Godzilla vs. Kong

Let's face it, Godzilla films across more than half a century have never been the pinnacle of intellectualism, but whether they were the work of Ishiro Honda, Jun Fukuda, or Takao Okawara, they were entertaining fairy tales, just overwrought and teetering on the edge of an awkwardness below which they never fell. But here the stupidity of the mythology is literally bursting through the door, everything revolving around those teenagers and that black guy who played it absolutely horrible (oops, didn't I just write something politically unacceptable?) was a torture to watch, so all that's left are the fights, which are surprisingly scarce, and all the highlights are revealed in the trailers. But to be fair, the fights between the ape, the lizard and the Mechagodzilla are excellent, lush, clearly delivered and hats off to Wingard for the way he directed them. Just a shame about the script, which was probably written by fanboys with wet teenage dreams. (05.04.2021)

After the previous entry I didn’t expect anything from this Mosterverse, but Godzilla vs. Kong turned out to be quite good fun. You have to approach it accepting the fact that it’s a fantasy spectacle about giant monsters, and forget about logic and physics. Visually, it’s top notch, the fights have substance this time, and the story… well, I wouldn’t say it was interesting – the human characters are still too insignificant for that –, but there were a couple of surprises not included in the trailers. It’s a shame about that line with the black conspirator and the two teenagers, I would discard it and sort if differently. (31.03.2021)

Godzilla vs. Kong is about... whatever. It's just about getting a giant ape and a giant lizard in the same place and letting them smash each other's faces in for twenty minutes. The action is energetic, visually arresting and, thanks to the great cinematography, entertaining. Everything around it, i.e. the universe-building efforts, the old and new characters and the dialogue, is nothing but filler for the time between waiting for the next fight. Both King Kong and Godzilla are better than that. But they're really good at the action this time. (05.04.2021)

A review from the perspective of a sweaty intellectual who has never left the house, after the 10th Mank and Nomadland without any knowledge of Kaiju, convinced that it is another artistic black and white romantic drama full of emotions, erotica, long shots, lyricism, allegories, and character development, and is ultimately horrified by the result. Oh well. I was hoping that we would watch Godzilla as a housewife drinking wine and constantly taking pills, taking care of four little Godzilla-cubs, and soon a man would come into her life and change it. Yes, King Kong in a tailor-made Armani suit. He is respected lawyer currently dealing with a dark case in the King Skull Tribunal, travels across the country and sees emotionally exhausted Godzilla in a picturesque cafe. Love at first sight, deep romance, emotions to the bone, she doesn't mind at all that King Kong is black because she is not racist, but on the other hand, she is strongly pious and has a dark, drug-filled past. They both experience the most beautiful moments of their lives, but soon there is a crisis that culminates like in The War of the Roses, and, in a plot twist, Godzilla learns that King Kong is actually gay and a spineless scum. Unfortunately, the drama does not unfold with intense atmosphere and an emphatic portrayal the characters, sighed the intellectual sadly. Once every two years, a proper monster movie comes out and it's a problem, but the fact that 400 dramas and soap operas are released annually for a few euros, that's fine. Finally, a movie where I don't have to watch the clock, I don't look around in boredom, thinking that a spider is crawling on the wall, and I won't fall asleep until I finish the last bite of popcorn. The action is properly grand, epic, the fights have verve, the journey to the center of the Earth is more original than another movie about a man with Alzheimer's. The clash of the two titans is definitely more interesting than another dull story, of which there are plenty, and whoever doesn't like it can go watch Malcolm & Marie. 8/10. (01.04.2021)

