YMMV / Godzilla vs. Kong

• Alternative Character Interpretation: See here.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Many were skeptical if the movie would be a financial success, given the still-ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, the mediocre critical reception of its predecessor, the less-than-spectacular box office grosses of Tenet and its simultaneous release on HBO Max. The movie has not only become the highest-grossing film since the pandemic started, but a major boon to HBO Max subscriptions as well. Deadline has argued that the film will, in fact, be a financial success, unlike Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984.
• Base-Breaking Character: Madison and Mark Russell. See here for details.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The Foetodon that randomly pops out of nowhere for all of five seconds to snack on some Arachno-Claws disturbed by Kong's passage. It gets focused for a few seconds on, but never factors into the plot nor interacts with any of the main characters.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After seeing how much of an utterly un-empathetic Smug Snake and a bossy, bullying prick to others Walter Simmons really is under his gentle-seeming public facade, seeing him killed by Mechagodzilla without it even letting him finish his Evil Gloating, and watching all the smugness just instantly drain right out of his face as he has just long enough to have an Oh, Crap! realization of what's about to happen; is very satisfying.
  • His daughter Maia too. Though she has moments of slight Plucky Comic Relief and her initial Rich Bitch behavior seems to decrease over the course of Team Kong's mission, once she betrays the others to serve her father's goals and then she stupidly orders her pilot to try shooting at Kong to get him out of their way, all bets are off. It's only made even more satisfying by the fact Kong (who she was no fan of for most of the film and derided as "the monkey") looks her dead in the eye before he kills her, and moreso by how she lives just long enough to realize her impending doom and frantically cry out in denial before she goes up in flames.
  • Kong, after getting soundly trounced by Godzilla, gets a very satisfying victory of his own when he finally takes on Mechagodzilla one on one, with Godzilla's Energy Donation turning his axe into basically a lightsaber, allowing him to utterly demolish Mecha G and finish him off with a Predator-style decapitation.
• Complete Monster: See here for Ghidorah/Mechagodzilla and Walter Simmons.
• Crack Pairing: From the moment the first trailer dropped, Godzilla x Kong fanart and memes began popping up on Twitter and other media-sharing sites.
• Creepy Cute: The Hellhawks, for a bunch of deadly carnivores, end up being this with their large, baby-like heads on their bald, bat-like bodies and their big eyes. Then you see their faces' sallow, saggy features up close and the effect might decrease a bit.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Continued from the previous film, San/Kevin gets this, with people justifying Mechagodzilla's Robotic Psychopath behavior by saying something happened to Kevin to make him that way or that Mechagodzilla does not possess just Kevin's personality without the other two's influence. However, Kevin was still fully onboard with committing omnicide, and the extent of his "less evil" nature demonstrated was him being bossed around by Ichi and curiously nudging soldiers who he promptly helps his brothers atomize. In fact, it can be considered an Alternative Character Interpretation that Kevin is really the most evil of the three, only held back by Ichi's dominance and is now running rampant with nobody to boss him around.
  • Although it's not half as widespread as San/Kevin or Admiral William Stenz' treatment, you will get viewers of this film who take Walter Simmons and Apex Cybernetics' side; automatically buying into their paper-thin "we're doing this for humanity" excuse, while conveniently and overtly ignoring the facts that Simmons and Apex hypocritically and knowingly put millions of innocent people in direct danger, and that they do so all to achieve an end-goal that was unnecessary (with Kong and Godzilla already protecting humanity) because they were driven by pure, toxic pride and ego.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Ugly Cute lizard seen for five seconds in the Hollow Earth, being nick-named Doug or Dug to his friends, has become a one scene wonder. Adam Wingard himself got in on this, joking he'd have to push to bring Doug back in a future MonsterVerse movie.
  • Doug has now been confirmed for the sequel, under that name.
• Evil Is Cool: Mechagodzilla is, outside of his appearance in Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, a villain for the first time since his debut. Unlike previous depictions this incarnation of Mechagodzilla actually defeats Godzilla hand to hand, and requires an Enemy Mine between him and Kong to defeat.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: It's briefly speculated by Bernie in the film that there are two Ghidorah skulls in existence although only one is seen, with the second skull being inside Mechagodzilla; and the official novelization more explicitly confirms this. The vast majority of active viewers quickly rejected this, because it doesn't fit in well with how in the previous film, there was only one severed Ghidorah head (Kevin's head) leftover after Ghidorah's death by thorough vaporization reduced all three of his attached heads to molten sludge and confetti. Wikizilla, Godzilla Wikia and this wiki themselves have quickly called out how the explanation only creates more questions than it answers. Instead, viewers have found it more plausible to think that the unseen second piece of Ghidorah's DNA inside Mechagodzilla which Bernie speculated about, rather than being a second Ghidorah skull which comes out of nowhere as Bernie believes it to be, is actually one of the many missing chunks of Kevin's skull (his jawbone, horns and spine) that have all been visibly broken off or cut away since the previous film.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The lizard-like monster briefly seen in the Hollow Earth is nicknamed Doug.
