Godzilla vs. Kong
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Godzilla vs. Kong is the fourth film in the Monsterverse franchise and the fourth American produced film of the Godzilla franchise which sees Kong clashes with Godzilla after the Monarch organization moves the ape from Skull Island to the Hollow Earth, homeworld of the monsters known as “Titans”, and to retrieve a power source for a secret weapon intended to stop Godzilla’s mysterious attacks. The film is directed by Adam Wingard using the screenplay by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein based off the story by Terry Rossio, Michael Dougherty, and Zach Shields.

Five years after the three headed dragon-like extraterrestrial, King Ghidorah, awakened giant monsters, known as “Titans”, and was defeated by Godzilla, Kong is monitored by Monarch within a giant dome on Skull Island, which has been struck by a perpetual storm. Jia, the last Iwi native and young adopted daughter of Kong expert Ilene Andrews, visits Kong. Jia is deaf and communicates using American Sign Language. Andrews grows concerned that the storm will eventually consume the island, but she dismisses ideas to move Kong to a new home, fearing that Godzilla would come for him once he leaves the island.

Apex Cybernetics employee and Titan conspiracy podcast host Bernie Hayes extracts data suggesting sinister activities at Apex’s Pensacola facility. Godzilla suddenly attacks the facility and Bernie stumbles on a massive device emitting a beacon during the rampage. Madison Russell, a listener to Bernie’s podcast, enlists her friend Josh Valentine to investigate Godzilla’s attacks.

Apex CEO Walter Simmons recruits former Monarch scientist and Hollow Earth theorist Nathan Lind to guide a search for a power source into the Hollow Earth, the Titans’ home world. Lind is hesitant as his brother died in a previous expedition to the Hollow Earth due to a strong reverse-gravitational effect. He agrees after Walter reveals that Apex has developed HEAVs (Hollow Earth Anti-gravitational Vehicles), specialized craft able to withstand the gravity field.

Lind convinces Andrews to let Kong guide them via an entrance in Antarctica. Lind, Andrews, and an Apex team led by Walter’s daughter Maia board a barge escorted by the US Navy, carrying a sedated and restrained Kong. Godzilla attacks the convoy and defeats Kong, then retreats after the ships trick him into thinking they are destroyed. Kong is airlifted to the Hollow Earth entrance, and the team follows him into the tunnel in the HEAVs.

Bernie joins Madison and Josh in their investigation. They sneak into the wrecked Apex base, discover a secret underground facility, and become locked into a hyperloop transport to Apex’s Hong Kong headquarters where they find a test of Mechagodzilla, which is telepathically controlled by Ren Serizawa, the son of the late Ishirō Serizawa, via neural networks from the severed head of Ghidorah. Walter intends to harness the Hollow Earth’s energy to overcome Mechagodzilla’s power supply limitations.

Inside the Hollow Earth, Kong and the team find an ecosystem similar to Skull Island. In his species’ ancestral throne room, they find the remains of an ancient war with Godzilla’s kind and a glowing axe made from another of Godzilla’s dorsal plates. Identifying the power source, the Apex team sends its signature back to their Hong Kong base despite Andrews’ protests. Attracted by Mechagodzilla’s activation, Godzilla arrives in Hong Kong and, sensing Kong’s presence, blasts a hole through the earth with his atomic breath. After provoking him with gunfire, Maia and the Apex team’s HEAV is crushed by Kong. Kong, Andrews, Jia, and Lind ascend to Hong Kong, where Kong engages Godzilla in a final battle. Godzilla emerges victorious, leaving Kong in a bradycardia state.

Madison, Josh, and Bernie are caught by security and taken to Walter, who orders Ren to activate Mechagodzilla. Now possessed by Ghidorah’s consciousness, Mechagodzilla kills Walter, electrocutes Ren, attacks Hong Kong, and overpowers Godzilla. Lind revives the dying Kong by detonating the HEAV on his chest, acting like a defibrillator. Jia convinces Kong to help Godzilla, who is nearly killed before Kong saves him. As Mechagodzilla overpowers both Titans, Josh momentarily short-circuits Mechagodzilla’s controls with Bernie’s liquor. Godzilla charges Kong’s axe with his atomic breath, allowing Kong to destroy Mechagodzilla. Madison, Bernie, and Josh reunite with Madison’s father, Mark, while Godzilla and Kong acknowledge each other and go their separate ways.