Whereas Disney had to put Winnie the Pooh in the vault in order not to irritate the great Xi Jinping, Warner Brothers found a way to not only milk one of its main bits of IP, but also to please China mightily. Kong and Godzilla thus head to Hong Kong to measure their strengths against each other. On the one hand, that means a lot of visually rewarding neon, but, mainly, this time it involves more than just the monsters slightly dishevelling some iconic landmark, as was previously the case. Rather, they literally raze the whole problematic and rebellious Hong Kong to the ground. With, of course, the exception of the Bank of China Tower, which is the dominant feature of their night-time battle, but the monsters don’t dare even to touch it – although this iconic building absolutely asked for some sort of interaction, the filmmakers used their potential on the Central Government Complex and Hopewell Centre. The studio tries to flatter the domestic audience of post-Trump America by nodding to the supposed populist subversives of the Illuminati conspiracies and canonising alternative facts around the Hollow Earth theory in order to ingratiate both groups of their contradictory interpreters (according to some, there is a habitable cavity inside the Earth, while others, based on the example of Kong’s habitat, claim that we live in the cavity and the view of the sky is an illusion). But perhaps it’s actually a well-thought-out and coherent dramaturgical concept that at the moment when the monsters aren’t beating the shit out of each other, the rest of the film is completely out of hand. As with the previous instalments of the new international kaiju franchise, I see parallels with the old films, but that doesn’t make the new one any smarter or more satisfying for viewers. Godzilla movies always somehow reflected the phenomena and social issues of the time in order to be relevant to their viewers, but at the same time, it was all much more entertaining and guileless back then. Today, clearly in parallel with our own time, everything is frantically elaborate, overloaded with absolutely useless information and über-complicated lore. Why don’t they just simply make a monster flick instead of all of those idiotic scenes with human characters who watch the kaiju even when they’re not fighting. I'd rather watch Godzilla just swimming, sleeping or knitting a pair of socks than any of those moronic scenes with human characters. But perhaps we have to be worthy of those scenes with the titans and, when it comes down to it, the fact is that it’s really worth it. (04.04.2021)

By this axe I rule! A perfect movie for kids, quoting from old Verne books. The story combines Japanese cartoons from the sixties with the screenplay for Batman v Superman (spoiler: instead of Martha there is a flashy: "I don’t give a shit…"). Both fights are a feast for the eyes. Inventive, dynamic and beautifully filmed. This calls for a movie theater. Whether it is the lights of Hong Kong or paddling in the water, the action looks like a wet dream of all (once child) monster movies fans. Damn the physics and the listless characters. You don’t go to the theater to see a movie like this because of the logic. To the movie theater. Sniff. Whiskey is a savior. I’ll have another... (02.04.2021)

The most useless CGI fest of the year, where the characters suck and the script sucks. Technically, Godzilla vs Kong draws heavily on its predecessors and offers absolutely nothing extra. Kong Skull Island, for example, was technically imaginative and delightfully mysterious. This sequel didn't necessarily have a brain, but it could have at least honored the previous installments, or the Godzilla film from 2014. (17.04.2021)

I'm almost monstrously satisfied. After the previous film, let alone after the trailer for this one, I didn't expect the atmosphere of Edwards' Godzilla to return (although it's too bad), and I was mainly looking forward to the fun with special effects, which I also got to see. Perhaps the only bad thing is the full-speed-ahead rush from the very beginning, because I could easily wait for a while for the first duel between Godzilla and Kong on ships, or even give it up, and I would like to stay longer in hollow earth. I appreciate that the title monsters have become regular characters, and for example, when Kong triumphantly raises an ancient ax or sits on the throne, you get exactly the feeling you should get. A giant plus is the well-arranged action (the finale in Hong Kong, and that's why I'm glad I waited to see it in the movie theater) supported by Holkenborg's music. (10.06.2021)

The massive trailer campaign hinted from the start that there would be something more besides Godzilla and King Kong's bickering, which is why I ignored most of the trailers and relied on the element of surprise. Each of the previous three films was formally distinct, and while I strongly prefer the dark and brooding Edwards's Godzilla, I've found the development of MonsterVerse so far at least interesting and entertaining. Godzilla vs. Kong confirms this trend and delivers yet another different experience, the qualities of which, however, fall short of the enormous expectations as far as I’m concerned. Wingard doesn't give a damn about atmosphere and serves up a popcorn romp where events and geographical locations alternate with disproportionate speed and where none of the dozen characters are given enough room to stand out. The film obviously develops the concept of the King of the Monsters, and humanity, previously helpless and fearfully cowering at the presence of the titans, finally develops into a fundamental agent of events that directly controls the movement and actions of the monsters. It's almost disheartening to see the dominant Kong being dragged around in chains for half the film, with random songs from the last century occasionally playing. Mostly, though, it jumps furiously between several lines, one reminiscent of an infiltration tale from Stranger Things and another of Journey to the Centre of the Earth, with music blaring in to drown out much of the dialogue. The visual effects are certainly great and Wingard surprises with playful camera angles during the fight sequences, so the action itself is easily entertaining and the second half in particular creates some rhythm. Personally, however, I was expecting a darker and more coherent result and I can't help being bitterly disappointed. 60% (03.04.2021)