  • Unsurprisingly, the reveal that the remains of San/Kevin were used to create Mechagodzilla led to many fans dubbing it MechaKevin.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: A lot of viewers have expressed laments that so much footage and story material (at least an hour's worth) was cut from the finished film in order to make the story more succinct; giving the titular pair of monsters more focus at the cost of leaving many of the human characters and their storylines feeling under-developed and insufficiently fleshed out. Especially as details about the cut footage have emerged, revealing that Ren Serizawa, Zhang Ziyi's character(s), Maia Simmons, Director Guillerman and Mark Russell — any one of whom various audiences felt was HIGHLY under-exposed and had MUCH more potential than they were milked for in the theatrical cut — each had more prominent and important roles in some of the cut footage.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans object to the director's statement that Godzilla could've beaten Mechagodzilla on his own if he wasn't weakened from his fight with Kong, since it simultaneously makes Godzilla seem even more overpowered than he already is while diminishing Mechagodzilla's threat and Kong's own power.
• Fountain of Memes: Quite possibly the most memetic kaiju film yet, requiring its own page even before release.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Mortal Kombat (2021). Having the same distributor and releasing within a few weeks of each other on HBO Max meant both fandoms readily watched the other film. Being two American productions influenced by Japanese media and having enough space between releases to not directly compete too much at the box office helped.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The ending of King of the Monsters has two scientists musing about how Godzilla is on their side... for now. Judging by how he rams through the very ships he once swam peacefully alongside, he certainly isn't on their side anymore... Or at least, he still isn't, but it's still an ominous thought how Godzilla's relationship with man is very tenuous.
  • Dr. Serizawa of the first 2014 film famously quotes about the arrogance of man "thinking that nature is in his control". Fast forward to Godzilla vs. Kong and Serizawa's own son, Ren, is doing exactly that: seeking to control nature by creating a robotic Titan, programmed to subjugate all the Titans with the aim of letting mankind through the human villains rule supreme over the Earth.
  • In the previous movie, Serizawa during his Pre-Sacrifice Final Goodbye handed his notebook over to Mark Russell alone and told the latter to "take care of them [Monarch]", clearly indicating that the signature Godzilla-expert considered Mark worthy to be his successor and take up his mantle despite Mark's faults. Come this movie, Mark is now in a managerial role at Monarch similar to Serizawa's top position, but he's completely useless throughout the plot, and worse yet he distrusts Godzilla's benevolence while assuming based on pure impulse that Godzilla has turned evil — it's worse yet again in the novelization version, where Mark seriously wonders (if only temporarily) if a rogue Mechagodzilla that just wiped out a swathe of Hong Kong purely for the lols killing Godzilla is somehow a preferable outcome to Godzilla saving the day.
  • Barnes' comment in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) that he doesn't blame Madison for running away when she has parents like Emma and Mark was Played for Laughs. In this film and especially in its novelization, Mark has proven that he in his own way isn't a much more competent parent than Emma after the latter's death has left him with custody of Madison, and he drives Madison to effectively run off on him for roughly 24 hours.
  • Kong shoving his axe hilt into Godzilla's mouth may come off as a hilarious callback to the 1962 film. Less hilarious, however, when you remember the axe is made of the bones of Godzilla's ancestors: this would have been a gravely disrespectful insult against Godzilla and it's understandable he's so pissed.
  • The jokes between the disparity of Godzilla and Kong's abilities take a dark turn when Godzilla, once he actually plays serious, completely demolishes Kong, nearly killing him in an absolutely savage display due to Godzilla being on a whole different level of power scale, leaving Godzilla as the clear uncontested winner between the two. Kong ONLY makes it out due to the Mechagodzilla proving to be the bigger threat and the willingness to walk away from the fight and make amends rather than keep going at it.
