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As a smash-’em-up monster movie and a straight-up action film, “Godzilla vs. Kong” is a crowd-pleasing, action-packed spectacle that will keep you entertained for hours. “Tree of Life” is an adaptation of a fairy tale and an exploration of science fiction. It’s also a Western, a pro wrestling extravaganza, a conspiracy thriller, a Frankenstein film, a heartwarming drama about animals and their human companions, and, at times, an outrageously wacky spectacle that plays as if the creation sequence in “The Tree of Life” had been subcontracted to the makers of “Yellow Submarine.” With rainstorms and explosions, as well as light shows that extend into the wormhole, giant mammals, reptiles and amphibians, insects and beasts that may be hybrids of one or more animal kingdoms, and the occasional zombie, robot, or demon thrown in for good measure, it is a thrilling ride. It is not afraid to dream big and to do so in a goofy and sincere manner. Despite this, for a massively over-scaled and action-packed tentpole film, “Godzilla vs. Kong” manages to stay light on its feet, much like its co-leading man, a skyscraper-sized primate who bounds through jungles, tropical environments, and concrete like an astronaut skipping across the lunar surface. It has the potential to be the best studio film released so far this year. If it isn’t, it is without a doubt the most entertaining.
There will be spoilers from here on out—even though, as I will argue, the story is told in such a way that such warnings are unnecessary.
“Godzilla vs. Kong,” directed by Adam Wingard (“The Guest”) and written by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein (who also wrote the first film in the series), continues the series’ tradition of moving the master narrative about the Monarch project forward while allowing each successive team of filmmakers to do their own thing in the process. Godzilla, the first film in the series, was “Close Encounters of the Kaiju Kind,” introducing the franchise’s unifying premise: giant creatures older than the dinosaurs once lived on the earth’s surface, feeding on residual radiation from the Big Bang, then moved inside as that energy dwindled, hibernating in the “Hollow Earth” until humans disturbed their slumber with nuclear testing, strip mining, a nuclear explosion, and other forms of human interference.
This premise was fused with a philosophy that remained consistent from film to film throughout the franchise. Something along the lines of: the kaiju don’t despise us. They don’t even intend to cause us any harm (though they do enjoy a human snack now and then). The animals are competing for dominance over territory as well as amongst one another. These creatures would have continued to exist only as beasts of myth and legend if we hadn’t treated Earth like a cesspool for hundreds of thousands of years.
“Godzilla,” the Vietnam-era period piece “Kong: Skull Island,” and the Calling All Kaiju! extravaganza “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” all contributed to the establishment of a top-secret, international organization that has been in existence for decades, the Monarch Project, which linked the films across release years and narrative decades. (Monarch was founded in the 1950s, long before the action of “Skull Island” took place in the 1970s.) Everything in the film was, of course, based on elements from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, particularly the agents and scientists from Monarch who resembled S.H.I.E.L.D. and the post-credits scenes that revealed the beasts on the docket. Even so, while some films were more MCU-like than others (the first is the least compromised), the kaiju were never reduced to the status of mercenaries in any of them. The most disarming aspect of the Monsterverse is its horror, sorrow, and incredulity at the sight of humans avoiding extinction-level threats while refusing to accept that they will never be able to defeat, reverse, or even negotiate with them; they will only be able to learn how to coexist with them. As a result, the shots of soldiers and tanks, planes, and battleships unloading on these monstrous creatures are so ridiculous. Cavemen hurling rocks at the sun are depicted in this scene.
For a while, it appears that “Godzilla vs. Kong” is taking a step back from the tradition of environmental doomsday predictions and pre-grieving. Those elements, on the other hand, turn out to have been sublimated, or submerged, like kaiju, and have been retreating into the earth’s core until obnoxious forces lure them back out. Following a storm that destroyed Skull Island, King Kong has been relocated to a research facility beneath a virtual reality dome that simulates his natural habitat. The film begins with a hypnotic opening sequence that sets the tone for the film. Jia (Kaylee Hottle), the sole survivor of the island’s Iwi tribe, and Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) are conducting research on him. Dr. Andrews is an anthropological linguist who studies the Iwi language.