"Kong II King of the Monsters". Praktisch könnte ich meinen Kommentar vom zweiten Godzilla abschreiben, mit wahrscheinlich einer positiven Ergänzung, dass man dieses Mal während der Kämpfe zumindest etwas sehen kann. Dennoch verbringen wir immer noch unglaublich viel Zeit damit, nichtssagende, klischeehafte und absolut unerträgliche Charaktere zu beobachten, von denen einige nur auf der Bildfläche sind, um in die Höhe zu starren und roboterhaft markante Monster-Namen zu deklamieren. Und ich muss sagen, selbst in dieser Misere habe ich irgendwie erwartet, dass die Drehbuchautoren dem oft gesehenen Schema am Ende noch einen weiteren Akt hinzufügen würden, der zumindest einen überraschenden Moment bringen würde. Aber nein, der Film endet und man denkt sich: "Ah, das war's." Ich habe über die offensichtlichen Anspielungen auf 2001: Odyssee im Weltraum, den ersten Star Wars und vielleicht sogar Tron geschmunzelt, falls ich das nicht nur durch die Neon-Überflutung gesehen habe. Aber Augenzwinkern zu den Zuschauern korrigiert den Gesamteindruck wirklich nicht. Meine Stimmung wurde nur dadurch angehoben, dass es alles wie der letzte Akt einer Saga aussieht, und ich hoffe fest, dass es so ist. (02.04.2021)

Godzilla vs. Kong gehört zu den Filmen, bei denen ich bedauere, dass ich sie nicht (zum ersten Mal) im Kino sehen konnte (was nicht zuletzt meiner Ungeduld zu verdanken ist), da ich mich bei mehr als einer Szene glückselig darüber wunderte, wie die dritte Dimension mich in meinem Sitz fest zusammenzucken ließ. Aber um nicht vorzupreschen: Der Godzilla 2 wurde lauwarm bis negativ aufgenommen, aber ich mochte ihn trotz all seiner Schwächen. Die Kreuzung zweier legendärer übergroßer Monster hat auch ihre Vor- und Nachteile. Um mit den negativen Aspekten zu beginnen: Der Film enthält wieder einige Drehbuchfehler und Szenen, die sich entgegen der Logik der Filmemacher entwickeln - ich möchte nichts verraten, also werde ich nicht näher darauf eingehen. Die Charaktere sind nach wie vor meist flach und eher unscheinbar - von den Neuankömmlingen haben mich die kleine Kaylee Hottle und der gelegentlich verrückte Verschwörer Brian Tyree Henry am meisten fasziniert. Das größte Plus sind für mich die technisch und "choreografisch" gut durchdachten Actionsequenzen mit Monsterbegegnungen - die erste Konfrontation zwischen "K" und "G" war fantastisch - und diese Szenen sind dank des "Tageslichts" ziemlich klar. Insgesamt ist dies ein guter Film aus audiovisueller Sicht - und damit meine ich auch den unverwechselbaren Soundtrack. Natürlich musste ich mehr als einmal an Journey to the Centre of the Earth denken, als ich den Film sah - diese Geschichte hatte ihre hellen, aber auch ihre dunklen Momente. Am Ende sind es bessere drei Sterne! (01.04.2021)

Just imagining the party where this scenario was created makes my head spin. As I lay in bed last night, I was still recapping the plot for fun and happily laughed myself to sleep. It's worse to actually watch it, though, because the scenes in which the plot moves through the terrible dialogue of utterly paper characters in reality aren't actually insanely zealous or comically earnest in their pretense of sophistication, which would at least add to their entertainment value. Unfortunately, they're just boring figurines who don't know where left and right are, because they basically can't make any inroads into the plot of the film until the end anyway. In the first installment, the people worked perfectly as a touchstone because it was filmed from their point of view and in admiration of that elusive monumentality. Godzilla vs. Kong captures everything with the unerring eye of God. We watch the battles essentially as if we were playing them on a console. Here any earthly perspective is almost absent. The battles, however, are awesome, giant, with excellent choreography and more than one visual idea, which makes it different from its awful predecessor King of the Monsters, which was also completely moronic but desperately dull in what for all intents and purposes was the one task it had. (10.09.2021)

Ein schwacher Plot, eine Menge nutzloser Figuren, die nur Quoten bedienen, eine Handlung, dann ein langes Warten auf die abschließende Handlung, während der ein Unsinn durch einen anderen Unsinn ersetzt wird. Wenn ich den Film im Kino gesehen hätte, hätte ich wenigstens drei Sterne gegeben. Enttäuschend. (06.12.2021)