Seems like they should've set some of that up (like the random kid) in the other movies. Or maybe they did, and it was lost in the mess? An ancient grudge match from made up monster mythos is a good enough reason for giant monster battlin', but it isn't exactly deep.
But it also seems like Godzilla could rip open the sea transport from the underneath and drown Kong like a sack of dumb puppies. When all is said and done, one is a radioactive giant sea lizard that zwoops around the world through magic sea holes, and the other is a just a mega-oversized ape.
Voss wrote: Seems like they should've set some of that up (like the random kid) in the other movies. Or maybe they did, and it was lost in the mess? An ancient grudge match from made up monster mythos is a good enough reason for giant monster battlin', but it isn't exactly deep.
But it also seems like Godzilla could rip open the sea transport from the underneath and drown Kong like a sack of dumb puppies. When all is said and done, one is a radioactive giant sea lizard that zwoop around the world through magic sea holes, and the other is a just a mega-oversized ape.
I did wonder about the kid - unless they are part of the time jump in the film?
I also really enjoyed Skull Island but I thought the 2 Godzilla movies were absolute trash. Waiting 2 hours to see 10 minutes of monster action? No thanks. This will probably be the same. Pacific Rim remains the only movie in this vein to keep me entertained throughout its runtime.
creeping-deth87 wrote: I also really enjoyed Skull Island but I thought the 2 Godzilla movies were absolute trash. Waiting 2 hours to see 10 minutes of monster action? No thanks.
Probably. The trailer looks wildly out of order. I could totally see half the run time devoted to 'capturing' Kong, and putting him on the barge (he is in conveniently giant chains), some general yadda, yadda exposition, the barge scene, then a buildup to whatever final confrontation in whichever city where kong's sceptre? club? mirror? just magically absorbs radiation breath. With a half hour or so to establish what's _really_ going on and deal with that, Batman V Superman style.
I'm still guessing most of the battle scenes in the trailer are a skinned Mecha-Godzilla. Or these are early battle scenes and when mecha-godzilla goes crazy they "team up" to kill it. Otherwise there needs to be some kind of compelling reason that Godzilla goes murderous, rather than benevolent.
Voss, Kong's weapon is a primitive axe made from one of Godzilla's dorsal spikes, hence the breath-absorbing abilities.
AegisGrimm wrote: I'm still guessing most of the battle scenes in the trailer are a skinned Mecha-Godzilla. Or these are early battle scenes and when mecha-godzilla goes crazy they "team up" to kill it. Otherwise there needs to be some kind of compelling reason that Godzilla goes murderous, rather than benevolent.
Voss, Kong's weapon is a primitive axe made from one of Godzilla's dorsal spikes, hence the breath-absorbing abilities.
Ah. I wasn't aware.
Wait, doesn't big G's breath still have enough kinetic energy to knock down buildings? Where does _that_ go?
Its certainly pushing other monsters around in KotM, here's its just vanishing without any effect whatsoever. No heat transfer, no kinetic, nothing.
Having it just vanish really undercuts the scene and highlights that it's a bunch of CGI nonsense, rather than pushing the story that these are a pair of massive colossi of destruction.
So Godzilla's going to turn heel? They note that 'something is agitating him' so probably there is some other factor at play "oh it wasn't really Godzilla's fault after all".
I liked first Godzilla and Skull Island because they had the patience to actually set up things. Second 'zilla was just a lame random monster mash-up and this looks more of a same. No kids for the monster flicks!
Voss wrote: Seems like they should've set some of that up (like the random kid) in the other movies. Or maybe they did, and it was lost in the mess?
Honestly, my main takeaway from King of the Monsters was that they were setting up a Kong vs Godzilla bout with all the subtlety of a wrestling promo:
G:KotM spoilers:
Spoiler:
The central maguffin in KotM is a device that calms down or intimidates giant monsters by emitting a sound, which the heroes and villains intend to use to pacify the giant monsters or use them to anihilate civilization. Godzilla (and King Ghidora) instead respond aggressively to it, because the sound is imitating an 'alpha' cowing an oponent into submission, and both Godzilla and Ghidora consider themselves top dog.
