The Monserverse Circle is now complete. After four films, Godzilla and King Kong face one another in the ultimate smackdown to determine who is alpha, who is the apex predator among the titans. Godzilla vs Kong delivers everything the trailers promised in terms of action, a battle between the Giant Ape and Mutant Lizard-Dinosaur that will shake both The Earth, and The Hollow Earth. The outcome as seen in tagline “One Will Fall,” sets the stage. I have to confess the best round in this monster smackdown is on the sea, when Godzilla pulls a Jaws, swimming with his spines like shark fins in the water, and joins Kong on aircraft carrrier to battle each other. We have not had a water fight like this in past Godzilla or Kong films, and honestly such a feat would have been impossible without the CGI of today.
Round Two sees Kong and Gojira face off in Hong Kong where Godzilla not only dislocates Kong’s arm, but effectively shows his supremacy, and kills Kong.
Round Three becomes Godzilla, and revived Kong versus Mechagodzilla, where the two tag team the mechanical monster and beat him into a bolt pulp. The emergence of Mechagodzilla was no surprise to me due to the leak of his appearance in the toy-line. After Mechagodzilla is beheaded and scrapped for parts, Kong and Godzilla decide to be frenemies, and let their feud end.
There is a lot to unpack, and honestly I must say I have mixed feelings. There were many throw backs to earlier films, monsters from Skull Island that Kong and Mechagodzilla kill, and some cast members from King of Monsters who play an integral part in the story. This film was definitely a love letter to both Godzilla and Kong fans. In many ways it seems perfect, but not everything is as it seems.
That Segway’s into my criticisms and concerns. I really feel Mechagodzilla should have been saved for a sequel. He appears in Act Three of this film, and his reveal and demolition is rushed. The Monsterverse could have been expanded if Mechagodzilla appear in a direct sequel called “Destroy All Monsters” where Apex industries builds Mechagodzilla and it starts killing all the mutos and titans, leaving only Godzilla, Kong, and Rodan. You then would have Mechagodzilla as the focal point, and the fear factor would be there having seen Mechagodzilla kill other titans like the Mammoth on screen. Godzilla vs Kong would have been more focused and had a tighter story if the film was just about Godzilla and Kong’s showdown, like the original 1962 film. Adding a third party monster made this film feel too busy.
There are many spiritual allusions to explore in this film. Firstly, in Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019) it was established Godzilla is Jesus Christ in allegorical form. He dies to save mankind, you see Ghidorah gloat with a close up shot of a cross on a church, then later Godzilla rises from the dead, and saves the day becoming King of Monsters, a subtle nod to King of Kings. If we draw from that story arch into this film, Mechagodzilla is man’s weapon to destroy and replace God, to be like Lucifer/Satan and try to be the apex (alpha, Isaiah 14:11-14). We are seeing how technology is eroding our humanity, and connection to God Almighty, taking up our time as well as replacing God; they have technological glasses that let blind people see, so no need for Jesus to heal blind people anymore, sigh. Mechagodzilla is man’s weapon to destroy Godzilla, and in Shin Godzilla (2016) we learn Gojira, Godzilla’s name in Japanese means “God Incarnate,” which we Christians believe Jesus is God Incarnate, “For in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead (diety) bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:9-11). This ties the allegory together, that Godzilla is meant to be a messianic monster. Kong fits in less easily into the spiritual allegory, his story perhaps serves to show that we can reconnect with God through his creation, and thus defeat the technological weapon of Satan and man, Mechagodzilla. I want to be clear there is no connection to King of Monsters’ Christian allegories in this film, I had to carry them over to interpret this film. There is a scene with the little deaf girl were she reached out with her index finger and Kong touches it with his index finger, a homage to the famous art piece of Adam and God doing the same on Sistine Chapel Ceiling. That could again be a subtle nod that a way to draw closer to God is through His creation, not technology. Or its a Darwinian symbolism of replacing God with a giant ape, since Darwin foolishly theorized we came from primates. I will point out the Illumanti is mentioned, they are believed to be Satanic order ruling the world through shadow governments. There is the Hollow Earth with these roads that help one travel across the planet; witches who convert to Christianity mention tunnels they traveled through across the globe via the forbidden and evil practice of leaving their bodies called astroprojection. So one should take heed this film features a science fiction form of astroprojection, which always worries me that it serves to familiarize people with it and make it seem innocent and acceptable, like they’ve done in films with promiscuity.
I would like to point out another concern that the director, Adam Wingard is notorious horror director, even making The Blair Witch sequel (Blair Witch III); the Blair Witch films involve major occult and Satanic elements. The fact the Illuminati is mentioned in this film, and Bernie, a conspiracy theorist uses the Illumanti symbol for his podcast, the Eye of Osiris, is alarming due to the director being involved in occultic and horror films. For this reason I urge only discerning Christians see this installment. Its interesting King of Monsters (2019) was steeped in Christian symbolism and literal homages, but this film has Illumanti imagery and abandons for the most part the Christian allegory. In fact, this is a trend in Hollywood, one film in a franchise is pro-Christian, but then the sequel is antichrist, a perfect example of this Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). This even happens in music, and tv series. Its method of hooking Christians then subverting them later with a new dark director.
In my final thoughts, versus films tend to never live up to the hype. Most have been critical blunders like Dracula vs Frankenstein, Alien vs Predator, Alien vs Predator: Requiem, and Batman vs Superman. Godzilla vs Kong breaks the trend to an extent. It is a fun monster smackdown on the surface. More than that it feels real, as the Monsterverse films have tried hard to make these films feel as if they are happening in our times, with plausibility and realism. When you compare King Kong vs Godzilla (1962) to Godzilla vs Kong (2021) it is apples and oranges. The 1962 film had men in ape and zilla suites and is comical to watch nowadays. While 2021 film banks on realism, using CG to make every shot feel as realistic as possible. Granted back in the 60’s the men in Godzilla and Kong suites probably did seem realistic at the time. CGI didn’t reach its breakthrough level tell 1993 with Jurassic Park.
For myself the dark undertones and the occultic spirit of director Adam Wingard is too hard to shake to recommend this film. Everything looks right, the film isn’t in a Tim Burton black lens, but in discerning the spirits (1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 John 4:1-3) I sensed something was wrong, especially since the messianic analogies from King of Monsters (2019) were abandoned. I must urge most brothers and sisters in Christ to pass on this one, merely for spiritual health reasons. For our soul is more important than entertainment, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23). Amen.
[Read my review of Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019) if you’d like to know more about the Christian symbolism and allegory.]
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