The Sunday Mail
Film Review
Tinashe Kusema
IT may be too early, but the ‘Forgettable Film 2021’ award goes to . . . “Godzilla vs Kong.”
Granted, we still have about eight months to go before year-end, however, my bet is no production will disappoint as “Godzilla vs Kong”, a MonsterVerse production.
Do not get me wrong: The movie is not entirely bad; it has some bright spots.
The Godzilla vs King Kong battles live up to expectations. The much-touted arrival of Mechagodzilla is also made exciting. And the computer-generated imagery (CGI) is not that horrible. Probably this explains why the movie has grossed more than US$360 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-earning films during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Sadly, none of the above motivates you to have a second watch of the movie.
“Godzilla vs Kong” takes place five years after the latter defeated King Ghidorah.
This is as told by the 2019 “Godzilla: King of the Monster” when the alpha monster goes on a rampage that has the entire world on high alert. Elsewhere, King Kong, last seen in the 2017 “Kong: Skull Island”, is being monitored by a monarch in the giant artificial dome on Skull Island.
The fear is that Godzilla is hunting Kong.
The two are believed to be ancient enemies and destined to slug it out all in the hope of finding out who the true alpha creature is.
Meanwhile, a new player, Apex Cybernetics, has come into play.
Their owner, Walter Simmons (Demian Bichir), is a believer in the existence of hollow earth. The concept presupposes that planet earth is entirely hollow or contains a substantial interior space.
Simmons and his team of scientists not only believe that both Kong and Godzilla come from this hollow earth, but also that a great energy source currently resides there.
They enlist Kong’s handlers, Dr llene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottie), to help them find hollow earth.
In the process, they take Kong out of his artificial inhabitant and expose him to the threat of an attack by Godzilla.
Now, my main issue with this movie is how it is disjointed. Given that this is a crossover of sorts, the expectation was that many of the key characters from the two movies, “Kong” and “Godzilla”, would meet.
However, not only is there minimal interaction between the two, the human element is virtually ignored.
Yes, there is dialogue here and there but none of the characters are given anything of substance to advance their roles from previous movies.
Millie Bobby-Brown’s Madison Russell character basically spends the entire movie running around trying to prove that Godzilla’s attacks are not random.
Also, there is no real fallout caused by the death of her mother in “Godzilla: King of the Monster”, nor is there any advancement to a fractured relationship with her father Mark Russell.
The comedy is bad and is one of the biggest contributors to the film’s uneven tone.
Similarly, Godzilla is another victim of neglect.
The titular character pops up a few times despite being one of the biggest drawcards.