The project originally didn't work, but one scientist solved the problem by adding human voice modulation to the sound - which her husband, another scientist, of course, needs to figure out to save the day (with help from their daughter, the Child of Destiny). The 'human' connection is baffling to the people in-universe, but as an outside observer it's pretty clear that that change made the alpha device sound like Kong.
That, plus little bits of exospeak throughout the movie to establish that Skull Island is in continuity with it (Skull Island is confirmed to exist, Kong is confirmed to be one of the Titans Monarch is monitoring, Kong is said to be 'growing', etc) makes it clear that either Kong is an alpha already, or is becoming an alpha due to Science meddling with what it does not understand (tm), and Godzilla has beef.
Seems to have a lot of the same issues as the previous movies (namely a love for fighting in a bizarrely shallow ocean or in an overly dark and rainy city). Still, I'll watch and enjoy it, even if it doesn't reach its full potential.
creeping-deth87 wrote: I also really enjoyed Skull Island but I thought the 2 Godzilla movies were absolute trash. Waiting 2 hours to see 10 minutes of monster action? No thanks. This will probably be the same. Pacific Rim remains the only movie in this vein to keep me entertained throughout its runtime.
You must have watched a different GKotM than me.
Also, lots of focus on humans until the monsters fight at the end describes almost every Toho Godzilla film. You certainly don't have to like that, but it is what it is.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Backfire wrote: So Godzilla's going to turn heel? They note that 'something is agitating him' so probably there is some other factor at play "oh it wasn't really Godzilla's fault after all".
There are strong hints in the trailer if you look closely. Like pretty much a spoiler, so let the close viewer beware.
I predict it's only Godzilla vs Kong for the first half of the movie, then they realize they have to team up and be friends so they can kill some other big bad that suddenly shows up.
Mr Morden wrote: For me the question is - is this another Skull Island (Hurrah) or another Godzilla style film (God forbid). They are incredably different films
I haven't seen Skull Island, but Godzilla (2014) and King of the Monsters aren't really alike in style what so ever.
So I assume at least part of the new film addresses the time jump with Kong?
Godzilla certainly is, with its central premise being 'modern world reacts to a Godzilla Vs movie happening' but KotM is set in a bizzaro modern day where NGOs are building super planes the size of aircraft carriers and the like. But unless Kong was killed at some point in Skull Island I see no reason the one they talk about in KotM is a different giant gorilla with the same name living on the same island?
Necros wrote: I predict it's only Godzilla vs Kong for the first half of the movie, then they realize they have to team up and be friends so they can kill some other big bad that suddenly shows up.
Does Wonder Woman inexplicably show up to help too?
Necros wrote: I predict it's only Godzilla vs Kong for the first half of the movie, then they realize they have to team up and be friends so they can kill some other big bad that suddenly shows up.
Does Wonder Woman inexplicably show up to help too?
Necros wrote: I predict it's only Godzilla vs Kong for the first half of the movie, then they realize they have to team up and be friends so they can kill some other big bad that suddenly shows up.
Does Wonder Woman inexplicably show up to help too?
Lafuente's style seems to use a lot of hard lines and segmented parts - a lot of his main work seems to be heroes with body suits, jackets, etc. I suspect in this particular issue he's leaning into it:
The original Godzilla vs. Kong movie was corny and fun, like a lot of the Showa era films.
I liked Legendary's first Godzilla film. It was an effective movie that cleverly set itself apart from it's Japanese brethern and made a distinctly modern American movie with the source material.
King of the Monsters was garbage. The human element plot of braindead and ruined the movie for me. I couldn't enjoy the increased on-screen monster action, when everything else going on was so banally dumb.
I'm really getting those same vibes from this trailer. As much as I want to enjoy some monster fighting, it's really hard when the movie is going out of its way to try and be clever and coming out stupider for it.
I liked 2014. It's too long (as are most movies these days) and wastes too much time on an actor who can't carry the film. Still, it ends in a phenomenal fight and one of the best monster kills in the franchise.
KoM is solid. It has some absolutely stunning cinematography that sadly mostly got spoiled in the trailers. The human subplot is pretty bad and weirdly gets in the way of the climax more than it did in 2014. The action is weirdly obscured in places. A bit more even than 2014, but not reaching its highest points either.