  • Jokes about Alan Jonah getting Ghidorah's left head, the most dimwitted of the three, takes a darker turn when you see first-hand just how brutal, vicious and downright sadistic Mechagodzilla is in battle, trying to use the Kiss of Death against Godzilla. Having been turned into a war machine hasn't done Kevin's once-goofy personality any favors...
  • Ren Serizawa's apparent death becomes this somewhat. Between his father Ishirō suffering the death of an "irreplaceable" beloved colleague and making a Heroic Sacrifice himself hours later in the previous film, and now his own son dying a young man a few years later (albeit by his own actions); it's like the universe is just reluctant to cut Ishirō a break.
  • The more analytical side of the viewers are concerned about the film using its more fantastical setting to validate conspiracy theorists by having the Hollow Earth be very real along with the investigations by Bernie Hayes. This is a time where they are spreading misinformation regarding masks and vaccines in the real world. This is something that even Honest Trailers lampshaded. Though it should be noted Bernie's other theories are largely presented as just as silly as they would be otherwise, he just happens to be right about the one plot-relevant conspiracy ("even a broken clock is right twice a day"). Whether or not this mitigates the problem is another question.
  • In the movie, the human protagonists believed Godzilla has gone through a Face–Heel Turn, the kaiju himself having attacked one of Apex Cybernetics's factory. However, in Godzilla: Singular Point, which had been released few months after this film, Godzilla is the main villain here.
• He's Just Hiding: A theory has recently been gaining traction that Ren Serizawa (or at least his body) isn't really dead at the end of the film. The very last we see of Ren in the film is him getting electrocuted in Ghidorah's skull and then slumping forward, whilst the novelization strongly hints that Ghidorah's subconsciousness might have possessed Ren's body during his novelization Dies Differently in Adaptation and made it ambulate out of the facility. It's really gotten fans hoping that Ren will return after his electrocution, wearing an eyepatch and/or possessed by Ghidorah's consciousness.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Apex is defeated with an ape axe.
  • The Dragonzord from Power Rangers was originally inspired by Mechagodzilla. This film's Mechagodzilla functions in a similar manner to most Sentai/Power Ranger Zord, including a tail that can be used like a buzzsaw/drill. For extra points, this version of Mechagodzilla has the brain of an alien dragon.
  • Given that Mechagodzilla is given life and sentience by the neurology of Ghidorah's skull, specifically the skull of his left head, Kong's coup de grace on Mecha G is, in a sense, the third time Kevin suffers a brutal decapitation. It seems Mike Dougherty was telling the truth when he said decapitation happens to Kevin all the time.
  • Adam Wingard made some critical comments about Mechagodzilla being based on the designs from the Michael Bay Transformer designs. His criticism counts as this given that Mechagodzilla's role in the film is the same as AOE Galvatron's (a human-made mechanical robot clone that takes on the mind of the previous film's deceased alien villain and consequently eventually rebels against its human creators).
  • There was a rumor (since debunked) that there were two endings for the original King Kong vs. Godzilla: a Japanese version where Godzilla won, and the American version where Kong won. There were Japanese and American cuts of the film with substantial differences, but the ending is the same in both. Now with the new movie the inverse is true; Kong won in the original Japanese film, and Godzilla won in the American version.
  • Maia Simmons derisively calling Kong "the monkey" as Dehumanization and then meeting a comical Undignified Death at Kong's hand when she betrays the heroes ends up being this. "Monke" is a Fan Nickname for Kong which fans who were supporting Godzilla as the title champion in the lead-up to its postponed release used as a derogatory nickname for Kong. Though it was very likely unintentional on the filmmakers' part, in light of this, Maia's death ends up looking like the filmmakers telling the fans off for taking their expectations of who would win to Jerkass to Kong levels.
  • Godzilla and Kong joining forces to battle a manmade monster made by a rich villain from the remains of a sociopathic monster from space from its past life that holds a grudge against the Earth's greatest protector, who has a Hero with Bad Publicity despite doing good for the world, and they immediately drop their grudges with each other to defeat this one threat, and the other hero uses a makeshift weapon specifically designed to defeat its strongest champion, and it is instrumental in defeating the artificial monster. Are we talking about Godzilla vs. Kong, or Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? ^ConsolationAt least Simmons gets his comeuppance. Lex however just gets sent to Arkham Asylum.
  • A lot of "Save Mothra" memes were heavily used in this film in the reminiscence of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice despite Mothra not showing up. Cue the next film where Mothra does show up and stops Godzilla from fighting Kong.
