down conspiracy theorist Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) to uncover a super secret project by billionaire CEO Walter Simmons (Demian Bichir) that seems to be causing Godzilla to attack.
These elements are not all that necessary. But the portion I labeled as “good” does give a bit of heart and definitely creates Kong as a sympathetic character. The portion I labeled as “bad” provides a little bit of comic relief from Tyree Henry, but ultimately could have been cut completely or at least shortened drastically to make a tighter, more entertaining film. In every Kaiju film it’s the people aspect which is the most boring and it’s no different here. Sure it usually has a bit of underlying bigger statement about the nature of people or how we treat the world, but it’s also the least effective, while waiting for the big monsters to get on screen and fight.
Thankfully Kong and Godzilla fill up most of the 113-minute runtime. And it does not disappoint. There are two major action set pieces between the two that are impressively staged with great special effects and fun monster punching, biting, or super power breathing. The middle earth portion is a bit weird, but the trek across and eventual Jaws-like Godzilla attack at sea is incredible. And the final battle with a somewhat surprise twist to things is about everything one can hope for in a movie like this. The PG-13 rating is, I assume, mostly due to the monster fights, which makes GODZILLA VS. KONG, I believe, surprisingly suitable for even younger kids…as long as you fast forward a bit through the boring talkity talk from humans. After a year-long hiatus from theaters and blockbuster movies postponing release dates, the big, dumb, fun action in GODZILLA VS. KONG is like a breath of fresh air.
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