Based on the early reviews for Godzilla vs. Kong, critics seem to be in agreement about the movie’s human story being its weakest point – and that’s not at all a surprising takeaway. The Godzilla franchise has historically struggled with delivering memorable stories for its human protagonists. The long-awaited fourth installment in the MonsterVerse is nearly here, and audiences will be able to witness the highly-anticipated, second big-screen showdown between Godzilla and Kong.
Considering that Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a financial disappointment, a lot is riding on the upcoming film’s success, both at the box office and in HBO Max viewership. To ensure the MonsterVerse’s survival, the sequel will need to vastly outperform its predecessor and receive good word of mouth. Unfortunately for Legendary and Warner Bros., King of the Monsters was held back by negative reviews, and that’s something the studios are hoping to avoid with Godzilla vs. Kong.
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Based on what’s been said so far, it appears Godzilla vs. Kong will live up to the hype in terms of its giant monster brawls, but the stories it gives to its human characters leave much to be desired. In describing the human plot, critics have called it “pointless”, “not worth talking about”, and just plain “bad”. However, this of course doesn’t mean that fans of either monster will be disappointed with the final product. It’s important to keep in mind that these are long-standing criticisms of the Godzilla franchise and monster movies in general. These issues didn’t begin with Godzilla vs. Kong or King of the Monsters, for that matter; they’ve been around since some of the franchise’s earliest installments.
The fact that this is a consistently problematic area speaks to the nature of the Godzilla franchise as a whole. As the filmmakers involved in these movies have pointed out, Godzilla movies are fundamentally stories about monsters – not people. Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard reaffirmed his own commitment to this conceit when he said that the human story “kind of punches up what the monsters are going through” [via Collider]. King of the Monsters director Mike Dougherty made similar comments about his own contribution to the MonsterVerse. In other words, Godzilla movies aren’t about the humans, so while telling relatable and interesting stories about these characters is a priority to some degree, it’s not the core focus, as opposed to the approach taken with other films.
To critics, this is a big problem, but to fans, it’s not important enough to ruin the experience. That’s because to viewers who understand and appreciate the genre, the quality of these films isn’t determined by the humans. The story isn’t built around them, nor should it be. After all, it’s the monsters, who in the case of Godzilla Vs Kong, are the real stars and it’s their struggles that audiences will be invested in.
Key Release Dates
- Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)Release date: Mar 31, 2021
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