Godzilla vs. Kong
warner brosAdam Wingard's Godzilla vs. Kong finally reaches the major climax of Legendary's newest incarnation of the MonsterVerse, which has been steadily building since 2014's Godzilla. Bringing the two titular characters of this cinematic universe together in a heated clash for dominance, Godzilla vs. Kong promises to be the large blockbuster experience that the film industry has been lacking over the past year but ultimately fails to deliver on that promise, becoming the worst combination of uninspired cliches and lackluster craft.
Possibly the biggest sin that this film commits is how it handles the titular fight it promotes and promises. Every piece of marketing surrounding this film for years has been built around the eventual clash of these two all-powerful titans, with the film and filmmakers behind the project promising a worthwhile and satisfying fight between the two. Instead of actually delivering this, the film nearly immediately undermines itself and this conflict by playing into nearly every harmful cliche that this type of film could have. Whilst there is a fight between these characters and even an eventual winner, this action is far too short and forgettable to truly feel satisfying to the hype given to it.
Whilst it clearly is unreasonable to expect this fight to take up the film's entire 113-minute runtime, it seems obvious that it would be the focus of the film, but even that isn't the route Godzilla vs. Kong takes. Very early in the film, there is an alternative side plot that clearly is going to be the climax of the film – immediately causing the actual fight between Godzilla and Kong to feel less important. For the majority, the film also uses a plot that keeps both Godzilla and Kong separate not enabling the feeling that the film was building to the final battle between the two monsters.
Instead, the film splits its attention between two separate plots that feel as if they have nearly nothing to do with each other. While Kong is being transported from Skull Island to Antarctica to help lead an expedition into the hollow Earth, Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) is exploring a mysterious government conspiracy. The film continually switches between these two stories, creating genuinely horrific pacing for the film. It takes way too long for either story to feel like it finds any true development, as it cuts away right before the next reveal – feeling more frustrating and boring than anything else. It doesn't help that these human characters are some of the least interesting of the entire franchise, both in writing and performances.
At no point does any individual human feel truly interesting in the slightest, with those like Brian Tyree Henry, Julian Dennison, and Kyle Chandler giving truly awful performances. Even those who are more competent, such as Millie Bobby Brown and Rebecca Hall, feel completely unneeded and out of place both practically and narratively. Having human connections with these monsters adds nearly nothing to their characters and feels like the film simply trying to fill a cliche that has been established through the history of these characters on film.
The humans are not the only piece of the film that feels like a step down from the pre-established quality of the franchise at this point. The visual effects are surprisingly bad for the majority of the film, with the exception being the final neon-lit fight in Hong Kong. Even simple effects like fire surrounding Godzilla look absolutely terrible and unnatural, which is surprising coming from a series that has historically featured consistently solid CGI even if the color pallets and visual styles have sometimes been a mistake.
Godzilla vs. Kong immediately becomes one of the biggest disappointments of 2021 in film. Whilst the path seemed so obvious for the film to be a fun, epic battle, the feature somehow drops the ball at nearly every turn. Overwritten with a serious lack of even half-interesting ideas, the film feels like far more than a chore than it ever should. If this truly is the closing chapter of the MonsterVerse, the franchise can pat itself on the back for reaching the end – even if the franchise overall was filled with mistakes and questionable choices that caused the series of films to never find their footing. If this is simply the end of the first chapter and there is more to come, the film fails the franchise and causes no sense of excitement for what is to come next.