  • Not only does Kong meet Godzilla, he also meets Tarzan.
  • Nathan claiming that manned travel to Hollow Earth is impossible after he attempted it with a protective craft was already quite erroneous in this movie, due to Monarch accomplishing just that in the previous movie (on accident, no less) and them then going public about their Hollow Earth findings in the Creative Closing Credits. But Nathan's fact-error gets even more hilarious after the release of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, where humans in the 2015 timeline successfully cross into a Hollow Earth region and back via surface-based rifts without any kind of protective shell at all, and they survive.
• I Knew It!: There was much pre-release speculation on the film's major plot points, many of which were proven correct.
  • Few believed Godzilla's Face–Heel Turn was genuine, with a common theory being that Mechagodzilla was involved, either framing Godzilla for the attacks or Godzilla's hunt for Mechagodzilla being misinterpreted as unprovoked aggression. The latter turns out to be precisely the case.
  • Many believed the remains of King Ghidorah were a factor in the creation of MechaGodzilla. Ghidorah's skull, brain, and telepathic communication essentially form MechaGodzilla's operating system.
  • Once Mechagodzilla was revealed, many began to wonder if Kong wasn't actually fighting it in a Godzilla disguise, as Anguirus did in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Some speculated that real Godzilla and Kong would have the bulk of the movie's fights, otherwise the title would be terribly misleading. Kong is indeed fighting the real Godzilla every time; Mechagodzilla is never in any kind of disguise.
  • Finally, few took the "One Will Fall" Tagline very seriously, doubting the film would end with the death of either Godzilla or Kong. Both Titans survive the film and agree to stay out of each other's way, although Godzilla did definitively defeat Kong. And with Exact Words considered, one DID fall: Ghidorah did, in Mechagodzilla's body.
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • A frequent complaint leveled at Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) is that the monster fights are shrouded in darkness and weather effects.^note Godzilla (2014) is a bit of a Mis-blamed case due to the fact that every known home video release suffered from a VERY poor transfer that outright darkened the picture horribly, even the day scenes were dark because of it. Many claimed the initial theater release looked much better and visually appealing than the Blu-ray release. Said monster fights are also repeatedly interrupted by the camera cutting to the humans to focus on them instead. Godzilla vs. Kong shows fights in broad daylight and one brightly neon-lit night which brings shades of Pacific Rim to mind. Additionally, most of the monster fights (with a couple stark exceptions such as Godzilla's Pensacola rampage, and Mechagodzilla curb-stomping Godzilla before Kong is resuscitated) have fewer interruptions where the focus only cuts to the humans when something important is happening, whereas the previous movies were frequently criticized for cutting between the kaiju fights and the humans chronically and unnecessarily.
  • One of the most touchy subjects in the Godzilla fanbase in regards to the first movie that had the two face off was the ending. In the original, King Kong won, but had to be given lightning powers to fight him, which was Godzilla's weakness all of a sudden. This movie brings Kong to a more reasonable scale as he's normally portrayed, albeit it with a size buff and shows in no uncertain terms that once Godzilla starts taking the fight seriously, Kong would be completely decimated.
  • From the very beginning fans were dreading that Godzilla and Kong's fight would end without a clear victor so they can join forces to fight a third opponent, which was further solidified once MechaGodzilla was leaked. While they do team up against MechaGodzilla in the end, it occurs after their final showdown ends with Godzilla as the definitive winner.
• Informed Wrongness:
  • When Madison gives Mark a What the Hell, Hero?, her specific statement that they saw Godzilla saving humanity with their own eyes in the previous film rings hollow — there have indeed been several nigh-irrefutable indications that Godzilla is benevolent toward humans that Madison could use, but the example she does use objectively really isn't the best one when you consider what kind of a threat Godzilla was fighting that time. In the previous film, Godzilla was defending his kingdom (the entire globe) from King Ghidorah, who would have not only eradicated humanity but would've brought the single worst extinction event in the planet's history if Godzilla didn't stop him. To put it in context, Madison's argument that Godzilla fighting Ghidorah was Godzilla saving humans specifically: is like if a fireman saves a petting zoo from a fire and then the wallabies in one enclosure all say that the fireman was saving them specifically and that he must love wallabies.
