Released: March 31, 2021 Running Time: 153 mins. Director: Adam Wingard Rated: PG-13

Stars: Godzilla, King Kong, Alexander Skarsgård , Millie Bobby Brown , Kaylee Hottle, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza González, Julian Dennison, Lance Reddick, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir

Imagine- if you will- a movie in which the 2 leads, bigger than life- battle it out for dominance. But first you have to get past the conspiracy theorist pod-caster; the completely incompetent evil tech company and it’s security; the influential teenager with her reluctant teenage friend that tags along. The flaws with most recent Godzilla and Kong movies are undoubtedly the human characters. I have always wanted more of the titans battling, less of the human family relational, emotional story plot.

Did I have fun? Yes. The battles between Godzilla and Kong were amazing. You could feel the impact of the battles between these two titans, the damage that not only they could cause alone, but together. When they were battling I was fully focused on them (although in the back of my mind I did think of how heavily populated Hong Kong was and how many people were killed and critically injured). The look of both Godzilla and Kong are vastly improved from their past iterations, although with an estimated budget of $200 million and it being 2021 they should be.

It would be wrong of me if I did not mention the actors (I would say supporting). Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things, Godzilla:King of monsters) reprises her role of Madison Russell, the daughter of Kyle Chandlers character (Friday Night Lights, Super 8) Dr. Mark Russell. Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård (True blood, The Stand) plays Nathan Lind, a Geologist whose brother died attempting to venture into Hollow Earth. Demián Bichir (The Bridge, Chaos Walking) plays the CEO of Apex Dynamics, the main antagonist and catalyst for the final battle that plays out.

The comic relief is brought to us by Brian Tyree Hall (Atlanta, Into the Spiderverse) who plays conspiracy pod-caster and Apex Dynamics engineer infiltrator Bernie Hayes. The emotional ties to Kong are played by Rebecca Hall (Tales from the loop, The Prestige) who plays Chief Kong scientist Ilene Andrews and Kaylee Hottle who plays Jia, her adopted daughter and Kong whisperer.

At 1 hr 53 mins, I could very well have done with more titan battles, with some of the other fat cut out. . And although this was another flawed Kong/Godzilla film, they are getting closer to what I desire. Available now on HBO Max.

In Retrospect ★★★1/2 out of 5