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Godzilla vs. Kong
Kaiju / English / 2021
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
And now our feature presentation.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
I read that this movie was probably going to be the best of the reboots because, per what I read, it featured the least human drama.
I wouldn't say that that's strictly true, but the conflicts immediately facing the human characters are definitely de-emphasized this time compared to the Godzilla v. Kong throwdown.
Now I didn't watch the King Kong movies because there's not a whole lot you can do with a giant monkey that thrills or surprises. That said, both of these monsters have legendary film histories (pun unintended) and it's absolutely appropriate that they should get a Versus movie.
Something I picked up on right away was that both Godzilla and Kong are considered "hero" monsters, they're the on-again, off-again, saviors of humanity when they're not an imminent threat to it. So not only do the creators not want to bias the outcome of their fight by just having one win and the other lose, they want to give both monsters a chance to shine, so they "both win" in a sense.
This was a accomplished in Batman v. Superman by introducing Wonder Woman, and she was definitely the highlight of that movie. So I immediately wondered what tertiary threat they could introduce that would have both Godzilla and Kong team up to fight? It would have to be a pretty significant foe with a history of their own, and I guessed Mechagodzilla.
I was totally right, and I'm not even upset.
The movie pads out it's runtime by trying to prove insinuations in the previous movie that in this universe, Hollow Earth is real, and is the ultimate origin of all Kaiju. This is eventually proven to be the case and it's claimed that Kong and Godzilla's ancestors are ancient rivals... which is not quite the sort of worldbuilding I had hoped they would go for.
I did question how Kong would be able to toe the line with Godzilla given he's just an ape (and doesn't have a hyper beam), but this is rationalized by him being far more dexterous than Godzilla and inventive enough to use tools, as an ape would, recovering an axe comprised of a Godzilla scale WHICH I KNEW at some point would be used to block a hyper beam and it was. That bit was honestly way too predictable.
It would have been better if Godzilla's atomic breath actually had a cooldown and he wasn't spamming it for much of the fight. Kong does get hit by it once and it's like a Stargate character getting a blaster in the back.
There's 3 bouts, Godzilla v. Kong on the ocean, which obviously goes to Godzilla cause it's his natural habitat. Credit for the creative environment; having Kong have to jump between aircraft carriers to tussle with Godzilla.
There's Godzilla v. Kong in the city, which I feel like is probably the most protracted fight of the series so far. I appreciate that, seeing them throw each other into buildings is exactly what I showed up to see. Kong... wins? And then loses... but I guess Godzilla doesn't finish him off out of some inexplicable respect? I don't get it. It'd make more sense if they better emphasized that Godzilla just was more focused on Mechagodzilla, who was the bigger threat.
And then there's the three-way, which consists in large part of Mechagodzilla beating the absolute **** out of Godzilla with missiles and rocket punches. Multiple times he just picks up Godzilla and rams him headfirst into a building, it was pretty good. And it makes sense that Kong would get the final blow in the end by ripping Mechagodzilla's head off, although I still don't think anything will beat barfing a nuke down the MUTO's throat.
The CG in this movie is so much better than Shin Godzilla and the main lizard himself is way more flexible, aesthetically pleasing, and even emotive. But there's also way more going on in King of the Monsters, with more enemies, more surprises, and more encounters to get creative with. If the human involvement in that movie was toned down to the level of their involvement in this movie... that movie would be way more enjoyable. Especially since this movie doesn't seem to take it's human characters too seriously.
We follow the daughter of the Evil Mom character in the last movie with her geeky friend as they go to meet up with some wacko conspiracy theorist who's ultimately proven right about the Hollow Earth and his company building something malevolent (Mechagodzilla) behind closed doors.
They could have made them way more funny, I can imagine a cast of quippy characters along the lines of Guardians of the Galaxy, just playing straight and leaning on the 4th wall as they spectate the events of this movie... but the writers are so much more invested in talking up their whole Expanded Universe lore involving Hollow Earth and the psionic powers of King Gidorah's skull to telepathically operate Mechagodzilla. Did you seriously pull that with a straight face?
Overall, it was nice, probably the least objectionable one of these movies I've seen, but also missing some of the best moments of the others. The best thing I can say about it is it occasionally hits moment like where at the end of Jurassic World, the Raptor and T-Rex corner the Indominus Rex only for it to be completely bodied by the Mosasaur they foreshadowed long enough ago for you to forget about it.
That's some golden moment stuff. Not that either of these movies maintain the thrill of that climax, but I was positively reminded of it while watching Godzilla vs. Kong.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
REWATCH UPDATE 3/20/24:
It's been much longer than I thought since I first watched this movie and evidently the human characters never mattered to me because I completely forgot about two of them who star in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.
I'm watching this immediately after New Empire for comparison's sake.
