In previous MonsterVerse reviews I’ve lamented the mainly serviceable human characters. They’ve been OK but mainly they’re exposition machines. The Monarch TV show proved me wrong, by offering surprisingly strong drama. But Godzilla Kong (the x is silent apparently, or maybe an and?) shows us that maybe these films are capable of doing something else. Maybe they can tell an extremely Titan focused story and completely minimise human presence.
This story is undoubtedly more a Kong film, and that makes sense. Godzilla may be the King of the Monsters, but he isn’t one for conversing or displaying much emotion. Essentially a giant gorilla, Kong is capable of emoting and telling a story without speech. And it’s these points where I think GxK is at it’s best. Godzilla isn’t hard done by or ignored by any means, but he is a force of nature that comes in to take names. His methods are his own, and his intentions are basic. Kong is an actual character who can set traps, get annoyed, and show real anger or concern.
Humans…yes. With some carry over from GvK plus new guy Trapper, they just about keep things ticking over with enough chemistry to help smooth over the info dumps. There are not a lot of people in this film, because it knows what we want and delivers it in ridiculous fashion. Power glove? Yeah why not. Collateral damage? Loads of it.
If you want a super serious Kaiju film, go watch the amazing Godzilla Minus One.
If you want complete nonsense that you can just enjoy as “monsters go bam”, GxK is great fun.
Fans of Kaiju, and Godzilla in particular, are feasting at the moment. I wonder if the clear divide in territory will give us independent stories now. Either way I’m quite happy to see more of the MonsterVerse.
Check out my other MonsterVerse reviews here.
Be the first to comment