Godzilla X Kong's Lack Of Dialogue, Explained By The Director

There are human characters in Adam Wingard's charmingly silly "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire," and some of them — like Dan Stevens' monster veterinarian Trapper — are a lot of fun. But let's get real: no one watches these movies for the humans. Instead, we watch for monster mayhem. We want to see big bois Godzilla and Kong smash a bunch of sh*t and be burly monsters. 

"Godzilla x Kong" may not be the best entry in the so-called MonsterVerse, but gosh is it a lot of fun to watch. And part of that fun comes from the fact that Wingard and his writers Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater have figured out the right formula for this sort of flick: fewer scenes with humans, more scenes with monsters. As a result of this approach, there are long stretches of "Godzilla x Kong" that focus entirely on Kong as he explores the Hollow Earth and learns about the villainous Skar King, a big ape dictator who runs his own little monster kingdom. 

Since Kong can't talk (at least not verbally — he does communicate via sign language in a few scenes), that means there are several lengthy sequences in "Godzilla x Kong" where there's no dialogue. And according to Adam Wingard, that was all by design. And audiences sure seem fine with that, as "Godzilla x Kong" is officially the highest-grossing movie in the MonsterVerse.

Godzilla may get top billing, but "Godzilla x Kong" really belongs to Kong. Between the two Titans, he has the most screen time, and he also undergoes a full arc, discovering other Kongs hiding out in uncharted territories of Hollow Earth. These scenes have Kong interacting with other giant apes and using body and facial language to convey emotions. This approach could've backfired badly, but the special effects are solid enough that Kong and the other apes really feel like living, breathing creatures with emotions. 

"Godzilla x Kong" is now on digital and Blu-ray, and in a special feature on the home media release, director Adam Wingard talks about these dialogue-free moments with Kong as he goes about his business. "One of the very first conversations I had with the writers on this movie ... I was like, what I want do with this movie is I want to make a mainstream blockbuster movie that doesn't rely on dialogue," Wingard says. "I wanted to do a nonverbal movie."

Rebecca Hall, who plays main human character Dr. Ilene Andrews, adds: "It's more like a silent movie .... We're going to see Kong have relationships, get angry, crack a joke, be emotional, be moved ... we've seen that before but I think this is more nuanced."

Wingard returns to sum things up:

"The audiences are ready for a more immersive trip into the monster word ... I can really stretch my imagination out and let these monsters tell their own story and take it to the next level ... Kong can just be our hero he can guide us through."

Wingard is right. Kong is such a well-drawn character in the film that we become wrapped-up in his story to the point where we don't need dialogue; we're willing to just go along with the nonverbal ride. "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" is now on digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD.