Godzilla vs Kong

[Cephus]

So I actually read last night that the reason there aren’t any more hints is because the deal with TOHO expired in 2020, and hadn’t yet been renewed or reworked...so as it stands, they can’t actually have another Godzilla film.

I’m not sure if that means anything for Kong, though.

I have trouble thinking Toho is going to sign anything. The only reason Legendary got a shot is because at the time, Toho had stopped making Godzilla movies. Now that there's a clear market for them, they're going to take the license back.

And I think that's a good thing.

 

[Cephus]

Epic fight scenes.

HIGHLY recommend skipping scenes involving people. Utter trash stories and acting that just ruin what would have been an epic monster centered film. The fighting was intense and def felt reali in scale and speed.

That's the problem with all of the Legendary movies. Crappy characters nobody cares about and a few short monster fight sequences.

 

[Riv]

Met my expectations of having a giant ape smack a radioactive lizard for 2 hours. But I have so many questions about this monsterverse's lore (probably shouldn't even bother, but I can't help it):

1. So Kong was from the hollow earth? That was his 'throne' and his axe? He seemed to know about it, but I'm still not sure what "home" is to Kong.
2. Who built that hall and set up the cool "activation" sequence when the axe is placed in the right slot- Kong and his people? They had ape architects?
3. There's now a giant gaping hole from Hong Kong to the hollow earth world. Ok, cool. Sure that won't be a thing.
4. What was driving Mechagodzilla once the human pilot was removed? The remaining 'spirit' of Ghidorah? Or it just had a mind of its own for some reason?
5. Even going back to KoTM the whole underwater Atlantian ruin felt like a big question that didn't get addressed but didn't really care as much then. But doubling down on these un-described ancient civilizations here is starting to bug me.
6. So... what's the source of that 'sun' light in the hollow world?
7. The last two movies have had a similar theme of "mother scientist figure who puts her child/ward in danger on a regular basis of doing her job". Not sure what to take away from that.

Sigh. It's a movie about monsters bashing each other and demolishing iconic cityscapes and I really shouldn't be this invested in the 'lore' behind it...

 

[Monkey67]

Aweful, just aweful. Rather just watched a game of rock’em sock’em robots dressed up a kong and Godzilla

the kids are pointless. No need for them and waste of time. Could of used the time better to were monster would be doing ghetto blasters and flying elbows off skyscrapers.

D-

 

[Usagi Pilgrim]

It was better than KoM, fight wise. A great popcorn flick, & although I agree with all the WTF, the only thing that made me roll my eyes & laugh out loud, was when the mom of the DEAF girl, YELLED HER NAME, as the girl walked away.

LOL

 

[CessnaDriver]

I was good with it as a G fan. It was more Kong-centric for my tastes but I expected that. Is this really the end of the Monsterverse films? Pity. Was just getting started.

 

[B-Movie Zombie]

Just got done watching it. Thought it was good, solid B, if I had to give it a grade. My biggest complaint was how skinny Mechagodilla look. Tbough it look way better in Ready Player One.

 

[JediG60racer]

I'm not sure what the deal with Julian Dennison is. He keeps showing up in movies and I'm not sure why Hollywood is trying so hard to make him a thing. He's got very little acting talent. He's like the young male version of Rebel Wilson. Not a lot of charm, personality, appeal or range. Is he related to some powers that be in the industry? I mean, seriously. What the heck. He completely took away from every scene he was in.

Millie Bobby Brown's whole presence in this movie was wasted. The exposition and infodumping that her whole storyline revealed could have been treated very matter of factly instead of like a Scooby Doo episode. She was not necessary in this movie, neither was Brian Henry's character. Which is a shame because they're both very fun, talented actors.

I feel like they could have taken all that time wasted on the scooby doo storyline and developed the baddies from Apex much more intelligently, given us more insight into the Ghidorah skull interface - is he alive?? Lots to delve into there without the wacky capers of the useless trio.

The mecha CGI was not up to par with the rest of the movie. Felt like it would be more at home in a photorealistic cartoon. Didn't match Godzilla or Kong in terms of lighting or texture.

BUT... Overall my expectations of a kaiju movie are low, so I'm never really disappointed. To quote Hulk: "BIG MONSTER!!!"
That's enough. Wasn't expecting cinematic excellence. Big monsters fighting big robots? I'm good.

