Godzilla vs. Kong 2021

Set after the conclusion of the last film, when Godzilla battered the living daylights out of Ghidorah we have another King Kong, Godzilla blockbuster. The whole point of this film, regardless of plot, or actors, is to see these two CGI behemoths pummelling the tar out of each other. So, for all intents and purposes this film completely fulfils its purpose. Godzilla and Kong do batter, punch, kick, fire breath and ram things into each other’s heads all over the place, out at sea, and Hong Kong, which they flatten with some aplomb, in garish, confusing mishmash of roaring, punching, kicking and deafening roaring action.

The actors do not far so well. The story is a bare sketch the sole purpose to get the monsters to fight. For a film, that I guess must really be trying to appeal to younger children at the most the child actors are at the forefront the human action. They do not beat the monsters on screen, but they do beat the adult actors into the background. With preposterous silliness to play with the three main youngsters acquit themselves very well. Millie Bobby Brown is already an established and fine actor so we know that any scenes are going to be fun and believable, equally Julian Dennison since his breakout role in Hunt for the Wilderpeople carries the role of comedy sidekick skilfully and with the ease that some much older and more experienced actors could learn from. Entirely deaf Kaylee Hottle is the newbie and is quite enchanting. The children are the resourceful heroes of the day and should at least get their contemporaries in the audience whooping with joy as unbelievable as their shenanigans are.\

This leaves us with the adults, good actors too, but they are very much trailing behind 300-foot monsters, super-kids, explosions and collapsing buildings. Lumbered with not much characterisation, nails on blackboard dialogue they do their best and leap and jump and look concerned through the running time.

The CGI and effects are good, you can see where the money has been spent although it is for me, once again, noise and light salad, much less than the sum of its parts.

All in all, as a monsters fighting film this is good. Anything else and the weaknesses show. I know that Godzilla vs Kong has many fans old and young alike but purely from my point of view once again we are taking a trip to the continent of Non-Plussed-Land. As my grand daughter said after Skull Island why did they CGI Kong to look like a man in a suit and here we are clearly following the original series and not King Kong, either 1930s or Peter Jackson variants. I just prefer my giant apes not 300 feet tall and to resemble a real ape but that is just me.

Some points to note.

1. Kong was constantly called a monkey throughout the film. Is this a deliberate wind-up by the filmmakers, if it is, not funny, if not that’s probably worse, ignorance.

2. The exceptionally beautiful Eiza González gets killed again, the last film I saw her in was Baby Driver.

3. Over the course of these three films in this monster universe how many people are killed? Honestly it must be millions and the cost of rebuilding would bankrupt the world.

I know it is a silly monster film, I know we are not supposed to take it seriously, but these are the things that just get into under my skin and stay there. I think about them when I am watching the film.

If you like monsters lathering the bejesuses out of each other this is the film for you, if you like some sort of logical storyline to go with this battle, maybe not so much.

Ok it's a good movie and I'll tell you why. It's a eye candy for people who wanted a battle between Godzilla and Kong. Simple as that. I liked it too.
BUT. But but but... the story, was hella weak. Yes it was entertaining on the action side which I get that's what is mostly expected out of it. But seriously WTF were they thinking with the plot. Maybe they weren't? The downloading of power stuff was BS imo. It was centred around Kong more and I felt like the movie went by real fast. You will only remember this movie for it's high tech awesome monster battles and emphasis on high tech.
Surely this movie disappointed many, me included but the battle was extravagant. Kinda. It's a good entertaining movie. But it didn't satisfy the soul of the audience surely. And I think it was predestined to end the way it ended. Both Godzilla and Kong are major creatures and we don't actually want any of them to die... right? Right. We don't.
Trust me you would have cried either way, no matter which creature you supported. Team Godzilla or Team Kong, either of them died I would have cried like there was no tomorrow. Even though I was Team Godzilla.
6/10 cz it was fair. :person_shrugging_tone1:

"There can't be two Alpha Titans."

I must come forward with this straight away, even though this has Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) as a podcast maker, the human characters still didn't grab me. Enjoyed Kong's connection with Jia (Kaylee Hottle) but other than that, no.

