Godzilla vs. Kong Is An Incredibly Entertaining Blockbuster That Has Everything You Could Have Asked For
Non-spoiler version to start
The wait is over, Godzilla vs. Kong has arrived and boy oh did it fail to disappoint. For me, a guy that's waited basically his whole life for a movie like this, it was everything I could have asked for and more. Now hand up, you put Godzilla and King Kong on the big screen together there's almost no way I was going to come away not a fan. That being said, this movie brought the heat and corrected the mistakes of Warner Bros. previous Monsterverse movies.
If you come into this movie looking for ethos, pathos, and logos then I hope you truly have a horrible day. I want you to lose your phone, I want car to smash a puddle in front of you as you wait for the light to change, hell maybe you lose your house keys. Don't go see Godzilla vs. Kong and chirp me after that you didn't like a portion of the writing. You buy a ticket to see this blockbuster you're signing up for two of the greatest titans in cinematic history going at it and causing all of the destruction. There were two things that Godzilla vs. Kong needed to do to make it better than Godzilla and Godzilla: King of the Monsters: 1) more monster fight scenes 2) fight scenes in the daylight/something we can see. This movie had both. Sure, could we have done with less of a human side? Yeah, always can, but this movie was awesome and a whole lot of fun to watch. If you haven't watched yet, I highly recommend. It was fun to go to the movie theater again and enjoy myself for a change.
Before we jump into the spoiler section of the blog, let's appreciate Eiza Gonzalez for a moment shall we?
SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET
There was a point to the Eiza Gonzalez shout out. For starters she's in the movie, playing the daughter of the dude who wants to create Mechagodzilla (also the guy from the movie Savages who gets burnt alive). The only human side of the movie that matters revolves around the Hollow Earth Theory. What is the Hollow Earth Theory? Well, it's…now bear with me here…about the Earth being hollow and having a habitable world in the center of the planet. This is how Godzilla gets around the planet so quickly and explains the origin of these ancient beasts. There is believed to be an energy source exists that could power Mechagodzilla to defeat Godzilla and give humans the upper-hand once and for all. Eiza supervises a team to go down there with Kong, Kong's human friend the little girl, the little girl's protector, and the Hollow Earth conspiracy guy. There are also human elements with Coach Taylor and Millie Bobby Brown, but to honest they're so irrelevant they could have been left out of the film entirely and no one would have noticed. It's kinda wild how little Coach Taylor is used in the movie. His only role is to keep texting his daughter (Millie Bobby Brown), who is too busy in a high speed tunnel to Hong Kong to answer.
The Battles
This is what you came to see and man were they awesome. You first encounter Godzilla in the beginning as he destroys an Apex facility in Florida. I found this part funny because somehow only 8 people die and a few dozen more casualties. Godzilla levels this place to the point where everything was on fire. There was zero time to take cover, yet only eight people died according to the news? How….
The first monster on monster fight happens in the ocean as Kong is being transported to Antarctica to venture through the Hollow Earth tunnel with the humans. Godzilla picks up on this and meets them before they get there. Kong gets BUNDLED here. He stood no chance with Godzilla in the water anyways. Think playing Rafa Nadal on clay in comparison to the big lizard in the water. No shot. The only reason Kong and some of the humans are spared here is because they play dead and surrender. This whole action sequence is incredible though and most importantly it happens in broad daylight! This fight scene is almost 20 minutes long and you never want it to end. Excellent first fight.
Once Kong gets to the Hollow Earth we see him take on a few flying lizard creatures, but the next major fight doesn't happen until Hong Kong towards the end. Once that gets going it never stops. Godzilla summons Kong from the Hollow Earth by firing his atomic breath through the Earth's crust. Kong shows up with his anti-Godzilla axe made from a Zilla spike, and goes toe to toe with the big guy. The lighting for this fight is fucking INCREDIBLE. Everything worked here. The CGI was next level and the action sequences were phenomenal. You don't wanna blink watching it because it's that good.
Kong gets a few good licks in before Godzilla answers the bell with an eventual KO. The movie makes it very clear Godzilla is the king and for that I applaud them. Godzilla decides when it's time to stop fighting and when you've had enough. That's the only way it should be and I'm happy they didn't go the "feel good" rout of a Kong victory. We all know that would've been baloney.
After being beaten twice, Kong looks out for the count with a separated shoulder on top of his heart almost stopping. That's when Mechagodzilla shows up and starts beating the shit out of Godzilla. The whole reason Godzilla is causing destruction the whole film is to destroy Apex's plans of this Mechagodzilla creation. If Godzilla thinks it's a bad idea, then the humans should listen. The little twist here is that Mecha isn't being run by Eiza Gonzalez's dad or his assistant. Nope, the brain of King Ghidorah takes over, kills both of them, and assumes control. True chaos ensues.
If I'm gonna have a critique of the movie it's that I didn't love Mechagodzilla's look. Loved the actions that came from the robot monster and all it could do, but I was hoping for a more classic look.
Anyways, you could see the ending coming the moment Godzilla beat Kong the second time. The humans were going to restart Kong's heart, get him back in the fight, and watch him team up with Godzilla to save the city. Cool ending fight moment of Godzilla charging up his axe for Kong to get the finishing swing in on Mecha. In the end, as it seems the two are going to go at it for a 3rd time, Kong lays down the axe, seemingly bowing to the apex predator. He goes onto rule the Hollow Earth while Godzilla remains King of the rest of the world.
Movie had everything I could have wanted. All the fights. All the action. Great visuals. And Godzilla taking home the clear W. Just about as entertained as I possibly could have been. As for what's next? Well, from everything I see the movie is doing very well at the box office and I imagine since both guys are still alive they'll be used plenty moving forward. There was no post credits scene so they can pretty much go any direction they want to for the next film. I'm all about it. Great job Warner Bros. You made a movie we could all enjoy once again. The Monsterverse at its best.