This was the most fun I’ve had watching a new movie in a long time. At first I rolled my eyes, as I’m beginning to do with life in general, at the idea of releasing another sequel with the same overall premise as Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). This is after all the third time in cinema the two have squared off with the first being King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962).
The plot is almost the same as the last one. Hollow Earth is still under scientific investigation. This time it’s populated with, not only the thought-to-be lost Skull Island tribe, but also an entire species of “King Kongs” and other giant monsters (the Titans). The deaf Jia (Kaylee Hottle) has premonitions of this dimension going haywire and begins to frantically beg her scientist mom Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) about impending doom. With the aid of Trapper (Dan Stevens), an eccentric giant monster veterinarian, and, once again, “conspiracy theorist” podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) the quartet venture into Hollow Earth to save the day.
It should be noted that Kong no longer displays any sign language skills to communicate with Jia as he did in the previous movie. It’s like it never happened.
Godzilla and Kong are still at odds with one another and periodically hash it out with the various giant monsters and ultimately each other. Kong, once again, gets more screen time than Godzilla. Nonetheless, the fights are awesome and nicely over the top. One even features Kong using a giant baby ape as a pair of nunchucks to fight off other giant apes. Overall, it’s entertaining and well over 65% CGI monster brawls if not more. There’s close to no boring back and forth scenes of one-dimensional human characters talking about nothing. Welcome back cinema!
By the way, Mothra is back! She was last seen in Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019). Of course, she assists wonderfully in the final battle between our two legendary giant monsters and their adversaries. There’s also Tiamat who is an evil Godzilla-type monster from the Arctic that has frostbite-inflicting ice breath rather than radiation breath. Kong also finds an antagonistic equivalent in Skar King who rules over a dystopian ape slave labor camp in Hollow Earth.
The color palette in this movie is awesome! The vibrant diverse colors really pop and offer a nicely rendered look to Hollow Earth with each area having its own color scheme. This is a nice change to the usual sterile and grey look we’ve been subjected to in movies for the last decade.
Let’s talk characters.
Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie Hayes, whose character I found outlandishly knowledgeable of government operations in the first one, comes off as typical Black guy comedic relief. It’s not racist but it’s definitely a tiring archetype I’m worn out from seeing. He’s sweaty, nervous and jittery the whole movie. Think something along the lines of, “Black people don’t do this dangerous stuff! Only White people!” or “How come White people aren’t afraid of Godzilla? What’s wrong with them?”. His “Black” hypersensitive survival skills in Hollow Earth are a foil to the otherwise comically “unaware” White people.
Let’s talk about the Mary Sue. Jia is adopted by the kind of cold Dr. Andrews. She obviously a.) couldn’t keep a man or b.) the man couldn’t keep her as there is NO father figure present like in a lot of recent movies. She has a bit of a “moment” where she corrects Trapper by reminding him she has two – count ’em two – master’s degrees. If that’s not one of the most worthless elitist appeals to authority I’ve ever heard then let’s hand her the keys to the kingdom boys. He should’ve responded with, “Hold on to those. I might need to wipe my ass later.” Even though Trapper doesn’t need to wipe his ass later the degrees do not help prevent the end of civilization. The monsters without master’s degrees do. Perhaps it’s symbolism for how worthless college is now.
I saw this twice with the second time being in 3-D. I probably won’t ever watch it again. It’s a movie forever bound to its theatrical presentation like all IMAX CGI orgies.
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