Godzilla vs. Kong

Official Australian release date: 25/3/21. Viewed: 6/4/21.
Director: Adam Wingard
Actors: Kaylee Hottle, Alexander Skarsgard, Rebecca Hall, Millie Bobby Brown
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ finishes (hah!) the Godzilla reboot trilogy (2014’s ‘Godzilla’ & 2019’s ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’) and links with 2017’s ‘Kong: Skull Island’ in Legendary Entertainment’s “monster-verse”. The plot is: Godzilla and Kong are the only remaining “titans” from myth and therefore must fight. It brings back Madison (“Eleven”/Bobby Brown) and Dr Russell (Chandler) from ‘King of the Monsters’, for some reason. But besides the two CGI centerpieces, the only other character of substance is Jia (Hottle), the deaf orphan that can communicate with Kong.

The B plot, revolving around Nathan (Skarsgard), Ilene (Hall), Jia & Walter Simmons (Birchir) trying to get Kong to the “hollow core of the Earth” – ridiculous not-worth-mentioning physics – and C plot following Madison, Josh (“Ricky Baker”/Dennison) & Bernie (Hayes) about trying to prove Godzilla’s innocence, are just padding to get to the required runtime. Otherwise it’d just be a 40min film of two giant monsters fighting!

Which is why it’s not a terrible film – it delivers what it sets out to do. The soundtrack is odd, and when they get to Hong Kong, it turns into ‘Tron’ – including the lighting of the buildings. Not sure why... Some good CGI, with what I imagine a Komodo Dragon fighting a gorilla might be like in real life. A few laugh-out-loud moments and oddly you end up empathizing with Kong as a fellow mammal. Needless to say, I’m sure further sequels will follow.

Overall: Dumb fun popcorn flick.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.