Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
2.5/4
Throughout its seven-year history, MonsterVerse has been one of the weirdest movie franchises out there. 2014’s Godzilla—its first movie—and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island were both fun rides but were also criticized for giving Godzilla and King Kong supporting roles instead of the lead roles that the movies advertised.
After their laughable failed attempt to course correct with 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, we’ve been given the follow-up film, Godzilla vs. Kong, which, as the title suggests, takes the franchise’s two title characters and pins them against each other for our entertainment. I will admit that this does make for a fun movie experience that’s fuelled by spectacular monkey-versus-monster fights and eye-popping special effects, but this film also is extremely lacking when it comes to well-structured characters and a consistent plot.
All of the human characters in the film are ridiculously underdeveloped in more ways than one. Every actor portrays their character as the highest life form around, and they spend the bulk of their screen time desperately searching for a reason why there are relevant (and they wind up never finding that reason).
The characters from the previous movie that show up don’t do this movie any favours and end up sinking the film rather than keeping it afloat. The actors play their exact same characters from the previous film, and no one has changed. For example, the rebellious teenager played by Millie Bobby Brown from Godzilla: King of Monsters still spends the whole movie being rebellious. The concerned father played by Kyle Chandler from Godzilla: King of Monsters is still very concerned about his daughter. The characters haven’t shown growth between movies, never mind during them.
There’s nothing really new or even remotely interesting with these cut-and-paste characters. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the movie would have been much better off just featuring Godzilla and Kong and having no humans in it at all.
In short, if you want Shakespeare, go look somewhere else, but if you want a fun and nonsensical action monster bash, then Godzilla vs. Kong will deliver what you’re after.