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Shortly after, Godzilla, who hasn’t been seen since he destroyed the three-headed extraterrestrial dragon Ghidorah, attacks the Apex Cybernetics research facility in Pensacola, Florida, where the company is based. “Godzilla is killing people, and we don’t know why,” says Monarch scientist Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), father of kaiju-whisperer Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) and former husband of the late renegade Monarch scientist Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), who turned eco-terrorist in the previous film. “Godzilla is killing people, and we don’t know why,” says Mark Russell. We’re aware of the situation. Godzilla is referred to as a “apex predator.” There can only be one of them, just like there can only be one of the gladiators in the “Highlander” series. Godzilla is clearly pursuing Apex (a name that doesn’t conceal his true intentions!) because he feels threatened by something within the facility’s walls. An organization with the ability to create mechanical, um, beings is described here. You could say that they are robots. Alternatively, robot monsters. Wink wink, you could even suggest that Apex could create mecha versions of Godzilla if they set their minds to it.
No one, including the filmmakers, goes to great lengths to pretend that we don’t understand where this is going. Apex founder and CEO Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir) persuades Hollow Earth expert Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgrd) to lead an expedition to the planet’s core in order to access a primeval power source that he requires for his, er, project, which will, I suppose you could say, restore humanity as the planet’s, er, apex predator. The script is dense with cards on the table foreshadowing, including a scene in (cue ominous synthesizer music). As a result, the only pertinent questions are: (1) “When will Godzilla and Kong fight for the first time?” and (2) “How much longer until Godzilla and Kong fight for the second time?” The questions are: (1) “Who will win the first fight and subsequent rematches?”; (2) “When will Kong and Godzilla team up?”; and (3)
The film’s “no muss, no fuss” storyline creates space for the development of relationships—not only between humans, but also between humans and monsters, and between monsters and other monsters as well. It takes time for the childless Lind, the surrogate parent Andrews, and the orphaned Jia to learn to trust and work together until they’ve formed a makeshift nuclear family, similar to Ripley, Hicks, and Newt in the film “Aliens.” As a result of their shared cynicism and inquisitiveness, Madison forms a virtual friendship with conspiracy podcaster, muckraker, and Apex investigator Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) over the course of the series. She has such faith in his voice and message that she embarks on a road trip to track him down with the assistance of her friend Josh Valentine (Julian Dennison, who is unfortunate enough to be saddled with the least-necessary character—a exposition-spoonfeeding chatterbox nerd, reminiscent of Bradley Whitford’s character in the previous film). Madison had lost her brother in one of the kaiju disasters in the first film, and then she had lost her mother in “King of the Monsters.” By the end of this book, she’s gained a big-brother-like partner in the form of Bernie, and she’s adopted a scolding but affectionate quasi-parental tone with Josh (who is, in a sense, taking on the role of Maddie’s mother, who Maddie was robbed of—first by madness, then by death).
The relationships between humans and monsters, as well as between monsters and humans, are more significant and moving. As a screen couple, Kong and Jia are a magical combination, following in the footsteps of heartwarming animal-movie pairings such as “The Black Stallion,” “Free Willy,” and “E.T.” The latter has a particularly strong resonance. The film uses Kong’s heartbeat as a conduit to reveal Jia’s mental state, as well as narrative Morse code-pulses for the audience, which reveal Kong’s stress level and physical condition, among other things. The filmmakers, including editor Josh Schaeffer (“Pacific Rim: Uprising”), cinematographer Ben Seresin (“Unstoppable,” “Pain and Gain”), and the nation-state of effects artists who worked on the designs, motion-capturing, rendering, compositing, and other aspects of the film deserve a great deal of credit for the friendship between Kong and Jia. This is a rare modern blockbuster with special effects that are truly exceptional in their own right. In particular, the Hollow Earth sequences in the middle of the film evoke the spirit of a 1970s sword-and-sorcery paperback book jacket or a 1970s-’80s psychedelic science fiction or fantasy film such as “Zardoz,” “Flash Gordon,” “Tron” or “The Neverending Story,” which are ecstatically dreamy kitsch. The neon primary colors of the Apex labs and Hong Kong streets evoke blissed-out decadent coolness, courtesy of John Woo and British synthpop videos, respectively. Kong and Godzie could just as easily have done lines of coke off the top of a bus before launching into each other’s faces.
Godzilla Vs Kong Quiz
And yet, as is increasingly the case, this special effects-heavy epic is paradoxically a showcase for the actors involved—and it’s scandalous that Terry Notary, who played Kong in this film as well as “Skull Island,” isn’t listed among the film’s main cast, alongside T.J. Storm, who has played Godzilla in three Monsterverse films.
