I’ve been on my own mental downward spirl thinking about #GodzillavsKong for the past few days. It started while I was working at my theater a few days ago. A family came out of the movie and started talking about it. A young boy asked his mother what her favorite part was (1/17)

She said “when Godzilla & Kong realized they didn’t have to be enemies and worked together.” I thought that was very wholesome to overhear but it made me reflect on the film more. I then came to the revelation that Godzilla & Kong have really well defined character arcs (2/17)

The film establishes that Godzilla & Kong’s species’ were once at war which is why they have a rivalry. Although I wish the film explored that more, its there. What’s interesting though is that their conflict gets in the way of them achieving more important goals (3/17)

Godzilla knows Apex is up to something with Ghidorah’s skull so he’s out to stop that. Kong just wants to go home to the Hollow Earth after being in containment on Skull Island for many years. Yet Godzilla & Kong lose sight of that because of their history (4/17)

Godzilla fights Kong out of hate. I’ll get more into that later but you can see in the way he goes after Kong that Godzilla straight up hates him. Now Kong fights out of pride. “Kong bows to no one.” Kong isn’t one to submit like past kaiju have to Godzilla (5/17)

In that Godzilla’s hate distracts him from the more important goal which allows for Apex to further complete Mechagodzilla while Kong out of pride risks finding happiness in a new home to prove himself to Godzilla. Thats first displayed during the their battle in the ocean (6/17)

But this really rears its head when Kong reaches the Hollow Earth. He’s free and is happy in a wide open environment. But then Kong reaches the temple. Kong finds an axe made by his species and sits on the throne with pride for what his ancestors built (7/17)

Kong then charges up the axe which alerts his presence in the Hollow Earth to Godzilla. Godzilla is in Hong Kong and has almost found Mechagodzilla but his hate once again takes over. Even more so since he knows Kong has the axe that has killed many of his species (8/17)

Godzilla blasts all the way down to the Hollow Earth in a very over the top moment to call Kong to the surface. Instead of Kong staying in his new home though, his pride takes over again and he climbs to Hong Kong to battle Godzilla again. Their epic second clash ensues (9/17)

Godzilla eventually gets the advantage on Kong and asserts his dominance. Little bit of development from Godzilla here because he chooses not to kill Kong outright. Godzilla respects Kong’s perseverance and leaves him. Kong though succumbs to his injuries in spite of this (10/17)

At this point, Mechagodzilla has been completed, goes crazy and starts beating Godzilla down because Godzilla wasted all his energy battling Kong. Kong is then revived and Jia convinces him to help Godzilla. Kong knows this is for the greater good and helps his enemy (11/17)

Godzilla looks surprised Kong is helping him and I think the big moment for Godzilla is when he chooses to charge up the axe for Kong. Godzilla powers up the tool that has killed many of his kind showcasing Godzilla finally choosing companionship over hate and dominance (12/17)

Kong use this to defeat Mechagodzilla. Godzilla then confronts Kong one more time. Kong gets up like he’s ready for a fight but instead throws down the axe putting aside his pride to end the war between the two. Godzilla then doesn’t have Kong submit again and leaves (13/17)

Godzilla returns to the ocean letting go of his hate and accepting Kong as a companion while Kong puts aside his pride and is able to return to the Hollow Earth alive and happy (14/17)

Now maybe Im overthinking what wasn’t intentional and some stuff in the novelization may contradict this but Im judging the film and I think regardless of intent, the pieces are there and Godzilla & Kong go on their own growth in the film which deserves more credit (15/17)

Yes, GODZILLA VS. KONG is a big silly movie but it makes the kaiju more of characters than they’ve perviously been in the Monsterverse and I think thats great. Kaiju have been used as metaphors for destruction and forces of nature but they can also be more dimensional (16/17)

GODZILLA VS. KONG is a homage to Showa Era VS films. Yes were here for the badass monster fights but the kaiju are also these god like characters that we can maybe take something from. This film deserves a little more props for that in my opinion (17/17)

Wow. Thank you all for your kind words. Humbled that I may have helped some of you one way or another with my thoughts. Oh and goes without saying #ContinueTheMonsterverse

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