“Godzilla vs Kong” was really the first big blockbuster this year, and was a movie that proved simultaneous releases on both streaming services and in-person theaters could be a lucrative business model. Really, that should have been the only defining trait of the movie. GvK is a standard monster flick of an age long gone, having a plot structure almost identical to any Godzilla or kaiju movie you could imagine on the fly in your head. There isn’t any real nuance to the film, nor is there much character focus or growth, or really much story besides a slightly enjoyable side story for King Kong. This movie was made to make money by giving the audience what they wanted: two giant animals beating each other up. Years ago, this would have been torn apart as another uninspired cash grab of a blockbuster, or as a simple and boring action flick. By all accounts, it is both of those things. But in the modern age, I think that’s what makes Godzilla vs Kong a beautiful movie.

People are tired. Be it due to the 24/7 stream of interaction due to social media, the existential fear that politics and things like climate change pose, the increasing amount of hours Americans have to work just to survive, or that pandemic currently ravaging the world, I think it’s safe to assume that most people are, simply put, running out of steam. While this downward trend of energy is happening, we also see a rise in beautifully crafted films that are works of art, these last two decades seeing a resurgence in cinema where almost everything has some sort of satire, irony, hidden meaning, or deep message that the audience is left thinking about long after the film finishes. This is great, and these movies prove that cinema could teach and enrich your mind just as much as other forms of entertainment, but cinema could also do something no other entertainment could really accomplish. Cinema could just deliver mind-numbing fun. Sometimes people just want to turn their brain off for 2 hours and watch a giant monkey punch a giant lizard while dodging beams of fire getting shot out of the lizard’s mouth. In a market where even the most “simple” movies need dozens of previous films to understand the full story (I’m looking at you, Marvel), GvK offers a nice escape from the world for a bit. This movie doesn’t have much to offer besides filler between a handful of awesome fights, but honestly, I love that. By taking the laziest and standard approach to storytelling, I feel as though this movie took a rather large risk, and a risk that I appreciate.