By Brandon T. McClure
I came to the Godzilla franchise in 1998, with the infamous film that came out the same year. Afterward, I would watch the Japanese films all the time whenever a new one came into my local Suncoast (remember them?). I had always hoped that an American company would take another crack at adapting the franchise, but I knew it would be difficult. American films are constantly pushing VFX to be bigger and more lifelike, and while I like the suitmation of the classic films, it was hard not to imagine a world where we got to see Godzilla rendered with state-of-the-art visual effects the likes of which could only be achieved in Hollywood (at the time anyway). The Monsterverse isn’t perfect but they’re solid, fun films and I’m happy to have them. With Godzilla x. Kong: The New Empire on the way, I thought it would be fun to share my ranking of the Monsterverse entries, including the two shows, starting from the bottom.
#6 Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
D: Adam Wingard/W: Eric Pearson & Max Borenstein
Coming off of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, my expectations were low for something any deeper than a monster brawl. The marketing for the movie was very clear that this was the rematch of the century. Godzilla and Kong are at odds again for the first time since 1963. The Monsterverse exists so that this movie could be made. Luckily it delivered exactly what it was meant to. Godzilla vs. Kong is very much the film that monster fans pretend they want over a film like 2014's Godzilla (just to keep the examples in the family). I can’t lie and say I don’t enjoy a good old-fashioned monster brawl. So why is this at the bottom? The simple answer is that something has to be at the bottom of a ranked list.
The major strength of this film is in the monsters themselves. This time around, the film opts to center on Godzilla and Kong as the main characters rather than “waste time” on the human drama. In a film like this, the human characters do actually get in the way. That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be a human story at the center of these movies, but if you know you’re not going to succeed there, then you should focus on the major draw that’s going to get butts in seats. The action is much cleaner in Godzilla vs. Kong, than in the previous entry, and is well-shot and choreographed. Each monster gets a chance to shine in various environments. Both monsters on the poster are able to get the upper hand in each fight, with Godzilla coming out on top in the end.
One of my favorite things about this film is how Adam Wingard frames the monsters' personalities. Through camera techniques and expert VFX work, Wingard and his team are able to convey what each creature is thinking and feeling, which allows the audience to connect with them on a deeper level. Framing Kong as the underdog also helps audiences connect with him as the emotional center of the film. One of the best scenes in Godzilla vs. Kong is when he reveals that he can understand humans and can use sign language. Kong signing “home” is surprisingly powerful. Kong is by far more expressive than Godzilla but both are able to convey their thoughts and struggles throughout the movie. It’s honestly impressive. We also learn a lot about the Titan's history on Earth in this movie, which was cool.
It’s very cool that Godzilla vs. Kong frames the monsters as the emotional core of the film, but the actual people don’t get the same love. Godzilla vs. Kong has the worst characters in the Monsterverse and it’s not close. Even the returning characters of Maddy (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mark Russel (Kyle Chandler), are acting wildly out of character. Chandler’s Russel went on a journey of self-discovery in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, learning that Godzilla is important to the natural order of the world, but as soon as he appears in Godzilla vs. Kong, he’s not even willing to entertain the idea that something could have caused Godzilla’s “change of heart”. One other character who suffers in this film is Ren Serizawa. He’s probably the most useless character that had the most potential. The film doesn’t explicitly tell the audience that he’s the son of Dr. Serizawa and he hates Godzilla because of his dad's obsession with him, but that’s who he is. There’s just no time devoted to that story at all. In every scene he’s in, he’s scowling in the background or being pushed around by the head of Apex Cybernetics, Walter Simmons. Then he dies (?) when Ghidorah’s consciousness takes over MechaGodzilla’s body.
While the villains and “Team Godzilla” don’t get a lot of love, there are some “Team Kong” characters that do. The best character, by miles, is Jia, an indigenous person from Skull Island who is deaf. We learn pretty early on that she has a special connection with Kong. Admittedly it’s this connection that makes her a stronger character than the others, but even Alexander Skarsgard and Rebecca Hall are able to get a few good character moments. I do want to shout out one character on “Team Godzilla” and that’s Brian Tyree Henry’s Bernie. I just think he’s always delightful.
