Let me start off by clarifying that I’ve seen the original Godzilla and King Kong movies but haven’t seen any of the previous “MonsterVerse” re-imagining movies from the past few years. And I purposefully didn’t try to learn more about them before watching this movie, because I wanted to see if it mattered. It did not.
The movie starts with King Kong getting irritated at his containment on Skull Island. Then Godzilla attacks off the coast of Florida. No one knows why, but it’s because the villains of the movie, the evil corporation Apex, are building a Mechagodzilla. Godzilla can sense when other “Titans” are present. And apparently the Titans have been fighting since time began. And then blah, blah, blah who cares about the silly plot? Some scientists take Kong out of containment so he can go to the “Hollow Earth” and lead them to a power source needed to defeat Godzilla. Godzilla senses Kong and they fight at sea. Then Kong and the scientists go to the Hollow Earth, and blah, blah, blah Kong and Godzilla end up fighting in Hong Kong. Then spoilers, but it’s in the trailer; Kong and Godzilla team up to defeat the real bad guys Apex and Mechagodzilla. It’s all very silly and predictable.
There are also humans in it. Most notably played by Rebecca Hall, Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, and Demián Bichir. All of their plots and characters are a bit ridiculous, but all the actors play it completely straight. Which I think is the only way it could have worked, because if the characters didn’t believe why Kong and Godzilla are fighting the audience wouldn’t either. Millie Bobby Brown taking down the evil Apex corporation with the help of a conspiracy theorist (Brian Tyree Henry) feels a little off after the Capitol riots, but it works in the movie.
But do the humans and the storyline even matter? What everyone wants to know is how are the fights? There are three overall big battles, and for the most part they are all pretty good. The action is on a large scale (obviously) and the fights are well-choreographed so you always know what’s going on. They also feel different enough that it doesn’t get repetitive, and no one fight drags on to the point of being boring. But I just can’t put my finger on it, nothing feels as epic as big blockbuster action movies like Independence Day.
This is a fun, silly movie. It delivers on its titles. If you think you’d like it, you probably will, so you should watch it. If you think it sounds dumb, you will find it dumb, so you should skip it. I give this an HBO Now.