The highly-anticipated action movie Godzilla vs. Kong, a combined spinoff of the quintessential blockbusters Godzilla and King Kong, hit HBO Max on March 31. The movie is just under two hours long and centers around Kong’s voyage home to Hong Kong through the Hollow Earth and brutal confrontation with Godzilla along the way, the movie is worth watching, as it redefines and revamps the idea of computer-generated imagery (CGI). The straightforward storyline, along with the action, music and impeccable CGI works hand-in-hand to make the movie truly colossal.

The movie starts off with King Kong waking up and walking around in a contained environment, replicated to look like a jungle, on Skull Island, just south of Hawaii, where hundreds of people are watching his every move. Kong breaks one of the screens and realizes that the jungle is fake, which leads to two specialists talking about what their next steps should be to make sure Godzilla cannot find King Kong, both known as alpha beasts and titans. Next, the movie follows Godzilla’s storyline, where he is in Florida next to the Apex Industries headquarters, a technology organization. There aren’t that many things going on, so it is easy to follow which is a positive aspect of the movie since it follows two groups of people around the entire time: one being the people from Skull Island who are trying to bring Kong to Hong Kong, and the other being a group composed of a conspiracy theorist who works at Apex and two teenagers who believe him. That group is trying to find out what’s happening with Godzilla. The entire time, the movie cuts between them for a few minutes at a time.

One feature of the movie that made it so appealing was the use of the colors blue and red to symbolize the connection between the two seemingly unrelated Titans. 

However, the music and action could benefit from some of that subtlety. Whenever Kong and Godzilla battled, the music was intense, matching the tone of the fight. But whenever Kong would roam around in his environment, angelic music would play, as if he was carefree. The editors did a great job of using music to fit the mood and scene. Not only was the use of music great, but also the CGI work.

The CGI work in the movie is absolutely unmatched and made the movie more fun and enjoyable to watch. Because the main characters are not human, the movie relied primarily on CGI but did a wonderful job of making the characters look authentic. Kong actually looked like a real monkey; the details were so perfect, you could even see the saliva falling down Kong’s mouth when he yelled. Throughout the movie, the CGI graphics made it more interesting and engaging to watch, especially in shots that included landscapes and ocean views, as the beautiful fake scenery made this movie visually stunning.

The only critique of the movie is the screenwriting, which was subpar, but it didn’t stop people from wanting to keep watching. It seemed like there wasn’t much emotion in the acting and it was easy to predict what the characters were going to say or do next. The script didn’t allow the actors in the movie, such as Alexander Skarsgård, Brian Tyree Henry and Julian Dennison, to fully act to their potential.

Godzilla vs. Kong, just under two hours long, is the kind of movie where you can be distracted on your phone while watching and still keep up with what is happening. The most exciting parts of the movie are the battles between the two titans because of the superb CGI and choice of music in the background. If you haven’t already, watch it because it’s a thrilling movie that has an exciting ending.