Greetings intrepid kaiju lovers! In this concise review I give my thoughts on the 2021 film Godzilla vs Kong. Enjoy!

Godzilla vs Kong is a simple story about Godzilla going wild and attacking a city for no apparent reason. A corporate villain hides the reason for this attack and instead employs the use of King Kong to find a hidden energy source at the center of the Earth. Kong’s removal from Skull Island provokes Godzilla who is threatened by the presence of another alpha Kaiju. The two battle twice only for both giants to team up against the corporate villain’s secret weapon.

I loved this movie! I thought the silly premise threw logic out the window but not the fun with it! Now let me go into detail:

Positives: I loved this movie! I absolutely loved the story told: Kong just wanting to survive and be the king of his own island while Godzilla is the dominant alpha Kaiju who chases and battles the giant ape. I loved the CGI and the sound effects for this movie: the hits felt real, every blow felt heavy and shattering and all the monster roars felt characteristic for each monster. Each battle told a unique story: Kong wanting to go home, Godzilla being almost invulnerable in the water, Kong’s connection to the little girl (a connection that actually did not feel creepy), Kong having origins at the center of the earth, Godzilla being destructive without actually being evil, teamwork between the two against a common enemy. I also like how these giant animals (Godzilla and Kong) finally having an understanding and mutual respect. I also loved how Kong and Godzilla are portrayed similarly here to how they were portrayed in their previous films.

As a huge Godzilla fan who disliked the ending to 1962’s King Kong vs Godzilla I am overjoyed at Godzilla’s resounding and unquestioned triumph over Kong in the penultimate battle. Godzilla outclasses Kong in almost every way; durability, ability to breathe underwater, can breathe a devastating radioactive ray, is bigger, is heavier and is more aggressive than Kong. Why WOULDN’T he win?!! Exactly.
Kong does hold the advantage in higher intelligence and agility, however, which makes him quite the troublesome foe.

I also liked the human characters and thought that they were quite serviceable for their roles. They served to move the plot forward without becoming mindless engines of exposition. (Mostly) My one complaint here is the villain; he is arrogant and mysterious. His meddling with nature leads to the primary conflict of the film but we never learn a good reason WHY he hates Godzilla.

I liked how both Kong and Godzilla have fleshed-out personalities; Kong is the sympathetic loner who wants to remain dominant in his own home where he can roam free, while Godzilla is an aggressive territorial creature that while not truly evil can be destructive if provoked.

Bravo!

One thing I do have a problem with in this film is the wonky science: how is the center of the earth empty and filled with jungles, vortexes and mystical energy? How did the humans suddenly become capable of imprisoning Titans and creating futuristic magnetic hovercrafts? We never saw this capability in technology in the previous films. Seeing it here only two years after the previous film seems so…overblown and unnatural. What are the humans going to invent in the next Godzilla movie: teleportation pads??

As a smaller nitpick: why did Godzilla have to look so weak against Mechagodzilla? I know he just fought Kong, but couldn’t someone have given a quick explanation: “he’s too tired,” “Mechagodzilla has a computer that has analyzed all Godzilla’s attack patterns,” etc etc…

I enjoyed this movie and I’m so glad my wife and I got to see this classic together. I definitely felt I could be a kid again, and in the end…I think that was the whole point of this movie.

Godzilla vs Kong gets a 94% rating from me.
If you haven’t seen this movie yet I highly recommend you catch Godzilla vs Kong right away! For a movie about larger-than-life staples of our culture it delivers on the action!

Thanks for reading.