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Wingard has stated on the record that the physicality of this King Kong is inspired by Bruce Willis’ performance in the “Die Hard” films and Mel Gibson’s performance in the “Lethal Weapon” series. Scenes of Kong dirty-fighting like a back-alley brawler, stumble-running through Hong Kong streets, and jumping off the deck of an aircraft carrier as Godzilla nukes it from below all demonstrate the lineage. However, this is more than just a fantastic piece of stunt work. According to Hoyle, the acting is of the caliber of Andy Serkis. After nearly drowning in seawater, watch Kong collapse and fall asleep after defeating an adversary, or rip a winged beast’s head from his neck and guzzle blood from the stump like a brigand downing a pint of mead, to name a few examples. If you look closely, Kong has Martin Sheen’s still-in-Saigon hangover face from “Apocalypse Now” when he first wakes up after being airlifted to an Antarctic base to begin his journey into the Hollow Earth. The way Kong communicates with Jia through sign language, looking away and then back at her, you can see the wheels turning in his head: I despise what this kid just told me, and it’s difficult for me to comprehend, but I accept it because I have no other choice.
In a similar vein, though with a more opaque performance, Storm’s portrayal of Godzilla is equally arresting. It is a kaiju that is primordial and ruthless, a zaftig brawler with a caboose in the shape of Charles Barkley. He lacks Kong’s grace and ingenuity when it comes to weapons, but he makes up for it with ferocity and sheer weight (and dragon breath). In Godzilla, James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano character rages, slamming his massive body into any creature foolish enough to stand in his way. He takes a step back with a glint in his eye before zapping entire city blocks with napalm. A series of bold first-person shot/reverse shot close-ups, in which Kong and Godzilla stare into each other’s eyes, each attempting to intimidate the other, Godzilla projects a mix of curiosity, alpha brutishness, and game-respect-game appreciation for the ape’s refusal to submit, which is reflected in the film’s title. When Godzilla looks Kong in the eyes at the end of the film, it’s like Clint Eastwood dressed in scales. However, it is possible that the curtain-closing song selection, which follows, is Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat,” which is marvelously counter-intuitive—a needle-drop of joy—but it could also have been: The song continues, “What can I possibly say?/I guess that you are missed, I guess that I forgive you/I’m glad you got in my way.”
Wingard has joked in interviews that he would like his super-kaiju to kiss him—but how much of a joke is that, really, considering the circumstances? It seems like every action film is about stone-cold badasses meeting cute, punching out their differences, and eventually banding together to defeat a more immediate threat. In the original “48 HRS,” the alleyway fight that Reggie Hammond and Jack Cates had to get out of their system before teaming up to take on Billy Bear and Ganz is evoked (on purpose?) by Godzilla’s steamroller density and Kong’s rope-a-dope tactics and jaw-cracking punches, which may have been done on purpose.
The two-on-one finale, which pits Godzilla and Kong against the missile-spraying, jet-propelled, double-footed kangaroo-kicking Mechagodzilla, is as well-thought-out as every other action scene in the film in terms of each fighter’s strengths and weaknesses, as is every other action sequence in the film. Not that Mechagodzilla is in possession of any. That’s what makes him so terrifying to be around. He’s the Terminator of the kaiju world. He even gets a Skynet-like moment in the movie. Godzilla is tossed around by him as if he were a child. As a result of this, Godzie’s head is bashed into the side of an office building with vertical ice cube trays, much like Jackie Chan’s face was bashed into a popcorn machine in the film “Police Story.” While his cyborg double is thrashing him, a flash of dazed insight flashes through his puffy dinosaur eyes for a brief, unsettling instant. It’s almost as if I’m thinking: What if I deserve this?
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How strange and wonderful, though, that after all the ecstatic slapstick ultraviolence, we come away from “Godzilla vs. Kong” recalling not just the mayhem, but the many (comparatively) quiet moments that build out Kong and Godzilla as … aw …hell. It’s probably best to put it this way: as individuals.
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They’re lonely, when you think about it, Godzilla and Kong—though neither would admit it. A couple of kings who don’t have any kingdoms. Godzilla chases one that might not be worth having. Kong never knew he could’ve had one until this movie—and at the end, what is Kong the king of, really? A jungle full of creatures that look nothing like him. Are there any other primates? Poor Kong was always the only one on Skull Island. We saw the bones of others. Were they killed by beasts? Did they die of natural causes before Kong was born? At least Kong knows now that he’s a king by birthright and innate nobility— or that one of his ancestors was. Kong saw that ruined castle. He walked into the grand hall and sat on the throne and held an axe in his fist like Conan. Maybe he imagined dominion over long-gone realms in Hollow Earth. Or maybe he was wondering if Godzilla ever thought: Now what? Godzilla visited Atlantis. Did he rule it? Or did he just surface from time to time, to remind the Atlanteans who was boss? Did he sink the place? If so, does he regret it?
Imagine Godzilla and Kong in a coffee shop, talking about their lives.
Available in theaters and on HBO Max on March 31.
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