BLOOD WORK: THE MONSTERVERSE: GODZILLA VS KONG (2021)

GODZILLA VS KONG (2021)

When I was four years old I saw the 1962 film, KING KONG VS GODZILLA for the first time. It wasn't the first time I had seen Godzilla or King Kong, but it was the film that made me the life long fan of these two monsters that I am today. This movie means a lot to me and it is one that I continually return to year after year and enjoy just as much today as I did back then. I truly do love this classic movie.

As a child I didn't understand the "Rights" issues and licensing involved with bring two characters from different companies together. When I learned of such legalities I realized just how unique and truly special King Kong Vs Godzilla really was. As I learned this I also learned that the prospect of these two titans of cinema ever coming together again was highly unlikely, especially as both IPs grew in popularity. Another King Kong vs Godzilla match may likely never happen again.

Enter Legendary Pictures

A few years ago Legendary Pictures promised a handful of movies. After the 2014 GODZILLA movie they said we'd get a sequel, a new King Kong movie, a Pacific Rim sequel, and the penultimate showdown between Godzilla and Kong. Despite dwindling box office returns and a pandemic ridden world, Legendary Pictures has made good on their promise. All things considered, with the odds stacked against them more and more with every year, this is amazing and astounding and a dream come true for someone like myself.

What's even more amazing is that the highly unlikely scenario of Kong and Godzilla battling each other again has actually happened! After the 2019 GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS' disappointing box office results I feared that Godzilla and Kong's rematch might be in jeopardy. Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures delayed Godzilla Vs Kong's release. Then came COVID 19 and the release was delayed yet again, the future even more uncertain than ever. Another delay and release date shift was to occur before the HBO MAX deal finally gave us hope and a concrete release date. And on March 31st, 2021 the epic rematch finally happened!

THE SYNOPSIS

Godzilla has suddenly turned on mankind. Kong is humanity's only chance at stopping the King of the Monsters from destroying us all. It's Godzilla vs Kong with the fate of the world hanging in the balance!

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

TEAM GODZILLA

Truthfully, I'm firmly on TEAM KONG. I came out of the movie feeling Kong stole the show and was treated far better than Godzilla was. In my mind that isn't a bad thing. For one thing it made choosing between them far easier (I do love them both so very much!). Mainly it comes down to me never being too high on this interpretation of Godzilla to begin with. I don't care for his redesign nor his new roar. And his personality and backstory in these films is essentially a complete copy of the 90's Gamera. I love Gamera but Godzilla shouldn't be Gamera. 2019's Godzilla KOTM made major strides in improving Godzilla's design and roar, so much so that I actually started liking Legendary's Godzilla. They even brought in music from the original Toho Godzilla series which was amazing.

But for some terrible reason, the Godzilla featured in Godzilla Vs Kong has the terrible 2014 roar again and his iconic music is barely present. Godzilla isn't given nearly the amount of sympathy he had in his previous two movies either. Godzilla was shown as the aggressor in this movie, a bully at best, an outright badguy at worse. The way he fights in this movie too isn't like his previous Legendary movies either, acting reminiscent of an alligator at times. All of this seemed to present a very different Godzilla than before and, in my opinion, a lesser Godzilla. This only pushed me away further from Legendary's Godzilla interpretation (undoing the endearment they made with me in KOTM).

TEAM KONG

One of the hallmarks of King Kong movies is the emotional attachment created between the characters, the audience, and Kong. In each King Kong movie you eventually fall for the big guy by the end of it. To this film's credit the filmmakers manage to create that strong emotional attachment again and in a largely unique way to the previous Kong movies. Even when Kong loses in the end it's a Rocky Balboa-esque loss. He may have lost the battle but he won the audience over. He's the underdog for the majority of the movie and solidly sympathetic throughout the entire film. Kong even had a bit of humor as well.

Kong is given the more interesting narrative thread in the film too. While Godzilla merely swims around the ocean all movie, popping up to wreak havoc here and there, Kong goes on a journey of discovery. His journey in this film reveals more about the world, the origin of all kaiju, and the grand history of Kong's family. The trip through the Hollow Earth was cool and intriguing, full of potential for future movies to explore. It reminded me of Edgar Rice Burroughs' AT THE EARTH'S CORE, which I greatly appreciated. I foresee Legendary's own version of Pellucidar in future movies.

All in all, the movie tries harder to get you on Kong's side and for me it worked. It also helps that I loved Kong's previous movie, no ambiguity with my feelings unlike with Godzilla.

THE FIGHT

The epic battle basically unfolds in three parts, arguably four parts. The battle out at sea was a great primer and first round. You need to suspend your disbelief on the physics of boats and 100,000 ton kaiju standing upon them. The battle there is great, creating a lot of tension and fear for Kong's survival. The second part occurs in Hong Kong among the neon night lights. Kong brings his axe to the party and levels the playing field for a little bit. This is either Round Two or the first half of the final showdown between them. Godzilla comes back fairly quickly and ultimately thoroughly defeats Kong, practically killing him and dislocating his shoulder. This whole fight is pretty awesome with a lot of creativity.

The third part is with Mechagodzilla's reveal. Mechagodzilla shows up as the real villain of the movie and gives Godzilla a good (and justly deserved) thrashing. Kong is revived by the humans in order to save Godzilla and ultimately save the world from Mechagodzilla. In, what was for me, a momentous event in kaiju history, Godzilla and King Kong TEAM UP for the first time ever! Together they trash Mechagodzilla in some of the movie's biggest pay-offs! I felt compelled to clap and cheer in the theater during that final fight.