In order to have characters driving the plot forward, the film splits up the main characters into Team Kong and Team Godzilla teams. Team Kong wants to get Kong to the Hollow Earth, while Team Godzilla wants to find out why Godzilla has suddenly “turned” on humanity. I’m sure this worked on paper but it’s painfully clear that all the character work in the script has been edited out of the final film. Who knows if this would have made the movie better, but it does feel more chopped up than the other Mosterverse entries because of it.
Godzilla vs. Kong has flaws, but it’s very fun. It’s also a tight film, coming in at just under two hours, and paced well enough so you’re never too far away from the next monster brawl. The characters are cut to ribbons, but they’re still fun enough that you don’t get bored when you’re with them. At the end of the day, if you leave the theater entertained then there’s some merit to that.
#5 Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
D: Michael Dougherty/W: Michael Dougherty & Zach Shields
This is probably the one that I end up watching the most. There are many reasons why Monsterverse fans prefer this film over the others, and the one that is sighted the most is that it has more monster action than the previous Godzilla film. That may be true, but I have one major issue with the film that brings it way down. That’s not to say that I don’t like it. There are many things I love about this film. Godzilla: King of the Monsters has my favorite Ghidorah (it’s also cool that they kept his alien origin) design and the Rodan chase scene is one of the coolest scenes in the Monsterverse. What’s more, Monarch’s flying base, The Argo, is exactly the kind of crazy sci-fi nonsense I like to see in monster movies. So why isn’t this higher?
For one thing, while the special effects are truly top-notch (true across the entirety of the Monsterverse), they’re obscured by an excessive amount of particle effects. Every single fight scene is either covered by a rainstorm or snowstorm, making it very hard to admire the technical mastery being shown on screen. Another issue that comes up with the VFX on display is that Michael Daugherty doesn’t have the eye for scale that his predecessor has. This has the unfortunate side effect of making the monsters feel smaller than they are. This was most likely done to give the audience a better view of the fight scenes, but since they’re obscured so much, it just compounds the issue. Ultimately, I just find the film to be visually ugly, and the fight scenes pretty dull. There are cool things in the fights like Burning Godzilla, but there’s not a lot that “wows” me about the action scenes.
Even though the villains, including Vera Farmiga’s Dr. Emma Russel, are lacking in strong characterizations, Godzilla: King of the Monsters still has some standouts. The likes of Bradley Whitford, O'Shea Jackson Jr., and Thomas Middleditch all get some fun moments and quippy lines that are worth a laugh. The movie tries, in vain, to make the Russel’s family drama work, but there’s not a lot on the page for any of the talented actors to work with. Maddy (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mark Russel (Kyle Chandler) are more bland than the colorful cast of characters that surround them, but they’re interesting enough to move the plot forward.
Another one of my issues, which is minor, is the killing of Dr. Graham (Sally Hawkins) in favor of Kyle Chandler’s Mark Russel. Since Sally Hawkins is a returning character, audiences are already familiar with her and therefore can connect with her more easily. I’m not saying she’s a massively well developed character from the previous film, I’m saying that it’s easier to connect with a returning character than it is with a new one, such as Dr. Mark Russel. For some reason, the creators of the film decided that killing both Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Dr. Graham was a good idea. Certainly, the death of Serizawa is earned and a beautiful moment for the character, but it was Graham who should have been placed as the head of Monarch after Serizawa in my opinion.
Speaking of Monarch, something that I really enjoy about the Monsterverse is the creation of the organization. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Monarch gets an upgrade from a few people chasing monsters to a bonafide monster containment force. I really like this expansion because it helps the franchise more organically lean further into some fun sci-fi tropes and pivots away from relying on the military to drive the plot. The opening scene with the newly hatched Mothra is a really good way to showcase how Monarch are really the only people qualified to deal with the return of these massive creatures.
There’s a really cool Mothra easter egg that’s in this movie that I wish they went further on, or at least could pursue in the future. The movie dabbles in the more mystical side of the Godzilla franchise with the inclusion of Mothra and is able to sneak in the “Mothra twins” because of it. In the original Japanese canon, Mothra always has two twin fairies that are connected to her. Godzilla: King of the Monsters includes all the previous fairy actors as former Monarch agents and implies that Dr. Chen & Dr. Ling (both played by Ziyi Zhang) are the new iteration of the twin fairies, by implying that her family has a supernatural history and connection with Mothra. I hope that future films or even Monarch: Legacy of Monsters could expand on this idea.
