Godzilla vs. Kong

Godzilla vs. Kong is fourth film in the inconsistent Godzilla/Kong franchise that aimed to do a Marvel expanded universe but with big monsters levelling cities instead of people doing the exact same in spandex. I found the first Godzilla film to be fairly entertaining with its dark and atmospheric approach which was sadly ditched in the rather lacklustre sequel with an abundance of annoying characters. Kong: Skull Island meanwhile was a fairly solid action adventure set during the Vietnam War that was far from perfect but I'd consider it to be the best of the lot, and now the two big beasts come to fight. Why are they fighting? Some macguffin that is poorly explained in this 2021 action flick.

The plot is paper-thin but essentially something has caused Godzilla to turn on humanity and Kong is put to use as Earth's last line of defence. There's also some human drama as Millie Bobby Brown returns to sleuth around a shady facility while Alexander Skarsgård and Rebecca Hall enter strange new dimensions that could help Kong save the day. 

Godzilla: King of the Monsters from 2019 suffered the most from annoyingly comical human characters who were poorly written and served little more than tools to deliver exposition and the same can be sadly said here again. Director Adam Wingard claims he has a five hour cut somewhere and it seems like he put a lot of passion into this which might have been cruelly left on the cutting room floor at the request of the producers. If that's the case, it would be a shame as what we have here story-wise is not good at all and ends so swiftly that I can't imagine this is how the screenwriters envisioned the film. 

Thankfully the action, when the big beasts come together, is quite thrilling to watch and carries with it more of that sense of scale seen in the 2014 Godzilla film. The score is also fantastic as it helps to raise the stakes before the two giants collide but unfortunately the film spends too much time with its human cast who needed a better screenplay if this was to be worth recommending as their scenes are what leave this film ending on a sour note. It is an easy watch if you're in search of some escapist destruction with the two iconic beasts but it seems the studio botched this in the editing room making it one I wouldn't come back to.