(Photosensitivity Warning in this movie)

HBO Max continued its run of simultaneous streaming service and theater released CGI-filled spectacles for the month of March with the release of the Kaiju showdown of the decade – Godzilla Vs. Kong. With this being one of the first major blockbuster releases of the year, would two giant animals fighting for dominance be worth turning on your televisions or even putting on a mask and purchasing a ticket for (while being as safe as possible, of course)? I am here to answer those questions for you. 

Usually, the second paragraph in my review is where I take the time to break down the plot of a film and give my readers a better understanding of the movie, especially for the people that read my reviews before watching the movie – but this is about a giant lizard and a giant gorilla fighting each other. Yes, there are a lot of other plot devices that they have to include to make sure that people will go see it, and familiar faces that people can pull up on their IMDB that makes them happy – but this movie is about a giant lizard and a giant gorilla fighting each other. 

The first scene of the movie is a Shrek-like introduction of King Kong on Skull Island who is washing up and going about his day before he is taken away from his habitat, which we have seen a million times already, to be put on a boat – and that’s where the real action begins. You see it in the trailers and you’ve seen it all over your social media timelines, but I promise you that when Godzilla rises from the depths of the sea to get rocked by the Kong haymaker, the small clips do it no justice. The camera angles and movements used in these fighting sequences between these titans are well worth all of the hype surrounding this movie, in my opinion. From placing cameras inside of the cockpits of fighter jets that fly by the monsters as they exchange blows, to putting the camera on the ground just to get an idea of how massive they are – I am truly disappointed that I didn’t get to experience this movie in IMAX. 

While the fight scenes were fantastic and would be worth spending the money and going out to your local theater to enjoy, the truth of the matter is that the monsters aren’t fighting for the full run time of 113 minutes. What brings this movie down is these really stupid and useless human elements in this movie, that need to be let go of completely in the future installments. We have characters from previous movies that no one really cares about. We get an introduction to new characters that don’t do anything except make award-winning actors say really stupid dialogue. The only takeaway from the humans that I got from this movie is that Brian Tyree Henry is the man and no matter how ridiculous the role, he always understands the assignment – as the kids have been saying on Twitter. I just can’t wait for a time when producers and executives will greenlight the decision to just let these Titans fight each other for an hour and a half with the absolute minimal amount of human interaction. 

To me, the only clear winner of this movie is us. The people who can turn their brains off and watch two gigantic animals throw hands and atomic breath at each other and just have a good time. If you are vaccinated and are feeling safe enough to go have a good time for two hours, I highly recommend checking this movie out on the biggest screen possible. It seems like a lot of people are already doing that since it just recently broke the “pandemic era” box office record with nearly $50M in its first five days in theaters. If you are not vaccinated and don’t feel like putting a mask on to watch two giant animals fight for alpha status, then fire up that HBO Max streaming service and enjoy a nice at-home experience. Either way, I think that being able to enjoy a big, dumb, loud movie like this one is good for the soul and will do everyone justice during this time.

Elijah Horton is a Long Island born, Orlando-based writer and photographer. Since he was a kid, Elijah has had a deep passion for movies, music, and photography.

That passion led him to Full Sail where he graduated with a film degree and a desire to make a film of his own one day. For now he’s just pretty good at writing about them.