Truthfully, Godzilla: King of the Monsters isn’t as hollow as I originally thought. While the big-budget monster action is definitely the point of the film, it does attempt to tell a story about humankind's relationship with the natural world. The idea of “good radiation” is weird, but the movie’s heart is in the right place. Everything the villains do is in favor of bringing the world back to its “natural state”, where the Titans rule and the humans serve under them. It probably would have worked, but Ghidorah isn’t from the Earth so it puts a wrench in their plans when he starts making everything go wrong. Even the heroes know that Godzilla is the true protector of the natural world and the only way humans can survive is through a harmonious relationship with Godzilla/the natural world. It’s pretty surface level but it works more often than it doesn’t. Speaking of Ghidorah, I hope we’ll see more Toho original monsters in future installments.
The biggest thing that I love about this film is its soundtrack. Bear McCreary is a composer that I’ve loved since Battlestar Galactica. But with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, he really brings his “A”- Game. The new renditions of both Mothra’s theme and Godzilla’s theme are excellent, truly delivering the idea that these creatures are gods and protectors. He also creates new themes for Ghidora and Rodan that are instantly iconic. To my memory, the two of them didn’t have themes in the original Japanese films (I could be wrong), so it’s very cool to get some true bangers here. Not to diminish the other composers in the Monsterverse, especially because I like Alexandre Desplat’s score for the first film, but McCreary delivered something a cut above.
While the environmentalism message is a part of the film, it ultimately succumbs under the weight of expectations. There’s a prevailing issue in Western audiences' views of monster movies, which is that human drama gets in the way of monster action (hopefully Godzilla: Minus One changed that). So Godzilla: King of the Monsters is constantly trying to find the balance of human drama and monster action but is ultimately falling short. I wish I loved it like my fellow monster fans but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the earlier entries.
#4 Skull Island (2023)
Created By Brian Duffield
The show that has, sadly, become the red-headed stepchild of the Monsterverse. The one that many people don’t even know exists. But it does! It does and I will continue to sing its praises to anyone who will listen. Netflix’s Skull Island is a great addition to the franchise that expands Kong’s world and the world of Skull Island. We obviously get plenty of Skull Island action in Kong: Skull Island, but Godzilla vs. Kong took any future stories off the table, so I was very excited to see the Monsterverse return to Skull Island, even if it is only in the past. While the show is really strong, it’s not complete and there doesn’t seem to be any interest in a second season. With future seasons, this could easily rise through this list.
Right off the bat, I was already skeptical because I’m not a huge fan of Powerhouse animation. Most of the animated shows like Castlevania and Blood of Zeus all suffer from the same stiffness issue that dials down their expressions to remain more lifelike. I prefer my animation to be more expressive, so I was genuinely surprised at how often the show didn’t feel as stiff as the others. It’s got the same house style, but the characters are allowed to be more expressive in their movements. This helped the characters shine more. Each one is genuinely well-written and often very funny. There are standouts, like Annie and Dog, or even Cap, but even the smaller characters get some solid moments before the end of the show.
It being an animated show, allows there to be a lot of monsters and some of them are very inventive. There are awesome new creatures that are designed to fit right in with the world of Kong: Skull Island, like the Aloe Turtle or the Rock Bug, but the coolest new monster is the Kraken. This new antagonist has a personal vendetta against Kong due to it being another alpha Titan. It wants to take Skull Island from Kong, but can only do that if Kong comes to the water. Speaking of Kong, he doesn’t get a lot to do in the series. He makes a few brief appearances before the end of the series, but the show keeps him away for most of it. He does get a very cool action scene between him and the Kraken at the end of the series, which makes up for it. Kong also has a bit of a tragic story in this show which adds to Kong being the most relatable monster in the Monsterverse.
The biggest issue I have with the show is that it doesn’t really feel connected to the Monsterverse. Kong: Skull Island created such a unique and wonderful vision for Skull Island and the show doesn’t really pick up too much of that. There are cool monsters, but some feel pretty generic or something that’s meant to be in Castlevania. Skull Island itself doesn’t really look like the one from the movie, most notably because the perpetual storm that surrounds it, is not in the show for some reason. If you weren’t in the know, this would look like an unrelated show about King Kong.