  • Dr. Andrews protesting to Maia and her goons harvesting the Hollow Earth's energy source comes off as this. She insists it's wrong that they just harvest this ancient power that they don't understand which is also the geological discovery of the millennium, but harvesting it was the main purpose of their mission into the Hollow Earth (so that Apex could use the power source to stop Godzilla's rampage, since it's unknown to Team Kong at this point that Apex are knowingly causing Godzilla's rampage in the first place), and Andrews knew Apex would do that and agreed to it from the get-go without any complaint about it until this very moment.
• Just Here for Godzilla: AND Kong. AND Mechagodzilla, who in this film is ALSO Ghidorah.
• Magnificent Bastard: See here for Godzilla and King Kong.
• Memetic Badass:
  • The aircraft carrier, for being able to hold both Godzilla and King Kong at the same time.
  • Kong was seen as the Memetic Badass of this film due to the first trailer focusing heavily on him dominating Godzilla in their fights, with many fans dismissing Godzilla's numerous in-universe advantages with the argument that Kong is "monke". This was promptly turned around when the Japanese trailer showed Godzilla flooring Kong with a casual slap, resulting in the former becoming a Memetic Badass.
  • As Mechagodzilla eventually goes rogue due to the integration of Ghidorah's brain and skull, fans have considered "Kevin" the left head as a Memetic Badass given that in the previous film he was the dumbest of the three heads but here effortlessly dominates the combined might of Kong and Godzilla.
• Memetic Mutation: So memetic that it has earned its own page even before its release.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • It turns out Walter Simmons, and probably also Ren Serizawa, crossed it practically at the film's start. Their experimentation to create Mechagodzilla directly instigated Godzilla's rampage, causing a lot of harm and destruction to innocent civilians in his path^note The novelization confirms this was at first a complete accident on Apex's part, yet not only do they continue their experiments and put many more people at mortal risk regardless, but Simmons actually exploits this to turn the world against Godzilla in a case of Engineered Heroics. Simmons doesn't express any remorse when Madison calls him out on his actions. And he's pretty much doing all of this just because of the boost it gave his ego to think he'd be the maker of something bigger than the Titans.
  • Mechagodzilla (assuming you think it's not exactly Ghidorah reborn) crosses this by leveling part of Hong Kong For the Evulz, less than two minutes after he's become autonomous.
• Narm: Kong leaping off the aircraft carrier with a totally panicked expression on his face is both this and Narm Charm.
  • The aircraft carrier sequence is this in parts. The fact that the two titans can both stand on the carrier without capsizing it is hard to believe. It's also funny that Godzilla would climb aboard after showing how easily he could flip it over again. And at one point Kong manages to leap off the even smaller destroyer to get to another carrier.
  • The idea that the Hollow Earth is still considered a theory is ludicrous, given it was already partially proven in the previous film. Thus Nathan Lind doesn't know anything that we the audience don't know ourselves and we have to wait for the so-called reveal that was inevitable.
  • Jia telling Kong that Godzilla is "not enemy" is hard to take seriously, regardless of the actress' efforts. Godzilla has spent the last hour of the movie trying to kill Kong, and just left him for dead mere moments ago, (he was only saved by the humans).
  • By the time Mechagodzilla shows up, the city has suffered considerable damage. It's at this point where you feel the producers were just hammering the nail into the ground about destructive monster fights could get. There's no concern for collateral damage and it feels even sillier than usual.
• Narm Charm:
  • Kong wielding an axe made from a broken dorsal fins is downright ridiculous— and downright awesome to boot.
  • Godzilla on all fours sounds like a ridiculous concept given his huge legs and tiny arms. But somehow it manages to make him look downright savage when Kong hits his Berserk Button, going absolutely feral to teach the ape a lesson he'll never forget.
  • Godzilla blasting a hole all the way down to the Hollow Earth is an utterly ridiculous feat, especially after so much time was dedicated to the human characters getting there. For a being often claimed to be a god? Not so unbelievable.
  • While the alcohol incident is still stupid, there is some merit in how it ties in to the legend of Orochi in Japanese mythology: and given how Orochi was the inspiration of King Ghidorah, and it's Ghidorah in control of Mechagodzilla, it's actually a bit more clever than it seems.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The trailers shows Kong and Godzilla battling each other in the middle of Hong Kong. There's actually a much earlier King Kong-knockoff film, The Mighty Peking Man, which similarly ends with a Kong-like giant ape rampaging in the middle of Hong Kong. Likewise, the beginning of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah shows Godzilla going on a rampage in Hong Kong.
