Pop Culture Pick: Godzilla Vs Kong

Huge creatures clash, but the humans let the side down

Image Credit: Legendary/Warner Bros.

Welcome to Pop Culture Pick, a catch-all for subjects I want to highlight outside of the usual weekly Weekend Watch columns. In this edition, giant monsters fight. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite

This is not the first time that giant lizard Godzilla and massive ape King Kong have rumbled on screen – that would be 1962’s King Kong Vs. Godzilla, which culminates in the beasts fighting it out on Mount Fuji. Now, though, they’re back in a match-up that represents the latest attempt to grow out Legendary and Warner Bros.’ MonsterVerse movie series, which has so far included Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and 2019’s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. This new film represents the culmination of that creature feature franchise, and it boasts most of the advantages and disadvantages present to date.

Directed by Adam Wingard, who previously made films such as You’re Next, The Guest and Death Note, Godzilla Vs Kong does manage to pull off the monster madness, the clashes effective and brutal in places, with the pugilists smashing each other like a couple of drunks in the street. The camera roams and flies around the action, feeling at times like you’re part of a theme park attraction (I can imagine the team at Universal Studios, in particular, looking on enviously at the shots of Kong, wondering if they can grab them for the tram ride). It’s certainly something that works on the biggest screen possible, which makes it all the more frustrating that I was watching on a screener at home. 

Character-wise, Wingard and his effects team have a handle on Kong in particular, humanizing (as much as you can a giant ape) the character by showing his relaxed morning routine and allowing him much more of a personality. Godzilla, by comparison, is still more of a force of nature, a rampaging anger merchant with atomic breath to spare. 

On the flip side, the human part of the equation never quite delivers. With the possible exception of one or two characters in Godzilla and the people in Skull Island, most of the monster movies have delivered empty shells as characters, trotted out to move the plot along from one set piece of city destruction to another, rarely showing flashes of actual real-world behaviour. Even here, those who are carried over from King Of The Monsters don’t develop all that much, and spare a thought for poor old Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor!), who is mostly used to look worried, and act concerned about Millie Bobby Brown’s Madison. Brian Tyree Henry, long a veteran of doing his best to make severely underwritten roles work on screen is defeated by annoying conspiracy nut podcaster Bernie, who somehow sneaks into one of the world’s most technologically advanced facilities with ease. It’s one of the logic holes of the movie so large you can imagine they were created by a massive simian fist. Everyone else is essentially a trope – Alexander Skarsgård’s disgraced Hollow Earth truther professor is smug and desperate until a switch flips and he starts to care about anyone but himself and his theories. And the less said about the young native girl who has somehow bonded with Kong, the better. I will say this, though, kudos to the team for casting Kaylee Hottle, a deaf actress with fluency in American Sign Language in the role, instead of having someone fake it. Otherwise, like most of these movies, it’s a parade of well-known names and up-and-comers spouting nonsense and checking their watches until they have to stare at CG creatures roaring, punching, and smashing skyscrapers.

Godzilla Vs Kong is under no illusions of what you’re really there for, and it’s the big beastie action. But if you were expecting a little more, chances are you’ll be disappointed. Though audiences in China, Mexico, Russia, and a few other markets have so far lapped it up to the tune of $122 million worldwide. One final thing – if you’re watching at home, and have a fast finger on the pause button, there are some fun little teases and easter eggs hidden in the opening credits, which show up before anything more than the names and the odd title are obscured by redacting lines. 

Godzilla Vs Kong will be on HBO Max in the US on 31 March. On April 1 it’ll be available via Premium VOD in the UK.