The Anti-Awe of Godzilla x Kong

The MonsterVerse has become the Transformers franchise of the 2020s

Warner Bros.’ MonsterVerse franchise has long wrestled with an identity crisis.

Its first film, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla (2014), approached its subject with a patient grandiosity that, while veering into po-faced pomposity, at least tried to justify its own existence. Its successor, the entertaining Kong: Skull Island (2017), leaned into earnest, pulpy …