The main thing I noticed rewatching this is that while there are 3 main fights throughout the movie, it takes 40 whole minutes to get to the first one, and the second one begins 40 minutes after that, which then transitions directly into the third fight.
So despite being engaging and featuring "less drama" than the previous movies, there is still a tremendous amount of time burnt just building up to these fight scenes.
This isn't unique to this movie of course, but it really is the same problem that faces most martial arts movies. Just a lot of ****in' about that the audience has to sit through just to see the cool shit.
I don't give TV shows the time of day if they can't hook me with the first episode, and they've got a strict broadcast slot they have to write the entire show around. So honestly, where do movies get off wasting over half an hour of our time not selling us the title of the movie we paid to see?
I'm sure there's some people that believe the medium of television is just antithetical to telling a good story, but as someone who frequently harps on pacing, TV show writers, so long as they're not dragging shit out across multiple episodes, often put movie writers to shame.
Granted the "conflict" is established early enough in this movie, but the actual crisis that comes of it takes too ******* long.
The initial battle on the freighter and carrier ships in the ocean is honestly a really great fight, it's a creative environment that clearly slants the fight in favor of one of the monsters, and they still manage to force a "draw" by the end of it, but that's the sort of fight that should have opened the movie.
Like yes, please do establish that Godzilla is still at large and Kong is in captivity, and we want to bring him to Hollow Earth... and that's why we're transporting him on this freighter and that's when Godzilla attacks.
We don't need 40 minutes to set that up, and we don't need 40 minutes between that fight and the next either.
Conspiracy DJ and the kids really don't serve a purpose in the overarching story here other than to provide a villain-side perspective on where Mecha-Godzilla comes from, cause the rest of the cast has no idea and evidently the writers couldn't figure out how to write his origin into their perspectives for some reason.
I do appreciate that they used the anti-gravity craft as reincorporation to clutch defib Kong, that's significantly better writing than the Deus Ex Robot Glove that Kong gets in New Empire, although I'm sure the medical realism of defibbing Kong as his heart is slowing is fuzzy at best.
I know a lot of times when defibrillation is considered, the device will warn "no shock advised" because defibbing should really only be used under very particular circumstances. I wouldn't be thinking about this because it's just a dumb action movie, but once it's between established that Kong is dying, his heart rate is slowing, and we're considering defibrillating, this is the absolute WORST TIME to have one of those dramatic pauses between the human characters.
Shut the **** up and go zap the giant monkey!
Still good, just not as good as it should be. I'm not changing my rating.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
Godzilla vs. Kong
Kaiju / English / 2021
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
And now our feature presentation.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
I read that this movie was probably going to be the best of the reboots because, per what I read, it featured the least human drama.
I wouldn't say that that's strictly true, but the conflicts immediately facing the human characters are definitely de-emphasized this time compared to the Godzilla v. Kong throwdown.
Now I didn't watch the King Kong movies because there's not a whole lot you can do with a giant monkey that thrills or surprises. That said, both of these monsters have legendary film histories (pun unintended) and it's absolutely appropriate that they should get a Versus movie.
Something I picked up on right away was that both Godzilla and Kong are considered "hero" monsters, they're the on-again, off-again, saviors of humanity when they're not an imminent threat to it. So not only do the creators not want to bias the outcome of their fight by just having one win and the other lose, they want to give both monsters a chance to shine, so they "both win" in a sense.
This was a accomplished in Batman v. Superman by introducing Wonder Woman, and she was definitely the highlight of that movie. So I immediately wondered what tertiary threat they could introduce that would have both Godzilla and Kong team up to fight? It would have to be a pretty significant foe with a history of their own, and I guessed Mechagodzilla.
I was totally right, and I'm not even upset.
The movie pads out it's runtime by trying to prove insinuations in the previous movie that in this universe, Hollow Earth is real, and is the ultimate origin of all Kaiju. This is eventually proven to be the case and it's claimed that Kong and Godzilla's ancestors are ancient rivals... which is not quite the sort of worldbuilding I had hoped they would go for.
I did question how Kong would be able to toe the line with Godzilla given he's just an ape (and doesn't have a hyper beam), but this is rationalized by him being far more dexterous than Godzilla and inventive enough to use tools, as an ape would, recovering an axe comprised of a Godzilla scale WHICH I KNEW at some point would be used to block a hyper beam and it was. That bit was honestly way too predictable.
It would have been better if Godzilla's atomic breath actually had a cooldown and he wasn't spamming it for much of the fight. Kong does get hit by it once and it's like a Stargate character getting a blaster in the back.
There's 3 bouts, Godzilla v. Kong on the ocean, which obviously goes to Godzilla cause it's his natural habitat. Credit for the creative environment; having Kong have to jump between aircraft carriers to tussle with Godzilla.
