Column: ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ ends the MonsterVerse on a high note

Adam Tumino

I like serious movies. I like movies that deal with real human emotion and tell stories in creative and groundbreaking ways. I like foreign movies and some avant-garde films.

Now there is also something to be said about a movie that begins with the words “Somewhere on Skull Island.”

The is how “Godzilla vs. Kong” starts. It is the fourth and final movie in the so-called MonsterVerse, having been preceded by “Godzilla” in 2014, “Kong: Skull Island” in 2017 and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” two years ago.

It ends the MonsterVerse in thrilling fashion and is the best of the four movies.

To briefly sum up the first three movies, there are various giant creatures called Titans that have battled throughout prehistory.

They originated in the hollow core of the earth and returned there millions of years ago only to be awakened recently by human activity.

King Kong and Godzilla are the last remaining alphas among the Titans, and experts fear that a battle between them is imminent.

As the movie opens, Kong is being kept under observation on Skull Island to hide him from Godzilla, who has spent the last three years as humanity’s savior after the events of “King of the Monsters.”

But one day he attacks a facility run by a massive company called Apex Cybernetics in Pensacola, Florida, which is not a city I would have expected to see in a giant monster movie.

The attack seems to be unprovoked, but a conspiracy theorist podcaster named Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) is not convinced.

He thinks the facility was targeted and that Apex may be working on something that is angering Godzilla.

He is correct, and Apex is searching for a mysterious power source located inside the hollow core of the earth to complete their creation.

Only Kong can show them the way, so he is taken out of seclusion, which causes Godzilla to follow in pursuit.

Obviously a series of fights take place for the rest of the movie, which are always incredible to look at and are impressively choreographed and performed by the motion capture performers and special effects teams.

The movie is predictable and the human characters are bland, with the exception of Henry’s Bernie and a deaf child played by Kaylee Hottle who develops a bond with Kong.

But frankly, who cares. This movie is so incredibly fun to look at.

The scenes inside the hollow earth are beautiful and the lengthy final battle among the neon lights of Hong Kong stand out, and single shot from inside a jet as it takes off is one of the most exciting single shots I’ve seen in an action movie.

Director Adam Wingard and cinematographer Ben Seresin clearly had a lot of fun with their work, and I had just as much fun watching it.

 

Adam Tumino is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].