Members of Monarch work with a company called Apex to bring Kong to the Hollow Earth. Monarch hopes to find a new home for Kong, while Apex secretly seeks a great power hidden in the Hollow Earth that could be the key to exterminating the Titan's once and for all. Apex's shady motives get the attention of Godzilla, who begins attacking their facilities around the world thus putting his status as a protector of humanity into question. Naturally, the presence of these 2 Titan's means that nothing, nobody can stop the great showdown, when Godzilla and Kong meet to fight for survival of the fittest!
As hyped as I was for the previous MonsterVerse outings, nothing could compare to the rush of excitement I felt when I found out the rematch between the two mightiest monsters of all time that I and so many other fans had wanted to see for close to 60 years was finally becoming a reality.
It's no secret that the wait for this movie was quite the roller coaster. Between the countless release date changes, confusion regarding the lack of a trailer for more than a year before release dates and a freakin' global pandemic on top of that and you've got quite a mare's nest.
Finally, in a move no one was expecting, the movie's release date changed again, this time to an earlier date. THEN the trailer came out.
The hype was reignited.
But did the ultimate showdown live up to that hype? Well...
Before I go on, there will be MAJOR SPOILERS in this review. Honestly, I don't feel like I can talk about Godzilla vs. Kong properly if I don't mention a few key aspects about certain plot points and characters.
You've been warned...
I want to start by saying I think Godzilla vs. Kong is a great movie, but if you come in expecting it to keep the same grounded/dramatic tone of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, you may be disappointed. I admit, the fact that it has more humor and moves at a faster pace did catch me off-guard. Given the majority of attitudes toward these types of movies, this may not be a problem for some.
While I admit I was waiting for this series to embrace some of the more outlandish elements from the past, I was still expecting a more serious approach to it.
There are a few moments where logic is sort of thrown out the window, but when this series has been doing crazier stuff for more than 60 years in even the most seriously taken entries, you learn to roll with it.
I still don't like Apex's spider robot thingy though. Yes I know, in a movie with [REDACTED] in it, that was the one thing that made me say: "This is dumb."
I'm sure you've seen other reviews calling the human characters boring and unnecessary, we've been through this so many times it's nauseating. I'm not here to argue that again.
Like the human characters of monster movies past, they are simple, you understand their motivations, don't get too much background and maybe some character development. Not every cast can have Tolkien levels of backstory and God forbid if the bare minimum is enough for me. In my opinion, to call the characters useless feels very disingenuous to me. Do these people not know the meaning of empathy?
I happen to think that Ilene and Nathan (Rebecca Hall & Alexander Skarsgård) have good chemistry and work well as the voices of reason. Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) is fun to watch in her journey to see why Godzilla is acting out of character. At first I wasn't completely a fan of Madison's friend Josh (Julian Dennison), but I eventually warmed up to him as a comic relief/audience surrogate character. My actual opinions on conspiracy theorists aside, I actually really enjoyed Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry). He can be a funny character when it suits him. Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir) is such a charismatic character I simply can't hate him.
Ren Serizawa is the only character I felt was wasted. If the movie wasn't going to give him at least one line to explain why he was so gung-ho about exterminating the Titans as opposed to coexisting with them like his father was, then why even give him the name Serizawa? I realize the novelization of the film goes into more detail about it, but I think at least one line would have been enough.
But the one thing I'm sure we can all agree on is that Jia is the best character and I hope this movie helps Kaylee Hottle get more roles. She's an incredible actor who deserves all the recognition.
I feel like a lot of this movie got hurt by studio meddling, and considering how Warner Bros. has been handling the DCEU and especially the release of this movie's trailer, it wouldn't surprise me.
An argument could be made that the human characters are merely supporting players. The true star of this movie is Kong.
Kong has always been a sympathetic character that the audience roots for and Godzilla vs. Kong succeeds in making even the most hardcore Godzilla fan root for Kong. Not only is the CGI used to bring him to life damn near flawless, but his personality shines through probably more than any other version of the character. You can tell exactly what Kong is thinking just by his expressions and body language. I will gush over this CGI forever and I hope seeing it makes even the most avid CGI hater rethink their life.
The bond that Jia and Kong share is the most wholesome part of the story.
But not to worry, the Big G isn't just pushed to the side. Godzilla has a constant presence in this movie and this may be the best he's ever been in the MonsterVerse. The CGI for him is equally impressive, I'm strangely impressed by the water running off his body as he surfaces from the ocean. He's also very expressive, despite having a mostly static expression, although that has more to do with reptile biology in general. This is especially apparent when Godzilla appears to "smile" maliciously.