Sometime later, Monarch establishes an observation post in Hollow Earth, where Kong now rules.

Godzilla vs. Kong has a 113-minute run time and fantastically paced as that there isn’t a dull moment.  Like every film in this genre, the monsters and the humans share billing and have semi-independent subplots though each’s quality isn’t always the same.  Unlike other Monsterverse films, the human characters were on average underwhelming especially the “villains” of the film, the Simmons father and daughter.  Millie Bobbie Brown and Brian Tyree Henry’s characters Madison Russell and Bernie Hayes were the most entertaining characters, playing off one another well, unfortunately how they meet up is a bit contrived.  As for the monsters, they were fantastic not only in how they looked, fought, and interacted with one another and humans—particularly Kong’s friendship with Kaylee Hottle’s Jia—thus giving them a lot to do.  I like how Ghidorah’s lost head is part of the creation of Mechagodzilla besides being totally a human technological development, mixing the alien and human backgrounds of the Toho versions.  While some are upset that Godzilla couldn’t handle Mechagodzilla on his own, I had no problem given he had just had a hard fight with Kong and that even Godzilla need some assistance from Mothra in the previous film; in fact, Godzilla showing intelligence to repower Kong’s ax makes him more than a “mindless” type of monster.  Overall, one watches monster films for the monsters and this film delivers, while the human characters average as underwhelming their subplots don’t bog things down, and this combination makes this a fun film to watch.

Godzilla vs. Kong is an entertaining monster film, which keeps the viewer hooked throughout and delivers where it matters monsters and their fights.

Godzilla

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the sequel to the highly successful 2014 film and the third installment in the Monsterverse as eco-terrorists release King Ghidorah resulting in havoc as the alien monster awakens other monster “Titans” leading to final confrontation against Godzilla that includes Mothra and Rodan.  The film is directed by Michael Dougherty using the screenplay he co-wrote with Zach Shield using a story they created with Max Borenstein.

Five years after the revelation of giant monsters, called “Titans”, Dr. Emma Russell, a paleobiologist working for the Titan-studying organization Monarch, and her daughter Madison witness the birth of a giant larva named Mothra. Emma calms Mothra with the “Orca”, a device that emits bioacoustic frequencies to attract Titans or alter their behavior. A group of eco-terrorists, led by former British Army Colonel Alan Jonah, attacks the base and abducts Emma and Madison, while Mothra flees and pupates under a nearby waterfall.

Monarch scientists Dr. Ishirō Serizawa and Vivienne Graham approach former employee Dr. Mark Russell, Emma’s ex-husband and Madison’s father, to help track them down. Mark is initially reluctant due to his hatred toward Godzilla, whom he blames for his son Andrew’s death in San Francisco, but eventually agrees. The Monarch team follows Godzilla to Antarctica, where Jonah plans to free a three-headed Titan codenamed “Monster Zero”. Emma frees and awakens Monster Zero, which kills Graham and other members of Monarch’s team, battles Godzilla, and flies off. The Monarch team realizes that Emma is working with the terrorists. From a bunker, Emma contacts Monarch, arguing that the Titans must all be awakened to heal Earth from the human impact on the environment, pointing to Monarch research indicating that Titans can terraform and replenish ecosystems using their radiation.

Conflicted, Madison begs her mother to reconsider, but Emma awakens Rodan in Mexico, who is lured toward Monster Zero. Monster Zero defeats Rodan and pursues the Monarch team, but Godzilla ambushes him, severing his left head. During the fight, the U.S. military launches a prototype weapon called the “Oxygen Destroyer”, which seemingly kills Godzilla, but does not affect Monster Zero, who regrows his lost head and awakens the other dormant Titans worldwide; Rodan, who survived, submits to his rule. Horrified and disillusioned, Madison disowns Emma.

