Monsters clash in "Godzilla vs Kong", the new movie directed by Adam Wingard. It's a continuation of the Warner Bros 'Monsterverse' of films and sees a group attempt to find Kong a safe haven from Godzilla, whose momentary peace with the human race has seemingly ended after he once again proceeds to rampage throughout the big cities. Desperate for any solution, the group puts their trust in Kong and the cybernetics company Apex who are hiding some shady dealings underneath the surface.
This is a perfect popcorn movie with non-stop action and a faster pace than the previous films running about an 1hr and 50min or so. While it really helps get you into the action quicker, I have to be the nitpicker and say that I wish it was a bit longer because I was so into it all. My only real gripe with the story overall is the lack of any additional lore to the film's setting. What we know about the monsters (Or Titans as they're called here) is mostly been given to us in previous entries. That being said, fans of both franchises will love the dozens of Easter Eggs throughout, with some being so obscure and others beautiful modern homages.
Wingard and writers Max Borenstein & Eric Pearson clearly have a love for kaiju and are knowledgeable of each creature's lore and gives them different advantages to make you wonder just who is going to win each fight? Many 'vs.' films of the past would usually cop out so as not to offend one side or the other but here we do get a definitive winner plus a nice final bout at the end which I'll not spoil here. The film may also disappoint some fans of the Big G as despite his name coming first, this really is more Kong's film as he is given a pretty extensive arc throughout. Godzilla is kind of the big green wall blocking his path most of the time.
My biggest gripe with the film as a whole is some of the human characters which could be contributed to both writing and the shorter length. The people who got the short end of the stick is probably Millie Brown and Kyle Chandler, returning from the previous film but are little more than cameos. Chandler is almost non-existent and Brown is unfortunately paired with the two most annoying characters drowning out her role in the process. And again I have to put down Junkie XL's score here and I have to say I'm getting sick of talking about this guy. Bear McCreary's previous work on "King of the Monsters" was amazing with little slices of the iconic Godzilla theme making for one of his best scores. Here, it's about as generic as you can get with no inclusions of either Kong's or Godzilla's themes and is overall another forgettable score from the man.
This is still overall the best of this 'Monsterverse' film franchise and well worth seeing in theaters if you can. It deserves the praise and hype and really gets you pumped up. "Godzilla vs Kong" is a keeper.
B+
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