Review: Godzilla vs Kong

 by Dinura Ranmandala

WARNING: THIS REVIEW INCLUDES SPOILERS

In a time where the daily social infrastructure known as life grinds to a halt and new norms overcome our daily routines, you would expect hobbies such as watching movies and other forms of entertainment to change up a bit too. Well with the coming of normality, industries all over the globe are returning back to normal too. With lockdown, Netflix gained over 16 million new customers showing that consumers were more than okay with switching over from traditional cinema viewing to online streaming, carrying on with constant entertainment over the periods we were forced to stay at home. HBO must’ve have looked over that data and tried to cash in on that by releasing the anticipated, American remake of Godzilla vs Kong on different streaming platforms and it seems they have landed on a gold mine with the film making over $300 million internationally so far. Now as far as this movie goes, who wouldn’t be excited to see two of the biggest and most famous monsters in movie history go toe to toe in classic winner takes all style. 

This film was heavily hinted from the credits of the previous movies in the franchise, but was it worth the wait? Personally, I would say it wasn’t on the levels of other higher grossing movies but it had its own charm to it and was able to attract crowds of people who may have never been interested in a movie from this type of genre. Now as a movie it delivers what’s in the title, battles between Godzilla vs King Kong, along with a few extra scenes and a surprise villain near the conclusion. With the reopening of cinemas, I'm sure some people don’t want to be spoiled and I would suggest not reading any further as we dwell deeper into the movie. 

The film opens up with an introduction of Kong and his fellow human “team” consisting of a doctor and deaf girl who shares a connection with Kong, which is only revealed until later. I care little when a film tries to bring a human aspect in the movie, especially when it's about two monsters possibly fighting to the death, so therefore I did not really enjoy the quarrels and forced scenes focusing on these side characters . But I do have to admit that team Kong actually followed a story and you could see slight character development whereas team Godzilla was all over the place and did not follow a recognisable pattern, to me at least. The first action sequence occurred around half an hour into the movie and was well demonstrated, the CGI was very good and you could almost not see a difference between what was shot in real life and what was computer animated. With some human intervention and the old trick of playing dead, the giant ape barely escaped the wrath of Godzilla where the film cuts to its next memorable scene, visiting Hollow Earth. This part of the movie was very eye-catching and memorable as computer effects were able to create a land exactly how you would imagine Earth was like in a prehistoric era, creating a fitting image of the hidden tone behind this movie, how humans are different from animals. The contrast that led me to believe this was the images shot of Hong Kong; a bustling, modern city bustling with life even at the dead of night, and of how each human character acted as team whereas the titans tend to work by themselves. Anyways on with the review. King Kong finds where his ancestor used to rule in the Hollow Earth and finds an axe oddly reminiscent of another famous lightning axe, and another epic battle ensues against the two monsters to which Kong loses again, 2-0. However the sudden twist antagonist in this movie was not Godzilla but was in fact Mecha Godzilla, a change that was not expected and caught me off guard as it was not even slightly shown in the trailer or referenced elsewhere in the story until it’s visual appearance. Our two, newly formed protagonists had to join forces in order to achieve a common goal in which they succeed as “teamwork is the dreamwork”.

In conclusion, I believe that this film had both its ups and downs but very much delivered on the promise of the name. If it weren’t for the forced scenes that tried to convey a story between the side characters I would very much say that this movie was top-notch but don’t let that sway you away from watching this picture as the scenes of action are very much worth it. I would however recommend watching this movie on the big screen solely due to the fact that you will be able to witness the marvels of this movie on a much larger scale.

Rating = 3.5/5