Monsterverse Movies Ranked
A few days ago, Godzilla vs Kong hit theaters and HBO Max. That movie is the 4th movie in a franchise titled the monsterverse. In there we have 2 Godzilla movies, 1 King Kong movie, and 1 movie with them together. So today we are talking about Godzilla and Kong, and ranking the monsterverse.
4. Godzilla (2014): I watched this movie in the theaters, and then I’d seen pieces of it through-out the years. But I believe this was my first time watching this movie from beginning to the end since the theaters. I think the cast here (like all of the movies) is pretty good. Since I’m so used to seeing Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, it was a bit weird to see her in this movie not having balls of red energy in her hands. And even better, the leading man is Aaron-Tayler Johnson who is Quicksilver in the MCU. In this movie they are husband and wife, and in the MCU they are brother and sister. And it’s a bit weird, when this movie came out summer 2015. Bryan Cranston I think is pretty great with the limited amount of screen time that he has, and he makes the scenes that he is in better. I haven’t seen him in much, but this is the best performance he has given. The Godzilla action (when it does happen) is very exciting to see, and it’s fun to see a giant lizard battle a giant flying creature thing. The visuals for the movie are very cool, and it’s believable. It doesn’t look fake when Godzilla is on the screen. This is a 2 hour long Godzilla movie, and Godzilla appears in just under 10 minutes of the movie. I understand creating a giant monster action with computers isn’t the cheapest or easiest thing to do. But I wish we got to see more of Godzilla in the first two acts and not only in the third act. So in general, a fine movie. I had fun with certain elements of the movie, but certain things did bug me about the movie, and thought could have been fixed.
3. Godzilla: King of the Monsters: Another movie that I saw once in the theaters, and this was my first time watching this movie since the theater. I think this movie does a lot of things well. First up, I like that this movie dove deep into the history of Godzilla and his mythology and us as the audience understand where he came from, and he is attacking the planet. I mentioned earlier, but with Godzilla (2014), there was under 10 minutes of Godzilla action, here we get to see Godzilla in three different action sequences. In my opinion, this is the funniest of the movies. Every couple of minutes, there is a nice joke that made me laugh. And the actors are funny in these movies, Bradley Whitford and Thomes Middletitch being the best examples of that. Kyle Chandler gives a really solid performance as this conflicted husband and father that wants to do what is right. The visuals for this movie are also great and the movies look great. There are also some great thoughts of Godzilla doing his atomic breath into the air or one of the monsters (forgot it’s name) on top of a volcano. There are a couple things that bugged me and holds it back. First, I don’t think the story line with the Vera Ferminga character really worked and felt flat. It just didn’t make sense to me and she felt more of a villain than the evil monsters. Also, the Millie Bobby Brown character, her character is smart, but she seems too smart for her age. And it’s never explained why. Finally, the movie starts and finishes strong, but I think the middle can drag a little bit. I do wish they cut 10-15 minutes from the middle of the movie. But this is a good and watchable movie.
2. Kong: Skull Island: Of the first three movies in the monsterverse, this was the only one that I hadn’t seen. I’ve been wanting to check it out, but just never got around to actually watching it. So a few weeks back, finally watched and thought it was a very good movie inside of this universe. The cast here I think is really good, half of the cast is from the MCU with Tom Hiddelston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, and John C. Reilly. These characters aren’t super memorable but I think the actors fit the roles really nicely, and added something to the movie. John C. Reilly’s character was actually the stand-out for me, I really liked what they did with his character. And the arc that his character went on, it was a lot deeper than I thought it would be. The visuals for the movie are incredible, this is one of the best looking movies I have ever seen. They really put their money to the action and the design of everything. Some of the action with Kong battling helicopters are giant monsters is a lot of fun to see, you can see everything that is happening on screen. And there’s a lot of action in the movie. And they even fleshed out Kong in a way that I thought worked. They didn’t just make him a giant ape on an island but they humanized him enough where you care about him when he gets hurt. One thing that did bug me was that Samuel L. Jackson was miscast in the movie, I’m a huge fan of his. But his character is dramatic and tamed, and that’s not Samuel L. Jackson is so charismatic and fun in roles. So I wish they found a different actor for the part. But overall this was a movie that I thought delivered on the most important things it was going for.
1. Godzilla vs Kong: I think some of the best aspects of this movie are some of the best aspects of the franchise. Right of the bat, the monster action...whoa, it’s pretty epic. I think this is easily the best monster action of the franchise. It’s shot and looks the best of the four movies. Each action scene is long and different, the final battle is a solid 25-30 minutes of big monster action and every action scene in this movie is great and some of the best. And the visuals for this movie are pretty great, of the hundreds of visual effects shots in this movie. Every single one was believable, there was not one shot that I didn’t buy. These might be the top 10 movies based on how good the CGI looks. Also, I think this movie really wisely made Kong a more relatable character that feels human. His relationship with the little girl is great and has this wholesome vibe about that is very sweet. The movie is very entertaining, it moves at a nice pace. When there aren't monsters fighting it out, the actors deliver some really funny lines. And the humor starts early one and doesn’t let up until the credits roll. I’m shocked that this movie is as good as it is, I thought it was going to be a good movie but a fun movie. But this was a REALLY good and REALLY fun movie. Now, there are some laps in the logic to the action scenes and the characters aren’t the best. But this was a movie that I had an absolute blast with and I can’t wait to watch this movie again. So, easily it’s my favorite movie in the monsterverse.
There is my ranking of the 4 Monsterverse movies. What is your favorite in the franchise? Also, I’ve been meaning to do some more rankings, what are some franchises you want me to rank in 2021? Thanks for reading!
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