You might not be a fan of blockbusters, Kaiju movies etc. but it is impossible to ignore such an event for cinematography. There has simply been no such show yet. Yes, there were two parts of "Pacific Rim", "Godzilla: King of the Monsters", old movies with Godzilla, Kong and other productions such as "Robot Jox", but there has never been a crossover on such a gigantic scale. I don't know about today's youth, but when I was finishing my childhood and becoming a teenager, both of these creatures were popular with my peers - be it from my small town or other Polish cities. Sometimes it was due to the love passed on by the parents, sometimes because they saw a man dressed in a rubber lizard or monkey costume on TV for a kid, and they liked it. I was one of those people who had never liked both monsters. Yes, unlike "Rambo", "Friday XIII", "Die Hard" or Westerns, I tried to understand this phenomenon, but every time I got bored and switched to another channel. Then there was Emmerich's movie where I was in the cinema with my father and I liked it (although today I would probably complain a lot about it), Peter Jackson's "Kong", which I haven't seen until today. Later we got "Skull Island", the first part of "Godzilla" and its sequel. I assessed the single in a mixed way - I liked some of the things, most of all the director's idea, but ... I wanted to see a more epic fight and more monsters on the screen. Sequel, on the other hand, had a lot of beautiful scenes, but apart from them there was a plethora of unnecessary human threads that could be cut with a light hand with a cleaver and that would only help him. I recently reviewed a movie about the great monkey, so I will not remind you. How is it with the duel of two Alpha Titans?
Tl; dr - people's plots were better in the solo episode about Kong and the fight scenes in the movie discussed here. One of my readers pointed out that my mini-reviews have a bit too much text for "mini" in the title, so I'll try to make it shorter (greet you, Pandæmonium). Well, the scenario is simple - Godzilla in the previous movie, politely lowered the concert bang to all the monsters that lined up to become Chad Ultimate on planet Earth. There was one left that had not yet bowed down to him. Godzilla looks for him, and people try to hide the monkey from bloodthirsty Chad. Well, at some point there is a clash between them ... In the meantime, Mechagodzilla appears and our two title characters join forces, like Goku and Vegeta in the movie with Metal Cooler, temporarily suspending the war for influence on Earth and going to kick his tin-steel ass. There are also some threads about people, but fortunately, they have been cut to a minimum (in a few moments I had the impression that they were cut too much) and they are not boring anymore, and even have interesting fragments! Unfortunately, only fragments, but it is still a giant step forward compared to the previous parts. Maybe someday they will equal "Skull Island".
As for the fights, I will come back to my reference to DBZ. But don't take it too literally, as it only applies to a few aspects. Vegeta is like Kong, and Godzilla is like Broly in the form of Ssj1. Kong focuses more on technical attacks, constantly thinking and trying to hit vital points or deal as much damage as possible. Godzilla, on the other hand, has a lot of energy, strength, and in order to successfully knock him down, he has to be severely beaten. As predicted, the great ape generally had no chance against the lizard, but in a few moments it managed to put up a temporary resistance or gain an advantage for a short time. It was beautiful to watch in every duel - I felt the strength of each blow, the power of Godzilla's atomic breath, their mass and dimensions. This was compounded by several scenes where the monsters were either talking to each other or reacting in a hmm ... human way. My favorite moment was the conversation between them after the fight. If you translated it, it would be something like: "Still not enough ?!" YES! "Should I go on fucking?" YES! "Ah, fuck you, you're so weak now that it wouldn't be glorious to overcome a mediocrity like you." Or the ominous smile of a lizard as it hit its kamehameha in the ape's shoulder - if you had added words to translate the thoughts of an overgrown reptile, it would be something like "haha! Good for you dick." I am very happy that the character of Godzilla has been established, who in this incarnation is the final version of Chad, who defeated all worthy opponents on our planet and is its undisputed king. The same was done with Kong, except that the monkey was given many more opportunities to show human emotions as well as his intelligence. Were it not for the fact that I am talking about a giant monkey here, I would say that it looks very nice. The facial expressions, emotions, the natural bond between him and the deaf girl, all turned out lovely and very good in terms of special effects. It came out as naturally as in his earlier film. I am glad that according to rumors (if these turn out to be true), the studio wants to focus on Kong in the next part, giving Godzilla a break. It is true that I liked this monster in the end, but his hairy friend has more interesting potential for further development, and his character is more interesting.
Summing up - I liked "Godzilla vs Kong", but to be honest, "Skull Island" made a bigger impression on me as a whole. This does not mean that GvK is a poor movie, quite the contrary. It is a well written and directed blockbuster. As in the case of previous films with "Godzilla" (I'm talking about this universe, not other productions) I saw a lot of elements that I could improve, I don't see any here. I'm not saying that there are no such, they just didn't catch my eye and maybe I will notice them during the second session. What was supposed to be well done, it was like that, the other elements were not boring too much, because even if they were less successful (and there weren't too many of them, I mostly liked them, especially the relationship between a little girl and Kong), it was fast. were ending, and we got what we like to watch the most in such films - that is, the great monsters and their interactions with other Titans. We just got a good show that would be great to watch in the cinema, especially shots from a certain place where people wanted to hide a monkey or the final duel in town. Beautiful neon lights, scenes of destruction, different colors ... Well, it looked just phenomenal and beautiful, like in the new "Blade Runner" or the movie "Ghost in the Shell". Great photos where you can see every blow and its effects in the form of wrecked ships or a devastated part of the city. I hope that the next parts will follow this path, and not return to too dark scenes from "King of the Monsters". As with MK, I was disappointed, I would love to watch this movie again in the cinema, because it is something to watch!
My rating is +7/10. Btw. Or is it just me that the scene with Kong in the middle of the ocean was a reference to "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and Asuka's fight in a similar setting? This ship jumping scene seems to have been taken straight from this anime.