I largely expect the same here. Good, but still disappointing. Rampage somehow stands as the best modern American attempt at the genre.
I’m confused by your stance, LOH. The first Legendary Godzilla movie spent way more time with bland characters doing forgettable things. KotM had two/three bland characters in the mold of the first movie, but gave a lot more time to quirky character actors saying cheesy-fun things. It was like a hybrid of Legendary’s Godzilla and Kong Skull Island. I found Get Out, Mil-team and Techbro went a long way towards alleviating wolf doctor and bad mom.
LunarSol wrote: I liked 2014. It's too long (as are most movies these days) and wastes too much time on an actor who can't carry the film. Still, it ends in a phenomenal fight and one of the best monster kills in the franchise.
KoM is solid. It has some absolutely stunning cinematography that sadly mostly got spoiled in the trailers. The human subplot is pretty bad and weirdly gets in the way of the climax more than it did in 2014. The action is weirdly obscured in places. A bit more even than 2014, but not reaching its highest points either.
I largely expect the same here. Good, but still disappointing. Rampage somehow stands as the best modern American attempt at the genre.
I forgot about Rampage, that's such an entertaining movie. I really enjoyed it! I agree with this stance!
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I’m confused by your stance, LOH. The first Legendary Godzilla movie spent way more time with bland characters doing forgettable things.
Bland yes, but not banally dumb. The human plot in the first movie maybe wasn't exciting but it was effective in providing an audience surrogate. That was all it really needed to do. They totally bait and switched the audience with Cranston, but oh well. There was a coherent "I just want to go home" story to the plot.
KotM had two/three bland characters in the mold of the first movie, but gave a lot more time to quirky character actors saying cheesy-fun things.
KotM had the most dysfunctionally stupid family plot I've seen in a movie in a long time. The mom decides to unleash monsters and almost immediately decides oh gee maybe I shouldn't have done that. The dad is constantly given scenes in the film to show how smart he is, but mostly they just make everyone around him seem stupid. The daughter is... Do I really need to point out how the ending of the movie is utterly nonsensical? Past the one hour mark, no one really seems to have any idea what the human side of the plot is supposed to be about and it just ends up being about stupid people being stupid.
The first movie might not have been super exciting, but it worked well enough and wasn't driven by a constant string of dumb people who shouldn't be dumb doing dumb things they should ostensibly be smart enough to know are dumb. I bought into Brody's story. I couldn't by into any of the character's in KotM. They were all too stupid to be believable.
What do you mean it was effective?
Because it didn't murder the movie in the back.
I get people who thought the 2014 plot was dragged by too little monsters. I don't agree with it but I get it. I also get people who liked KotM's action scenes and just forget the stupid plot that was going on around them. I'm not really interested in forgiving one half of a movie for being god awful though. Skull Island was probably the one film in the series to actually get the human plot to work, but the trailer makes me think of KotM more than Skull Island; stupid people doing stupid things but hey it gets the plot moving don't look at the stupid things. I can't really not see the stupid things and I feel insulted that I'm expected to just because it's a monster movie.
Lots of Godzilla movies have stupid plots, but lots of them were campy and corny and didn't expect the audience to take them seriously. Legendary needs to pick a lane on that front because I think they keep trying to have it both ways.
Rampage was great fun - it also knew what it wanted to be and how to do it - quality.
Godzilla seemed to want to punish you for wanting to watch a monster movie but instead wanted to you to spend way too much some of the worst human idiots.
Skull Island again at least was prepared to be a monster movie.
Did not watch King of Monsters due to how much I disliked the first movie
It would be nice if Legendary could take the experience it's gained from it's movies to learn a lesson.
Out of their string of Big Monster movies, I think only Pacific Rim, Skull Island, and Godzilla 2014 were worth a damn, imperfect creations as they might have been. Pacific Rim 2 and KotM were so terrible. After five movies, they've either learned what works and what doesn't or they never will.
I have liked all 3 legendary monster movies so far. Il probably like this one too. Interested in seeing how they make some of the weirder gak work in this one.
Been thinking that this "monsterverse" has definite similarities to the DC 'Snyderverse'.