There's Godzilla v. Kong in the city, which I feel like is probably the most protracted fight of the series so far. I appreciate that, seeing them throw each other into buildings is exactly what I showed up to see. Kong... wins? And then loses... but I guess Godzilla doesn't finish him off out of some inexplicable respect? I don't get it. It'd make more sense if they better emphasized that Godzilla just was more focused on Mechagodzilla, who was the bigger threat.
And then there's the three-way, which consists in large part of Mechagodzilla beating the absolute **** out of Godzilla with missiles and rocket punches. Multiple times he just picks up Godzilla and rams him headfirst into a building, it was pretty good. And it makes sense that Kong would get the final blow in the end by ripping Mechagodzilla's head off, although I still don't think anything will beat barfing a nuke down the MUTO's throat.
The CG in this movie is so much better than Shin Godzilla and the main lizard himself is way more flexible, aesthetically pleasing, and even emotive. But there's also way more going on in King of the Monsters, with more enemies, more surprises, and more encounters to get creative with. If the human involvement in that movie was toned down to the level of their involvement in this movie... that movie would be way more enjoyable. Especially since this movie doesn't seem to take it's human characters too seriously.
We follow the daughter of the Evil Mom character in the last movie with her geeky friend as they go to meet up with some wacko conspiracy theorist who's ultimately proven right about the Hollow Earth and his company building something malevolent (Mechagodzilla) behind closed doors.
They could have made them way more funny, I can imagine a cast of quippy characters along the lines of Guardians of the Galaxy, just playing straight and leaning on the 4th wall as they spectate the events of this movie... but the writers are so much more invested in talking up their whole Expanded Universe lore involving Hollow Earth and the psionic powers of King Gidorah's skull to telepathically operate Mechagodzilla. Did you seriously pull that with a straight face?
Overall, it was nice, probably the least objectionable one of these movies I've seen, but also missing some of the best moments of the others. The best thing I can say about it is it occasionally hits moment like where at the end of Jurassic World, the Raptor and T-Rex corner the Indominus Rex only for it to be completely bodied by the Mosasaur they foreshadowed long enough ago for you to forget about it.
That's some golden moment stuff. Not that either of these movies maintain the thrill of that climax, but I was positively reminded of it while watching Godzilla vs. Kong.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
REWATCH UPDATE 3/20/24:
It's been much longer than I thought since I first watched this movie and evidently the human characters never mattered to me because I completely forgot about two of them who star in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.
I'm watching this immediately after New Empire for comparison's sake.
The main thing I noticed rewatching this is that while there are 3 main fights throughout the movie, it takes 40 whole minutes to get to the first one, and the second one begins 40 minutes after that, which then transitions directly into the third fight.
So despite being engaging and featuring "less drama" than the previous movies, there is still a tremendous amount of time burnt just building up to these fight scenes.
This isn't unique to this movie of course, but it really is the same problem that faces most martial arts movies. Just a lot of ****in' about that the audience has to sit through just to see the cool shit.
I don't give TV shows the time of day if they can't hook me with the first episode, and they've got a strict broadcast slot they have to write the entire show around. So honestly, where do movies get off wasting over half an hour of our time not selling us the title of the movie we paid to see?
I'm sure there's some people that believe the medium of television is just antithetical to telling a good story, but as someone who frequently harps on pacing, TV show writers, so long as they're not dragging shit out across multiple episodes, often put movie writers to shame.
Granted the "conflict" is established early enough in this movie, but the actual crisis that comes of it takes too ******* long.
The initial battle on the freighter and carrier ships in the ocean is honestly a really great fight, it's a creative environment that clearly slants the fight in favor of one of the monsters, and they still manage to force a "draw" by the end of it, but that's the sort of fight that should have opened the movie.
Like yes, please do establish that Godzilla is still at large and Kong is in captivity, and we want to bring him to Hollow Earth... and that's why we're transporting him on this freighter and that's when Godzilla attacks.
We don't need 40 minutes to set that up, and we don't need 40 minutes between that fight and the next either.
Conspiracy DJ and the kids really don't serve a purpose in the overarching story here other than to provide a villain-side perspective on where Mecha-Godzilla comes from, cause the rest of the cast has no idea and evidently the writers couldn't figure out how to write his origin into their perspectives for some reason.
I do appreciate that they used the anti-gravity craft as reincorporation to clutch defib Kong, that's significantly better writing than the Deus Ex Robot Glove that Kong gets in New Empire, although I'm sure the medical realism of defibbing Kong as his heart is slowing is fuzzy at best.
I know a lot of times when defibrillation is considered, the device will warn "no shock advised" because defibbing should really only be used under very particular circumstances. I wouldn't be thinking about this because it's just a dumb action movie, but once it's between established that Kong is dying, his heart rate is slowing, and we're considering defibrillating, this is the absolute WORST TIME to have one of those dramatic pauses between the human characters.
Shut the **** up and go zap the giant monkey!
Still good, just not as good as it should be. I'm not changing my rating.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]