Earlier this year, the first trailer for “Godzilla vs. Kong” dropped, amassing over 65 million views as of Feb. 28. Set after Kong’s rebooted debut in 2017’s “Kong: Skull Island” and the tumultuous fight between Godzilla and King Ghidorah in 2019’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” the upcoming sequel will pit the fan-favorite titans against each other as the two kings fight for power after lying dormant for millions of years. It’s also been 59 years since the release of the unrelated “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962), in which the two monsters duked it out in a cheesy yet memorable fight that can be viewed for free on YouTube.
The rebooted “Monsterverse” has been met with a slightly divisive reception, especially with critics who seem to be a lot more fickle compared to the general audience (“KOTM,” for example, has a critical review of 42% and an audience score of 83% on Rotton Tomatoes). Most objections regard the abnormal involvement of humans in the story.
At the same time, positive responses to the film include justifications for human involvement. Some argue that the story is from the perspective of the humans and that, although the characters can get annoying, the scale of the humans compared to the titanic kaiju (“strange beast/creature” in Japanese, usually meant for especially giant monsters), is emphasized to show their power. The humans, as powerful as they think they may be, only play a supporting role at best, which is especially intimidating to see when the monstrous kaiju toss around the latest technology like toys.
Now, the trailer has been under heavy scrutiny for some time as people try to find as much information as they can about slight details, such as the new “Warbat” that may be introduced in this movie. Many other kaiju have been introduced in the past movies, such as the M.U.T.Os in “Godzilla” (2014), the Skullcrawlers in “Kong: Skull Island” (2017), and a variety of other named and rebooted characters such as Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah in “Godzilla: KOTM” (2019).
The trailer has introduced new information as well, such as Kong wielding an ax fashioned from a massive bone and what appears to be one of Godzilla’s spinal scutes, a metallic beast flashing by in a split second, and the once-benevolent defender of Earth now on a provoked rampage.
On a side note, benevolence is used lightly here as Godzilla turned himself into a literal nuclear bomb twice, most likely destroying the entire city of Boston, rendering it uninhabitable, in the process of destroying King Ghidorah. Godzilla’s adherence to nuclear power is still present, and he’s now portraying the conversion of atomic weaponry into an overall benefit of nuclear power, though the volatile nature of it can’t be ignored and may backfire if experimented with too much.
Nobody can confirm how the actual movie’s plot will pan out, who will come out victorious, or, as some have suggested, if they will team up against a greater threat as foreshadowed by the eco-terrorist group, APEX, who recovers a preserved head of Ghidorah in the post-credits scene.
While “Mecha-King Ghidorah” has been featured in three Godzilla flicks from the ‘90s, an even more historic opponent of Godzilla may appear, “Mecha-Godzilla.” Mecha-Godzilla has appeared in five previous Godzilla movies. These two mechanical kaiju may be used by APEX to wreak as much havoc as possible, forcing Kong, Godzilla, and maybe other kaiju to band together and take out the terrorists’ new weapons.
But, while theories about what direction this movie will take have popped up and some may turn out to be true, it’s impossible to tell where exactly the plot of “Godzilla vs. Kong” will go. At this point, we’ll have to wait for the plot to unfold when it premieres on HBO Max on March 31.
Featured Image courtesy of chiendol via Flickr Creative Commons