Godzilla 2014 is similar to Man of Steel. It's focused and grounded...stands on its own. KotM is like BvS in that suddenly there's this much wider fantasy universe out there...much more comic book-y in terms of style, scope and details. And now GvK seems to be borrowing the actual plot of BvS.
LunarSol wrote: I liked 2014. It's too long (as are most movies these days) and wastes too much time on an actor who can't carry the film. Still, it ends in a phenomenal fight and one of the best monster kills in the franchise.
KoM is solid. It has some absolutely stunning cinematography that sadly mostly got spoiled in the trailers. The human subplot is pretty bad and weirdly gets in the way of the climax more than it did in 2014. The action is weirdly obscured in places. A bit more even than 2014, but not reaching its highest points either.
I largely expect the same here. Good, but still disappointing. Rampage somehow stands as the best modern American attempt at the genre.
A big part of the issue is that, during the big action scenes, they keep cutting to the humans. It doesn't give a full scene.
Kong didn't do that, which is why its better. It has coherent scenes. Come on where not on adderall, show a whole scene.
Considering how much you love the DCEU, I think you watch different movies than a lot of people
Also, lots of focus on humans until the monsters fight at the end describes almost every Toho Godzilla film. You certainly don't have to like that, but it is what it is.
In the same vein, it being a trope of the genre doesn't mean that I can't object to it either.
gorgon wrote: Been thinking that this "monsterverse" has definite similarities to the DC 'Snyderverse'.
Godzilla 2014 is similar to Man of Steel. It's focused and grounded...stands on its own. KotM is like BvS in that suddenly there's this much wider fantasy universe out there...much more comic book-y in terms of style, scope and details. And now GvK seems to be borrowing the actual plot of BvS.
Well, for a time everyone was trying to do a Cinematic Universe (DC, Ghostbusters, Universal Monsters)--I think the Monsterverse is probably the best non-Marvel attempt at it.
gorgon wrote: Been thinking that this "monsterverse" has definite similarities to the DC 'Snyderverse'.
Godzilla 2014 is similar to Man of Steel. It's focused and grounded...stands on its own. KotM is like BvS in that suddenly there's this much wider fantasy universe out there...much more comic book-y in terms of style, scope and details. And now GvK seems to be borrowing the actual plot of BvS.
Well, for a time everyone was trying to do a Cinematic Universe (DC, Ghostbusters, Universal Monsters)--I think the Monsterverse is probably the best non-Marvel attempt at it.
It's a really low bar after Marvel. The Monsterverse hasn't exactly been nailing it. I liked Godzilla more than most. Kong probably less than most. KotM was...I dunno. Feels like there's a lot to process there, similar to BvS.
But compared to the DCEU and its *crazy* drama and the dead-on-arrival 'Dark Universe'...I guess the Monsterverse is doing fairly well. Things haven't spiraled into bitter studio-director wars, recriminations and abandonments of the overall concept.
I did not think that the first Godzilla film and the King Kong have anything in common which makes it really hard to cnsider them part of the same shared universe.
The monsterverse at least tried to include some elements in common (and IMO FAR more entertaing and betetr characters than the laughable cardboard cut outs in Godzilla) - sad to see it failed.
Mr Morden wrote: I did not think that the first Godzilla film and the King Kong have anything in common which makes it really hard to cnsider them part of the same shared universe.
The monsterverse at least tried to include some elements in common (and IMO FAR more entertaing and betetr characters than the laughable cardboard cut outs in Godzilla) - sad to see it failed.
They have a lot in common. The Monarch organization exists in both films. In Kong Skull Island you basically see them getting their start. The after credits of Kong also includes a scene were Hiddleston and Larson are in a room when a guy comes in and shows them evidence of other giant monsters. Cave paintings of lots of creatures including Godzilla and King Ghiddorah. I think the scene even ends with a Godzilla roar.
I'm surprised people didn't enjoy the KotM, I thought it was quite good for a kaiju movie.
It did have silly, predictable human side of the plot, but so does 90% of kaiju movies, it's practically a tradition.Admit it, you'd HATE to watch one and not be able to gripe about "the stupid humans" at the end
Cronch wrote: I'm surprised people didn't enjoy the KotM, I thought it was quite good for a kaiju movie.