Skull Island surprised me. It’s very fun, and the funniest entry in the Monsterverse, easy. I’ve been a fan of Brian Duffield since I saw Love and Monsters and he has continued to not disappoint. I desperately hope it gets a second season, not only to resolve that cliffhanger but because there’s so much to explore with the Monsterverse Skull Island. To leave that potential on the table indefinitely would undermine the inherent benefits of having a franchise like this.
#3 Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters (2023)
Created By Chris Black & Matt Fraction
The Apple TV+ show that shocked the nation! As you’ll see as you keep going up the list, I’m a big fan of the 2014 Godzilla film. So I got really excited when I heard that the upcoming show would be set pretty soon after the events of that film. But truthfully, I had no idea what to expect. It became pretty clear that the creators of the Monsterverse weren’t interested in developing characters, so how would translating the big-budget monster franchise to a TV show work? Well, against all odds, it worked and is one of the strongest entries in the franchise to date (some would say the strongest). I’m very glad it exists, even if it didn’t make it up higher on my list.
It’s certainly not perfect though, but it’s only one season in so any faults that it could develop in the beginning will no doubt be ironed out with subsequent seasons. But about halfway through the show, I felt like the 2015 plotline wasn’t as compelling as the 1950s one. Of the two, I always found the 1950s plot more interesting, due to just being more interested in that kind of story, but I was interested in where the 2015 plot could go. I liked the characters and I enjoyed the arc they were on as they uncovered the secret of Monarch and the mystery of what happened to their father. But something shifted, and it started to feel like the 2015 plotline was spinning its wheels until it got to the point where certain main characters entered the Hollow Earth.
For me, I’m not one of those people who thinks the show should have dedicated its entire runtime to the 1950s plot, but I really loved seeing the development of Monarch. I loved watching the trio of Bill Randa, Keiko, and Lee Shaw uncover the mystery of the Titans and discover more and more as they try to prove that these monsters aren’t a threat, but a natural part of the world. I also found their love triangle very compelling and enjoyed watching the three of them grow together. I can’t gush enough about how much I loved that story. I’m always a fan of period genre shows and movies, and I’ve always had a fascination with Monarch’s history, so the 1950s plotline was basically tailor-made for me.
This is not to ignore the 2015 plotline, because there’s a lot to love about it. I enjoyed all the characters, especially Tim, and loved seeing how the world reacted in the aftermath of the MUTO’s attack on San Francisco, which they call “G-Day”. Each character has their own motivation for being on this journey and I thought that the characters were well rounded and developed. I also loved the connections to the other entries in the Monsterverse, both big and small, like Ford Brody’s (Aron Taylor Johnson) aunt being Tim’s partner, or seeing the origins of Apex Cybernetics (who would go on to create MechaGodzilla). I also really liked the inclusion of John Goodman and the scene of him on Skull Island sometime before his death.
One of the coolest things the show did was cast Kurt and Wyatt Russel as the same characters in the different plotlines. Trying to piece together why the character of Lee Shaw didn’t look or act 90-ish years old was one of my favorite things to do after every episode. It wasn’t a prevalent question, but it was one that had an incredibly satisfying and emotional conclusion. The ending when he finally reconnects with Keiko after 57 years is incredibly emotional. The two of them are certainly the standout performances of the show for me.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters isn’t a show that is reverential to its source material, which ended up working for the better, I would say. At almost every turn, it retcons previously established Monsterverse lore. Which is kind of a silly thing to say since it’s a four-movie franchise, with some semi-canon comic book entries. Obviously, the comics can be retconned because hardly anyone reads them (I say this as someone who has read every Monsterverse comic). Something that surprised me though was that it was able to effortlessly retcon a lot of what was said and shown in Kong: Skull Island. Hell, that movie claims that Harry S. Truman founded Monarch in 1946, but the show makes it pretty clear that that isn’t what happened. The reason why I’m saying all this is because it doesn’t matter. The story has to come first and it was refreshing to see a franchise show understand this. I’m always okay with bending canon to fit the story that needs to be told.
