REVIEW:
They say with these types of giant monster movies, (Kaiju movies, I suppose,) you have to always go bigger. Go big or go home, right? But why, then, is it that the two best versions of these movies, Godzilla (the Aaron Taylor Johnson- Bryan Cranston film,) and Kong: Skull Island, are the ones that didn’t go nearly as crazy as the others. When I say crazy, what I mean is going back and forth to Hollow Earth, a location that is like another world, inside of the earth, and bringing in tons and tons of monsters and creatures. The last movie ended by featuring three of these giant creatures (Titans,) Kong, Godzilla, and the robotic MechaGodzilla. This one takes that number and laughs it right off the board.
But bigger is not better, as this movie proves. The story is pretty lame. There’s some kind of distress call sent from Hollow Earth, so our team of scientists has to go down there to check it out. It’s about as basic of a story as you can get. The story isn’t meant to be anything special, but for the first time in the series, it feels like they’re not even trying.
Story and characters are put on the back burner here, in favor of the action. And that’s usually a good thing in an action movie. It’s certainly better than the opposite move, of too much about the humans and not enough monster fighting. There is tons and tons of monster fighting here. And yet, it’s not all that good. Maybe it’s because so much the action takes place in Hollow Earth, that it doesn’t have as much weight. Whatever the reason, it actually does get tiresome.
This a movie made on a very limited amount of ideas. In the last film, it was established that there is wold called Hollow Earth with prehistoric monsters roaming around. This movie is about how there is much more happening on Hollow Earth than anyone knew about. Another tribe of giant apes. A new tribe of people, related to the little girl who came from Skull Island. And even an ice breathing version of Godzilla. The action starts off really good, but after a while just becomes tiring.
These movies are not easy to make. If you don’t give the audience enough action, they complain If you give too much action, it becomes tiring and uninteresting. So how do you make these movies good? Ideas. Story does matter here. Not so much the human characters, but the story involving Kong and Godzilla. Also, ideas about the action. Get creative with the moves. There are no limits. On top of that, the movie is being released just months after Godzila Minus One, which was.a smash success or apparently being a great film. Common sense would say to st least space these movies out a little, But here we are, with a monster-verse clearly snd fully established. Two Godzilla movies. One King Kong movie. And two teammup movies featuring both of them. Unfortunately the first and second films were the only good ones. They need to find a way to get back to that.