25 Mar REVIEW – ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ delivers everything you paid for

After a year of cinema closures and release date delays, many have wondered what film will be successful in reviving box office numbers around the globe. Tenet couldn’t do it. Wonder Woman 1984 tried its best. But they both arrived at a time when audiences were still reluctant to leave their homes. With the world tentatively taking its first steps into a new sense of normality, it may ultimately fall to two legendary pop culture icons to save cinema.

If there ever was a film you need to see on the big screen, it’s the monster mash-up battle royale of the century. The kind of gloriously silly blockbuster we haven’t seen in over a year, Godzilla vs. Kong revels in its own outlandish premise and delivers everything you paid for. Ridiculous set pieces? Tick. Dazzling visual effects? Tick. Roaring sound design? Tick. Two booming film icons beating the absolute hell out of each other? You better believe it.

Set three years after the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the crossover sequel finds the world in a relative state of calm after Godzilla defeated Ghidorah and slithered back into the ocean. Fearing the gargantuan lizard will head to Skull Island to eliminate his ancient enemy King Kong, Monarch anthropological linguist Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and her team of scientists have created a system to hide Kong’s presence from Godzilla.

During containment on the island, Kong has formed a unique bond with Ilene’s adopted daughter, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a deaf orphan who communicates with the great ape in her own special way. When Godzilla launches a seemingly unprovoked attack on the Apex Cybernetics facility on the Floridian coastline, he’s suspiciously labelled a threat to humanity by Apex CEO Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir).

But loyal Godzilla supporter Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) suspects the assault is not all it seems and decides to investigate with best pal, Josh (Julian Dennison) and Apex employee turned conspiracy theory podcast host Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry). Determined to find a new home for Kong away from Godzilla’s wrath, Ilene teams up with former Monarch geologist Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) to locate Hollow Earth, the mythical homeland of the Titans where a potential source of energy may help the humans fight Godzilla.

While the fourth film in Legendary Pictures’ so-called “MonsterVerse” suffers from the familiar curse of relatively lacklustre human characters and a narrative riddled with plot holes, endless exposition, and illogical conveniences, they’re hardly the ingredients needed for a film of this nature to succeed. It’s best to turn your brain off and ignore the temptation to apply logic and reason to such a piece of cinema. The film certainly drags when the focus isn’t on our titular duo, but you could hardly craft a movie exclusively starring two enormous animals hitting each other for two hours, so it’s an unavoidable necessity.

The plot is unnecessarily complicated, leading to an endless stream of expositionary dialogue delivered by a cast stuck in mostly thankless roles. Skarsgård is his typically charming self but disingenuously feels miscast as a socially-awkward scientist. Hall isn’t given much to do but chase after Hottle, who steals focus at every turn with her mute performance that’s the film true heart. While Skarsgård and Hall’s journey with Kong is key to the film’s plot, the same can’t be said of Brown, Dennison, and Henry’s dull arc, which feels grossly pointless in the grand scheme of things. At least Dennison and Henry expectedly provide a much-needed dose of levity to proceedings.