Every episode also includes a giant monster. Godzilla is in the show a good amount of time and the VFX work on him is great. This show has a crazy good VFX budget, which was not something I expected. The scene where a mountain range is revealed to be Godzilla is one of the best-looking shots in the entirety of the Monsterverse. The new monsters like Ion Dragon or Frost Vark are also really cool new additions to the franchise. The Monsterverse has made tons of new monsters, but I think the ones introduced in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters are better than the likes of Behemoth or Skylla (I don’t get why people like Behemoth).
The reason why the show falls short for me, as alluded to up top, is because the 2015 plotline started spinning its wheels after they found their dad. Don’t get me wrong, there are still good character moments, especially when they’re trying to find May or when they convince Monarch to reveal themselves to the world. The other, much smaller, reason is that I’m a lore-obsessed geek and it’s made the Hollow Earth really complicated. These aren’t big issues, and the character issue is more a problem with the current streaming age than the show itself. At the end of the day, it all comes together in an excellent final episode that even sneaks in a really cool Godzilla fight scene.
We are in an age where franchises can jump from film to television, as evidenced by mixed results by the MCU. So the question always has to be, how can this show complement the big screen franchise? Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is probably what I would pick to be the blueprint for this type of multimedia franchise. The way this show is able to weave in elements from every Monsterverse film, from Bill Randa (Kong: Skull Island) to Apex Cybernetics (Godzilla vs. Kong) is shocking. I expected the show to just be this fun side adventure, but it’s necessary world-building for the Monsterverse and something that I feel was desperately needed.
#2 Godzilla (2014)
D: Gareth Edwards/W: Max Borenstein
Depending on the day, I might put this film at number one. But for right now, I’m confident in its second place placing. I have been a Godzilla fan for decades, and my excitement for this film was only rivaled by 2009’s Star Trek before it. A big Hollywood studio had already attempted to make a Godzilla movie and the results were less than desirable. But it really felt like WB and Legendary Pictures had nailed it from the trailers. Thankfully, the film delivered a very cool new take on Godzilla that stays true to his origins and launched a franchise that I never dreamed would be possible.
There are things I really like about this movie, but I’ll focus on the things that hurt the film for me. Ford Brody, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson, is just not a compelling protagonist. There’s an idea in the film about how legacy affects those that come after, but Ford isn’t engaging with that theme, so it doesn’t receive the attention it needs to flourish (Monach: Legacy of Monsters runs with it though). Ford’s lack of an engaging character is made all the worse by Bryan Cranston’s Joe Brody stealing most of the first act. Johnson is a good actor, but he’s just not given a lot in the script to really deliver anything of substance. Cranston is, but they kill him pretty quickly. You have to wonder if the roles were reversed, would this be a stronger movie? It’s hard to say really. Johnson is too much of a passive protagonist who doesn’t actually do anything of note to push the story forward. He just gets pushed along to one set piece after another. They set up his role in the story as a person who’s really good at disarming bombs, but he never gets to disarm a bomb in the movie. So why is he even there?
One of my favorite elements of the film is the inclusion of Monarch, a secret organization that studies Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms (what later films would call Titans). On paper, Monarch feels like the Monsterverse’s answer to SHIELD, but in execution serves a much different purpose. Since the Monsterverse has a massive amount of mythology to explore, Monarch is the perfect solution to create organic exposition about the mythology. I’m a huge lore geek. What many people see as background nonsense, I see as a new obsession. So when this first came out, I loved exploring the lore of the Monsterverse. This idea that Godzilla and the MUTOs are part of an ancient echo system just fascinated the hell out of me. It lit up my imagination in a way that no other Godzilla film had ever done before. I really like this concept that these creatures are supernaturally tied to the natural order of the world and Godzilla exists to keep the balance. Every time a new movie was announced, I hoped that Monarch would remain a part of the story so we could get to explore the lore further.
I wouldn’t say that any entry in the Monsterverse feels like it was created by a committee of producers, but Godzilla is the movie with the strongest singular voice. Gareth Edwards had only directed one film before Godzilla and he cemented himself as a director with a unique filmic style. Everything from the sound design (the best in the franchise) to how shots are framed is specifically crafted by Edwards. I wish he had gotten to make Godzilla: King of the Monsters and lament that we’ve lost his voice in the franchise.
