Note: This column went on a long hiatus in 2017 and believe it or not, this is the first 2020's movie I am covering for Monster Movie of the Week. I didn't stop watching them, I just stopped writing about them. Looks for more representation of our current decade here on the column.
Legendary’s Monsterverse really hits its stride in Godzilla vs Kong the first movie in a loose trilogy of team-up flicks featuring the iconic movie monsters. This is their first movie together since 1962’s Toho feature King Kong vs Godzilla which paired them for the first time. This movie was released on MAX as a high profile COVID release while the theaters were still closed and was a big hit by whatever metrics the studio used. I remember watching it the day it started streaming and it was a little blip of pop culture joy during a pretty bleak time.
This movie and its follow-up Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire were directed by Adam Wingard. Tonally, it is much closer to Kong: Skull Island than either of the darker Godzilla movies and that (and its focus on Kong) might be a disappointment for Godzilla fans but there is a lot to love here. Wingard brings a lightness and sense of joy to the movies and its battles, which are often surprising colorful, inventive and full of very cool little character moments. This is a movie that absolutely delivers on its promise of a fun monster romp, delivering some really awesome and beautiful action. Godzilla vs Kong is one of those movies I could always just pop in and enjoy. Wingard has a knack for getting good performances out of these giant CGI characters. He builds Kong up into a genuine character and a rough-and-ready action hero with a satisfying arc in this and the next movie. Sadly, Godzilla doesn’t get the same level of attention but he’s also a character that should remain a bit mysterious. He can’t or shouldn’t be humanized in the same way that they have historically been able to with Kong.
The film takes the Hollow Earth concept introduced in Skull Island and really runs with it, introducing us to a surreal landscape filled with Titans and other creatures and the remnants of a past ape civilization. Hollow Earth and the related Axis Mundi realm become a big staple of the Monsterverse.
The story picks up several years after King of the Monsters and about fifty years after Skull Island. Kong has grown to nearly his full size and has largely outgrown his confines on Skull Island. Monarch scientist Ilene Andrews is managing the Kong facility. She is joined by her adopted daughter, Jia, who is the only surviving member of the Skull Island tribe who had recently been wiped out in a storm. Gia has a special bond with Kong.
On the other side of the world we have Madison Russell, returning from King of the Monsters. She is trying to make sense of Godzilla’s attacks on Apex corporation facilites. She listens to the conspiracy podcast of Bernie Hayes (the always wonderful Brian Tyree Henry, even with very little to work with here) they team up to investigate what Apex is up to, ending up in Hong Kong.
Dr Andrews in coordination with Apex and Hollow Earth expert Dr. Lind, lead an expedition to transport Kong to an entry point to the Hollow Earth where they speculate his species is from. The problem is that removing Kong from Skull island antagonizes Godzilla who established himself as the alpha Titan when he defeated Ghidorah at the end of KOTM. Godzilla intercepts them and the two get into an awesome brawl in the middle of the ocean that involves them tangling underwater, and Kong leaping from aircraft carrier to destroyer and throwing fighter jets like shuriken. The two treat these ships like canoes in this extended action sequence. It is one of Godzilla's finest fights.
They manage to drive Godzilla off and make it to Antarctica where Kong and the crew go through a portal and end up in Hollow Earth which looks a lot like a Prog Rock album cover with mountains hanging from the sky and floating crystals.
The expedition traverses this landscape and end up in what appears to be an abandoned ape lair complete with wall art and an axe fashioned from one of Godzilla’s dorsal spikes, and a throne. This intriguing concept is left for exploration in the next movie The Apex people then reveal they are there to steal the Hollow Earth crystals to power a special project.
Madison and Bernie arrive at the Apex facility in Hong Kong and discover that the company is keeping Titans, in this case, Skull Crawlers from Skull Island. Not only that they have created their own mechanical Godzilla, the Legendary universe’s version of Mechagodzilla.
Obviously, Mechagodzilla has a long a storied tradition in the Toho movies, first as a robotic alien doppleganger in the Showa era. In the Heisei and Millenium Era Mechagodzilla was a man-made robot/mech designed to protect against Godzilla, as is the case here. This particular iteration is controlled using a device built around one of the skulls of the defeated King Ghidorah, which apparently has the ability to amplify the pilot’s connection to the mech, which recalls the Kiryu version’s use of Godzilla’s skeleton in its body. In both cases, a dead Kaiju’s bones are used in the operation of Mechagodzilla with disastrous results.
Godzilla arrives in Hong Kong drawn by Mechagodzilla’s presence. Kong and the team manage to escape the Apex agents and exit through a hole Godzilla burns through the ground, which Kong ascends.
Kong and Godzilla fight in the very photogenic city which was also the setting for the climactic battle in Pacific Rim. This is another really well-choreographed fight where Kong makes good use of his agility and his new axe, but is ultimately defeated by Godzilla and left for dead. Godzilla then moves on to the now out-of-control Mechagodzilla who is more than a match for him. Indeed, this version of Mechagodzilla is so fearsome that he would have defeated Godzilla without help.
That help comes in the form of Kong who has been resuscitated by one of the EMP vehicles used to travel into the Hollow Earth. He saves Godzilla and the two defeat the rampaging robotic Titan, leaving Kong and Godzilla in an uneasy peace with Kong ruling Hollow Earth and Godzilla, the surface.
THE MONSTERS
Godzilla and Kong are both slightly redesigned from their previous appearances. Kong has been scaled up in order to better tangle with Godzilla and is generally bigger, rougher and tougher.
I am not a fan of this Mechagodzilla design which is very industrial and inelegant, even compared to the original Mechagodzilla. He also carries over some of the Legendary Godzilla ungainly proportions which I have never fully loved. Certainly it is a step down from Kiryu, the Millennium Mechagodzilla. We also don't get much development of the Mechagodzilla concept. The movie sets up the intriguing idea that he is operated using Ghidorah's skull but we never explore what that means. We also never get to know Serizawa, presumably the son of a major character featured in the previous two Godzilla movies. We spent a lot of time with that character who gave his life to restore Godzilla so that he could defeat Ghidorah so it would be nice to explore what it means that his son is piloting Mechagodzilla.
In addition to the Skull Crawlers we also see some of the fauna of Hollow Earth, including some very cool flying serpent creatures, some crabs, giant cave bats, and fan-favorite Titan, Doug.
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT
How is it that they managed to give us the greatest kaiju fight ever set in Hong Kong when Pacific Rim is, like, a thing in the world? Godzilla and Kong fighting in night time Hong Kong among the futuristic neon skyscrapers is just awesome to behold as are all the cool little character details like Godzilla descending on Kong on all fours like a damn crocodile or Kong popping his dislocated shoulder back in a la Lethal Weapon. Chef's kiss.
WHERE TO WATCH
Strangely no longer on HBO Max as of this writing. You gotta buy that physical media folks! I'm telling you...
SEQUELS
Followed by the equally fun Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024) and Godzilla X Kong: Supernova (2027)
TRAILER
Patrick Garone
Chicago-based writer & director. Author of City of the Gods and We Lowly Gods.
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