It did have silly, predictable human side of the plot, but so does 90% of kaiju movies, it's practically a tradition.Admit it, you'd HATE to watch one and not be able to gripe about "the stupid humans" at the end
Godzilla means different things to different people. As a treatise about mankind's place in the natural world, our complicated relationship with nuclear power, or the duty of science to benefit humanity, it's terrible. As a spectacle of visual effects (both artistically proficient and completely unbelievable) where monsters cut promos, well-meaning scientist protagonists scramble through falling debris to bring the Maguffin to the Place or rescue the Child of Destiny, and the military industrial complex stares on impotently, it delivers.
Godzilla has, historically, been all of these things over the course of its franchise history, and you can't really please its fanbase all at once.
Cronch wrote: I'm surprised people didn't enjoy the KotM, I thought it was quite good for a kaiju movie.
It did have silly, predictable human side of the plot, but so does 90% of kaiju movies, it's practically a tradition.Admit it, you'd HATE to watch one and not be able to gripe about "the stupid humans" at the end
I would love it
They did not have that in the Kong films - it depends if this is a Godzilla style film or a Kong style film.
Welp, I gave it a try. It's basically King of the Monsters, but with even less effort put into the plot and a whole lot dumber.
Here are all the dumb things that happen in just the first 30 minutes;
Spoiler:
-Apparently all the other monsters just went away... Not sure. Movie doesn't bother explaining at all what happened to Rodan or the rest. This actually makes the stakes of the movie bafflingly unclear. In KotM the 'alpha' was a big deal because they controlled the other monsters. In GvK, it's still a plot point, but solely in the sense that people say Godzilla will kill Kong but with all the other monsters gone I have no idea why anyone gives a gak. Yeah, it sucks for Kong but... is that it? Kind of weird how they basically set this entire movie up with an anti-premise from the get go.
-There's a conspiracy nut who podcasts his intent to steal from his employer and broadcast their secrets. Because that's what smart whistleblowers who aren't crazy do but we all know he'll end up being right and the ambiguously evil corporation apparently is too powerful for anyone to notice how evil they are, but too dumb to notice the employee publicly bragging about stealing company secrets.
-That dumb kid from the last movie? Yeah, she's back because that's what everyone wanted. More of her being really really stupid. And it's dumber because her very first scene is being the only person on the planet besides the crazy conspiracy theorist who thinks its weird how Godzilla just showed up out of the blue to wreck a specific company's specifically shady facility. Kind of funky how all the smart (but dumb) people from the last movie are now dumber than before and not remotely suspicious about Godzilla suddenly going all aggressive for no apparent reason. The literal dialogue about this reads like some dick explaining to the young'ins how some kids are just born bad...
-A bunch of people on a whim put Kong on a boat to chase a previously completely unmentioned macguffin that won't be used nefariously by the obviously shady corporate overlords.
-Researchers who spent ten years studying Kong never noticed he speaks sign language. Which is about when I decided the movie was too fething dumb to be worth watching further.
-Edit: And as with WW1984, I tried ti again and no, it just gets dumber. Case and point, how do we help Kong win an underwater battle with Godzilla? Shower them both in depth charges... because that can't possibly hurt Kong and apparently doesn't because feth me for wanting a plot that makes even the slightest amount of sense I guess.
-How do we get Godzilla to not kill us after that plan fails? Just turn off the engines. He won't notice our ships floating here with Kong on the deck if the engines are all off. I really can't undersell how infuriating I find the entire first fight of the film. It's god awful, both in terms of action and in terms of plot. God damn it's hard for me not to see the entire exercise as nothing more than a vehement hatred directed at the audience for wanting anything more than crummy scenes of two CGI monsters wrestling underwater.
-Even 45 minutes into the movie, it's preposterously unclear what the stakes of this story are, as if the movie just expects you to be invested in Kong and Godzilla fighting over essentially nothing at all but your attention. Even the whole Godzilla has gone bad thing is very 'what' because all he did was wreck a suspiciously shady facility that reeked of something weird going on, and that's all he's apparently done in years. The film expects you, the audience, to be as unthinkingly stupid as the characters in this regard and ask no questions whatsoever about what the feth is going on or why any of it matters.
