Thursday, March 28, 2024
37.0°F

‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ delivers the blockbuster goods

by TYLER WILSON/Coeur Voice contributor
| April 10, 2021 1:00 AM

There’s no better time than now for a big, dumb monster fight.

After a year largely without blockbusters, “Godzilla vs. Kong” makes an especially strong impression. Monsters clash. Buildings go smash. And the humans, for the most part, stay out of the way.

The fourth film in the Warner Bros. “monsterverse” that began in 2014, “Godzilla vs. Kong” finally formulates the proper balance between CGI mayhem and on-the-ground human drama.

That’s been a tough calculation for the series so far. “Godzilla” from 2014 lacked screen time for the big guy. “Kong: Skull Island” from 2017 had plenty of Kong but overcomplicated the story with too many humans. The worst entry, 2019’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” served up more iconic beasties but squandered them with incoherent visuals and an especially atrocious subplot about a family torn apart by the mom’s sudden interest in terrorism and genocide.

“Godzilla vs. Kong,” directed by Adam Wingard (“You’re Next”), keeps things simple, even as the two leads use an entire Naval fleet like a bunch of inflatable pool toys. The action is properly lit and cleanly edited (not a given for this franchise, unfortunately) and Wingard manages to stage the individual fights with enough distinction so that the smashy-smashy never grows tiresome.

Wingard, working with a screenplay by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, understands that nobody’s here to watch the human characters. You need them to get from point A to B, but they should serve as supporting characters to the headliners.

Kong essentially acts as the protagonist here, and so the movie relies on the humans (notably Alexander Skarsgard and Rebecca Hall) to help the audience connect with the Big Ape’s mission. It involves Kong finding his rightful home (not Skull Island), which happens to be inside the center of the Earth and… oh nevermind. It’s nonsense, but at least it establishes a hero’s journey for Kong and gives the film a character to root for.

The giant lizard has his own agenda too, which relates to the film’s mustache-twirling villain (Demian Bichir, having fun). Millie Bobby Brown (a returnee from “King of the Monsters”) leads the subplot about humans trying to figure out why Godzilla decided to be such a jerk again. It’s slight-but-necessary plot table-setting, and at least it breezes along thanks to tolerable comic relief from Bryan Tyree Henry (“Atlanta”) and Julian Dennison (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”).

None of these characters get in the way of the title fight. “Godzilla vs. Kong” stays punchy and breezes into a showstopping climax. It’s loud and dumb, but boy do we need it.

“Godzilla vs. Kong” is now playing in theaters. It is also streaming on HBO Max until April 30.

• • • 

Tyler Wilson has been writing about movies for Inland Northwest publications since 2000. He is the co-host of Old Millennials Remember Movies, available everywhere you get podcasts. He can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.