Godzilla vs. Kong (2020)
So this is actually good?
Ya it's very good! Liked this a lot, by far the best since Edwards' 2014 film. Playful tone and the human characters tie into the monster fights in a way that won't get recognized but is pretty organic for the series. Monster fights have rhythm and energy--Wingard gets the scale of them right and manages to get personality across; especially with Kong. Good stuff.
A franchise of diminishing returns unfrotunately. I rewatched all three films before this and it does get worse with each film. I wasn't so hot on the first Godzilla upon the rewatch either. It's easily the best one in portraying scale and stakes - when the monsters fight it does feel consequential, people's lives are in danger and the physics of CGI isn't realistic (because that's impossible) but they are closer to a cinematic reality and feels believable and often terrifying. But boy oh boy, the character stuff is weak and the movie is way too slow for such weak characters.
The rest just gets less and less believable asthey go on and the characters do not get any better (I guess Skull Island has the best ones but only because they are so hilariously bad it's entertaining to some degree).
Here, nothing really matters. As the two giants fight I just couldn't care less since there's really nothing at stake, or so it feels. It's not funny enough and it's not crazy enough to just be a switch off your brain crazy fun movie, either. Kong is waaay too big, makes Godzilla and... the antagonist... less imposing by comparison, and with his arc being the only mildly compelling aspect of the film, portraying him as a smaller (but more agile and witty) underdog would have made more sense. But as the two knock each other out among buildings, there's really no sense of danger or awe.
A generous - 4/10 (Kong's arc is ok, I guess, and the hollow Earth is an intriguing concept that could be explored more - though, where the fuck is the sunlight coming in from? - and the pace is much quicker than in the other movies so there's some of the positives)
I think, until another Cloverfield type movie comes along, that will feel fresh and unique, this entire genre is dead to me.
Still, it's good that it made money. Just because I'm not going to watch more of it, doesn't mean I don't want it to continue for the people who actually enjoyed it.
The rest just gets less and less believable asthey go on and the characters do not get any better (I guess Skull Island has the best ones but only because they are so hilariously bad it's entertaining to some degree).
Here, nothing really matters. As the two giants fight I just couldn't care less since there's really nothing at stake, or so it feels. It's not funny enough and it's not crazy enough to just be a switch off your brain crazy fun movie, either. Kong is waaay too big, makes Godzilla and... the antagonist... less imposing by comparison, and with his arc being the only mildly compelling aspect of the film, portraying him as a smaller (but more agile and witty) underdog would have made more sense. But as the two knock each other out among buildings, there's really no sense of danger or awe.
A generous - 4/10 (Kong's arc is ok, I guess, and the hollow Earth is an intriguing concept that could be explored more - though, where the fuck is the sunlight coming in from? - and the pace is much quicker than in the other movies so there's some of the positives)
I think, until another Cloverfield type movie comes along, that will feel fresh and unique, this entire genre is dead to me.
Still, it's good that it made money. Just because I'm not going to watch more of it, doesn't mean I don't want it to continue for the people who actually enjoyed it.
It's the cheesiest and campiest in the franchise but I had a lot of fun watching it.