The fourth and supposed final film in Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse quadrilogy comes to a close in Godzilla vs Kong. With Kong in Monarch custody following the events of ‘Skull Island’, Godzilla has gained a sense of nearby Kaiju. Their battle imminent, APEX prepares for what may be a destined clash said to end the world.

Godzilla vs Kong is a 2021 monster film, it is produced by Legendary Pictures & distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is currently in theaters with a 30 day release on HBO Max.

Editor’s Note: Near complete to complete spoilers for Godzilla vs Kong may be present in this review. Slight spoilers for the three preceding films may also be present.

Said to be the finale of the MonsterVerse, Godzilla vs Kong depicts the final battle of kaiju between Godzilla & Kong. With Godzilla having disposed of nearly all of the other Kaiju in ‘King of the Monsters’ he becomes enamored into a fight with Kong. Sensing the dangers of this government agencies have worked together to keep Kong hidden in Skull Island. But with Godzilla becoming more obsessed it no longer becomes a secure location for him forcing APEX to move him to the Hollow Earth.

THE GOOD: Following the events of ‘King of Monsters’ & ‘Skull Island’, Godzilla has been under the watch of APEX. The prophecy of the “Great Kaiju War” has mostly come to fruition with the final battle being between Godzilla & Kong. Godzilla seemingly attacks APEX unprovoked with the public now seeing him as a villain rather than a hero due to his previous efforts in the Kaiju War. Madison who witnessed Godzilla’s behavior in the war remains unconvinced that he’s gone rogue. After an argument with her father she goes off to find former APEX employee turned conspiracy podcaster Bernie Hayes with her friend Josh. Kong is starting to become wary of his Monarch imprisonment. Despite this he has befriended a young surviving native named Jia who was adopted by Dr. Ilene Andrews.

It is revealed that Jia who is deaf has taught Kong sign language. She’s also formed a bond with him to the point where she’s gained his complete trust. Knowing this Ilene gets Jia to have Kong cooperate with Monarch to have him travel to Hollow Earth in an effort to hold off his battle with Godzilla. Dr. Nathan Lind is brought in as a representative of APEX by Walter Simmons who are working with Monarch. Godzilla finds them while out at sea and a battle nearly destroys the entire Monarch/APEX team. Only ending with Kong and the remaining forces playing dead. Madison finds and gains Bernie’s trust being a fan of his podcast. She, Bernie, and Josh stumble into an underground APEX lab where they accidentally witness a Mechagodzilla test. The machine is being powered by the brain of the deceased Ghidorah. Walter captures the trio at gunpoint and explains that he was the cause of Godzilla’s attack as he wanted to eliminate the Kaiju and give the power back to man. Lind and the others lead Kong to the Hollow Earth where he discovers the remains of other creatures similar to himself and Godzilla. Entering what looks like a throne room, Kong finds an axe made from the tail of Godzilla’s species. APEX betrays Monarch and holds Lind and the others hostage as they capture a sample from the throne room. The noise causes bird like creatures to attack and kill most of the group. Simmons’ daughter attempts to escape, but is blocked by Kong. She fires shots at him that only annoy him and he crushers her ship killing her and the others inside as Lind, Ilene, and Jia watch. 

Godzilla arrives in Hong Kong where Monarch is stationed alongside Madison’s father. They are coincidentally located on top of the Hollow Earth where Kong and the others are. Godzilla fires an atomic blast creating an opening between Hong Kong and the Hollow Earth and Kong climbs up it with Lind & the others following. Godzilla and Kong engage in a second battle destroying a ton of the city. Godzilla defeats Kong and leaves him for dead. Suddenly Mechagodzilla awakens through Ghidorah’s soul and kills Walter as he enters the city. Godzilla and the Ghidorah possessed Mechagodzilla fight, but Godzilla exhausted from his battle with Kong is badly beaten by Mechagodzilla. Kong nearing death is saved by Lind and Jia convinces him to aid Godzilla saying he is no longer the enemy. As Godzilla falls, Kong fights Mechagodzilla and is about to lose as he too faces exhaustion. Godzilla takes note of Kong’s axe and powers it with his atomic breath giving Kong the edge to destroy Mechagodzilla.

With Mechagodzilla gone Kong and Godzilla appear to ready themselves for a third battle. Kong however, drops his axe surrendering to Godzilla. Godzilla accepts Kong’s defeat and returns to the sea becoming the Titan King of Earth. Sometime later Kong, now residing in Hollow Earth as it’s Titan King accepts Monarch’s trust who continues to watch over him as he remains close with Jia. 

Most people know what to expect from any sort of adaptation of Godzilla or King Kong. While the latter is usually pretty good at having well written human characters, the former is great with action sequences. Godzilla can be pretty solid with human character development. Like for example, I remember enjoying the humans in Shin Godzilla. It tends to be way more miss than hit though. The human characters in Godzilla vs Kong can have moments, but they’re pretty ridiculous and forgettable here. I did like the relationship Jia and Kong had, but I wish they would have featured it more. It’s neat to think of the idea of Kong being taught how to communicate by a human. Kong’s relationship with humans is a recurring theme of the series throughout it’s history and we see it here & there in Godzilla just not as much. 

This is an oddly colorful film as well. Godzilla is no stranger to bright colors as they’re more often than not used for the kaiju attacks. That remains true here in Godzilla vs Kong, but they expand the use of color to bring out the life of the set pieces. The Hong Kong fight scene in particular is beautiful as hell and really helps pop out the monster designs. The action is as good as you’d expect (or hope) it to be. I also appreciate how Legendary tries to expand Godzilla & Kong’s respective lore with the idea of them having been apart of an ancient war between their two species in Hollow Earth. I’ve seen many Godzilla and King Kong adaptions and I think that storyline is unique to the Legendary universe. While it’s suggested that this is finale, they do a ton of seed planting for the future in case Toho renews their contract. Which is looking very likely citing the current box office numbers as the film has already made it’s budget back. 

THE BAD: Don’t come into this film expecting much plot. Unless you’ve been closely following the connected dots of the kaiju themselves spread out across the four films there isn’t much going for the human characters. And that’s ok no one should expect the human characters to be amazingly fleshed out in an American adaptation of Godzilla. Though I did like Lind, and the small bit of relationship building with Kong & Jia. There’s also some bad writing, like really, really bad. For example, there’s a scene where Mechagodzilla is nearly killing Godzilla and Josh temporarily stuns him by pouring alcohol on a computer that’s no longer connected to him. 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Godzilla vs Kong is the epic finale that goes above and beyond for it’s titular kaiju. While the human characters are predictably forgettable there are some standouts, at least in my opinion. There’s some really solid world building for the future of the franchise should Toho renew. And the use of colors in the film really stood out. Otaku Dome gives Godzilla vs Kong an 85 out of 100.