Godzilla vs Kong (2021) Movie Review: How Do You Mess This Up? (Written by Alex Humber)

Team Godzilla or Team Kong? Which are you?

The long-awaited return of the two classic monsters returning to the big screen to battle for the ages has finally come to fruition. After constant delays, the general public can now watch the ultimate fight of... Godzilla vs Kong!

This is not the first time these monsters have fought on screen, as there have been many adaptations of the battle of the beasts, although this one has a large budget and major star power. Director Adam Wingard, of You're Next & V/H/S fame helms the responsibility of bringing this fight to the big screen. The film also has an incredibly stellar group of actors on screen. The large cast includes; Alexander Skarsgard, Rebecca Hall, Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle Chandler, Demian Bichir, Eiza Gonzalez, Brian Tyree Henry, Julian Dennison, Lance Reddick, and Shun Oguri.

With a large cast of great actors, a compelling story, and a great director, will this be a modern classic or an extreme disappointment?

Fortunately, the film is nowhere near terrible! Unfortunately, the film suffers from major criticisms of the previous movies in this universe...

The scenes involving the titular “Godzilla vs Kong” were amazing, as the CGI was very well done and the choreography was very fluent and easy to watch. Whether the viewer is Team Godzilla or Team Kong, in the fighting there is something for everyone! The film also features other monsters that go up against our “hero” monsters. While those were fun to watch, I kept wanting more of “Godzilla vs Kong”. The CGI was the standout in this movie as each and every hair on Kong looked vibrant and real. The destruction scenes were explosive and earth-shattering. The grand scale of the film and the monsters were beautiful to look at as the color scheme of Tokyo and the Jungle were very eye-pleasing and mind-bending.

When it comes to the characters, that’s where the film falls short. With a gigantic cast, one would think that we would get some well-done characters right? Sadly, not many characters are well fleshed out as previously known characters are thrown into the background and the new characters just are not as interesting. The characters aren’t the only flaw the film has, as the writing feels a bit rushed and had more ideas than they could handle. The film is given futuristic and scientific scenes where you would swear you’re watching a space movie rather than a movie about two large creatures having a fight. And with a short runtime of just under 2 hours, it can feel a bit unorganized and lacks detail and explanation. The first half of the movie is around 90% pure exposition. This can feel exhausting as you eagerly wait for Godzilla and Kong to get on screen. New dimensions and worlds are explored to pad the runtime when the audience just wants to see the showdown between two creatures we have been wanting to watch for years.

Godzilla was given two previous movies before while Kong was only given one. This meant that Godzilla took a step back in this movie and Kong took the forefront.

At the forefront of the human characters are Alexander Skarsgard, Rebecca Hall, and Kaylee Hottle. These three are on screen for a large portion of the film and if you’re not invested in what they are doing, you will sadly be bored for a large portion of the film.

The last 30 or so minutes of the film contains a lot of fighting that may be better to watch on the big screen rather than on a TV set.

While the film is far from terrible, it was disappointing that the long-awaited fight was not the action-packed masterpiece it could have been. From the stellar visuals and fighting to the poorly developed and boring human characters, the film is a mixed bag that would be a very pleasant time at the theatres and may be enjoyed more by the hardcore Godzilla and Kong fans rather than the casual viewers.

I will be giving Godzilla vs Kong a 1.5/5!

This had so much potential, it’s a shame it was not as good as Kong Skull island or King of the Monsters, but the visuals were amazing, and experiencing this on IMAX is definitely ideal. The IMAX experience would make this movie look beautiful as you would watch the ultimate showdown of Godzilla vs Kong.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this! Much appreciated. Make sure you smile more often, be kind and Hold on to Hope. Cheers.