I thought King of the Monsters sucked from being a really lazy movie with barely any effort put into it. Godzilla vs Kong seems to be the same deal, but even lazier. And feth this bit at the bottom of the film's Wikipedia page really just sums it up for me in one statement;
Alonso Duralde of the TheWrap wrote that the franchise had "given up on everything but the monster fights" and wrote: "Yes, obviously, no one goes to these movies for the deep human characters or for plot machinations or even for the metaphors about the environment and industrialization. Here's the thing, though — they come in handy to fill in the gaps between the monster battles, and you miss them when they're not there. And since even those battles are somewhat perfunctory, what are we even doing here?"
The open credits give Godzilla a rather long hit list of defeated monsters, with defeat seeming to imply killed, I’d wager your missing Rodan and others are in there if you look close enough.
Otherwise the characters Are pretty dumb most of the time. I still thought the fights and visuals were entertaining enough to sustain me thru a not quite two hour movie. Surprised at a lack of post credits scene.
AduroT wrote: The open credits give Godzilla a rather long hit list of defeated monsters, with defeat seeming to imply killed, I’d wager your missing Rodan and others are in there if you look close enough.
Otherwise the characters Are pretty dumb most of the time. I still thought the fights and visuals were entertaining enough to sustain me thru a not quite two hour movie. Surprised at a lack of post credits scene.
That's silly of them. They could have made those fights into movies and they'd have sold tickets galore with even minimal effort. Of course, if the 'human' story is as weak as reviewers say, then odds are Legendary is running out of ideas and didn't think they could make another movie work.
My issues with the human story are three of the characters are entirely irrelevant and unneeded yet each up a lot of screen time as basically a slow reveal exposition mouthpiece. Also the bad guy isn’t really a bad guy.
Vulcan wrote: odds are Legendary is running out of ideas and didn't think they could make another movie work.
They did lose the license in 2020 (it expired). Maybe they'll get it back. I'm not sure I care. They're clearly not even trying in GvK and don't have any real respect for the audience either.
Most of the reviews I've seen amount to 'It's got monsters hitting monsters and that's what the people want right?" I'm not even sold on that. The first fight in the film is more two monsters flailing angrily than a fight and it only last like 5 minutes. Compared to that, there was 40 minutes of really stupid people and unclear exposition.
It feels, not unusually for Warner Bros movies, that we've only seen something like 60% of the actual movie by the time the credits roll.
But whats on screen is so consistently dumb I don't really care to see another version of the movie. I mean "we built this craft to take the entire gravity of a planet, but not the grip of one oversize monkey?" Come on.
I got the same sense that it's not that we only see 60% of the movie, but that the film is overstuffed with plotlines no one seemed to want to develop but insisted on shoving into the film regardless.
Azreal13 wrote: It feels, not unusually for Warner Bros movies, that we've only seen something like 60% of the actual movie by the time the credits roll.
But whats on screen is so consistently dumb I don't really care to see another version of the movie. I mean "we built this craft to take the entire gravity of a planet, but not the grip of one oversize monkey?" Come on.
The entire gravity of 1 planet is what everything on Earth is taking at all times. It's a dumb line all around.
I rather enjoyed it. Yes there’s a lot of waffling going on, but the Kaiju fights are proper satisfying. And I could easily follow the action which is pretty important, as I was fearing a Transformer blurfest.
It’s not exactly genre defining, but it’s not about to bury the genre either. I’d say it’s a comfortable 7/10, possibly squeaking toward an 8.
I really liked it. Probably not as "good" as Skull Island but I think its easily my favorite of the 4. Addressed a lot of the issues I had with KotM:
The human stuff is largely unobtrusive:
Spoiler:
Yes, its dumb, but it's hugely minimized, and mostly just frames the conflict without sidelining it. There's ONE bit in the final fight where they feel the need to give Eleven's crew a big moment that scratches at the problems from prior films, but never in the way it stopped us from enjoying the Ghidora fight. I do wish they had been clearer that what they were doing was shutting down the power source and not the whole monster though.
The fight at sea felt like it was at sea:
Spoiler:
Everything in the ocean in KotM mostly used the setting to avoid rendering a backdrop. Godzilla treats it like the ocean is incredibly shallow. Here we get a MUCH better use of the environment, with ships giving us the land battles and the water portions actually being in deep water.
