Godzilla vs. Kong Review

Godzilla vs. Kong is one of the first Blockbuster event films of 2021, a year that promises to be jam packed full of them after so many were delayed from 2020. Already we have Justice League’s Snyder Cut and Raya and the Last Dragon setting social media ablaze. Godzilla vs. Kong is the third in line, and it’s the first that I’ve seen (I’ll be seeing some of the others soon, don’t worry).

A dual sequel to both Godzilla: King of Monsters (which I have seen) and Kong: Skull Island (which I haven’t), Godzilla vs. Kong has about what you’d expect from this expanded kaiju cinematic universe so far; a terrible, completely disposable plot, big, breathtaking monster fights, a little bit too much CGI, and lots and lots of wanton destruction. Like King of Monsters before it, when it’s focusing on the big monsters, it’s a legitimately fun time, but when it focuses on its human cast, which it all too often does, especially in the first half, it’s excruciatingly boring. At the very least, Godzilla vs. Kong isn’t as self-serious as King of Monsters was, so it’s terrible plot is more easily excused in lieu of the crowd pleasing monster fights that people are really here for.

All that being said, it’s a bit lacking compared to its predecessors that I’ve seen in terms of spectacle. Sure, there’s plenty to be had, but if you’re going to watch a movie solely for the huge setpieces and stunning visuals over anything else, I still think King of Monsters has just a little bit more to offer. Despite all of my problems with that film, if the aim was to create pure spectacle, it surely succeeded, at least to an extent. There were so many memorable moments and images that it almost outweighed the absolutely insufferable human drama. Almost. 2014’s Godzilla gets a lot of flack, and a lot of it is justified, but that too has a legitimate, if often extremely fleeting, sense of true wonder and terror that none of its sequels possess.

All that is to say that Godzilla vs. Kong is my least favorite of the bunch that I’ve seen, but… people seem to like it so far, and honestly no matter what I say I’m really not going to add anything meaningful to the conversation. Those who are genuinely invested in a Godzilla vs. King Kong conflict might be disappointed, as the plot really has little to do with a rivalry between the two and they mostly just happen to cross paths a couple of times and fight on sight. But those who just want a good time watching monsters fight will be satisfied, and that seems to be what this film is made for. The kaiju are just as good as in any of these other films, with King Kong especially having a ton of personality and charm in his design and expressions. Plus, the final battle has to be seen to be believed. If I’ve been mostly lukewarm in this review so far, I can say without hesitation that I had a thoroughly fun time watching the three kaiju duke it out in the end – and yes, I did say three. There’s a special guest in this one that absolutely makes the film, in my opinion.

There’s a lot more weird eccentricities this film has – there’s an awful lot of real world conspiracy theories that are brought into the plot in weird, meme-like ways, all of the returning cast from King of Monsters are either insufferably annoying or completely useless, and overall for a $160 million dollar movie I just wish there was more actual effort put in to making it legitimately engaging in some way beyond just a glorified B-movie. I don’t have a problem with B-movies, but I am growing increasingly tired of them costing hundreds of millions of dollars. I had a fun time with this one whenever there weren’t humans taking up the screen, but I really don’t think there’s much legitimate charm here. As I’ve said before, though, people who want to see this know what they want, and they’ll likely get it.