But let us be honest, we don't come for the human characters. They can elevate the film but it is not why we are here. We are here for huge Kaiju/Titan fights! And boy this does deliver. We can clearly see whats happening which is a plus, we have a fight out on sea and a city battle. They even throw Mecha-Godzilla. One of my favorites! So we get 3 huge battles, we get Kong being freaking brutal and doing some Sub-Zero fatality shit, we have Kong summon his inner Riggs to relocate his shoulder, the best shot of Godzilla and Kong screaming to each other and we get the right winner.

I hope they expand on the MonsterVerse. Maybe get Gigan to earth next time? or the DESTROYAH? Anyway Godzilla vs. Kong is really worth a watch, it's under two hours which is such a plus and the CGI looks fantastic and the fights are all worth it.

It's still amazing that these two Cinematic Legends are still going strong.

What happens when a laser-spewing, self-declared 'King of Monsters', angry lizard meets a chest-thumping, sign-language speaking, angry simian: Mayhem.

Godzilla vs Kong, the latest offering from WB's Monster-verse lives upto the hype. Set a few years after the events of Godzilla: King of Monsters, the movie begins with getting us up-to-date with what has happened to Kong since 'Kong: Skull Island'.

Right at the outset, we have Team Kong in one corner, led by Dr. Ilene Andrews' and Jia, the last of the natives from Skull Island after it is destroyed by Skull Crawlers. And, in the other corner, we have the Team Godzilla, led by Madison Russell (Millie Bobbie Brown reprising her role from the previous movie).

After Godzilla goes on a rampage in one of the Apex facilities, Walter Simmons, Apex CEO, recruits the help of Team Kong to try and use Kong to find Hollow Earth, home of the Titans. Meanwhile, Team Godzilla, believing that Godzilla would not go berserk on the humans for no reason, start investigating the destroyed Apex facility.

While the involvement of two different human agencies might have rendered the movie a bit boring, the writers spring enough surprises along each of the teams' humans' journey to keep us hooked on till the next fight/Titan sighting in the movie.

Quite frankly, this isn't a movie one watches to delve into the vast spectrum of human emotions or anything remotely approaching that (in fact, there are quite a few casualties during the Godzilla vs Kong slugfest).

This is a movie we watch to enjoy two of the oldest and most amazing monsters in popular culture go mano-a-mano against each other. And, the movie delivers on that aspect.

Probably, the only sad thing about this movie is that it will not be watched by enough people in theatres owing to the current pandemic. But, it is nevertheless worth a watch to forget the times that we live in for a while.

Before I begin, I would like all the folks hating on, or disappointed by this movie, to enter "King Kong vs Godzilla" into Trakt.tv's search box, then take a moment to peruse the various thumbnails in the results. This is the bloodline, history and evolution of the concept. It is NOT, nor has it EVER been, (IMO) about high concept Shakespearian art and melodramatic pathos, but the spectacle of two big azz critters the size of buildings wreaking havoc on their surroundings, (especially the afore mentioned buildings) and each other. With each iteration, the special effects have changed, (no more stop motion capture or guys in the ultimate rubber gimp suits, to ever improving and now (by comparison) spectacular computer generated SFX that make it SO easy to suspend the suspension of disbelief, that some viewers seem to forget that these were always at their heart fun, entertaining monster movies, made to put butts in the theater seats and sell overpriced popcorn and snackos, an afternoon or evenings diversion from the mundane and humdrum existence of of ordinary folks lives.

So yes, if you go into this hoping for some profound revelation on mans inhumanity to man, or his his relationship and impact on the ecosystem, or the evils of the industrial military complex, you will probably come away disappointed .However, I would akin it to buying tickets for WWE Royal Rumble, and then being upset that you didn't get Ali vs. Frazier or Mike Tyson (in his prime) vs. ANYBODY.

The tyranny of too high expectations perhaps?

