Godzilla Vs. Kong: A Titan Epic or Titan-Sized Failure?

Platform: HBOMax

Release Date: March 31, 2021

The year was 1992. The Toho Company in Japan releases a movie that serves as a commentary on the harmful things humans have done to the environment and planet Earth's response to those things. In the film, Earth responds by sending a giant, evil moth monster called Battra to rid the earth of humankind, starting in Japan. Unfortunately for Battra, there is another creature that enjoys destroying a ton of shit called Godzilla and they end up in arms against each other since they are imposing on each others' territory. Then, to combat both nuisances, these tiny, fairy twins sing a song to waken another giant moth monster, called Mothra, to protect humankind and a three-way brawl ensues. Flash-forward a few years later and this movie, titled Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth, would end up on a chubby, Hispanic kid's VHS shelf for endless enjoyment. This was my first taste of the Godzilla Universe and what would follow is a deep-dive into any and all Godzilla movies available to me at the public library and would culminate in the 1998 release of an American version of Godzilla. Yes, I recognize the serious flaws with this adaptation and that it was FAR from popular, but being to see Godzilla in a more familiar setting and with my native language was a huge deal for 8-year old me.

Following that film and the subsequent animated series on Fox Kids, my obsession with Godzilla all but died. This was most likely because of the trifecta of interests I had all converging around this same time (Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon), but whatever the case, my Zilla love would lay dormant for about 14 years. During that time, following Toho's 2004 release Godzilla: Final Wars, the company put Godzilla on a planned 10-year hiatus, while the rights for an American Godzilla film sat at TriStar Pictures after the failure of the 1998 film until those rights expired in 2003. This eventually led to Legendary Pictures acquiring the license in 2010, voicing plans to reboot the American Godzilla franchise while maintaining essential concepts of its origins. Following the successful release of 2014's Godzilla, Legendary Pictures announced that they were throwing their hat in the ring of shared cinematic universes with the "Monsterverse," which would use the Monarch organization in the Godzilla film to eventually bring Godzilla and King Kong together in a movie. Now with Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) in the rear view mirror, here comes the main event. I'll be honest, I was more excited about this movie before seeing the trailer, since it came off like a corny, WWE wrestling promo more than a world-breaking monster fight.

I really wanted to love Godzilla vs. Kong (GvK) and while it improved on a few story-related areas from Godzilla: King of the Monsters (GKOTM), it is no surprise that some of the human aspects held back what was a slobber knocker of a film, otherwise. (Don't worry, I still REALLY liked it.) The majority of the set up for this movie was done in GKOTM, with both Godzilla and Kong being recognized as alpha titans in the end. This movie picks up with Kong having been relocated to an underwater Monarch facility to hide him from Godzilla and avoid the inevitable battle between the two. At the same time, Godzilla is targeting and destroying Apex Industries sites for an unknown reason, making it appear as though Godzilla is attacking humans unprovoked. While Godzilla's name may be first in the title, this is completely a Kong movie, not just in plot but in the way Kong is positioned as a savior and Godzilla as a misunderstood villain and is better positioned as a sequel to Kong: Skull Island than GKOTM.

In true fight fashion, both titans have their own teams of humans in support of them. Team Kong consisted of Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgard), Jia (Kaylee Hottle), and Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), while Team Zilla was headed mostly by Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown), but also included Bernie Hays (Brian Tyree Henry) and Josh Valentine (Julian Dennison). When the beasts were not fighting, we followed these teams as they both headed their own missions to propel the story towards its conclusion. Monarch guided Team Kong's focus on visiting Hollow Earth (theorized in Kong: Skull Island), where they hoped Kong could lead them to a radioactive energy source which would be supplied to Apex. We follow Team Zilla as they infiltrate Apex Industries to discover what secrets they are working on, which ultimately connects to the stories through the creation and powering up of Mechagodzilla. Of course, until then, Kong's emergence from his underwater facility has the two titans come face to face in battles for supremacy.

The human story, for me, was not a complete drag of the plot and actually served a purpose throughout the film, which is an improvement from GKOTM. It did fail in two areas, though. The first is that it was a lot of build up for what felt like a rushed final battle with Mechagodzilla. Secondly, there was a lot of set-up used to drive the human-related plots, specifically related to Kong's journey, but also with the near uselessness of Team Zilla, that it felt a bit dragged out. But that does not leave the human aspects feelings "hollow" (pun totally intended). I thought the relationship between Kong and Jia was really endearing and Dr. Lind's redemptions was small but well-played. Also, all of the human villains got exactly what they deserved, so there was no avoidance of closure on those matters. Team Zilla, on the other hand, was mishandled and was almost unnecessary and their ultimate role at the end felt very uninspired. They served more as a connection to GKOTM than as important plot devices.

It is less about the human stories, specifically, and more about everything surrounding them that bogs down the plot. There is just too much pseudo-science and mythical/magical concepts to balance and far from enough explanation to make them feel like they fit well in the movie. Between the Hollow Earth, the radioactive energy, the ancestors and history of Kong and Godzilla, and absolutely everything pertaining to Mechagodzilla (it's creation, the use of Ghidorah's skull, the energy source, its autonomy, etc.), there were too many concepts that were either newly introduced or were from movies too far from our memories. Even so, I really appreciated how much this movie wanted to expand on the lore and mythology of the titans and still found most of it fascinating.

The movie shines in the area it was supposed to shine: titan battles. Epically done, perhaps a bit too well choreographed at times, but you will not hear me complaining. I do think the movie, unfortunately, used its best fighting scenes towards the beginning of the film during the boat ride. The city fighting was still amazing and full of eye-widening fun and the stakes they built by humanizing Kong throughout the film were definitely felt. No, the movie should not have been mostly fighting with little other story. That has been a proponent of many arguments since GKOTM, but not only would the movie become tedious, you would eventually become desensitized to the battle without some other ties to the fighters. I found it funny how much they presented Kong as the sympathetic underdog that he even got Stormbreaker and still lost (ok, not really Stormbreaker, but you get the point, giant power axe and all). The graphics were done well 99% of the time, with a few glimpses where it was more video game polished than movie polished. I can not say for sure, but I felt as though Kong's scale and size changed during the movie. He seemed much smaller when around humans and much bigger when fighting Godzilla, especially when you compare his interactions with the child and then how he compared to the buildings in Japan.

A rushed final battle with a poorly fleshed out antagonist left the movie feeling a bit lacking, but the overall story they told was done well in setting up the various Godzilla and Kong battles. Some will complain about the predictability of the movie and how it ended. That is a bit of an unsound argument for a movie about two monsters fighting...I am not sure what twists and turns you were expecting from that. I think the movie would've benefited from a more action-oriented director than Adam Wingard, whose merits mostly include horror movies, to help with the pacing of the movie and the battles. Was the movie fun? Oh hell yeah. Would I watch it again? I immediately rewatched the second hour after the movie ended. Am I a huge Godzilla fan and hated how much of a Kong movie this turned out to be? Maybe a little. But when you get the title of Godzilla vs. Kong, you have certain expectations, and this movie meets them for the most part. Sure, maybe you have trouble appreciating what happens around the titans, but its serves its purpose of making the battles mean something for the general audience. While I presume this is the end of the Monsterverse, I am hopeful that the positive reception to this movie and the final positioning of these titans over their own domains leads to more titan-related content.

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RATING: 🦖 🦖 🦖 🦖.25 / 5