The night fight is well lit and easy to follow:
Spoiler:
The neon buildings mostly do a good job of framing the battle so its always easy to follow the action. It's MUCH happier to pull the camera back and let us see what's going on, having some of the cleanest shots of collateral damage in the series.
The actual final fight takes this further and actually gives us a daytime fight with several wonderfully tracked shots and some great choreography. They use some creative application of powers in the final fight. I'd have liked Big G to have gotten in a bit more damage, but he'd gotten his due in a few prior fights.
So yeah, I liked it. Overall, it left me feeling how I had hoped I would feel from KotM. I'll probably watch it again quite a few times honestly.
I for one got a real kick when Godzilla and Mechanicus Godzilla are about to get into it. Focussing on the heads with a front shot, then a landscape “Street Fighter” view is straight out of the original films - and they leaned into it with the effects to drive it home.
AduroT wrote: Also the bad guy isn’t really a bad guy.
I actually kind of like this as he's not really even vilified in the greater context of the movie. Like, yes, we're supposed to see him as the bad guy but they leave a lot for the viewer to interpret for themselves rather than make any real statement on him. In fact, I think its rather clever that:
Spoiler:
He dies, basically in the middle of declaring himself the biggest fish, in more of a "there's always a bigger fish" sort of way. He declares a battle to the death and loses, rather than being "stopped by the good guys". It leaves a LOT of interesting room to discuss the character despite not really dwelling on him.
LordofHats wrote: I think it hits theaters proper at the end of April? I think it said that on HBO.
IN the US its playing in theaters Friday.
The wife just got her second shot so we and the Daughter are celebrating my birfday and rejoining society by seeing it (hopefully) on the 10th.
LordofHats wrote: I think it hits theaters proper at the end of April? I think it said that on HBO.
IN the US its playing in theaters Friday.
The wife just got her second shot so we and the Daughter are celebrating my birfday and rejoining society by seeing it (hopefully) on the 10th.
Actually, it's in theaters Wednesday. I was going to go to it last night, but got work-screwed.
Drive In nearby had a double feature of GvK and the 1933 King Kong so I pretty had to go see it that way. I'll have to watch GvK again with better sound and video but on a drive in screen the movie seemed fine. There is definitely some dumb stuff in it but most of it is of the type you get in standard kaiju films. I thought the G and K meet ups were done well enough as was Mecha, who was bigger than I initially thought.
This was more Kong that Godzilla.
I also don't know why but the fights felt like they had less weight to them. The scale of the fights felt constantly off.
Not to mention the weird Hollow earth stuff with kong. Is he a descendant of some ancient race of apes who built the place? What was with the axe, it seemed to be made of a Zilla spinal piece, but why did it light up?
I just watched it earlier today (first movie I've seen in the theater since Sonic the Hedgehog thanks to the pandemic), and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes there was plenty of unrealistic stuff, but I mean...literal giant fething monsters are in it, so reality is out the window.
I'm more wondering where the franchise will go from here, or if it will in fact continue at all.
hotsauceman1 wrote: This was more Kong that Godzilla.
I also don't know why but the fights felt like they had less weight to them. The scale of the fights felt constantly off.
Not to mention the weird Hollow earth stuff with kong. Is he a descendant of some ancient race of apes who built the place? What was with the axe, it seemed to be made of a Zilla spinal piece, but why did it light up?
There's less "scale" shots than there were in G2014 or KotM and generally speaking the movie is less concerned with momentum than before. To a degree, I miss that (and honestly, few things do it like the original Pacific Rim), but it does come closer to matching how the rubber suit movies felt, and I rather enjoyed it.
The hollow earth nonsense has been a running theme through the entire franchise. That's what they were searching for when they went to Skull Island and it gets mentioned in the other films too. Both Kong films have snippets about his ancestors fighting other monsters, though I think we're largely meant to infer that one of them killed an ancestor of Godzilla and made the axe out of it's bones. It just absorbs radiation the same way Godzilla does when he charges up his atomic breath in the films.
I did find it kind of hilarious that Kong just kind of finds it like some rare dungeon loot. The DM did a good job with the nearby enchantment tutorial too.
