First off, Alexander Skarsgard(really cute actor). Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I can freely move on to say this movie was not worth going to sleep at 2 a.m. on a school night.  

If you haven’t listened to the Kong versus Godzilla episode on the Navy and Gold Podcast, I highly recommend you do so. 

SPOILER ALERT YOU HATH BEEN WARNED 

Kong versus Godzilla is a 2021 remake of the original movie made in 1979. This film broke a box office record, making 137.2 million, with it’s debut and could probably give Wanda Vision a run for its money when it comes to anticipation from fans. 

Was The Hype Worth It?

Simple, short answer: No. The film in its entirety isn’t bad but there are certain elements that kept it from reaching its full potential. Kong V. Godzilla was one of the most hyped movies of 2021 but when it came to delivering on its promises, the directors fell short. It seems that the movie relied heavily on the prior success of the two titans, and this allowed them to get lazy with some parts of the script. Starting with the two plotlines including Madison Russel(Millie Bobby Brown), Josh Valentine(Julian Dennison), along with Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) who were looking to uncover the secret of Apex Cybernetics. 

The other plotline includes Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgard) and Jia (Max Kaylee Hottle) who are attempting to bring Kong to hollow earth. 

These stories, though separate, intertwine in the end and are supposed to help wrap the story up in a pretty titan colored bow. The detachment I felt for these two plots as a combo was as astronomical as the volume on this bus. The only thing tying the two plotlines together was the information they gathered.

Madison’s team found Mechagodzilla along with other information about Apex Cybernetics. Jia’s team led us to the discovery of the axe and soon also came to the conclusion of the creation of Mechagodzilla. They all ended up in the same place at the end, but it felt like Madison’s story line was an entirely different plot rather than a subplot to accompany the main focus. 

One of my key reasons for not being able to fully submerge in these stories was due to the transitions. I understand that there has to be a distinguishable difference between the two plots, but their cuts between scenes disrupted whatever emotions they managed to conjure up. I expected it to be more free flowing but the cutaways in Family Guy have much better setups than the ones presented in the movie.

Jia Might As Well Accept Her Oscar Now

Jia is an orphaned, deaf girl that has a bond with Kong which started before the movie. She is the only person that is able to communicate with Kong and is arguably the best character in the whole movie. 

She uncovers important discoveries such as Kong’s fluency in sign language and is the first to know when Godzilla has arrived. She gives Kong a way to communicate with the rest of the cast and audience. She allowed me to connect with Kong’s emotions in a creative way that other movies haven’t. This was a really good move on the director’s part and is a big win for the movie.  Jia was well scattered throughout the movie and added a new twist to Kong’s usual relationship with humans. I don’t know if it was the acting but there was something about the speechless communication that makes the sadder scenes even more heart-wrenching. 

Mechagodzilla 

Mechagodzilla was a robot made by Apex Cybernetics that was invented to serve as Godzilla’s replacement as king. Mechagodzilla is charged by the DNA of a previous titan that Godzilla killed. A human goes under trance to control Mechagodzilla from inside the robot using his brain. I really enjoyed this part of the movie because it shows an advantage for humans that has nothing to do with giant animals. I also loved the complexities of Mechagodzilla, Godzilla, and Apex Cybernetics as villains in the film.  

 At first, the film focuses on Godzilla, who is seen rampaging through the city and trying to kill Kong. It is later revealed in the movie that Godzilla only acts when provoked, showing his emotional ties to Earth. I’ve never been a Godzilla fan because I thought he attacked simply just for the fight. This movie allowed me to dive deeper into Godzilla’s true motives to protect Earth and serve as the king to all titans. This is also the reason for the truce between Kong and him at the end. Kong shows that he is no threat to Godzilla or the Earth, and Godzilla goes back to his peace. 

Apex Cybernetics is the final villain of the movie but this company’s true colors are below surface level. There have been multiple Kong and Godzilla movies, all following one another through the decades. This means that the world has been under the burden of titans for years without the invention of a man made weapon for an upper hand. Apex saw this issue and decided that they would make their own titan to allow mankind to regain its title as apex predator. The villains were similar to Thanos with their motives. I ended up enjoying that more than other parts of the movie. 

Would I recommend it? 

Simple, short answer part two: yes. The movie may not have lived up to all my expectations but nothing in life can be perfect. As an action movie, it really delivered with the fight sequences between Kong and Godzilla. It continues to upset me that the film led to a tie between the main characters, but the Mechagodzilla plotline makes up for some of that disappointment. I don’t recommend sacrificing hours of sleep on a Monday school night but the movie is definitely worth a watch. It delves deeper into the emotional psyche of the titans than I’ve ever seen in previous movies, and answered questions regarding the past and present war between the titan families. 

Fin~