Through analyzing Monster Zero’s abilities and mythological texts, Monarch deduces that he is King Ghidorah, a highly destructive alien who likely seeks to xenoform Earth to his liking. A fully transformed Mothra flies to Monarch’s Bermuda base to communicate with Godzilla, who is recuperating in an ancient, radioactive underwater city, which the Monarch team discovers in a nuclear submarine. Deducing that it will take too long for Godzilla to heal on his own, Serizawa sacrifices himself by manually detonating a nuclear warhead next to Godzilla to speed up the process. The explosion destroys Godzilla’s lair, but revives him and increases his power.

Emma realizes that Ghidorah’s reign over the other Titans is bringing destruction far worse than anything humans could inflict, but Jonah ignores her pleas to try and stop it. Madison overhears her mother’s plan to lure Ghidorah to Boston using the Orca, and steals the device to implement it herself. Arriving at Fenway Park, she broadcasts a frequency that calms the Titans, but unwittingly attracts them to her location. Ghidorah, attracted by the frequency, lands in Boston and almost kills Madison, but Godzilla, backed up by Monarch and military forces, arrives to battle him. Mark leads a team to rescue Madison, while learning that Godzilla’s radiation levels are still increasing and will lead to a thermonuclear explosion. Mothra arrives to help Godzilla, but she is intercepted by Rodan, whom she defeats despite sustaining injuries.

Ghidorah overpowers Godzilla, but Mothra sacrifices herself and transfers her energy to Godzilla. The Russells are reunited and reactivate the Orca to lure Ghidorah away from Godzilla, buying time for him to recover. Emma stays behind with the Orca to distract Ghidorah, allowing her family and the Monarch team to escape. After absorbing Mothra’s energy, Godzilla enters a newly empowered state and vaporizes Ghidorah’s body and Emma with several nuclear pulses, before incinerating Ghidorah’s remaining head with his atomic breath. Rodan and several other Titans converge on Godzilla and bow to him.

During the end credits, news clippings and Monarch public files show that the Titans are healing Earth, a suspected second Mothra egg has been discovered, and some Titans are converging on Skull Island. Ancient cave paintings depict Godzilla and a Kong-like Titan locked in battle. In a post-credits scene, Jonah and his forces purchase Ghidorah’s decapitated left head in Mexico.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters has a runtime of 131 minutes though unfortunately it’s pacing left a lot of lulls that allowed the viewers attention to wander and its narrative flow at times felt disjointed.  The eco-terrorist and Emma Russell angle was good slight of hand especially when looking back at Madison’s actions before the reveal it was foreshadowed pretty well if one had looked, however the entire dynamic of the Russell family—namely Emma and Mark—was disjointed even while the film tried to tied their actions to the death of their son; honestly Madison was the best character of the Russells as written.  At the beginning of the film there was a clear subplot that pitted the U.S. military against Monarch but how it played out throughout the film didn’t feel like it was worth introducing.  Dougherty and the other writers put in a lot of easter eggs which was a gift to longtime fans of the kaiju genre, but at times they interfered with the flow of the scenes or the film in general.  As previously stated, Madison Russell was the best of the family as written and Millie Bobbie Brown’s portrayal was very good and engaging throughout making her a highlight of the film; Charles Dance as Alan Jonah was great, frankly he should have been more of the main human villain than it being shifted to Emma Russell; Ken Watanabe’s Dr. Ishiro Serizawa was probably the best human character and his arc in the film was pretty good.  The monsters throughout the film looked great and the fights throughout were amazing, which frankly is the reason for watching films like this. In fact, the visuals throughout the film, whether involving monsters or not were amazing.  Overall, the film seemed a hodgepodge of different elements that while constructed in such a way to come out satisfactory, some things could have been tweaked or dropped to create a better narrative flow, making an okay film a very good one.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a fine monster movie, it has its bright spots but the lulls in action and moments of meander narrative hurt the overall package.

Godzilla