Aiden Stockton

My relationship with the Monsterverse has been gradually growing worse and worse with every installment. I found Godzilla (2014) a very underrated beginning to the franchise, with great drama, especially from its leads, as well as an awesome finale, after a whole movie’s worth of build-up. Kong: Skull Island was a fun, if bloated, Vietnam story, establishing Kong in all of his glory, among an island of crazy creatures, all prone to attacking our motley band of characters. Godzilla: King of the Monsters had a lot of hype, especially from its trailer, accompanied by the piece Clair de Lune, but was overall a let down, throwing in too many characters, not enough depth, and a lack of realism to the monsters that was used so effectively in the first two movies. Now reaching Godzilla Vs. Kong, the epic crossover installment of the series, I’ve really lost all faith in this franchise. What characters are introduced are bland, with little chemistry with one another, except for the young mute girl. Realism has been abandoned for pure Sci-Fi fantasy and mustache-twirling villains, who give no real explanation for why they do what they do. The recurring characters of the film feel like cameos, who ultimately don’t amount to anything by the end of the story. SPOILER ALERT: The exploration of the Hollow Earth was actually a really great idea, but unfortunately didn’t last long, being in the film for about 10 minutes of runtime. I would have liked to see an entire movie spent on just this world inside a world, but I guess they decided not to because we were already shown Skull Island in a prior movie. The appearance of Mecha-Godzilla was cool, but undercut what the entire movie was about. It’s not exactly Godzilla Vs. Kong, when they tag-team Mecha and go their separate ways. Their rivalry feels forced and doesn’t live up to the title. Overall, if you like this movie, I have no problem with that, but I think some fans are needlessly critical of the feeling of “realism”. If there’s nothing anchoring your film in the real world, even when concerning larger than life monsters, there’s nothing really to care about, and watching Godzilla and Kong smash into each other at high speeds, like two action figures being rammed together, doesn’t have the same effect as two massive Titans truly colliding in a momentous battle to end all battles.