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Forums - Movies & TV - Godzilla vs Kong

For the moment, I rank Godzilla vs Kong as #9 in the series; the ones I place above it are the 2001 entry usually abbreviated to GMK, the 1954 original, Shin Godzilla, Godzilla vs Destoroyah, Godzilla vs Biollante, Godzilla 1984, Godzilla 2014, and King of the Monsters 2019. 

Still, #9 out of 36 ain't a bad effort. It's kaiju fights which are among the best in the series go a long way to mitigating its rather weak human element, and while it's lacking the deeper meaning found in the 1954, 1984, 2001, and even to a lesser extent the 2014 movie, it still succeeds as entertaining escapism.

Last edited by curl-6 - on 10 April 2021

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curl-6 said:

Personally, I thought the human components were fine in all the Legendary Pictures Godzilla films; they were far from Citizen Kane but they served their purpose, which is par for the course when it comes to the kaiju genre.

I actually found GvK the weakest of the three in this regard as there was nobody with the gravitas of Ken Watanabe or Brian Cranston this time around, or strong supporting actors like Sally Hawkins or Zhang Ziyi, but all the same, they got the job done.

That's on purpose. Humans were the main characters before. In this film they needed the actors to be somewhat forgettable just to serve the plot. Kong is the MC in this film.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

Ryuu96 said:

Imo, I didn't really like the human drama for KOTM or GvK, G14 was maybe the best for me cause it made Godzilla feel like a true force of nature, something terrifying from the humans perspective, it kept a consistent tone and it had Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe.

For KOTM I really only cared about Dr Serizawa but they killed him off so...Also the tone felt a bit off, one minute it was super serious then it was comedy, then it was super serious, the mothers reason for being a terrorist was ridiculously stupid and felt like a weak plot twist, I don't really remember anyone else except from Charles Dance but even he felt like he was just going through the motions.

Also the amount of times they cut back to the humans during the fight scenes was super annoying, hell the saddest scene in KOTM was Mothra's sacrifice, saving Godzilla's life knowing she didn't have a chance against Ghidorah, Godzilla's reaction to it. I couldn't have cared any less about the mothers death, her redemption felt unearned, I just wanted her out of the way so I could go back to seeing big monsters fight again.

Also would have preferred if it was Mothra who gave Godzilla that win.

Godzilla vs Kong I don't really care about anyone except the deaf girl and her mother, everyone else and their plots were either boring or just extremely stupid (Team Godzilla breaking into the highly secure facility with ease, finding out who the conspiracy theorist is by asking a few shops, defeating MechaGodzilla with whiskey).

The biggest mistake these Godzilla movies have made for their human side is killing off Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe's characters cause I couldn't care less about anyone else. Skull Island has the best human drama of the monster movies so far and again here it was Kong's side who had the best human story. They should bring in the Mothra twins.

@Jaicee You forgot about Son of Godzilla and All Monsters Attack for Tier 1.

Totally! Well actually the sad conclusion of Son of Godzilla has always gotten to me a little in a weird way. Yeah, I'm a sap, I know. But I know what you mean. All Monster's Attack...like that's just a clip movie wherein the best parts are actually the third-rate human drama about school(-related) bullying. Most of us I think had a Gabara in our lives at some point or other. It probably didn't involve being inexplicably kidnapped by bank robbers to make the women in the audience feel bad for working though. Seriously, why are they after this kid?? What is their deal? Yeah, that movie ranks near the bottom of my list. But at least the movie doesn't pretend to be more than what it is.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) is my absolute least favorite entry in the Godzilla franchise. I can see why the filmmakers highlighted the inclusion of Millie Bobby Brown in the promotional material, as she seemed to be only actor capable of giving her terrible script an almost-organic flow. I hated everything everything else about that movie, but most of all its pretense of having some kind of profound message about God and spirituality and all of that on offer with the cross imagery and Godzilla posing like he's an American wrestler when in point of fact the viewer struggles to even comprehend the utterly directionless motion of events transpiring before them. It's all dour, but about what? Why? Why is the apocalypse happening again? What is the grand spiritual metaphor in play here? Why am I supposed to care about these assholes? What is this family drama involving terrorism going on here? Why is this happening? Why why why why why whyyyyyyyyy????!! This movie presents itself as a powerful human drama with monsters anecdotally thrown in on the side. In actuality, it's a DC Films grade melodrama about nothing that would probably actually do better to have more monster scenes to make up some of the difference...if the monsters in those scenes came off as either awesome or believable on some level enough to be interesting. ...I don't know, it just feels like something that was crudely thrown together to cash in on the box office success of the previous entry in the trilogy and presented as an art film. The thing about art films is that they have art. This is the most American Godzilla movie I've ever seen before and I mean that in the worst sense and way. It's insufferable and in no way feels like an organic installment of this franchise.

Godzilla vs. Kong is the tonal opposite of the 2019 King of the Monsters. It's a movie about having awesome kaiju action fun. Is this a deep purpose? No. But it is a direction. At least this movie has the self-awareness to know what it's about. This makes it a substantially better and more enjoyable movie.



I feel like I fall almost completely on the other side of the coin haha, I really liked King of the Monsters.

Yeah, the plot was dumb, and the lame attempts at comedy fell flat and were tonally unfitting, but the same can be said of 90% of Godzilla films to be honest, even speaking as a fan.

For me, this was more than compensated for by the fantastic way the monsters were handled; they really seemed like godlike beings, and both Godzilla and Ghidorah had so much personality. The fights were fast paced and hard hitting without losing the sense of scale, and really seemed like giant creatures going at it. The cinematography in these scenes was awesome too, with a lot of majestic shots.

And the score, holy moly the score, easily one of the best in the series, from the amazing remixes of classic themes to excellent new ones, it evoked the franchise's roots while still sounding fresh and modern, and above all just epic.

It's not quite my favourite film in the franchise, but it's not too far off.



I saw it on HBO Max, was gonna wait for the theatrical release, but theaters unfortunately don't reopen for another month for me, so my decision was easy.

Really enjoyed it. The Godzilla-Kong romps were simply amazing, easily the best action scenes the MonsterVerse has had to offer at this point, and they made the clever choice of having the human characters follow the kaiju around and serve as a backdrop to the kaiju action, which really helped with the pacing. That's one (perhaps the biggest) area where the previous films really failed. I especially loved:

Spoiler!
The end fight scene with Mechagodzilla, who was dominating both of them and might've won if it weren't for those pesky humans spilling alcohol on its control booth.


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^Although I must say, one thing I really hated, and this isn't even a fault of the movie, but rather, the marketing (because WB are fucking idiots) was the fact that they spoiled the winner in just the second trailer, so I saw the outcome coming from a mile away. 

I mean, come on, it was obvious who was gonna win by the shots in that trailer. To quote AJ, WB, you done fucked it up (again).

Last edited by KManX89 - on 13 April 2021

Not sure about outlets in other countries, but the film hits Blu Ray and DVD here in Australia on the 23rd of June:

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/godzilla-vs-kong-2021-blu-ray

Nice, not too long a wait, I'll definitely be grabbing it day one to add to my collection.

EDIT: And apparently even sooner in the US (14th June) if this is legit:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Godzilla-vs-Kong-4K-Blu-ray/288713/

Last edited by curl-6 - on 01 May 2021

Kinda interesting, but always liked Kong better than Godzilla, Kong is an animal trying to survive, Godzilla is just a huge monster (to me, anyway).