The GODZILLA thread

[OmegaZilla]

Indeed, but that's not a reason to be that lacking in other areas.

I mean again it's not that finely structured but neither does it need to be. It promised one thing - BIGGEST EVER MONSTER FIGHTS - and delivered big time.

Only unlike KOTM say this time it was all cleanly laid out without any frenzied anxious editing and half-pretentiousness

[StrangeShape]

I just recently saw the original Godzilla vs King Kong for the first time, the US edit. It has its charm of course, but I sure thought it'll be much better

[Gilfryd]

I just recently saw the original Godzilla vs King Kong for the first time, the US edit. It has its charm of course, but I sure thought it'll be much better

Seek out the original Japanese version if you can. Your mileage may still vary but things - the lighthearted adventurous tone, the humor, etc. - 'click' into place a lot better when there aren't interjections from the peanut gallery. (You also get Akira Ifukube's full score as well, which always beefs up a Toho monster movie.)

What the 1962 and 2021 films absolutely have in common is that celebratory, self-aware 'wrestling match' feel to the monster fights.

[KiramidHead]

The US cut gets pretty surreal when you're seeing Godzilla and Kong set to music lifted from The Wolf Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

[Jigsaw85]

It was terrible.

Spoiler

The characters were hollow, I don't even remember any of their names. None of them are fleshed out or have any interesting backstories. They're all just there to take turns spewing out exposition. The story felt like it was written by a thirteen-year-old. Godzilla can sense when an evil corporation is building a robot to replace him? ......OK.. And why exactly did the big remote controlled robot suddenly become sentient? did I miss something? Please tell me I missed something. The monster fights were entertaining I guess, Mechagodzilla was pretty cool but he inexplicably gets shredded like tissue paper with Kong's Axe and yet the REAL Godzilla took a blow straight to the head and did not die. WHAT THE f**k? This movie was just too stupid. 4/10

[close]

Spoiler

You did. Ghidra brain took over. That's why Godzilla goes berserk - he's looking for this ghost-Ghidra.

And yeah the story is like a 13-year old's script... it's a full-on, no questions asked entertainment movie. Just a fast paced rollercoaster ride with very few pretentions.

[close]

Spoiler

So this movie is about a CEO building his own robot with the help of the head of a long dead villain, and said villain uploads his consciousness into a shiny new body, while the hero senses his presence. Then the CEO takes the robot to China, where the robot comes to life and runs amok in Hong Kong. This movie just totally ripped off Transformers Age of Extinction.

[close]

[Local Trouble]

Did Charles Dance or Vera Farmiga return?  Is there no one like Dr. Serizawa around to wax philosophical about mankind's place in a world dominated by giant monsters?

[Darkness]

Watched the new movie last night. I think, once upon a time, I used to love monster movies like this but I just feel like I've seen it all before with movies like Pacific Rim. I guess diehard fans of Godzilla will like it but I wish Godzilla wasn't so fat and a bit sleeker.

Is there any explanation as why Kong is of similar size to Godzilla? Or maybe Godzilla isn't as big as the previous films? I'm sure there was a massive size difference.

[BigDaddyJohn]

I mean again it's not that finely structured but neither does it need to be.

Not finely structured, but a little bit more nonetheless IMO. I think for every movie this is necessary, even the dumbest ones.

Watched the new movie last night. I think, once upon a time, I used to love monster movies like this but I just feel like I've seen it all before with movies like Pacific Rim. I guess diehard fans of Godzilla will like it but I wish Godzilla wasn't so fat and a bit sleeker.

Is there any explanation as why Kong is of similar size to Godzilla? Or maybe Godzilla isn't as big as the previous films? I'm sure there was a massive size difference.

They said in Kong Skull Island that the monkey was still growing and was a teenager at the time.

[Biomechanoid]

"When Hairy Met Scaly"

It's the Truman Show starring Kong.

Heh, this review is a hoot..... https://www.yahoo.com/news/godzilla-vs-kong-review-hairy-153600102.html

[razeak]

My jumbled thoughts -

Godzilla vs Kong definitely goes full 'monster movie.' It has a big, fun, adventurous heart, basically the super earnest Journey to the Center of the Earth/At the Earth's Core version of one of these movies. There are tons of little (and big) nods to the 1962 film throughout and for the most part I found it enjoyable and inoffensive. Kids will love it.

It does play a bit more like a straight Kong: Skull Island sequel though, just so happening to have Godzilla in it. Team Kong (Alexander Skarsgård, Rebecca Hall, Kaylee Hottle) are definitely the more fleshed out and engaging side to the story. Team Godzilla (Millie Bobby Brown, Brian Tyree Henry, Julian Dennison) and the villains (Shun Oguri, Eiza González, Demián Bichir) are broad and cartoonish. Kyle Chandler is just there, trying to figure out which movie he's in.

