Ryan Shoots First: Godzilla vs. Kong
Typically in Hollywood the VS. concept has not gone well. Aliens vs. Predator was bad, Freddy vs. Jason was bad, Batman v Superman was bad with the Ultimate Edition being improved. So once Warner Brothers decided to cap off this current phase of their monster-verse with Godzilla vs. Kong anticipation and skepticism was high. So let’s look at the Tale of the Tape…
In this corner… FIghting out of the thermal vents beneath the ocean… standing at 393 feet and weighing 90,000 tons…with his finishing move Atomic Breath… the King of the Monsters…GODZILLA!
And his opponent… fighting out of Skull Island. Standing 337 feet tall with a weight that is unknown. He features opposable thumbs and a Quake slam… KONGGGGGG!
That was fun, but really I’ll get this out of the way this movie was awesome and I really wish I could have seen it in theaters. I have a pretty good set up in my basement but of all the films to release in this new hybrid format this one I wish I could have seen on the biggest screen possible. Godzilla and Kong straight up fight and we learn they have a little bit of a feud going back thousands of years with Kong’s ancestors. Add in the fact that Godzilla has taken somewhat of a heel turn and has started attacking seemingly random cities and the stage is set. The two have multiple fights and varying results in the different rounds but we DO get a definitive winner in the end. The fights are amazing and epic, I never get sick of seeing giant Kaiju battles leveling major cities. I also love world building, the fact that every major world city has Titan bunkers ready to evacuate people is hilarious and so practical cause these things always end up in big cities. As most “Vs” movies there is a bigger bad behind everything and here it is a company called Apex Cybernetics, their tech is a little too sci-fi-y for my taste and kind of took me out of the movie a bit but it all served a bigger purpose in the end. I’ll save the big reveal as they did a pretty decent job hiding it although the more trained eye and Kaiju fans figured it out. Godzilla somewhat takes a back seat in the film as the first act focuses primarily on Kong and his motives, fast forward and he is the window we experience the story through. With Godzilla having two movies of set up it seemed to work. We know what we’re getting with Godzilla and he in most people’s eyes was the overwhelming favorite going into the fight. So the choice to turn him heel and put some mystery around him made it ok he didn’t have as much screen time. When he is on screen though he is the freaking king. He has some awesome fan service moments and instances where he really shows some character. Both monsters do and that is what sets this film apart from the others in the monster verse. One of the biggest criticisms of the previous films is the focus on the human characters and their stories instead of the Monsters. They get some screen time here but Kong and Godzilla are the main characters and get development and moments to be more than just action set pieces. Kong especially gets some nice moments that endear you to him as the underdog in the fight, I came in firmly on team Godzilla and by the end I really didn’t want to see Kong get his ass kicked and I sympathized with him.
One of the other criticisms of the other films is just some of the logic and plot holes. If that bothered you then it is still there. It never bothered me cause it is all just a means to an end. We need giant monsters to fight and what’s there is really just there to move them to the next city to fight in and that is ok… that’s what a plot in a Kaiju movie should be. If you want an iron tight plot this whole series just isn’t for you. The human cast centers around 5 people on various sides of the fight, Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler return on team Zilla from their roles in King of the Monsters and on Kong’s side we see the new to the series Alexander Skarsgard and Rebecca Hall. They help Kong along his journey with the young girl Jia played by Kaylee Hottie who has a deep connection with Kong. Despite all of this the humans are not the focus, they are in the film at the service of the two headliners which is as it should be. I also enjoyed how the film really dived into the Hollow Earth theory stuff introduced in KONG Skull Island. They even worked on actual conspiracy theories and real expeditions to Antarctica in the 30’s and 40’s that were said to uncover large caves to the center of the earth. For the YouTube Conspiracy fans this will be a fun bit that plays big time into the film and likely it’s future as a franchise.
Godzilla vs. Kong delivers on what it promised, the two biggest Kaiju names in the world duking it out on multiple stages and with a clear winner. As VS. movies go it is likely the best one. Again, some pretty big logic leaps and you need to turn the brain off a bit but if you can do that and just enjoy the spectacle you are in for a treat. Long live the Kings!
