{"id":213771,"date":"2021-03-29T18:00:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T15:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/big-dumb-monster-mayhem-film\/"},"modified":"2021-03-29T18:00:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T15:00:37","slug":"big-dumb-monster-mayhem-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/big-dumb-monster-mayhem-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#Big, Dumb Monster Mayhem \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Big, Dumb Monster Mayhem \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

\"godzilla<\/a><\/p>\n

What do we want from the MonsterVerse, Warner Bros. and Legendary\u2019s attempt to Marvel-ize the world of Godzilla, King Kong, and several other big beasties? The answer seems to be: big, loud, entertaining mayhem, and here comes Godzilla vs. Kong<\/em><\/strong> to hopefully deliver on that. Time and time again, when one of these movies<\/a> comes out, they\u2019re\u00a0pilloried for their lackluster human characters. These criticisms are inevitably met with a defensive \u201cWho cares?! I watch these movies for the monsters, not the people!\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a weak defense because ultimately, these movies are more about humans than they are monsters. It\u2019s clear that the folks making these movies\u00a0want<\/em> the audience to care about the human characters. When 2014\u2019s\u00a0Godzilla<\/em> arrived, Steven Spielberg\u2019s\u00a0Jaws<\/em> was cited as an inspiration by several people close to the production. But no one ever says, \u201cI only watch\u00a0Jaws<\/em> for the shark!\u201d It\u2019s the human moments \u2013 Brody, Hooper, and Quint sharing drunken scar stories; etc. \u2013 that makes\u00a0Jaws<\/em>\u00a0so special. If your monster movie is going to be primarily focused on humans with occasional bursts of monster action, you better make sure those humans are at least\u00a0slightly<\/em> interesting and relatable.<\/p>\n

This problem plagues the MonsterVerse. Gareth Edwards\u2019s\u00a0Godzilla<\/em> is full of haunting, downright terrifying imagery. It\u2019s a film that knows exactly how to make Godzilla seem massive, destructive, and scary. But Godzilla is a supporting player in the film \u2013 he only pops-up in ten minutes\u2019 worth of footage in a film that runs over two hours. That\u2019s fine, in theory \u2013 the shark is only a supporting player in\u00a0Jaws<\/em>, after all. But unfortunately,\u00a0Godzilla<\/em> suffered from having some of the blandest blockbuster characters in recent memory. I dare you to even remember their character names.<\/p>\n

Kong: Skull Island<\/em> tried to rectify this by pumping-up the monster action and adding even\u00a0more<\/em> humans. They\u2019re slightly more interesting than the humans in\u00a0Godzilla<\/em>, but not by much.\u00a0Godzilla: King of the Monsters<\/em> was the worst offender. It was a film with a potentially great premise: a scientist, played by the usually dependable Vera Farmiga, realizes that humanity has essentially blown it and it\u2019s time to let the monsters \u2013 or titans, as this franchise officially calls them \u2013 restore balance via mass genocide. A chilling idea for sure, but\u00a0King of the Monsters<\/em> is so bogged down with nonsensical exposition and overloaded with boring characters \u2013 even Farmiga\u2019s mad scientist is oddly dull \u2013 that it collapses under the weight of its bullshit. But fans were not to be deterred. The rallying cry came again: \u201cSo what? All I care about is the monster action!\u201d\u00a0King of the Monsters<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>had plenty of that, sure \u2013 but it was represented via poorly filmed battles that were almost always cloaked by a curtain of rainfall. What good is monster action if we can\u2019t even see it? The original\u00a0Godzilla<\/em> films may look cheaper by comparison with their men in rubber monster suits, but at least we can make out what\u2019s happ<\/a>ening on the screen.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to\u00a0Godzilla vs. Kong<\/em>, the latest, and silliest entry in the series. Comparing this film, which is so unapologetically goofy, against the bleaker-than-bleak backdrop of the 2014\u00a0Godzilla<\/em> is like comparing\u00a0F. W. Murnau\u2019s\u00a0Nosferatu<\/em> to Mel Brooks\u2019s\u00a0Dracula: Dead and Loving It<\/em>. The movies don\u2019t appear to even be part of the same physical universe let alone the same franchise. But as it turns out, this might be the secret sauce the MonsterVerse has needed all along. By abandoning the existential dread that was cooked into Edwards\u2019s movie,\u00a0Godzilla vs. Kong<\/em> is able to make us finally stop caring that its human characters are duds. And make no mistake: the humans here are just as flat as the humans in the previous entries. But it ultimately doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0At long last, the franchise seems to have become what the defenders have been crowing about: monster mayhem and nothing else. The franchise is no longer trying to be\u00a0Jaws<\/em> \u2013 it\u2019s trying to be one of the\u00a0Jaws<\/em> sequels.<\/p>\n