It has less going on than KOTM, mostly to its benefit, sometimes to its detriment – like I said; there are really broad and cartoonish moments for sure with 'convenient' problem solving for the characters. It's like King Kong vs Godzilla meets Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla meets Jules Verne meets Edgar Rice Burroughs, with lots of super-satured, Pacific Rim-esque colors.

More thoughts –

Spoiler

The storm that wiped out Skull Island could've been elaborated on more, and I guess all the Titans from KOTM are dead for whatever reason. None of the new or briefly returning monsters receive any generous screen time.

It's nice seeing a more destructive Godzilla in one of these movies for once, the monster scenes in general in either broad daylight or brightly lit, colorful cityscapes (ala Pac Rim) were more than welcome.

I don't know how to feel about the conspiracy theorist guy. I mean, first of all, it's not much of a conspiracy when giant monsters are walking around. Also, in today's climate, depicting a conspiracy theorist in a positive light might not be the best idea.

Like Kyle Chandler, Mechagodzilla is just kinda there, no real rhyme or reason for it, and quite a leap from even the Argo superjet from KOTM. He's not justified well at all in the story; he's just there cause the evil bad guy said he could build him.

Unless I missed it there's absolutely no mention of Ren Serizawa being the son of Ishirō Serizawa. He's just there too, piloting Mechagodzilla via Ghidorah's remains in a highly convoluted manner.

Godzilla drilling to the center of the earth joins stopping an artificial black hole and Monster X's meteor for most outlandish atomic breath feats. (They made a big deal entering Hollow Earth, not so much exiting.)

As a movie of this type there are several (for me, forgivable) lapses in logic, but somehow short-circuiting Mechagodzilla by splashing liquor on a computer is a bridge too far. I don't understand how that was even seriously suggested let alone kept in a final shooting script.

Thomas Holkenborg's score was serviceable but KOTM by Bear McCreary was considerably better.

Oh, and for the obligatory Marvel/DC comparison, I'd say it's nowhere as good as Captain America: Civil War, but certainly better than Batman v Superman. This movie has heart where BVS has none.

[close]

Spoiler

There have been a few conspiracies that turned out true in the past few decades, so he fit, though he was completely a waste of screen time, as was the two teenagers. She didn't grow anywhere from the last film.  The city fights looked great.  The movie is transparent in what it was meant to be, and that is to sell action figures.  My biggest eyeroll was not that Godzilla shot radiation breath through hundreds or thousands of miles of the Earth, it was that apparently Kong axe-grinded the entire distance to fight Godzilla lol. There were some cool easter eggs too.

[close]

[Master Chief]

Did Charles Dance or Vera Farmiga return?  Is there no one like Dr. Serizawa around to wax philosophical about mankind's place in a world dominated by giant monsters?

No for Charles Dance and Vera was disintegrated in KOTM.

Dr. Serizawa's son was in the movie, but he was nothing like his father.  He may have had a couple of lines, but that's it.  Wasted character.

[Local Trouble]

Did Charles Dance or Vera Farmiga return?  Is there no one like Dr. Serizawa around to wax philosophical about mankind's place in a world dominated by giant monsters?

No for Charles Dance and Vera was disintegrated in KOTM.

Having just watched KOTM again before GvK, I paid close attention and only saw Vera flip her Humvee, but there was no actual death scene.  Charles Dance showed up alive and well in the post-credits scene.

[Huggs]

Did Charles Dance or Vera Farmiga return?  Is there no one like Dr. Serizawa around to wax philosophical about mankind's place in a world dominated by giant monsters?

No for Charles Dance and Vera was disintegrated in KOTM.

Having just watched KOTM again before GvK, I paid close attention and only saw Vera flip her Humvee, but there was no actual death scene.  Charles Dance showed up alive and well in the post-credits scene.

Godzilla went nuclear just a few yards from where she was laying. That's not counting the possibility she was melted by the "building melting" heating G was visibly putting out around him, or flat out disintegrated by the mothra blast waves that disintegrated structures and pieces of Gidora (or whatever its name is).

Adding in her internal injuries, there was no possibility of survival. She was crushed, cremated, her ashes blown away, and then nuked.

[Local Trouble]

Yeah, I know.  I just thought it was suspicious that her death scene was completely absent.  As if they wanted to leave the door open for some future movie to tell us that she crawled into the sewer and was somehow protected from the heat.

[Huggs]

I don't think there's any possibility of her character returning. Hopefully, that family will never be seen on screen again. They are some of the dumbest and most boring human characters ever to take up perfectly good screen time.

Ugh. I spit at the thought of them.