UP TO SCRATCH

SPOILERS DOWN THE PATH; THE DISCUSSION BELOW WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE WITHOUT IT.

TREAD CAREFULLY. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

In the last (supposedly) film of Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse is the ultimate showdown that's been teased since 2014. And just like all the other entries in this franchise, the highlight as intended is the monsters.

Be it the first interaction between Kong and Godzilla, the midpoint fisticuff between the two in midst of towering skyscrapers or the finale where they team up to defeat Mechagodzilla, it's of epic proportions! You could tell the makers truly cared about rendering these sequences to deliver the title promise. Even Kong's brawl with the air snake at Hollow Earth and Godzilla's solo attempt at taming Mechagodzilla are phenomenally shot, choreographed and put together. Info about ancestral rivalry between Godzilla and Kong is interesting, and many scenes featuring Kong such as him digging fish out of water for lunch, speaking sign language and floating in zero gravity are fascinating to watch.

The human characters however are absolute throwaways like in every instalment in this series. When juxtaposed against the gargantuan battles, these human characters appear extremely boring, mundane and at times, annoying. Every trial at humor fails. There're no signs of care for coherent storytelling too. The one moment where Godzilla and Kong visually exchange words is far superior than anything accomplished by the human characters. Surprisingly, there's fewer exposition that one would expect, but the plot is the same old MacGuffin chase we've all seen a million times by now. But thankfully, it's not convoluted like in Godzilla: King of the Monsters and simple unlike in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In other words, the plot is easy to follow and it makes sense.

Visual effects for all the Titans and the myriad creatures shown in Hollow Earth is stellar - if a sequel was ever greenlit, Hollow Earth with its anti-gravity nature and the undiscovered Titans in it could be the content! Production design for all the vehicles, spider-bot, psionic uplink skull etc. are superb! Camerawork exploring the beauty of Hollow Earth is the work of an expert and the false 'brave' sign conversation is cute for sure.