These films have been teasing the Hollow Earth for a while and now we finally get to see it in all of it's glory. It's such an imaginative place and it opens up the door to new stories to be told and definitely new Titans to show up.
Despite seeing very little of the new Titan, Nozuki (I do not like the name 'Warbat'), I still thought they were very cool.
Also Doug. We stan Doug, nuff said.
Does anyone else find it interesting that in the trailer for the Americanized version for the 1954 Godzilla, the announcer describes it as "More fantastic than any ever written by Jules Verne" and now we have a plotline very similar to a fantastic Jules Verne story?
Tom Holkenborg (aka: Junkie XL) does the score for the film and while I enjoy the bombastic energy and stoic majesty his music gives to the film, I don't know if I find it as memorable as the other MonsterVerse entries.
I don't think I'm over selling it when I say that the Hong Kong fight between Godzilla and Kong may be the best fight in the entire MonsterVerse. Both monsters just go at it in an all-out brawl across the city, we see Kong use the city to his advantage and Godzilla absolutely goes beast mode on Kong.
The city of Hong Kong, with its unique architecture and neon lighting, also gives the fights scenes a great amount of flare. Even the camera work during the fights is outstanding. Plenty of wide shots, chaotic close ups and even some more dynamic movements that look ripped out of a theme park ride.
I think I would go so far to say, this Hong Kong battle outdoes the one from Pacific Rim.
Now here's where we go into spoilers.
I never got into the whole Team Godzilla or Team Kong 'choose a side' shenanigans, I like both monsters too much. As big of a Godzilla fan as I am, I can't help but love Kong just as much. I was fine with either monster winning. I had a slight suspicion that they were going to have Kong win, given how much they made me care for him in this story, but it was kind of a genuine shock to me that they made Godzilla win. I was happy that Godzilla won, but I still felt sorry for poor Kong. This movie played with my emotions like no other Kaiju movie has. At least it was an honorable fight at the end.
And while we're here, we might as well talk about Apex's weapon, aka: the worst kept secret of the entire movie:
Mechagodzilla.
I really wish the toys hadn't got leaked and I wish they'd kept that brief glimpse of him out of the trailer. It would have made his first appearance in the movie that much more impactful.
That being said however, I still loved seeing him. His new design is going to be hit or miss for some, but I like it overall. Once you really start to take a good look at all the small details of it, the more you appreciate the work that went into designing it. One aspect of this Mehcagodzilla that I appreciate the most is how he returns to his more villainous roots, I like him being the "Good" character to go against the antagonistic Godzilla, but I longed to see him return to the series as a bad guy like the Showa era. And golly bob howdy is Mechagodzilla a force to be reckoned with, he's so powerful he literally manages to wipe the floor with Godzilla. In case you're thinking Mechagodzilla is a bit OP in this movie, remember even in the older films, Mechagodzilla has always been one of Godzilla's strongest opponents and he has always needed help dealing with him, weather it be assistance from another monster, human interference or a bit of both.
But with Mechagodzilla's presence comes a possibly predictable ending. As with most "Versus" movies, it's usually expected that the combatants fight, then stop fighting to take out the bigger threat. Although I'd argue that this movie bucks the trend since Godzilla and Kong don't stop their fight to deal with Mechagodzilla and it reaches a fair conclusion. It's not until later that Kong recovers from his thrashing that he decides to help Godzilla.
In the end, I think this movie handled both titular characters with respect and made both of their fans happy. It's like Wikizilla said in one of their videos: "The true victor in any battle between King Kong and Godzilla is of course: the fans."
Much like with many movies we anticipate for years, the final product isn't 100% how we expected it to be, but most of the time it doesn't matter if when all is said and done, you enjoyed it. I personally can't find any major shortcomings with this film that don't already exist within the franchise as a whole and it's just not worth getting angry or defensive over. I feel that this is the movie we were promised and I can honestly say that I loved Godzilla vs. Kong.
As of right now, aside from the Skull Island anime being developed for Netflix and rumors that Adam Wingard may return for a 'Son of Kong' movie, the future of the MonsterVerse is at a crossroads. As a massive fan of this franchise I would love for it to continue, so far the box office numbers are high and critical reviews are mostly positive so the series could go either way.
#continuethemonsterverse
But if this is the last film in this wonderful series, I think it's safe to say it went out with a bang.
Long Live The Kings.
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair.
So long...
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