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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall
Director: Adam Wingard
Running Time: 113 mins
Godzilla vs. Kong is an American film and the follow up to Godzilla: King Of The Monsters and Kong: Skull Island. As the world comes under threat from Godzilla once again, Kong is brought out to defend humanity and the Earth, where only one titan of nature can remain.
It’s been of a bumpy road to get to this point, with the entertaining albeit disjointed trilogy of Godzilla, Skull Island and King Of The Monsters, but here we are. The boss fight.
If you’re watching a movie called “Kong vs. Godzilla”, that’s exactly what you want to see. A big monkey and a big lizard punching each other. In the face. And thankfully, having learned from the errors of previous films in the trilogy, that’s exactly what Kong vs. Godzilla delivers: dumb, but ludicrously entertaining blockbuster action.
I’ll start off by saying that if you’re looking for any semblance of sensible storytelling, then Kong vs. Godzilla is not the movie for you. This film doesn’t have the gravitas of Godzilla, the charisma of Skull Island, or even the structure of King Of The Monsters. But once again, what it does have is a monkey and a lizard. Punching each other.
And it’s films like Kong vs. Godzilla that are actually a wonderful reminder of how important it is to sit back and have some fun at the movies. Big on action, big on special effects, and beyond preposterous throughout, I was beaming from ear to ear as I watched this titan throwdown on the biggest of screens.
While the movie takes a little while to get started, it certainly wastes no time in getting to the monsters you’ve come to see. Godzilla is as menacing as ever, but King Kong is the real standout here, and actually the funniest character in the whole movie.
This is a long, long way from the legendary “beauty that killed the beast” King Kong, but nothing can ever top that. Kong vs. Godzilla takes two classic characters and crafts the most insane story to have them come together in an epic battle, with fighting and destruction right at the top of the order.
That said, it would be wrong to say that this film lacks any real substance. It’s not an emotionally or dramatically interesting movie, but Kong vs. Godzilla does have a lot going on, with a huge cast of human characters, along with so much out-of-left-field sci-fi lore being thrown at you throughout.
As a result, the film’s brevity is admirable, never lingering too long where many recent Hollywood blockbusters would be pushing towards the three-hour mark. Again, Kong vs. Godzilla isn’t a masterpiece of screenwriting, but what’s most important is that it’s a really fun watch from start to finish, with almost no dull moments.
Complete with mind-blowing special effects that we basically take for granted nowadays, the movie’s action is spectacular. In particular, the epic final battle sequence is a perfect piece of blockbuster cinema, and once again put the biggest smile on my face as the story came to a close.
There’s no denying that Kong vs. Godzilla is a dumb movie. But when it’s so ludicrous, and so, so much fun to watch, who really cares? A spectacular action extravaganza that never thinks of itself as anything more than an epic monster battle movie, this is the kind of classic blockbuster cinema that’s always a real joy to watch. And that’s why I’m giving Kong vs. Godzilla a 7.5 overall.
