Entertaining monster warfare!. Review on Godzilla vs. Kong

When this film was released 3 weeks ago, I made up my mind that I would see it in theaters. So, I did eventually see a film in theaters after some gap as I felt such a film would entertain more on the big screen. Having seen the 1962 version of it during my childhood, I was quite eager to see what they'd done with it now. My thoughts on the same are as below.

MAIN CHARACTERS:

Alexander Skarsgård aka Nathan

Kaylee Hottle aka Jia

Rebecca Hall aka Ilene

Demián Bichir aka Walter

King Kong

Godzilla

1 other monster not mentioned in the title

THE PLOT:

All of a sudden, it is discovered that Godzilla has been wreaking havoc in various locations in the world, as opposed to minding his own business. Having failed to counter him adequately, Ilene and Nathan from the scientific world, decide after a lot of discussion, to bring King Kong from Skull Island to counter Godzilla.

King Kong awakens to find himself chained on a huge ship staring at several humans ahead of him. He catches some fish from the sea to satiate his hunger. Nevertheless, he is upset at his situation and keeps letting out loud bellowing cries from time to time. Godzilla seeks him out, as he is ever eager to stamp his authority on other titans. A fight ensues with both exchanging blows, but eventually Kong and others play dead to let Godzilla win round 1 and leave them alone.

That sets up a chain of events with King Kong coaxed to visit Hollow Earth, a place deep inside earth from where all titans have originated, where he learns to deal with anti-gravity and finds a weapon of his own, which can be charged like a battery with stuff similar to Godzilla's atomic breath. Others take this opportunity to steal some of the energy source for undisclosed purposes.

Soon after, it is discovered that an organisation is trying to control an artificially created electronic-cum-mechanical creation, which is also controlled by Ghidorah's neurally extra capable severed head externally, Ghidorah being the king of monsters Godzilla had earlier slain and replaced. Subsequently, a power tussle ensues between Kong and Godzilla, with Kong avenging his earlier defeat by winning round 2. But an unfortunate turn of events and Godzilla's tenacity sees Kong in a losing position again, almost devoid of life.

While humans try to revive Kong's heartbeat, Apex, the organisation mentioned before, lets loose a monster they have manufactured, upon Godzilla, without proper testing. The monster goes berserk and Godzilla is in for an acid test, having experienced some severe blows. But a dramatic turn of events sees Kong return with a more educated, wary and potent approach in dealing with these guys which leads to the demise of the strongest of the 3 monsters, with the remaining 2 weary with their experiences, settling for a stalemate! One could also interpret it as one of them accepting his non-superiority / defeat.

THINGS TO NOTE:

STORY: The story was quite simplistic, but that is often the case in monster movies. I wasn't expecting it to be some super cerebral stuff. It was sort of adequate.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: This was done very well, I think. Normally, the digital expressions of animals in films can be faulty at times. But in this film, it was quite realistic and adequate. Especially, if one compares with the 1962 film, where it was appalling. Other effects and scoring were also mostly good.

EDITING: This was also fine. But at times, maybe the editing lead to over editing. The human characters never got to do much.

PERFORMANCES: This was not a film which required some great performances from the human actors and I don't think anyone delivered any, although they appeared adequate in their respective roles.

King Kong and Godzilla did well with their characteristic behaviour.

DIRECTION: The direction was quite ok for the kind of film this was. I have no complaints.

BEST SCENES: All battle scenes were quite absorbing and the final face off between 3 monsters was especially entertaining. It reminded me of Spartacus and Crixus battling Theocles. Sort of.

OTHER THINGS:

1] I personally thought Ghidorah could have defeated Godzilla if he had used his brains in the preceding film and Godzilla didn't have help from an ally. This film further proves Godzilla can certainly be defeated by select few others, on a given day.

2] I liked King Kong's ideas to deal with Godzilla in the 1962 film. I was more impressed by his approach / tactics in this film.

3] One would think the humans would take some measures to make sure these fights / encounter happen in some secluded place, not leading to some huge damage. But this film is no different in that regard. So many monuments and lives are destroyed right in the heart of civilization. Wonder who'll clean up the mess!

I watched it in 4DX, which was also good I think. Best would've been to watch it in IMAX+3D+4DX. But that wasn't available at the time. All in all, a very entertaining watch.