The plot, such as it is, involves humans using Kong, the massive ape who calls Skull Island home, to find a way into the Hollow Earth. That is, a place at the center of the Earth that features an entirely new world that sort of<\/em> looks like ours, but a little weirder \u2013 there are mountain ranges on the sky, for instance, and gravity seems to be more of a suggestion than a natural phenomenon. Kong has spent a large chunk of his life living in a huge containment facility built on Skull Island. The facility has been decked-out to look like part of the island\u2019s jungles, but Kong isn\u2019t fooled \u2013 he\u2019s onto the rouse, but he also doesn\u2019t seem to entirely mind. Instead, he spends most of his days napping.<\/p>\n

When he\u2019s not napping he\u2019s able to talk \u2013 via sign language \u2013 with\u00a0Jia (Kaylee Hottle<\/strong>), a young orphan girl who is in the care of\u00a0Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall<\/strong>). Dr. Andrews has been dubbed \u201cThe Kong Whisperer\u201d by the press, and she seems to know everything there is to know about the titan. Almost immedia<\/a>tely,\u00a0Godzilla vs. Kong<\/em> runs into problems with these characters because we honestly have no idea who they are or what their deal is. Who is Jia? Where did she come from? Why does she have a special bond with Kong? Did Dr. Andrews know this when she adopted the kid? Is that\u00a0why<\/em> she adopted the child, to exploit her Kong skills? The movie doesn\u2019t address any of this. Instead, Dr. Andrews is recruited by\u00a0Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/strong>) to get Kong to help find the Hollow Earth. Dr. Lind is an expert on the Hollow Earth, but that\u2019s about the only character development the film seems fit to give him. Like Dr. Andrews and Jia (and everyone else, really), he\u2019s just sort of there.
\nThe mission to get to the Hollow Earth is being funded by Apex, an obscenely wealthy (and therefore clearly evil) company run by\u00a0Walter Simmons (Demi\u00e1n Bichir<\/strong>, who is having a lot of fun with his paper-thin character; I\u2019m pretty sure he doesn\u2019t have a single scene where he\u2019s not sipping from a glass of Scotch). Simmons wants to get to the Hollow Earth because there\u2019s a magical power source there, and he wants to exploit it. If you\u2019re thinking this all sounds very vague and kind of stupid, that\u2019s because it is.\u00a0Godzilla vs. Kong<\/em> has no use for anything rooted in the real world \u2013 and why should it? It\u2019s about two chonky monsters smashing shit up. Whether its the result of editing after test screenings or was the plan all along,\u00a0Godzilla vs. Kong<\/em> understands that no one is watching this movie for the human subplots anymore and therefore it\u2019s okay to just breeze through them and cut down the exposition.<\/p>\n

While all of this Hollow Earth hokum is going on, Godzilla is on the warpath. The titan has been missing in action for three years, but he suddenly pops-up and starts attacking places unprovked. Up until now, humanity had thought Godzilla was on their side, but now everyone is understandably panicked that this atomic lizard has gone rogue. But not everyone thinks Big G is a bad guy now.\u00a0Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown<\/strong>), a teenager we first met in\u00a0Godzilla: King of the Monsters<\/em>, is convinced that Godzilla is still a hero at heart, and that someone, or\u00a0something<\/em>, is making the monster angry. Madison is practically a dyed-in-the-wool Godzilla cultist, angrily reprimanding her doubting father (Kyle Chandler<\/strong>, who has literally nothing to do here) and shouting, \u201cHow can you doubt Godzilla?!\u201d How, indeed.<\/p>\n