I don’t like Godzilla’s super Zilla-Sense. He keys in on Mecha before it’s even finished, likely due to the skull and tests they ran with it. Hunts down Kong even though they made a point of avoid Godzilla’s routes. Senses the energy activation in the center of the planet and promptly drills a hold all the way down with his breath.
In KotM they made a point that Godzilla knew when other big guys where out and about as well as in this film pointing out that the skulls were psychically resonant so it isn't odd that G would sense something going on. Spider-man has spidey sense and Godzilla (in this series) has kaiju fight sense.
I don't recall much psychic stuff in the Showa era but the Heisei and Millennium series both had it in them.
I get the sense that Hollow Earth is to be the modern day equivalent of Monster Island.
It isn't a 1:1 but the HEAVs made me think of the Super X from Godzilla 1985. I think it is just the general shape of them seemed somewhat reminiscent of it.
Lance845 wrote: Also Skull Island is the modern Monster Island.
Eh I don't think so as they say Skull Island was essentially wiped outt as well as saying it was a mini Hollow Earth. Hollow Earth has more area and mystery with room to grow and accommodate story lines. Skull Island definitely set up the idea but for it's narrative role Hollow Earth fits much better.
LunarSol wrote: I did find it kind of hilarious that Kong just kind of finds it like some rare dungeon loot. The DM did a good job with the nearby enchantment tutorial too.
Thought they were going for something very vaguely Arthurian.
I liked it. I dunno what the griping is about. I thought it was a better response to the gripes about Godzilla 2014 than KotM was. I liked 2014, and had no issues with the focus on the humans, because I've actually watched a lot of Toho films -- including a lot of recent rewatches with my kids -- and know the formula. But for for those wanting MOAR KAIJU MOAR, at least this one wasn't *also* trying to cram in a lot of human stuff like KotM did. I still enjoyed that one well enough though...again, because it's a Godzilla film and not something to be dissected.
LunarSol wrote: I did find it kind of hilarious that Kong just kind of finds it like some rare dungeon loot. The DM did a good job with the nearby enchantment tutorial too.
Thought they were going for something very vaguely Arthurian.
I liked it. I dunno what the griping is about. I thought it was a better response to the gripes about Godzilla 2014 than KotM was. I liked 2014, and had no issues with the focus on the humans, because I've actually watched a lot of Toho films -- including a lot of recent rewatches with my kids -- and know the formula. But for for those wanting MOAR KAIJU MOAR, at least this one wasn't *also* trying to cram in a lot of human stuff like KotM did. I still enjoyed that one well enough though...again, because it's a Godzilla film and not something to be dissected.
I found it hilarious. It's not really a gripe. This movie knew EXACTLY how serious it wanted to be and had a lot of fun with it.
LunarSol wrote: I did find it kind of hilarious that Kong just kind of finds it like some rare dungeon loot. The DM did a good job with the nearby enchantment tutorial too.
Thought they were going for something very vaguely Arthurian.
I liked it. I dunno what the griping is about. I thought it was a better response to the gripes about Godzilla 2014 than KotM was. I liked 2014, and had no issues with the focus on the humans, because I've actually watched a lot of Toho films -- including a lot of recent rewatches with my kids -- and know the formula. But for for those wanting MOAR KAIJU MOAR, at least this one wasn't *also* trying to cram in a lot of human stuff like KotM did. I still enjoyed that one well enough though...again, because it's a Godzilla film and not something to be dissected.
I found it hilarious. It's not really a gripe. This movie knew EXACTLY how serious it wanted to be and had a lot of fun with it.
Oh, I agree with you. It knew what it wanted to be. KotM was probably the monsterverse movie that wasn't quite sure. Otherwise I think that goes for the rest of them too.
I finally got a chance to see this. I enjoyed the (ridiculous) lore expansion, the establishment of actual character traits for the monsters, and the fights. The human characters were wacky enough not to be annoying, but not well-acted or quirky enough to entertain me like the characters in Skull Island. The film leaned into the Sci fi elements pretty hard, and I appreciated that. I hope they get to make another one.
Wait, doesn't big G's breath still have enough kinetic energy to knock down buildings? Where does _that_ go?