Ending with both monsters giving their mutual respect for the other, Godzilla continues to rule the surface of the world while Kong goes back to the Hollow Earth to rule down there. The film gives both titular kaiju their respective victories and satisfying conclusions.

For me the film delivered exactly what it promised and was immensely satisfying in that regard. They gave us a "versus" movie where there was a definitive winner without trashing the losing character.

Does the film have problems? Yes, it most certainly does.

Aside from doing a disservice to Godzilla and regressing him from where he left the last movie, the depiction of Hollow Earth here didn't quite mesh with what was said in the last movie. Kong's axe, while cool, had a very video game inspired function: place the item in the correct spot to unlock the next part of the puzzle. That works in a video game but was kinda stupid in a movie. And how did merely scanning the core sample from Hollow Earth with a computer suddenly give Mechagodzilla complete power? I did like how they used Ghidorah's skulls for Mechagodzilla and the Mechagodzilla control system.

Ren Serizawa should've been core to this movie and not some forgettable throwaway villain. The human characters in general were rather flat and forgettable. I did like the humans in Kong's narrative more than those in Godzilla's. The villains were so cartoonishly evil here where as in the previous movies they were layered and interesting. At least give the main badguy's daughter and Serizawa's son some layers, please. But then again, these cartoonish badguys play into the overall style of this film. Godzilla Vs Kong is easily the silliest of all of the Monsterverse films and in many cases the film is self-aware of what it is.

Personally, the human element in these films has always been the worst part about them. IDW produced many different styles of stories in the Godzilla universe, my favorite of which being the natural disaster angle. You can't fight a tornado or tsunami. You just get out of the way. Following a group of survivors a la The Walking Dead as they navigate a world overrun with kaiju would've been fresh and unique and not so blatantly a copy of the MCU. Well, we got what we got. Three out of four films were really good and that's not a bad percentage at all.

THE VERDICT

How do I begin to quantify my feelings here? I've gotten to the age where rarely do these types of films live up to my expectations. Arrogantly I believe I have a better story for the movies in my head (maybe I do, maybe I don't, who can say?). After the initial viewing I have to take sometime and recalibrate my feelings and thoughts. For a movie like this I have to watch it a second time to truly step outside my own wants and expectations and see the movie for what it is, not what I would like it to be. Sometimes I can appreciate a movie more after having done this, but sometimes the movie just gets worse.

After the first viewing I enjoyed it fine, but I needed sometime to process it. I have seen Godzilla Vs Kong twice now, in a theater and on HBO Max. I can confidently say that I really like this movie. Do I feel it's the best of the four Monsterverse movies? No. I personally love Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters more. But I feel Godzilla Vs Kong is light years better than the 2014 Godzilla. That being said, Godzilla Vs Kong is really close to the others, third place not being a bad thing at all. I really like three out four of these movies.

Overall Ranking: 7 out of 10

THE END OF THE MONSTERVERSE?

It could be. These movies were made by Legendary Pictures. Legendary Pictures doesn't own the rights to Godzilla, Ghidorah, Mothra, Rodan, or Mechagodzilla. Toho Studios in Japan owns them. And from what I understand the deal Legendary made with Toho is over. Toho wants to start making their own Godzilla movies again. So I doubt we'll get any more movies from Legendary Pictures featuring Godzilla or any other Toho owned kaiju. That is, unless, Toho and Legendary come to a new agreement.

Now, what we could still get is another King Kong movie. The movie could take place entirely within the Hollow Earth where we left Kong. You could have the same cast and stay away from the surface, thereby not having to deal with Godzilla or Toho characters at all. Introduce new kaiju for Kong to fight in a battle for supremacy over the Hollow Earth. The goal of the film would be to finally make Kong king.

I love what Legendary has done with King Kong. With Godzilla's three movies from Legendary, I only like one depiction of his, from King of the Monsters. I'd much rather see what Toho can do with Godzilla than Legendary, unless Michael Dougherty is in control again. But that's not going to happen.

Anyway, the Monsterverse was a neat experiment. I'm glad we got what we did. I supported all of these movies theatrically and on home video. I'd love to see one more King Kong movie before it's all done. But if this is the end, I'm happy with it.

On a final optimistic note, Godzilla Vs Kong is making Post Pandemic records at the theatrical box office. It's poised to make more money than Godzilla King of the Monsters (and that movie didn't have to deal with a pandemic!). What's more, it's making this money while many people can also stream it for free at home on HBO Max. It's about to become the most successful post pandemic film to date. It's success, given everything going against it, is hard to ignore. Maybe the key to success is Kong not Godzilla. Then there's the social media movement #continuethemonsterverse. With all of these positives surrounding the film I wouldn't rule out the possibility of one more film in the Monsterverse.

For more of my thoughts on the Monsterverse and giant monster cinema in general check out these other posts below!

And go out to the movie theater and see Godzilla Vs Kong while you can!

THE MONSTERVERSE (and other Legendary Pictures)

Godzilla (2014)

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

The Meg (2018)

Pacific Rim (2013)

Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

Pacific Rim: The Black (2021)

THE SAGA OF THE KING OF THE MONSTERS

Part 2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)