King Kong, now living in Hollow Earth – is desperate to find his own kind. A sinkhole opens and he enters, finding the villainous Scar King – who he must battle.
Godzilla, still fighting for mankind, starts to go hunting for extra radiation – seemingly on a mission for something… big… (such as a battle against Scar King ???)
Meanwhile, Dr Ilene Andrews, her adoptive daughter Jia – enlist podcaster Bernie and Kong’s vet Trapper to head to Hollow Earth to assist.
Cast/Characters
New lead is Rebecca Hall as Dr Andrews, with Bryan Tyree Henry returning as Bernie, and Kaylee Hottle still getting MVP as Jia.
Dan Stevens joins the cast as Trapper.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
The film tends to have more non dialogue moments, especially with the very CGI heavy scenes, such as; The Kong all alone opening (and all that slime overboard), and later in the film when Kong ‘meets’ Scar King, the antagonist of Hollow Earth.
These scenes felt as if they were either; trying to pad the runtime of the film, or have less on screen human dialogue which would ease up the screenplay.
Even with a ‘reduced’ screenplay, it is noticeable that attention to the continuity wasn’t high as at many times what the characters are saying, doesn’t match that of what we see on screen.
We are given more exposition about Jia this time around, with the backstory of her Iwa tribe (did we know this in the last film?) that sets the obvious foreshadowing of her finding her tribe within the Hollow Earth (‘within’ Hollow Earth… ) which does have the extra level of significance of her character, as she is the one that is able to awaken Mothra. It is also her ‘visions’ which are the reason why Ilene feels that they are required to head to Hollow Earth. The forced emotion moments between Jia and Ilene don’t work either and feel like it is just another cliche addition.
The other characters are not as interesting to watch, with them either being over obnoxious (Bernie), or just completely bizzare (Trapper) – who is introduced as a ‘cowboy’ type – with an atrocious accent too. That Ilene and Bernie are the only returning adult cast might say something about the behind the scenes ‘budget cuts’ within the Monsterverse.
The only character who I liked was Mikael, but he became an early (and only) body-count character. RIP.
Another gripe on the screenplay is they also keep extending the mythology, with way too much exposition (the Scar King history, and Project Powerhouse – which is just conveniently nearby….) and considering Scar King and Shimo were ‘made for this film’ there is too much ‘just made up’ just for the sake of it.
Overall
With new, and slightly less engaging leads, and unrealistically written supporting characters.
Less impressive CGI, and new mythology exposition overload make this on par with the rest of the ‘Monsterverse’ in terms of quality.
Not a fail, but quite forgettable.
3/5
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