MONSTER MASH: A Godzilla vs. Kong Movie Review

[Minor spoiler warning, I’ll try my best not to give too much away but watch the movie and come back to this.]

After three Monsterverse movies in a seven-year span, audiences finally get to witness the two titans duke it out. To get to the point, did I enjoy it? Oh heck yeah, and you will too. There are things to nitpick from this movie, but it will not stop you from having a good time. To fully enjoy this and get up to speed; hopefully, you and whoever you are watching with are already caught up with Legendary’s Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). In this series, this is Godzilla’s third appearance, whereas this is Kong’s second. Godzilla vs. Kong (GvK) gives us a fair amount of screen time with these two, and their multitude of fights does not disappoint. It lives up to two words: kickass.

Remember that this is a movie for the kaiju fans and casual action craving moviegoers who just want to be entertained. If you’re one who’s not a fan of either and not really in the mood for a CGI-cartoon slugfest between two movie icons, then this is not for you. Now onto what worked and didn’t work in this movie. To get the cons out of the way, almost every giant monster movie suffers from the human scenes. You’re not going to get an Oscar worthy performance with these movies. The closest they ever got was the Joe Brody character played by Bryan Cranston in the 2014 Godzilla. Not to say the human characters were ALL bad, one character that stood out the most was Jia, played by Kaylee Hottle. She is an orphan that has a bond with Kong. The humans in these movies serve as exposition, but they should also serve as us being in their situation.

Now onto the good stuff. GvK is more of a Kong movie, given this is only his second film of the franchise. Whereas Godzilla was fleshed out in three. Despite this, both had a fair amount of screen time. The character of Jia was interesting giving that she had an almost psychic connection with Kong. This gives human qualities to Kong, helping the audience connect with the titan ape. Also, Toho, the film company that owns Godzilla, gave WB/Legendary one rule to follow, and that was to not give their kaiju to emote human-like qualities. Judging from the trailers and movie we’ve seen, Godzilla comes off as the villain in this. All I can say is this movie is a giant, fun rollercoaster. Fans will be able to spot many nods to past movies and audiences going in will have a good time. I must add there’s many key moments in the film that pay tribute to the Universal Studios Tour Ride and Citywalk. Once you see the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Director Adam Wingard did a successful job delivering a versus movie that did not fall short. One of the coolest things about this movie is that we also get a bonus monster in this, and I got to say, holy sh*t just watch the movie and enjoy! We hope there’s more Monsterverse movies in the works. Kaiju fans need to see Legendary’s take on Gigan, Orga, Mecha-Ghidorah, Anguirus, Destoroyah(!), and Jet Jaguar, just to name a few.

Godzilla vs. Kong is out in theaters and available on HBO Max until the end of April. Seeing this in IMAX was a must. If you plan on going to see this in theaters, please remember to be safe, be respectful to others, wash your hands, and wear a mask still. Godzilla and Kong remind us in a way that movie theaters have a special place in our lives, and it’s that reminder that we just need that ‘escape from reality’ feeling. It was nice to have that normalcy again- through giant monsters rampaging in big cities.

I give Godzilla vs. Kong:

4 out of 5 Kong Axes for the monsters, the action, and the “surprise entry,” but it still needs to work on their human scenes and a stinger.