Madison ends up going on a side-quest to get to the bottom of what\u2019s going on with Godzilla, dragging along her friend Josh (Julian Dennison<\/strong>, forced to deliver a stready stream of unfunny comic relief lines) and a monster conspiracy theory podcaster named Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry<\/strong>). This storyline is dreadful as we\u2019re clobbered over the head with a glut of \u201cquirky\u201d details about Bernie \u2013 He makes his own hand sanitizer! He literally washes his body with bleach! \u2013 that are meant to pass for character development. Henry is a phenomenal actor but not even he is able to make this junk work. If this entire subplot had been left on the cutting room floor no one would miss it.<\/p>\n

Everyone wants to keep Godzilla and Kong far apart, because the monsters apparenty have an ancient rivalry. They\u2019re also both alphas, and as Dr. Andrews says, \u201cThere can\u2019t be two alpha titans!\u201d Of course, if Godzilla and Kong remained separated there wouldn\u2019t be much of a movie, so it\u2019s not long until the two monsters are going head to head, clashing in one big action sequenece after another. While the battle between the beasts is a big part of the movie, Godzilla remains mostly in the background here. He\u2019ll come out of the sea for some wreckage but then slink away. This is primarily Kong\u2019s movie, and it helps that Kong feels like a living, breathing being here. Director Adam Wingard<\/strong> is smart enough to make Kong a relatable, sympathetic character \u2013 in fact, he\u2019s more relatable than any human in the entire movie. When Kong is first introduced here waking up, yawning, and then scratching his giant ass while Bobby Vinton croons \u201cOver the Mountain Across the Sea,\u201d it\u2019s hard not to be immediately charmed and fall under the creature\u2019s spell. Godzilla still feels truly otherworldly and monstrous, but Kong is like a lazy dude who is forced to fight even though he\u2019d be much happier chilling out.<\/p>\n

Wingard also wisely avoids covering up his monster action with heavy rain or confusing camera angles. There are multiple effects-driven moments that unfold in broad daylight, and a battle between Godzilla and Kong amidst the neon lights of Hong Kong is spectacular, even if you might be distracted wondering how much collateral damage these two big boys are inflicting. I missed the grandure and terror that was present in 2014\u2019s\u00a0Godzilla<\/em>, but not much. Have these films just finally worn me down? Perhaps. But I think the secret to\u00a0Godzilla vs. Kong<\/em>\u2018s success is its ability to realize how stupid this all is. The seriousness in\u00a0Godzilla\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Godzilla: King of the Monsters<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>has been completely jettisoned to make room for moments like the one where Kong rips another monster\u2019s head off and then eats the goo inside, or like when Godzilla blasts his atomic breath straight into the ground until he literally burroughs into the center of the Earth. Godzilla vs. Kong<\/em> is a film without pretensions. It knows exactly what it wants to do, and what it wants to do is have monsters smash buildings while they\u2019re throwing punches at each other. It\u2019s finally what this franchise has been building towards: a movie about monsters, not humans.
\n\/Film Rating:\u00a0 6.5 out of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n

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“#Big, Dumb Monster Mayhem \u2013 \/Film” What do we want from the MonsterVerse, Warner Bros. and Legendary\u2019s attempt to Marvel-ize the world of Godzilla, King Kong, and several other big beasties? The answer seems to be: big, loud, entertaining mayhem, and here comes Godzilla vs. Kong to hopefully deliver on that. Time and time again,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/godzilla-vs-kong-review.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[14988,1568,89810,82987,1570,27684,7598,91554,1500,1553],"class_list":["post-213771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-godzilla-vs-kong","tag-featured-stories-sidebar","tag-adam-wingard","tag-alexander-skarsgard","tag-features","tag-millie-bobby-brown","tag-movie-reviews","tag-rebecca-hall","tag-sequels","tag-warner-brothers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}