  • This isn't the first time another attempt to have Kong and Godzilla have a rematch was proposed. A direct sequel was planned to the original and Toho tried multiple times with Kong's various copyright holders in the Heisei Era to do it, but copyright law prevented all attempts until now.
  • This isn’t the first time Godzilla has smiled in combat, as he smirks sadistically several times in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! to highlight his more sadistic personality in that film.
  • This was not the first film to have Godzilla move around on all fours. Concept art and the script for the unproduced Jan De Bont Godzilla also gave him this ability. Some deleted scenes for Shin Godzilla also show Godzilla’s fourth form moving around on all fours.
  • This isn’t the first time Mechagodzilla is controlled by a Ghidorah. The Shogakukan manga adaptation of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II features Mecha-King Ghidorah’s latent programming awakening at the climax of the final battle and overtaking Mechagodzilla’s programming, resulting in the machine savagely attacking and nearly killing the King of The Monsters until Rodan’s sacrifice powers him up as usual.
  • This isn't the first time the Godzilla series journeyed deep through the earth via an opening Antarctic. In the Godzilla novels released in the 2000s the climax takes place in a Hollow Earth area accessed via the South Pole.
• Salvaged Story: The novelization's expansion, which includes new scenes that apparently weren't even in the movie scripts, provides a couple rectifications on parts of the film which viewers felt were insufficiently explored.
  • In the film version, it seems like there's an Idiot Plot in effect because of how absolutely no-one except for Madison and her two teammates questions Apex Cybernetics being a Devil in Plain Sight, nor seems interested in working out why Godzilla is acting aggressively before they start working with the aforementioned Devil in Plain Sight to shoot Godzilla first and ask questions later — particularly, Mark "previous film's most competent Godzilla expert" Russell goes the extra mile by assuming without any rational evidence that Godzilla has gone bad just like Emma did, purely because Mark can't separate his own personal insecurities from doing his job decently. The novelization somewhat attempts to amend this by explaining that all of the Monarch-aligned cast except Nathan Lind are at least somewhat suspicious of Apex and/or that they think (however half-heartedly) that Monarch should be working out why Godzilla is rampaging first. It's also stated that Mark does believe Maddie, but is actively trying to avoid getting her involved out of being overprotective.
  • Bernie Hayes' story about his flask of whisky being a gift from his deceased wife sounds like the set up to some kind of arc for his character, but in the film, it feels almost like a complete afterthought as it's more the flask itself being a Chekhov's Gun that's relevant later in the film. The novelization fully explains how Bernie's wife died and that it was indeed a Death by Origin Story for him.
  • How Ghidorah's severed head's skull made its way out of the hands of Alan Jonah's eco-terrorist group and into the ideologically-opposite Apex Cybernetics' possession could have made for an interesting story in the form of the smallest explanation or mention, but the film never explains how it happened. The novelization somewhat amends this with a prologue scene showing a man who's all but stated to be Jonah selling Ghidorah's remains to Walter Simmons.
  • Ren is considered a huge letdown in the movie by many, due to having little to do despite being Serizawa's son. The novelization goes much deeper into his overall motives, making him The Starscream to Walter and likely the overall Big Bad until Mechagodzilla takes over. He also ends up becoming (though minor) part of Mechagodzilla.
• Shocking Moments:
  • There was a film where the two duked it out before, but this is the first time that the King of Monsters faces off against the Eighth Wonder of the World in an American movie.
  • Kong speaks using sign language. While it's dialogue using subtitles, it's still shocking to a kaiju using words at all.
  • Kong shoving his axe hilt right into Godzilla's mouth. Even many fans who remember the scene from the orginal never expected it would carry on to the remake.
• Signature Scene:
  • Kong and Godzilla duking it out atop an aircraft carrier instantly became the most memorable scene once the first trailer came out.
  • The descent into Hollow Earth, with dizzying gravitational effects as dazzling as any of the kaiju fights.
  • Godzilla stepping on Kong's chest and the two roaring in each other's faces.
  • Kong showing he can understand human sign language. Possibly the only time in kaiju history where the main monster goes out its way to show this level of intelligence to human characters.
  • Godzilla and Kong tag teaming Mechagodzilla can count.
  • Kong recreating the (in)famous "EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!" scene from King Kong vs. Godzilla using the hilt of his axe is certainly one for all the meme lovers.
