Films and Fiction

Contains minor spoilers for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire

The MonsterVerse has been on our screens for ten years now, starting back in 2014 with Godzilla. Since then, the franchise has expanded in every possible way, with four sequels that have given us more monsters, more fights, and more destruction, following the main characters of Godzilla and Kong as they struggle for supremacy.

Godzilla vs Kong

Easily the weakest entry in the franchise, Godzilla vs Kong has a simple story, focusing on the rivalry between Godzilla and Kong as each titan considers himself to be the apex predator. Unfortunately, it gets dragged down by pointless sideplots such as Mecha Godzilla. There’s also little character development for any of the cast, even Millie Bobby Brown–whos character was introduced in the preceding movie–is wasted here, as the film zeroes in on the action and destructive spectacle of seeing these two monsters clash.

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire

The latest entry in the franchise which sees the MonsterVerse truly embrace the dumb, destruction-filled, pulp aesthetic. Time after time, we see one monster or another rampaging across a city, with no thought given to whether anyone’s getting squashed–they even manage to destroy the Pyramids! It’s all ridiculous fun, populated with characters such as Dan Stevens’ wacky vet. If you want to know just how ludicrous this movie gets, there’s actually a scene where Kong has dental surgery!

Kong: Skull Island

The MonsterVerse first introduced their version of Kong with this movie, set in the ’70s at the end of the Vietnam War. It’s not a groundbreaking movie, and there are times when it goes into the unrealistic CGI fight territory, but it still has its moments. In particular it has a great cast. While Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson don’t have much to do, Samuel L. Jackson does a great performance as a US army colonel who’s projecting his frustrations at the end of the Vietnam War onto his fight with Kong. John C. Reilly also delivers a standout turn as a WWII veteran who’s been stranded on the island for thirty years, going from eccentric castaway to the voice of reason with ease.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

With this movie, you can see the definite cliff edge over which the franchise will soon fall. There are problems with this movie, but it still manages to deliver a relatively solid story. Kyle Chandler portrays a strong lead, as a man who lost his son when Godzilla trampled San Francisco, and hates the titan as a result. It also has interesting points about whether or not we should try to co-exist with the monsters, but you can see where the series is going. Godzilla’s main adversary, Monster Zero, is a three-headed dragon alien, and the fight scenes and destruction are cranked up to 11 and beyond. Still, it manages to keep just this side of believability, and at least has some human characters and emotions at its heart.

Godzilla

The first movie in the franchise, Godzilla is a relatively tame example compared with its sequels, but it’s also the best. It has its characters at its heart, centering on the couple of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who plays a US Navy lieutenant, and Elizabeth Olsen, who plays a nurse, as they deal with the fallout from the giant titans waking up and rampaging across their city. There’s no anthropomorphizing of Godzilla, and despite its far-fetched premise, the film still stays grounded It’s competently directed by Gareth Edwards, and the action scenes actually have some weight, rather than the CGI video game boss battles of later movies.

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