The most highly anticipated match of 2021 has arrived. Warner Bros. and Legendary bring together ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’, the fourth movie in the MonsterVerse franchise and the sequel to both ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ and ‘Kong: Skull Island’. The two gigantic beasts each have incredibly long histories spanning almost a century. With King Kong dating back to 1933 and Godzilla in 1954, both have been tearing it up on the big screen ever since. The two colossal legends finally meet in a battle of epic proportions.

While it may not be the first time the two have met in an epic match-up, their first encounter was back in 1962 in ‘King Kong vs. Godzilla’ by Toho, and while the quality may seem silly by today’s standards and is a product of its time, it was still a showdown the world was excited to see and the movie did huge numbers at the box office. ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ brings that epic battle to the modern-day with cutting-edge CGI that brings out the best from both Kong and Godzilla and even has some subtle references to the 1962 movie which will please long-time fans.

The film’s story begins with Kong living a seemingly peaceful life in a jungle resembling his home from ‘Kong: Skull Island,’ and is constantly monitored and studied by a team of scientists lead by Dr. Ilene Andrews (portrayed by Rebecca Hall), but it quickly becomes apparent that Kong isn’t happy with his surroundings and the movie reveals he’s being contained inside an incredibly large facility, made to look like and feel like his natural habitat. It’s very similar to the dome as seen in “The Truman Show”, but unlike Jim Carrey’s character, Kong isn’t as easily fooled by his artificial home, and the reason he’s not being allowed in the outside world is that Ilene fears that Godzilla will come after him.

Meanwhile elsewhere, Godzilla is acting very out of character and attacking cities for unknown reasons, as some of the characters point out that he only attacks when he is provoked. With Kong constantly unhappy, Ilene agrees with Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) to take the massive risk and transport Kong with a military escort, in hopes of finding his true home and possibly even learn his origins.

Throughout the movie, audiences will see that Kong has a strong bond with a little orphan girl of Iwi heritage named Jia, who is also the adopted daughter of Dr. Ilene. Jia is deaf and communicates with her adoptive mother using sign language. She is portrayed by Kaylee Hottle, a young actress who is deaf in real life, and this helps to give her character a lot more legitimacy, as she even comes from an all deaf family, having four generations of deaf relatives from her father’s side. With Kong becoming increasingly restless, Jia is the only one who can calm him down and even communicates with the large beast using sign language, much to Ilene’s surprise as she sees Kong also using sign language to communicate back. While he only speaks very simple words in sign language, the words he does speak carry a lot of meaning and illustrates his emotions, as he expresses what he truly wants that will make him happy. This not only strengthens his bond with Jia but also shows that underneath all that rage and anger, is that Kong is just a gentle giant.

The true selling point of ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ however, is their colossal showdown and the movie goes all out, absolutely delivers, and does not disappoint. As seen in the trailers, the two monsters have more than one fight and in different locations. Every punch, bite, scratch, slam, and building smashed can be felt for miles, as Godzilla and Kong hold nothing back in their epic fight for dominance and survival. As director Adam Wingard has mentioned many times in interviews, “there will be a definitive winner,” and this movie delivers on that promise. The monstrous fights between the two colossal titans will be remembered for many years to come.

The other various human characters play vital roles in the story, whereas in the past movies (as well as other movies with similar concepts), it felt like there was too much focus on them and not enough on the gigantic monsters. Even though at times it might feel like the human characters are taking up a little too much screen time, it becomes quickly apparent that they are serving a real purpose and adds to the overall story. One character, in particular, has a connection to a character from the past movies to make it interesting and there’s also a few other new characters introduced. There is one group who at first feel like they were just there for comedy’s sake, with the typical awkward cringe humour (which has been very common in recent movies), but their story leads to the discovery of a certain gigantic mechanical beast, which will most certainly please fans of the kaiju genre.

There are even a few characters with hidden agendas that could greatly impact not just the monsters, but the whole world as well. Dr. Ilene Andrews and her adopted daughter Jia have the best chemistry with each other as well as Kong on screen, and Dr. Nathan Lind somewhat has the typical heroic male stereotype, but not quite with the same finesse seen in many other movies as he’s just doing the best he can, which makes him feel more realistic and relatable as a character. It’s also nice that the movie doesn’t include a typical romance story for the sake of it and keeps the focus on the characters the movie is named after. It is safe to say that the human characters’ screen time doesn’t overshadow the title characters and has a really good balance between them, which will satisfy audiences and dedicated fans.

Creating the large-scale epic battle on-screen between two colossal legends would require cutting-edge CGI and ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ has exactly that. There is an incredible amount of detail up close with Godzilla’s scaly skin and spikes, and Kong’s muscular furry body in both night and day. The special effects do an amazing job portraying Kong’s facial emotions and body language as he interacts with the environments around him and of course his emotional interactions with Jia. The various locations the story takes place, each look unique from one another and perfectly fit the tone of the movie.

Something fans have criticized in the last two Godzilla films, was that the battles took place mainly at night, which even though it does help set the mood, also hides a lot of the details on Godzilla and some of the other monsters. It can feel like the special effects team did it as a way to take shortcuts on Godzilla’s visuals, which may not be true but would’ve been nice to see more of his details. However in ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’, both legendary titans can be seen in all their glory as they attempt to take the other down, while also destroying everything around them using brute force and anything in their surroundings. The city lights shining and reflecting off them just add so much to the atmosphere.

The film’s composer, Thomas Holkenborg (better known by his stage name, Junkie XL) has a very impressive resume of movie soundtracks to his name. His movie soundtracks include ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’, ‘Deadpool’, ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ and the Zack Snyder Cut of ‘Justice League’ just to name a few. His work on Godzilla vs. Kong only further enhances everything, from the soft ambient music for the emotional scenes to the deep bass orchestral tracks that complement the epic battles on screen. The song ‘Here We Go’ by Chris Classic used in most of the trailers, also really helped promote the movie and is a real banging track to listen to on its own.

The biggest showdown of the year delivers on the hype and exceeds expectations. Even though there are minor things that audiences could nit-pick at, it can be easily forgiven by everything else this movie has to offer. With the help of the incredible CGI to deliver breathtaking visuals of the two gigantic legends, various environments, and the epic monstrous battles along with a good balance of the monsters and human characters, with standout performances by Rebecca Hall and Kaylee Hottle as Ilene and Jia as well as the perfectly fitting soundtrack, makes this a must-see for fans of large kaiju battles of epic proportions. Godzilla vs. Kong is truly a colossal battle for the ages.

Written by: Sammy Hanson