Godzilla vs. Kong

Plot Synopsis: 

When Godzilla begins acting irrationally, a team of businesspeople and scientists try to find a key to potentially defeat him, believing Kong can lead them to it. Along the way, the two giant monsters begin engaging in battle. Meanwhile, Madison (Mille Bobby Brown reprising her role from Godzilla: King of the Monsters) is trying to find out exactly why Godzilla's behavior has changed.

Positives: 

So, the first thing I really liked about this movie is the action. That is kind of the main reason people are here for this movie, so it's important to get that aspect down, which I think this movie does. The special effects are pretty good too. There aren't really any moments I can point to that look particularly off to me. I also think that, for the most part, the human characters are handled much better in this movie than they have been in previous movies in this MonsterVerse. They aren't deep or anything. But, they are played by good actors, which really helps. The new characters that are tied to Kong's story are the characters I think work the best. I also like that there's a backstory for the rivalry between Godzilla and Kong. It generally works for me. 

Mixed Aspects:

I kind of have mixed feelings about the humor used in the movie. Some of it worked and actually felt pretty natural for me. But, some of the humor also felt really forced, and I just kind of had to shrug it off. While I really liked the action in the movie, there were points where I was worried I wasn't going to get enough of it. Thankfully, the climax kind of rectifies that for me. 

Negatives: 

When I was watching this movie, I kind of wondered if this would have benefitted from an extra movie in this universe. It kind of felt like we skipped a lot involving Kong. I don't know. Maybe we should have had one more Kong movie before this one. It's not a huge negative on my part. It also doesn't help that all of our new characters are pretty much given an exposition dump to introduce them.

Final Thoughts:

This is definitely a movie where the things I like really shine through, and flaws aren't huge. The most important takeaway I had from this movie was that it was fun. It's currently on HBO Max, so I do recommend it. 

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Basic Introduction: 

I want to take a different approach to reviewing this movie, and it's something I want to apply to the reviews I write going forward. There will be a lot of comparison to the theatrical cut of Justice League from 2017. It's just kind of hard to avoid.  

What I Liked: 

First off, Zack Snyder's Justice League feels so much more fleshed out than the theatrical cut. The core cast gets a lot more to do. Looking back at the theatrical cut of the movie from 2017, I have to wonder why they cut all but the bare bones of Cyborg's backstory. Here, he doesn't feel like an afterthought. He feels like a character. The same can also be said of the movie's main villain, Steppenwolf. In the theatrical cut, he was just a generic villain who just wanted to rule the world. In this version, he has a clear master in Darkseid, and is working to get himself back in Darkseid's good graces. Already, the movie's main heavy has a backstory. He has a motivation. While he won't go down as one of my all time favorite villains, this movie offers him a much needed redemption. This movie's also pretty well paced. It was four hours long, and I was glued to all four hours of it. It moved at a pretty solid pace. There were plenty of moments I remembered liking from the theatrical cut, that just feel like they are improved upon here. I should also say that a lot of the fan service worked for me as well. It didn't reach a point for me where it felt too distracting, especially when it easily could have. Finally, the Snyder cut had something I feel was sorely missing from the 2017 version, a soul. This felt like a director's creative vision and a story he wanted to tell from the beginning, especially when compared to the theatrical cut (which I think can best be described as the cliff notes version of this movie). 

What I Didn't Like: 

So, my complaints are pretty minor, all things considered. But, I do still have some issues with this version of the movie. First off, there were a couple of lines here and there that I would have bet money Joss Whedon wrote when trying to give the film more humor, but they exist Zack Snyder's version, namely the line: "I am a black hole of snacks. I am a snack hole." Some of the CGI can look a little janky, though I can't harp on that too much because I think it's kind of amazing we even got this director's cut at all. Finally, let's address the elephant in the room: Amber Heard. Yes, I have my thoughts on her whole situation, and I am not a fan of who she is as a person. That is not why I'm talking about her in this section. I am talking about her in this section of my review because she was just bad in the movie. Fortunately, she's not in it very much. 

Final Thoughts: 

So yeah, I really liked Zack Snyder's Justice League. It got a much more emotional response out of me than the theatrical cut did. This version is on HBO Max, and is broken up into parts. If you have HBO Max, and you haven't already watched this, then just know I do have to recommend it.   

My Rating: 

Awesome