Monster of the Day #3215

Updated on April 29, 2021 By Ken Begg 11 Comments

I really wanted to see Godzilla vs Kong before I left for Texas, so that if people mentioned it I wouldn’t be the guy frantically shushing them because I hadn’t seen it yet. It was pretty good, but frustrating because with a little work it could have been much better. Just a little tweaking could have turned it from a 7.5 (still a recommend) to a 9. I will say that although I was generally have a good time, and downright loved some scenes, that when at one point my bladder demanded I leave the auditorium for five minutes–hey, I’m nearly 60–it really didn’t bother me at all.

My biggest issue is that there were two groups of human protagonists to follow. One was completely unnecessary and the film would have been cleaner, shorter and more efficient if they had been cut out entirely. Basically by the end of the movie, as everything was ramping up to the climax, I was increasingly annoyed, finally bordering on angry, every time we cut back to them.

I had lots of little to medium problems with it, too. However, it did a lot of things right as well. The GvK fight at the end of the movie was fantastic.  I’d go more into my niggles, but I’ll probably have to wait to get it on Blu Ray when it comes out so I could watch it again.

I’ll see some of you tonight, maybe, many of you tomorrow, and will resume monster of the day upon my return next Wednesday. Have a great week, everyone.

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  • Beckoning Chasm

    Have fun!

  • The Rev.

    Oh good, we can talk about this movie over the weekend and not worry about spoiling it for you. (Although there may be others who haven’t seen it.)

    I think KotM is my favorite of this series. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Kong: Skull Island so I’m not sure if I liked it better than this one. I will say I am more likely to remember the characters in this one than some of those in SI, even if, as you said, almost half of them were completely superfluous. In fact, their story was pretty much the most aggravating thing for me in this movie. But the monster fights were great (the first one was quite unlike any I’ve seen, and was pretty imaginative), they did a good job of making Kong sympathetic (even though I’m Team Godzilla now and forever), and I loved the little nods to King Kong vs. Godzilla. Overall I was satisfied and occasionally thrilled, if not blown away.

    See you tomorrow, my friend. Safe travels.

  • Gamera977

    Thanks guys for the non-spoiler reviews!!!

    Guess I’m going to wait till the film comes out on Blu-Ray. I am happy to see that it made enough that a sequel is pretty much guaranteed.

  • Ken_Begg

    I mean, I think it is worth seeing on a big screen if you have the chance. Some of the spectacle scenes are pretty amazing. And I do mean it that the film was, on whole, pretty good. I think I get most frustrated, though, with scripts that seem like they could have been greatly improved in a single afternoon. If that.

  • Gamera977

    I do feel cheated not getting to see this on the big screen. But I don’t think there’s any theaters open around here. I looked around and nothing. So it’s either HBO Max or wait. And if I’m going to see it on TV I might as well wait for the Blu-Ray.

  • I suspect from interviews I’ve read with Adam Wingard is that everything people wanted to be in the script *was* there, but he cut a lot of stuff out just to keep the pace as breathless as possible. He’s said that he wouldn’t do a Director’s Cut, as he likes the final product the way it is.

  • Hasta manana!

  • It’s best viewed as a Kong movie, rather than a Godzilla movie. As such, it’s one of the best Kong movies up there, with the original still at the top.

    Wasn’t what I hoped for, but damn was it good. Loved the final “conversation” between Godzilla and Kong.

  • The Rev.

    I went ahead and splurged for the IMAX experience, which due to a discount plus matinee was actually pretty reasonable. I figured why not? I feel like it was worth it, all things considered. Although seeing Pacific Rim in 3-D and whatever else was probably more spectacular since Del Toro made sure to film the action scenes with that in mind and it was utterly enthralling at those points (making it a bit of a letdown to watch again at home, sadly). The Hong Kong battle in a 3-D theater made me a kid again for just a little while.

  • The Rev.

    You’re not wrong. Godzilla is definitely second fiddle as far as screen time, but it made sense for the story they were telling and with their clear attempts to make the audience sympathetic to Kong. Also, Godzilla has pretty much been portrayed as a force of nature in this series, with very little attempt to do otherwise (aside from the first one’s ending, I suppose), so it makes sense as far as their focus here.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I like the movie for what it is. It gave us some good kaiju battle action and that’s always good.

    Travel safely and have fun, Ken!