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I know I’m pretty late to the party and almost everyone has already watched the film. Yet ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ is a film that has to be reviewed, and since many has already had the privilege of watching two of the most prominent titans go head-to-head in a dream duel, I have decided to dissect the film and analyze the story, the ups and downs of the film in a spoiler-filled review.
Though many people have already watched the film, many could not figure out what the central conflict was, and what the resolution was which brought about a bigger conflict. Many even lost track amidst all the CGI put to the screen, which was, by the way, ABSOLUTELY gorgeous. Don’t worry, it’s pretty natural to lose track when you’re drooling over two large titans lashing each other in a supposed ‘battle of the century’. The film delivered us with quite the battle we wanted, and although the plot is inconsistent at times, it was quite a treat to watch it. Okay now moving onto the review.
Firstly, a small spoiler-free review. Like I’ve said, I enjoyed this film. It’s absolutely thrilling, fun and a spectacle for the eyes to feast on. Adam Wingard is back to helm the project, and boy does he deliver a gift to us fanboys. Wingard’s incorporation of jaw-droppingly spectacular visual effects to create a world that only exists in fiction is amazing, and to watch Godzilla and Kong, two of the most badass kaijus to ever embrace the silver screen, duking it out in a dream battle had me dancing around the entire room with excitement and irresistible thrill. Moreover the plot accompanied with the enthralling action sequences was surprisingly intriguing and not just an excuse for our favorite monsters to jump into action. There’s quite a few interesting theories put to play (which I will be discussing soon), and the plot utilizes our main characters and gives them some backstories worth talking about. Granted the human characters are weak and bland, but there was one human character in particular who really added to the emotional aspects of the film which was interesting. With all that said, ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ was much better than expected and a battle we will be reminiscing about in the years to come.
I’m going to give “Godzilla vs Kong’ a B+.
OKAY here’s where I draw the line between spoiler-free review and spoiler-filled review! So
SPOILER ALERT!!
Anyone who hasn’t watched the film yet should proceed at their own risk!
Okay so let’s discuss the plot of ‘Godzilla vs Kong’.
A futuristic organization named ‘Apex Cybernetics’ is working on a big project following the aftermath of the events of ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’. Walter Simmons, played by Demian Bichir, who is the CEO of Apex Cybernetics, plans to build the Mechagodzilla, a man-made version of Godzilla who is intended to put down the king of the monsters for once and for all to reduce civilian casualties in the future. Although Godzilla has always been an asset to mankind in the past, Simmons wants to put an end to Zilla’s streak using his mecha, because every time Zilla has intervened, many lives have been lost. However all of Apex’s attempts to power up the mecha has faltered, forcing Simmons to accept that the only way to power up the giant robot is to extract a special kind of blue energy which is only available in the ‘Hollow Earth’, which is basically the center of our planet. Simmons tags in Nathan Lind, who is a genius Hollow Earth researcher, to undertake the task of acquiring the energy source, without of course informing him about the mechagodzilla project.
Lind and Simmons are presented with two issues:
In the Hollow Earth, gravity Is reversed, which basically means instead of gravity pulling you in towards the interior of the earth, the gravity pushes you outwards. Now, theoretically this reverse-gravity effect is non-existent, because it completely contradicts Newton’s laws and also gravity is always pulling towards the earth, it’s not a phenomenon that only exists on the surface of the earth. Even the film sidesteps the theory to avoid any elaboration. However, since the entire concept of Hollow Earth is a fictional hunch, we can pardon the storywriters for coming up with a bizarre yet intriguing theory. Due to this ‘reverse gravitational effect’, Nathan lost his brother in a past expedition, where his brother and the crew were flattened by the strong gravitational force. Initially Nathan is reluctant to help, but he soon joins when Simmons tells him about HEAV, Apex built jets made to withstand the pressure exerted by gravitational field.
Even if they survive the reverse-gravity, humans don’t know where to start. It’s a complex process and an arduous venture to locate the energy source and send it back to earth. Luckily, Kong is just a call away in a facility in Skull Island, and his ‘genetic memory’ can guide the humans to that energy source. The blue energy in the Hollow Earth powers an ecosystem of kaijus and various unknown creatures, and Kong’s race was a part of it till they were all wiped out except Kong. Hence Lind takes Dr. Ilene Andrews, played by Rebecca Hall, and Jia, the last of the Iwi tribe who can communicate with Kong via sign language.
The plot kicks in when Godzilla attacks the Apex lab in Pensacola, and all this starts off because an eye of Ghidorah, who was the three-headed villain from 2019’s ‘Godzilla: King of Monsters’, gives off signals that irks Godzilla. Now this might be a weak link since many might say an eye giving a signal brings Godzilla to the scene where else an entire head of Ghidorah was lying in Hong Kong, but this can be forgone because soon Godzilla arrives to Hong Kong, though again because the Mecha had awoken.
What irked me the most is that it’s never explained why Apex lost their control of the Mechagodzilla. It’s never explored, but rather Madison, played by Millie Bobby Brown, pushes it aisde by saying “ It has a mind of its own”. They could’ve drawn some resemblance from the fourth Transformers 4, where Stanley Tucci’s character had built Galvatron’s body from Megatron’s remainings which is why Galvatron went rogue because Megatron was still alive in his body, but they don’t bother explaining that. They also do not explain the Hollow Earth as much as I wanted to learn about it, neither do they explain how they could establish an internet connection at the center of the earth and why only an email of the heat signature was enough to power up the Mecha. I might sound nitpicky and stubborn, but certain plotholes hindered my experience of a film which was otherwise fun and thrilling. Even certain characters were boring and had no reason to exist. Millie Bobby Brown’s Madison only existed to exonerate Godzilla of his crimes, and she had no real purpose. Alexander Skarsgard plays Lind in the film and does his best but comes off bland due to the script. My fear going into this film was that the movie might focus more on the banal human characters and their political agendas and we might only get to see 20 minutes of titans wrecking havoc. Yes the human characters are quite boring, but fortunately the director focuses more on the titans and their battle and less on the human characters. The film is true to its fans, and that was quite satisfactory.
Easily the best part of this film was Godzilla. Kong was essential to the plot, yes, but Godzilla has more shine. Every time the lizard-like monster appeared on screen I had chills down my spine, and every scene with Godzilla is more enjoyable, attributing to the fact that Wingard knows Zilla better than Kong. However Kong cannot be side-stepped because he is essentially the unannounced hero of this film, and his chemistry with Jia was way more emotionally investing than I had expected. Jia is one character I was surprised to see, and Kaylee Hottle did an amazing job portraying this deaf Iwi girl.
Needless to say, the CGI was absolutely gorgeous. Battle scenes where buildings collapsed and monsters throw punches at each other are a treat for the eyes and the CGI of our beloved monsters is smooth.
To conclude, if you are a fan of big monsters and kaijus duking it out in cities and causing mass destruction, ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ will not disappoint you for the most part, though it may become difficult to follow the story at times and the human characters are for the most part forgettable.
Thank you for reading this review!
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