Picking up five years after the events of Godzilla: King Monsters, the latest entry in the ‘monsterverse’ finally unites two of movie’s biggest creatures and promises to deliver a fight for the ages. Director Adam Wingard (You’re Next, The Guest) takes the reins here and delivers a chaotic but very entertaining film.
Godzilla vs. Kong is shamelessly silly sci-fi. Although it will prove “a little” far-fetched and hard to follow for some tastes, the film’s pace never slows and it is refreshing to see a big budget blockbuster that doesn’t get bogged down in clumsy details. That’s not to say the narrative is the strong point here but it’s nice to see a blockbuster clock in at just under the two-hour mark for a change. This is a film that absolutely knows what it’s here to do and brings the action thick and fast.
The plot is absolute nonsense and to the film’s credit it doesn’t seem to care. Every small piece of exposition is put in place to facilitate the monsters fighting and set up an ever increasing level of on screen destruction. Thankfully the set pieces look absolutely superb. The sense of scale is incredible and the monster fights do not disappoint. Godzilla and Kong smash each other around some stunning locations from a physics defying ruck across some warships to a neon drenched Hong Kong. The film never fails to impress visually and it has a sense of scale that will make you long for the reopening of cinemas!
Human characters don’t fare as well as the monsters though and it’s a little bit of shame to see such a talented cast go to waste. They aren’t really given anything to do apart from move the narrative forward and (which is a problem shared with the film’s predecessor, ‘King of Monsters’). Indeed there’s so many of them on screen that’s it’s difficult to care about them at all, but it’s doubtful that anyone came to this film looking for strong character piece in the first place.
*Spoiler warning*
The (already leaked) introduction of a classic Godzilla nemesis in the later stage of the film is an absolute treat for long standing fans but does risk undermining the main event of the film. It seems to be a common trope in the ‘sub genre’ of vs films that the main event isn’t enough and a bigger antagonist is needed to up the ante towards the end. Essentially it’s a get out of jail free card that results in the film never having to pick a winner, which is a bit of a cop out when the marketing promises a clear winner.
*Spoiler ends*
Faults aside, Godzilla vs. Kong is an absolute blast, it rockets along at such a pace there’s rarely time to stop and question exactly what’s going on and with a plot this silly that’s a good thing. Fans of big monsters and even bigger destruction will find a lot to like here.
Author: Paul, Bath store