This is by far one of, if not, the strongest directed entry in the Monsterverse. It fumbles its themes, but what entry doesn’t? I love the slow build-up of Godzilla throughout the film and the set pieces and sound design are spectacular. The sense of scale is unlike anything else that had come before it. This film succeeds despite the issues with the main character because of Edwards’ strong directing voice.
#1 Kong: Skull Island (2017)
D: Jordan Vogt-Roberts/W: Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein & Derek Connolly
Kong: Skull Island is the best film in the Monsterverse. For a while, I honestly thought the top of my list would be Godzilla but Kong: Skull Island is just a much stronger film. Jordan Vogt-Roberts set out to make an anti-war/post-Vietnam monster film and he delivered. Kong: Skull Island has a more clear message and clearly defined characters that affect the plot in a meaningful way. It’s actually hard for me to think of anything that I don’t like about this movie. Perhaps this entry will be shorter than the others!
Like many American monster fans, I have a soft spot for King Kong, both the 1933 film and the 2005 film are some of the best monster films ever made. But how many times can you tell that same story? Jordan Vogt-Roberts apparently felt the same way. Instead, he opted to tell a post-war monster film that pays tribute to the original film in many ways but moves Kong into a new setting, which frees the monsters to explore new avenues. It’s actually a really exciting film, in the sense that it opens up limitless possibilities for, not only Kong but Skull Island as well (something that GVK squandered).
The MonsterVerse likes to play with the idea that these monsters are godly beings, and Vogt-Roberts wanted to bring that to Kong. His massive size is meant to convey his godliness as he looks out over his domain. Other creatures in the film follow the same “god of their own domain” idea but take it in a different direction. While previous Skull Island’s have used dinosaurs, this Skull Island creates flora/fauna hybrid creatures. This is one of my favorite things about the movie since the creature design in the film is one of the most unique in the Monsterverse. Then there’s the Skull Crawlers. Of all the major villains of the films, they’re my favorite. The designs are really interesting and menacing, and this idea that they’re from beneath Skull Island like devils lurking is so well executed.
There are a ton of characters in this movie, and many of them don’t really get to do much. In fact, loads of them die. But just because the movie is populated by “red shirts'' doesn't mean there aren’t plenty of great characters to get to know. John C. Reilly, John Goodman, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, and Tom Hiddleston are all really fun characters to follow. What brings this film above Godzilla is that they are directly engaging in the story and theme of the movie. Where Aaron Taylor Johnson’s Ford Brody is being shepherded through the plot of Godzilla, all these characters are driving the plot of Kong: Skull Island.
While the likes of Goodman and Hiddleston all get standout moments in the film, including Hiddleston’s awesome action sequence, it’s John C. Reilly who brings it home for me. His performance as Hank Marlow is one of the best in the franchise. He’s funny as the man who’s been stranded on Skull Island since World War II, but also incredibly sincere and heartfelt. He also has the duty of holding the weight of the anti-war message of the film and does so masterfully. His speech about his fallen brother-in-arms, Gunpei, lays out the central theme of the film “Take away the uniforms and the war… and he became my brother”. Unlike Godzilla or Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Kong: Skull Island is very front and center with what it’s about. It’s definitely spoon-feeding the audience a little but it’s also a movie about a giant monkey so it’s not meant to be subtle.
There are some incredible set pieces in this movie, probably the best in the Monsterverse, which is a pretty high bar. Kong taking down the helicopters and Packard’s (Samuel L. Jackson) attempts to kill Kong, all rank very high in the film. But the standout is the final fight between Kong and the Skull Devil (the big Skull Crawler). That fight sequence showcases some inventive and fun monster action from Kong trimming a tree to him using the propeller of a ship as a weapon and finally pulling the guts out of the evil creature. Every sequence constantly has me going “This is awesome”. There are so many perfect moments that I could single out and gush about, but I’m not here to recap the movie.
I love this movie very much and hope to see Jordan Vogt-Roberts return to the Monsterverse. I love seeing the franchise get into the crazier, more sci-fi, and mystical side of monster movies, but sometimes I wish we could go back to the likes of Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla. I love the Monsterverse and enjoy every entry, but Kong: Skull Island is the gold standard for me, and I hope that someday it’ll reach these heights again.