GODZILLA VS. KONG
USA, Australia, Canada, India. 2021.
Fantasy/ Sci-Fi
113 min
Director: Adam Wingard
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård (Nathan), Millie Bobby Brown (Madison), Rebecca Hall (Ilene).
Not your ’63 version.
Finally, the definitive confrontation that all the fans of the two most famous kaiju in cinema were waiting for. The Monsterverse has been preparing King Kong versus Godzilla fight for years now. But waiting for the fans for a worthy fight of these two titans is decades longer. At last, we have on the screen Godzilla vs. Kong. And yes, this is the ultimate version. Anyone who ever saw the original and very poor King Kong vs Godzilla – Kingu Kongu Tai Gojira (Ishirô Honda and Tom Montgomery 1963), even with low expectations, know what I mean.
New chapter in the Monsterverse.
Only five years after what happened in Godzilla King of Monsters, in which the world has lived in relative peace without kaiju attacks, Godzilla has begun to attack factories of the Apex Cybernetics, one of the richest corporations in the world. The CEO of this corporation sees it necessary to counterattack Godzilla and recruits some scientists to go to Hollow Earth for an energy source that he needs for some unknown weapon. Scientists determine that to successfully venture into Hollow Earth, they need King Kong to guide them. Kong has long been remained safe inside a large dome built on Skull Island, keeping him out of the kaiju wars, monitored by Monarch all this time. Now, the question is to deliver the great ape to the entrance of Hollow Earth in Antarctica, without Godzilla noticing.
Godzilla – Kong : Heavyweights
In reality, we all know that the plans of the humans are going to fail and the meeting of the two great beasts is inevitable. And what we see on the screen makes the wait worthwhile. The CGI of the two titans is great. From Kong’s hair to Godzilla’s scales they have deep detail. The fights are well-choreographed, dynamic, and exciting. The SFX in general is a big success. An abysmal improvement from the pathetic fights of a pair of stuntmen in bad costumes in the ’63 version.
Overall, the cinematography of the entire film is beautiful. It is extremely colorful, with a strong emphasis on neon lights. The colors of sunrise, on that morning sun over the sea coloring the clouds in the first meeting certainly looks great. Also, the sound is incredible. The grunts and growls, explosions, power beams, buildings collapsing. Everything you can hear in the film enhances the power and magnitude of the titans and the destruction.
Same old.
But there is something that there is no difference between this new version and the one from the 60s. The bad story around. Here we also have to suffer the boring and meaninglessness of the entire narrative. When the big monsters are on screen they are missed. The characters are generic and the performances just the same, without compromise.
The whole story is full of conveniences. For example, the way technology has advanced exponentially since the Godzilla movies, in what seemed like a world much like our own. The technological advances here make this film may be as well classified as Science fiction, not only Fantasy. and this jump is only to accommodate some situations in the story. Cheap trick. Plot holes are aplenty. And yes, it is a movie of great monsters, and apparently, we cannot demand that much out of them. But movies like Pacific Rim have shown us that a kaiju story doesn’t have to be silly.
A win for the fans
In brief, in Godzilla vs. Kong we can finally see a fight worthy of these two titans, the most famous in film history. We have all the elements for an entertaining film that is a visual delight, despite the weakness of all the other elements that surround this anticipated brawl. Add Mechagodzilla, the continuity of the Monsterverse, adding to their mythos, and the consequence of the battle of Godzilla and King Ghidora. Who is the winner? The fans.
Delirium Score
Great fight sequences and beautiful colors carry the load of a weak and silly story.