[Review] Godzilla vs Kong(2021) {6.5/10}

Directed by Adam Wingard, with a screenplay from Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, the film stars Alexander Skarsgård (Dr. Nathan Lind), Millie Bobby Brown (Madison Russell), Rebecca Hall (Dr. Ilene Andrews), Brian Tyree Henry (Bernie Hayes), Shun Oguri (Ren Serizawa), Eiza González (Maia Simmons), Julian Dennison (Josh Valentine), Kaylee Hottle (Jia), Kyle Chandler (Dr. Mark Russell), and Demián Bichir (Walter Simmons).

The plot follows the world's two oldest titans, Godzilla and King Kong who meet to have a final epic showdown to decide who is the true king of monsters. Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) goes on a crusade to Hong Kong with conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) and her friend Josh Valentine (Julian Dennison) to stop Apex Cybernetics from harming Godzilla. Meanwhile, researchers Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) try to help Kong find his lost home near the center of the Earth. Ilene's deaf ward, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), the last of her Indigenous tribe, bonds with Kong via sign language, making her one of the few humans Kong trusts.

This movie is great if you only want to see King Kong and Godzilla fight, but aside from their much advertised match-up, there's not much else to it. Characters from previous Godzilla franchise films, including Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) and his daughter, Madison (Millie Bobby Brown), are mixed in with new folks to try to flesh out the Godzilla universe. But regardless of whether someone is from the franchise or is brand new, it's hard to know why we should care about them or their backstories. In some cases, we don't even learn their names until near the end of the film. Godzilla vs. Kong knows that its main draw is the CGI fight between the two titular monsters. Apart from that, there's no coherent plotting or character development. Also, despite the diversity in the cast, including Henry, Hall, Dennison, Shun Oguri, Demián Bichir, and Eiza González, there's no true focus on expanding BIPOC characters' meaning to the plot aside from using them for the optics of inclusion. For instance, Oguri's character, Apex Cybernetics researcher and Mechagodzilla pilot Ren Serizawa, continues the annoying trend in the current Godzilla franchise of having a Japanese character be part of the cast apparently solely to say "Gojira," the monster's actual name. Along with that, he's mostly a sneering henchman for Bichir's character, Apex CEO Walter Simmons. Simmons' daughter, Maya (Eiza González), is also simply a flat villain with limited lines. If you just want to see monsters fighting, it's entertaining for that aspect alone but other than that, the film does not has much to offer.

Godzilla vs. Kong is now available in theaters and on HBO Max.