  • Godzilla delivering a brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and Curb-Stomp Battle to Kong after their first bout in Hong Kong.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • While Apex Cybernetics callously disregard the deaths that have come from their actions, and building Mechagodzilla with parts from Ghidorah as the computer was a terrible idea, their goal of giving humanity a way to actually stand a fighting chance against Titans doesn't seem entirely unreasonable if you subtract the plot to kill Godzilla. Even assuming Godzilla, Kong, and the other Titans are not hostile to humanity and will continue to act in a protective role, they have come dangerously close to defeat by hostile Titans before.
  • A minor point in the scene where Walter Simmons insists on infusing the synthesized Unobtainium into Mechagodzilla immediately over Ren Serizawa's protests. The film portrays Simmons as being as full of himself, blind to his own limits and Too Dumb to Live in this scene as he is throughout the rest of the film, but a few viewers argued that Simmons was objectively at a Morton's Fork because Godzilla is already right outside the Apex HQ, looking for Mechagodzilla with unambiguous intent. The novelization version of this scene clears this up by spelling out that Apex had much better options to buy themselves more time perfecting Mechagodzilla by just keeping the Mecha inactive until Godzilla got tired of scouring Hong Kong and left, but Simmons being Simmons was unlikely to listen to any of this if Ren had suggested it.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: From a critic standpoint; this film received 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, which was a better score than any other film in the MonsterVerse. In particular, its predecessor, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), had the lowest percentage, at 42%.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • One can see it as a remake of King Kong vs. Godzilla, but unlike the previous film, Godzilla is actually coming after Kong instead of a monster fight being directly instigated by humans.
  • Another as a Kaiju version of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with the lead monsters fighting each other due to a misunderstanding, and eventually have to team up against an even greater foe (Doomsday for Batman v Superman and Mechagodzilla for both title monsters). Fans noted however the conflict between the monsters actually makes more sense here, since Godzilla and Kong only see each as obstacles in each other's way, and Godzilla was really after Mechagodzilla.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Ren Serizawa (son of Ishirō, from the last movies) shows up here and... he gets next to nothing to do. Why he wishes to kill someone his father sacrificed his life to save goes completely unexplained in the finalized film, and he gets very little screentime or dialogue before being unceremoniously killed off. He could have been replaced by a generic henchman, and there would have been no difference. It's served as fuel for the He's Just Hiding. Apparently, the original, longer cut of the film would have fleshed Ren out more.
  • At least Ren is implied to be the brains behind the Mechagodzilla project. Mark Russell is reduced to be basically a glorified cameo in contrast to his daughter Madison. His first scene is introduced with him having a crisis of faith after he sees Godzilla seemingly turning rogue and clashes with his daughter over their different interpretations of the attack. Then...nothing else comes from it at all. He appeared in only a few scenes later in the movie and that's just it.
  • Pretty much everything said about Ren Serizawa could be applied to Maia Simmons as well. A big deal is made of her relationship with her father and she even gets a Pet the Dog moment, but it all ends up meaningless and, like Ren, she could have been replaced by anybody and nothing would have been different.
  • Zhang Ziyi was originally cast to reprise her role as Monarch's senior mythologist Ilene Chen, but did not appear in the movie — to the disappointment of those who noted her expertise would have come in handy regarding the mythological Titan War mentioned in the trailers.
  • Mechagodzilla being a Composite Character of previous incarnations and of Mecha-King Ghidorah in origin didn't stop several fans complaining that this approach means there will probably never be a MonsterVerse incarnation of Mecha-King Ghidorah based on the original design.
  • Where the heck was Alan Jonah all this time? Did he even see Godzilla's destructive rampage on the news? Also, because he's the one who gave Walter Simmons two of Ghidorah's severed heads, was he even aware that they were being used for Mechagodzilla's construction? Did he even witness Godzilla and Kong's showdown in Hong Kong on the news? Did he even learn about the two titans fighting Mechagodzilla?
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • There's a set-up with Dr. Andrews' statement that Godzilla and Kong's ancestors once warred with each-other (which the trailers place emphasis on), but there's no payoff in the film proper. The discovery of the Hollow Earth temple seems to imply that Kong's species were once far more advanced than they would seem, but the temple is quickly destroyed by Godzilla's breath and nothing more is elaborated on it nor on the two Alpha Titan species' past with each-other.
