Godzilla vs. Kong

Director - Adam Wingard (Blair Witch, Death Note)

Starring - Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood, Tarzan), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things, Enola Holmes), and Rebecca Hall (The Awakening, Iron Man 3)

Release Date - 2021

Genre - Action/Sci-Fi

Tagline - "God vs. King"

Format - Streaming (HBO Max)

Rating (out of 5):

     The recent Godzilla/Monsterverse reimagining has really impressed me.  The first Godzilla film was fun but nothing spectacular or memorable in my opinion.  However, Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters were both fantastic films.  I've watched both several times since their initial release and I absolutely adore them.  When Godzilla vs. Kong was announced I was so fucking excited but I was on the fence once I heard Adam Wingard was in the director's chair.  Up until this point his career was very lackluster to say the least.  In fact, his reimaging of Blair Witch was the lowest rated film that I reviewed the year it was released.  Once the trailer was released I put all doubt behind me and jumped on the hype train.  Yesterday when the film premiered on HBO Max I watched it as soon as I could and it did not let me down.  

     The film picks up a few years after Godzilla: King of the Monsters with Monster Zero long dead and the company Apex has secretly taken it's skull to run experiments on it in hopes of creating a giant robot, Mechagodzilla, to fight Godzilla but they are unable to power it.  They bring in Kong who believe that his ancestors were from the hallowed Earth and a power source there could power the mech.  Kong and a group of scientists travel to the center of the Earth to harness that power but they are betrayed by Apex.  However, something goes wrong and the power source does something to Monster Zero's head which brings Mechagodzilla to life.

     This is the movie I was most looking forward to this year.  Seeing the leaked images and trailer really pulled me in.  After finally watching it I can say that this movie exceeded my expectations.  The last time I had this much fun with a movie was when I watched the first Pacific Rim for the first time.  Since my initial viewings I've already watched Godzilla vs. Kong two more time with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  I fucking loved it.  The acting in this one isn't something that really stands out to me.  The movie's main focus is Godzilla fighting Kong so the cast is there to move the story along.  With that being said there is some characters that I liked and others that I didn't.  Skarsgard takes on a role I was not expecting nor have I seen him in before.  Her really showed how far he can stretch his acting skills and delivered a fun performance.  With that being said, I'm not feeling Millie Bobby Brown in the film.  She seems to be in the way and does absolutely nothing for the story. The conspiracy theorist could have done his part of the film without her tagging along.  The story for this one is more than just two iconic kaiju's fighting.  This installment introduces so many new aspects to the Monsterverse but with a two hour run time they are not fully explored.  Without getting two spoiler heavy I would have loved to see more exploration of the hollowed Earth along with Mechagodzilla.  Neither of which are explored to their fullest.  Finally, the film is absolutely beautiful.  Kong, Godzilla, and Mechagodzilla looks absolutely amazing and their fight scenes are gorgeous.  The visual effects are amazing which just puts this one over the top.  Overall, Godzilla vs. Kong is the jump start to the summer that we needed.  It's big on action and story.  Fans of Godzilla and Kong will really enjoy this installment.