Rent Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Fight scenes aside, this is a giant bore - Godzilla vs. Kong review by NP

The plot is every bit as silly as the Showa era Godzilla movies, but almost completely lacking in their charm. You'd think that a film about a giant monkey fighting a giant lizard would allow itself to have more fun! I was simply bored during the whole thing, except for the two big smackdown sequences.

Yawn!! - Godzilla vs. Kong review by GI

An example of commercial film making that produces utter tosh but manages to spend millions doing it. Imagine the great films that could've been made with the resources this mess had available? Anyway what we have here is an attempt to make a new franchise but ends up as another special effects film with a confusing and pointless story and can be summed up as two giant creatures slogging it out while destroying as many buildings as cinematically possible. It's more like an episode of TVs Power Rangers. None of the acting talent on offer here has anything much to do but gape upwards at the green screen as they try and prevent the giant lizard Godzilla from destroying mankind by setting King Kong against him. Clichéd story, which makes little sense and a film that I'm sure boys aged between 8 and 11 will find great on a rainy Saturday morning but for the rest of us it's one to avoid.

Formulaic - Godzilla vs. Kong review by HM

No surprises here. Lots of noise and cgi. Worn out plot, wooden acting essential to stay at same level as banal story. Studios churn this stuff out regularly. OK now and then but anyone wanting intelligence with their entertainment is going to struggle these days. This stuff best watched on big screen or good home cinema, I suppose this keeps money rolling in now that Netflix etc have got the market and churn out average dramas but cannot provide sound quality.

Cartoons and cgi are the sad future of the industry, but if you keep paying for this stuff they will just keep making it.

Help, I need good movies!

Kong gets knocked out, he revives in nick of time etc. Little kid uses sign language and Kong gets it. Pardon me, is a little girl the only one with sign skills? Give me a break.

Calling Kong a monkey does not end well, even if you are good looking. - Godzilla vs. Kong review by Strovey

Set after the conclusion of the last film, when Godzilla battered the living daylights out of Ghidorah we have another King Kong, Godzilla blockbuster. The whole point of this film, regardless of plot, or actors, is to see these two CGI behemoths pummelling the tar out of each other. So, for all intents and purposes this film completely fulfils its purpose. Godzilla and Kong do batter, punch, kick, fire breath and ram things into each other’s heads all over the place, out at sea, and Hong Kong, which they flatten with some aplomb, in garish, confusing mishmash of roaring, punching, kicking and deafening roaring action.

The actors do not far so well. The story is a bare sketch the sole purpose to get the monsters to fight. For a film, that I guess must really be trying to appeal to younger children at the most the child actors are at the forefront the human action. They do not beat the monsters on screen, but they do beat the adult actors into the background. With preposterous silliness to play with the three main youngsters acquit themselves very well. Millie Bobby Brown is already an established and fine actor so we know that any scenes are going to be fun and believable, equally Julian Dennison since his breakout role in Hunt for the Wilderpeople carries the role of comedy sidekick skilfully and with the ease that some much older and more experienced actors could learn from. Entirely deaf Kaylee Hottle is the newbie and is quite enchanting. The children are the resourceful heroes of the day and should at least get their contemporaries in the audience whooping with joy as unbelievable as their shenanigans are.

This leaves us with the adults, good actors too, but they are very much trailing behind 300-foot monsters, super-kids, explosions and collapsing building. Lumbered with not much characterisation, nails on blackboard dialogue they do their best and leap and jump and look concerned through the running time.

The CGI and effects are good, you can see where the money has been spent although it is for me, once again, noise and light salad, much less than the sum of its parts.

All in all, as a monsters fighting film this is good. Anything else and the weaknesses show. I know that Godzilla vs Kong has many fans old and young alike but purely from my point of view once again we are taking a trip to the continent of Non-Plussed-Land. As my grand daughter said after Skull Island why did they CGI Kong to look like a man in a suit and here we are clearly following the original series and not King Kong, either 1930s or Peter Jackson variants. I just prefer my giant apes not 300 feet tall and to resemble a real ape but that is just me.

Some points to note.

1. Kong was constantly called a monkey throughout the film. Is this a deliberate wind-up by the filmmakers, if it is, not funny, if not that’s probably worse, ignorance.

2. The exceptionally beautiful Eiza González gets killed again, the last film I saw her in was Baby Driver.

3. Over the course of these three films in this monster universe how many people are killed? Honestly it must be millions and the cost or rebuilding would bankrupt the world.

I know it is a silly monster film, I know we are not supposed to take it seriously, but these are the things that just get into under my skin and stay there. I think about them when I am watching the film.

If you like monsters lathering the bejesuses out of each other this is the film for you, if you like some sort of logical storyline to go with this battle, maybe not so much.

So So - Godzilla vs. Kong review by AL

Of these type of films it's not the best and not the worst. The story is totally ridiculous, reminded me a little of "At the Earth's Core", Peter Cushing and Doug McClure! Not giving anything away when I say the birds from above grabbing people, if you've seen this film you'll know what I mean. CGI is fine. I kept thinking, where does all the metal come from and how does stuff get built without anyone knowing and how much does it cost. The fact that I'm thinking this, shows that the film didn't keep me entertained.

Eye candy with no brain required. - Godzilla vs. Kong review by PC

Can a movie be spectacle alone foregoing all other considerations? Godzilla vs Kong poses that question and in the humble opinion of this reviewer the answer is a resounding no. Undoubtably Godzilla vs Kong is heavy on spectacle with a ton of marketing mens summer blockbuster movie selling points. Monster vs monster fight... tick. Monster vs robot monster fight.. tick. Explosions.. tick. Journey to the centre of the earth.. tick. More monsters.. tick. The CGI bill for this movie must have been about 99% of what was probably a sizeable budget. A real shame then that no one thought to buy a decent script and plot with something more than shallow characters. Indeed no one thought to add anything that would have made this movie meaningful, exciting, engrossing, captivating or made me feel anything or think anything other than, wow, thats a-lot of CGI. The cast are quality, I love Brown in Stranger Things, but the poor script and heavy effects eclipsed any chance that they might deliver performances I cared about. If you ignore this review and watch this movie anyway just be advised that you can check your brain in at the door, you wont be needing it here.

I know its not a wildlife documentary, but this is going to far - Godzilla vs. Kong review by JD

Like Will Smith, Nick Cage, Clint Eastwood, Godzilla can make a film worth watching simply for his presence.

And my 3 stars is for that, Godzillas presence. He is an epic beast and to be fair for the most part id say the film does his character justice. He is a huge unstoppable titan that doesnt give 2 turds.

But the film. O dear, what a mess.

The human characters are awful and clearly just bumbling about for a bit of a human story. Its neither useful nor interesting.

Then we have the complete dettachment of reality.

Yes they are big monsters but by throwing people in we need something to relate to, something to give us a clue this is happening on earth.

But nobody cares about the death toll, hundred thousand ton creatures balance on ships, king kong has changed from a large monkey into something that can square upto the mightiest creature in all of film fantasy.

And did i mention human choices rarely make any sense. And the bad guy, is in reality doing a good thing. Dont trust a massive lizard than can destroy cities? He gets my vote!

The previous films were ok in my opinion.

This however has tried to raise the bar in how stupid a film can get. And is about the only things it does well.

Godzilla and his opponents deserve better than this.