Believe it or not, it's been just about a YEAR since we've been able to see movies in an actual theater, so, I for one was simply glad to be able to enjoy the movie experience as the studios and Directors intended. The "distancing" restrictions IMO actually made the experience more pleasant, as anyone who ever just gotten comfortable in their "DELUXE recliner seat", only to have a sweaty overly cologne'd "big boned" individual with the Kaiju sized popcorn tub plop down next to you, while the couple with the male who has to explain everything going on during the movie to his date occupy the seats on the other side. (Not mad at the brothers who yell at the screen during martial arts and horror movies, cuz, that's prolly genetic, and actually enhances the experience)

Some have commented on the lack of actual thespian activity from the cast as well as the lack of a detailed narrative storyline, and, I actually have two theories about that. One is that they had to spend so much money to make sure the SFX weren't laughable, thus, reducing the $$ available for the cast, and two, that due to filming restrictions, it was probably difficult to properly film dialog heavy scenes, thus the multitude of scenes where the actor is simply emoting at the camera, or monologuing back and forth in quick edits. Also, as the creatures are purely CGI, there was probably either a comic looking stand in on stilts or just a ping pong ball on a stick to give the actors an eyeline, so, I will forgive them for just trying to keep a straight face and get through the scene. Perhaps though, we will eventually get a "Zack Snyder" cut, and learn that a lot was indeed left on the cutting room floor.

As for the story, If you followed what little dialog there was, they pretty much laid it all out, although, in a in a Cliff Notes version, so, as long as you paid attention and weren't preoccupied with mentally disabusing what was being presented. They seemed to be banking on the fact the the audience was familiar with the mythology and back story, so, most of the time was spent pushing the "revised " version of events, rather than dwelling on the minutia of the past.

I liked the relationship between Kong and the little deaf girl, and, it was heartwarming to see him struggle with his obvious anger and frustration at being held captive, (even if it was for his protection, as well as Monarch's benefit) and yet, putting his instinctive trust in the human he has bonded to. Rebecca Hall to was believable as her guardian, who wanted to protect her, yet was willing to exploit her relationship with Kong as long as it benefitted her research. Bryan Tyree Henrys role appears to have been to give Millie Bobby Brown something to do, by co-opting his quest for truth so that she could discover why HER "big guy" was having a seeming change of heart toward humanity, or, an extreme temper tantrum. It's just good that her Dad hadn't figured out how to turn on the "find my phone" feature on his daughters cell, or, he would have had pretty much NO dialog in the movie. Always good to see Lance Reddick back in "Fringe" mode, even if only for a minute or two.

The bad guy was charming if not perfunctory, his daughter, not so much. Karma had a kiss for BOTH of them in the end. it was kind of melancholy when Kong first found his way home, after all, what good is a throne and a kingdom, if you have no courtesans' or subjects?

As for the royal rumble(s) themselves? In the end, unlike Ali and Frazier who started out friends and became enemies, here our two Titans discovered that, while they might never get past being "frenemies" they DO share the common goal of keeping humanity safe, and, in that regard, as long as there is the possibility of a reemerging threat, perhaps being the ultimate "tag team" isn't such a bad idea. Until that time, he has tropical life in the upside down with lots of dragon brain snackos, and boat drinks for everyone else.

It has a better story than “monsters killed my son but let’s unleash them all to cure the planet of Climate Change.” The film also has better reviews due to being shorter than King of the Monsters. Critics don’t have long attention spans.
Godzilla vs King Kong though has so many human characters and the two giants, that it should be longer. With that said I was entertained throughout.
Adam Wingard’s last two movies were a not so great Blair Witch sequel and a disappointing Death Note adaptation. So I didn’t have much faith him despite him doing You’re Next and the Guest.
He instantly shows he can handle a movie this big. It is well made and visually stunning. However it is more like a Journey to Center of the Earth 1950’s science fiction movie. Than it is a non-stop battle between big monsters.
It takes a long while before you get a good battle between the two. While it is much more of a Kong movie than a Godzilla movie. Kong has the most screen time.
The under-rated King of the Monsters. Made for a better creature feature. Godzilla vs King Kong makes for a good old fashioned science fiction film, though.