Movie Thoughts: Godzilla Vs. Kong

*Possible spoilers

I’ve been a Godzilla fan since I was a wee one, and the MonsterVerse so far has been a disappointment to me, mostly because the movies couldn’t decide if they were grimdark or absurd fun for 12-year-olds.

This one finally succeeds because it picks a lane and sticks with it. It never pretends to take itself seriously. That would be a waste of time. This movie is loud, dumb fun and it doesn’t try to be anything else. And that’s exactly what it needed to be.

The humans never feel like they’re getting in the way; they serve their purpose of furthering the plot and nothing else, though Tyree Henry has some genuinely funny lines. They also all seem to be enjoying themselves, while the other MonsterVerse casts heretofore have all felt awkward and stressed, like they weren’t quite sure how they were supposed to be treating the material. Now everyone from Skarsgard to Bichir all know they’re in a popcorn sci-fi movie with a giant ape beating the crap out of a giant lizard and they go with it.

The banner kaiju themselves are better developed here, too. I actually cared about them. Kong is the true protagonist of the film, and I was never a fan of his (To me Skull Island was the worst of all the MonsterVerse films) but by the middle of the movie I found myself rooting for him and emotionally invested. Never thought that could happen. Godzilla actually grins evilly at one point and it works.