  • This film also failed to utilize or outright cut off several of the plot-threads which previous films set up that could have made ripe pickings for the MonsterVerse. The Dawn of an Era that Godzilla: King of the Monsters set up, with numerous Titans awakening and being under Godzilla's control in the end, was subverted by this film stating that all the awakened Titans promptly went back into the hibernation they'd sprung from under Godzilla's command, and thus Godzilla: King of the Monsters had next to no real lasting ramifications. Seeing how the world coped with and reacted to being forced to cohabit the planet with dozens of active Titans, and the social, political, and territorial ramifications, could have been a goldmine of story material and world-building in its own right.
  • A minor one involving Bernie Hayes' flask. It's a gift from his dead wife and emphasis is placed on it in his introductory scene, showing that he cares about it and the whiskey inside very deeply. It gives the impression of setting up an arc about him getting past his wife's death, which at least would've given Brian Tyree Henry a lot to work with as an actor. Instead, this set up is thoroughly subverted when the whiskey is used to short out a computer (albeit an important one) and his only reaction is getting mad at having to "die sober."
• Too Cool to Live: Mechagodzilla, very much. He's a colossal, silver-and-crimson cybernetic skeletal version of Godzilla, armed to the teeth with missile launchers, thrusters, a plasma punch and a drill tail, and he's basically King Ghidorah reincarnated to boot once the Ghidorah skull's consciousness remnants hijack him and grant him Ghidorah's sadistic tendencies. Compared to Ghidorah's screentime in the previous film, Mechagodzilla has only two scenes, and once he gains a mind of his own he only lives for about ten minutes before being destroyed in the Final Battle.
• Ugly Cute: One large, vaguely Godzilla-ish lizard-like creature seen in the Hollow Earth munching on some crustaceans may qualify. The Hellhawks and their goofy-looking turkey faces may also count.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • Godzilla's thick-legged, small-headed proportions, often cited as a bottom-heavy build better suited for his size, looks very weird next to Kong, who is nearly as tall as him but has a large head and small legs more like a normal-sized gorilla.
  • Mechagodzilla also looks incredibly uncanny, from his thin, gangly build to his creepily-long arms and his crazed human-like eyes, looking a fair bit semi-humanoid in proportion. Though this may be justified, given his role as the Big Bad.
• Unexpected Character:
  • While it was expected since the first trailer for Mechagodzilla to be in the film, it was unlikely to know that it was actually King Ghidorah still at the helm as the true Big Bad of the film controlling Mechagodzilla for revenge. Even if you guessed Ghidorah's remains played a role in constructing Mechagodzilla, you probably didn't see Ghidorah being reborn in a robot Godzilla's body coming.
  • During the Hollow Earth sequence, a group of arachnid creatures are preyed upon by a large lizard (christened Doug by the fandom). Audio descriptions reveal them to be the MonsterVerse's incarnations of the Arachno-Claws and Foetodon, which was largely unexpected as up to this point no monsters of previous Kong installments had been directly used (the closest was the Skullcrawler, based on the rivals of Kong's species in previous continuities; and in this film the Warbats, slightly based on the giant snakes and serpentine monsters fought by Kong in previous continuities).
• Visual Effects of Awesome: While the CGI is sumptuous as ever, this installment shows Godzilla in longer, brighter illumination. Two particularly stunning showcases of each Titan have an aircraft carrier-lain Kong bathed in ocean sunlight, and some awesomely enormous close-ups of Godzilla bathed in the neon lights of Hong Kong.
• The Woobie:
  • Kong is this, first the perpetual storm closes in around his home island, wiping out the entirety of the tribe he was supposed to protect and forcing him to be housed in a biodome, then when the humans try to relocate him, he is attacked and nearly drowned by Godzilla, and after that, he finds his ancestral home... only for Godzilla to (unintentionally) destroy it, and when he retaliates he is nearly killed again. And that’s not even mentioning the final battle with Mecha Godzilla, where he ends up pinned against a building with a drill pointed at his head and has to be saved by the combined efforts of the humans and Godzilla.
  • From the human side, there is Jia, a young girl who's the Last of Her Kind after her tribe is killed off in a severe storm that hit Skull Island. She was forced to leave her home behind due to the island being slowly rendered inhospitable, and that's before she and her caretaker are manipulated by Apex Cybernetics to assist their mission to Hollow Earth by making use of her bond with Kong, something that she goes along with because as a young child, she simply doesn't know any better. Over the course of the journey she has to endure watching her Titan companion getting hurt, beaten up, and almost got killed at several points, while she also has to go through several near-death experiences herself. It's a miracle that she still seems to be doing alright by the end of the film, considering everything she's been through.

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