MonsterVerse

With the release of Godzilla vs Kong, I decided to watch all of the MonsterVerse films as I haven't seen them before. As a whole, I had a pretty good time with these films. At their best, I was jumping in my seat with joy. At their worst was KoTM, but we'll get to that in a bit:

Godzilla (2014): I wouldn't say I'm a Godzilla fan, haven't seen too many of his movies, but I love his design and tend to geek out whenever he does something badass. Knowing that, I actually liked this movie a lot. There were a lot of complaints about how long it took for Godzilla to appear and how much longer it took for an actual kaiju fight, but I didn't mind it too much. I love that this film had a slow burn as it made all of the big Godzilla appearances have much more impact, helped by Edwards' direction really emphasizing his scale compared to other humans. This movie was pretty blatantly more focused on horror and how Godzilla's rampages affect individual people, so if you look at a lot of the action as escape sequences from the perspectives of the humans, they're really not that bad. There were even some images like the train and bridge scenes that I thought were genuinely haunting. 

Another complaint was about the human characters but they weren't too bad either, especially the characters of Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, and Elizabeth Olson, though Cranston was killed off too early for sure. And the big final battle absolutely lived up to the build-up, it was well-shot, focused almost entirely on Godzilla, and had the coolest kill in any movie ever in the form of that goddamn atomic kiss (I hadn't giggled with excitement at a movie like this since maybe Endgame?). Even on its own merits, it's probably the best battle in the entire MonsterVerse even if it's the only one in the movie. As a whole, Godzilla 2014 wasn't a masterpiece or anything, but it was well-paced and satisfying, and easily the best and the most well-crafted film in the MonsterVerse.

4/5 Stars

Kong: Skull Island: Coming after the experimental Godzilla film, Kong Skull Island was a bit more average, maybe a bit too average. The fact is that there have been so many movies of a group of soldiers stuck on a jungle/island, particularly in Vietnam, and this one didn't add too much new to the formula. Skull Island was at its best when it was weird, the opening scene just threw you into this tense and fun chase, Kong's appearances were big and bombastic, and Tom Hiddleston slicing pterodactyls with a katana is the exact type of gonzo insanity that I just wish there was more of. There are hints of a truly batshit crazy film here, but it's hidden behind an incredibly standard and predictable plot. 

On the other hand, the cast was definitely the best in the franchise as a whole. Samuel L Jackson and John C Reily were particular great with an interesting conflict, but the other actors were all super likable even if the characters they played were fairly one-note. As for Kong himself, he was easily the best part of the film. His action scenes were all really fun and prioritizing his intelligence compared to the other monsters was a good move when slotting him into this cinematic universe. He wasn't just a generic giant gorilla, he was Kong, he picked up objects like trees and helicopters and threw them at his foes, he used a giant tree trunk as a sword, he ripped out the Skullcrawler's tongue! Not gonna lie, I didn't love Kong much before I saw this film, but his moments here really won me on the character. Overall, it's a decent popcorn flick that's at its best when it's insane and at its worst when it's just a generic "armies in the jungle" film.

3/5 Stars

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters: I really wanted this movie to be good! The trailers looked so cool, but this movie was just boring, and it makes me angrier the more I think about it. We had four massive Toho monsters in this film, all of which with really cool designs, but they barely had any screen time (a little more than 20 minutes apparently). There were more kaiju fights, sure, but none of them were as impactful and well-shot as the original, rather they were obscured in darkness and constantly interrupted by the human characters. 2014's final battle had long, wide shots and every single action had this massive impact, which made moments like the tail swipe and kiss of death feel massive. These fight scenes had a lot closer shots and would constantly cut away to the human characters right before or in the middle of an attack (like a cut in the middle of Godzilla swinging Ghidorah around or a cut right after Rodan and Ghidorah charge at each other). As a matter of fact, I watched a few re-edits that change the color grading and remove the cutaways and they're actually not that bad, but the movie version is so horribly edited that it removes so much of the impact of these fights.

But maybe I wouldn't be as pissed if the humans were at least decent like in 2014? Nope, most of the cast was either painfully dull (Mark), or incredibly stupid (Emma, Stenz). Emma, in particular, when she realized that joining an eco terrorist group was a bad idea, I legitimately wanted to scream "No, duh!" at my screen. Frankly, I found myself frustrated with a lot of moments in this film, from the little things like cutting away from Madison getting a giant concrete slab dropped on her head as if it never happened, to how the Oxygen Destroyer appears out of nowhere at the worst possible time. So when you have weak monster fights, and a frustrating story, what else is even left? Frankly, just the monsters themselves and their cool designs, which once again, had only twenty minutes of poorly-edited screentime in service of humans that I just didn't care about at all. However, this movie isn't irredeemable, the depiction of Mothra was pretty much perfect. Her design was beautiful, her fight was the best in the film, and her sacrifice was the most emotional part of the film. That's right, I cared more about a giant bug than the entire human cast. I think that sums up my general opinion of the film pretty well.

2/5 Stars

Godzilla vs Kong: I actually really liked this one. At this point, the human characters were just there to carry the plot and that's it, they didn't have personalities because they didn't need it, and the movie made sure to prioritize the two titular monsters this time around. Godzilla and Kong don't speak, they never had, but their actions throughout the movie conveyed so much character alone. In this movie, the humans are just plot devices, and Godzilla and Kong are the real characters, and I think that's great. Case in point, whenever a battle started, there were barely any cutaways like in KoTM. The action was great this time around, all shot with long takes and allowing Kong and Godzilla use their entire movesets to their advantages. And the last 30 minutes were just excellent, giving both fighters the victories they deserve (while still letting Kong win), and the final battle with MechaGodzilla was just full of "hell, yeah!" moments.

As for the story, it was the perfect excuse plot to get these two to fight and bring in MechaGodzilla for the finale, never overstaying its welcome or forcing its humans into situations that would just come into conflict with the big monster fights. Hell, some of the quips were even pretty funny this time! Kong got to learn sign language which I thought was a really great move, the Hollow Earth concept was actually pretty neat, and tying MG to Ghidorah made the movie feel like a deserving finale to the MonsterVerse as a whole. I even really liked Junkie XL's score here, it was definitely one of the better ones. Overall, GvK might not have been the best-crafted film and its characters were massive blank slates, but by focusing on the titular monsters and providing some great action, this was definitely one of the best films of the bunch.

4/5 Stars

So my ranking of the MonsterVerse films would be:

1. Godzilla (2014)

2. Godzilla Vs Kong

3. Kong: Skull Island

4. Godzilla: King Of The Monsters

Oh, and also best finishing moves:

1. Ripping open the MUTO's jaw and shooting atomic breath down his throat (Godzilla)

2. Tearing apart MechaGodzilla bit by bit and ripping out his head (Godzilla Vs Kong)

3. Ripping out the Skullcrawler's tongue (Kong: Skull Island)

4. Ripping off and burning Ghidorah's last head (Godzilla: King Of The Monsters)

And overall, I did really like these movies. I still think 2014 was the most well-crafted of the bunch and nothing could really top the "kiss of death", which is probably the greatest finisher move in any movie ever, but Skull Island and GvK had some really great kaiju action in spite of their weak characters. KoTM was still garbage, but as a whole, I'm glad I watched these films. The moments of badass, city-destroying monster fights made it all worth it.