This is one big special effects monster mash with, to quote Shakespeare from Macbeth, “Sound and fury signifying nothing.” With a never-ending barrage of monster battles this is just one big, loud, special effects monster mash.
Director Adam Wingard is back after Godzilla vs. Kong playing traffic cop in this production. We may have entered an Ice Age of special effects films as Godzilla x Kong comes on the heels of another chilly CGI sequel, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. And just like the Ghostbusters, this one left us cold too.
Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) returns as essentially the narrator of this monstrous film. She’s constantly explaining about what’s up with these monsters and talking about the legends of Hollow Earth. The writing team of Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slater couldn’t be bothered with creating a coherent story, so they just let Rebecca Hall tell us what’s happening, sort of like a play-by-play announcer. Bryan Tyree Henry returns as the much maligned, but devoted Titan blogger Bernie. He essentially is playing the exact same role as he did in the last Monsterverse film to add a few more funny lines and essentially look scared.
Kong is miserable in his Hollow Earth home. He’s lonely with no friends or family down there…and he’s got a toothache.Dr. Andrews assembles a team to descend into Hollow Earth to help Kong and investigate troubling signs of impending doom. Dr. Andrews’ daughter, Jia (Kaylee Hottle) has a special relationship to Kong. Jia, seeing Kong’s tooth pain, begs Mom to help. To treat the Big Ape Dr. Andrews brings in an old friend and veterinarian (Dan Stevens). He’s also there for comic relief as well as get a huge rigging to ride to pull Kong’s aching tooth. Later, when Kong looks like he’s a goner, Stevens conveniently gets him back in the fight with a powerful orthopedic arm device. This isn’t a spoiler since the magic arm brace is in the movie’s poster!
Kong is the star of this show garnering the most emotional range of any of the characters from the special effects team.And he gets a little orange, pesky, somewhat annoying sidekick. Godzilla, meanwhile, senses a war coming from below so he goes into action and supercharges his atomic powers for an Arctic Titan clash.
We assume the “x” in the title stands for the twist that Kong and Godzilla eventually team up to defeat an evil Scar King of the Apes who rules a newly discovered region even further down from Hollow Earth, but, in reality, wants to take over all of Earth above and below. His ultimate weapon is an albino version of Godzilla who can blast freeze everything by projectile spraying everything within range with his icy breath.
Weirdly, the emotional message of wanting to find a way to go home is taken right out of “The Wizard of Oz” playbook. It’s a nice sentiment, but is overshadowed by all the other noise. At least Godzilla finds his way home as he’s given one little bit of “fun” using the Coliseum in Rome as his personal pet bed, which garnered some laughs.
If you want to see these Titans beating up on each other and on cities all over the world, this is it. By the time we get to the climatic desert battle smashing the Pyramids there’s no impact left. This is a repetitive series of chest thumping monsters, shrieking CGI, familiar characters, a thin plot, using impressive sound design with lots of campy music.
Warner Bros. 1 hour 55 minutes PG-13