 

[CessnaDriver]

I think her role was to have someone still believe in Godzilla and carry over from the last film. But yeah...

 

[Cephus]

I just sat through that thing and it was utterly awful, as I predicted. In fact, the second I saw the trailer, I knew everything that was going to happen in the movie. There is zero creativity in Hollywood. Terrible characters with zero story arc and no impact on the plot, half of them are comedy relief and the rest are just morons. The monster fights, while numerous, weren't really impressive. Heck the Godzilla/Kong fight in Hong Kong was a video game cut scene filmed in technicolor vomit. And of course, you know they're going to team up because the filmmakers are spineless. They never would have survived if they had actually let Kong or Godzilla win so they wimped out, just like they always do. And apparently, whoever wrote this movie, they've never seen any of the others because they forgot a ton of plot points and continuity is apparently just a suggestion.

Sorry, it was just dumb. They held onto this for a year, why?

 

[nickytea]

Terrible characters with zero story arc and no impact on the plot

Sorry you didn't have a connection with the movie, but this point is provably wrong.

There are at least three distinct human character arcs, and I would argue that Kong (and to a lesser extent, Godzilla) enact behavioral changes as a direct result of their interaction. Additionally, the ultimate conclusion and overcoming of the antagonistic force was the direct result of multiple characters affecting the monsters. Not only does Jia convince Kong to save Godzilla, but Nathan saves his life by using the HEAV as a defibrillator ... and Team Z successfully hacks Mecha to give Kong a leg up.

Again, I've got no problem with folks not connecting with the movie, but I think the screenwriting is exceptionally well done. Invisibly so. Lean, and seemingly effortless. Simplicity is always harder than complexity, and I think it was exactly what was needed here. God(zilla) above, King (Kong) below. Poetry in motion. The Jia/Kong relationship was a particular highlight for me.

 

[somerset fox]

Although a pure popcorn spectacular, the story did feel like the screenwriter had given some kids a Godzilla and Kong toy to play with and written down what he saw them coming up with. The whole Godzilla burning a hole through miles and miles of the earth to EXACTLY were Kong was and then Kong climbing out of the hole, is when my disbelief packed it’s bag and said ‘that’s it, I’m outta here’!

Also, and I am happy to be put right, the sizes of G and K seem to vary as the plot requires, as Kong seems to be 100s of feet tall relative when jumping amongst the skyscrapers in Hong Kong, towering over them, but only very big when on the boat.

 

[CessnaDriver]

Sometimes you have to watch things like your 8 years old. Which is probably how old I was when I watched these guys fight the first time.

 

[dascoyne]

Good lord, that was bad.

I have a problem with modern kaiju films (i.e. Legendary Pictures films) with formulaically contrived human stories. It's even worse when they depend on making them "quirky" or gimmicky to make them interesting (e.g. bonding over fluoridated tap water, deaf kid who signs to Kong etc.) or with by-the-numbers sci-fi subplot (spaceships to hollow earth) or a conspiracy subplot (Apex cybernetics). It just makes the movie more laborious to watch. Nobody cares about those subplots because they are entirely superfluous. The Kong films probably got the closest to having characters that were remotely interesting.

Another tendency is the over-anthropomorphization of kaiju, and Godzilla in particular. There seems to be some unspoken dictum in western screenplays that the principle characters - even animals, robots or monsters - need to be humanly relatable. Editing of the fight between Kong and Godzilla was just laughably horrid. e.g. Mechagodzilla about to make a finishing blow to Godzilla when Kong (predictably) pounces on his back and pulls him off. Cut to a dumb closeup reaction shot of Godzilla's face. (Groan). But, the shot that takes the cake is Godzilla walking away from Kong at the end - the reverse over-the-shoulder-shot of Godzilla with Kong in the background. And don't even get me started on Kong/Thor or Godzilla and Kong screaming in each other's grill.

Successful modern kaiju films treat them like monsters, not people. They don't have to be relatable to be interesting. Sure, the later Toho films had a campy Godzilla when camp was in style, but today that is not the case.

How to do modern kaiju right:
Pacific Rim - was a great film. Conceptually, the jaeger/human story was good enough to stand on its own and the kaiju was the frosting on the cake.
Shin Godzilla - Even though CG was technically more primitive than GvK, Shin Godzilla's design was alien and horrific because you couldn't relate to it's appearance or motivation.