[Movies] MonsterVerse (Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island)

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Godzilla: KOTM was a lot of fun. I have a weird rapport with it though because some of the references to the older movies made me grin, while others I was less enthusiastic about since they're story beats I've seen in a dozen other Godzilla movies. BUT, most American audiences haven't seen those movies, so it's new to them and I understand that.

Some little things that made me happy:
Ghidorah being coded Monster Zero at first
Mothra's theme
Godzilla's theme
The twins
Ghidorah's backstory

And climax spoilers/end credits stuff
HE ATE HIM. GODZILLA FUCKING ATE GHIDORAH. A character says "Jesus" in reaction, and I'm just like, yeah, yeah that's exactly the right reaction. Holy shit.
I wish Mothra hadn't died for the twentieth time, but holy craaaaap.
They do a good job setting up how Godzilla and Kong will probably be rival alphas next movie since various Titans seemed to split between them. The scene with some bowing to Godzilla felt so weird, and I'm struggling to remember what movie had a similar scene and vibe besides The Chronicles of Riddick.
The post-credits scene ... I'm not sure what it's implying, but my first thought was Mecha King Ghidorah.

After the post-credits, a brother and sister beside me were arguing about the monsters. I would've loved to hear the rest of that argument, but I had to go. When I was little, no one else cared, so it was just nice hearing kids so psyched about this stuff. :)


evilmike said:
MovieBob reviews the new movie:
Click to expand...
I endorse this review ... especially smashing toys together.

EDIT: And another thing! 40% on RT is ridiculous. I know it's not a grade, it's a consensus, but that consensus shouldn't be so close in score to Batman vs Superman.
 
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Denbrought

Denbrought

Also watched Godzilla KOTM last night. It very much knows its audience--if it sounds like the kind of movie you'd enjoy, you most likely will.

Felt half-baked in parts, predictable, and it didn't earn a lot of the emotional moments it grabbed for... But the kaiju stuff is excellent. If anything, the human stuff felt like too much (specially the main scientist couple). Also, Thomas Middleditch's character felt actively wrong for the movie. Not his fault, he's a good actor... Just the role and its lines felt awful and annoying. Also, the 3D added nothing to the screening (as usual, I guess). Glad it was a free screening, had fun but not enough to give them much money.
 
chris

chris

Hailey Knight said:
Ghidorah being coded Monster Zero at first
Mothra's theme
Godzilla's theme
The twins
Ghidorah's backstory
Click to expand...
Those made me happy likewise.

Hailey Knight said:
HE ATE HIM. GODZILLA FUCKING ATE GHIDORAH. A character says "Jesus" in reaction, and I'm just like, yeah, yeah that's exactly the right reaction. Holy shit.
I wish Mothra hadn't died for the twentieth time, but holy craaaaap.
They do a good job setting up how Godzilla and Kong will probably be rival alphas next movie since various Titans seemed to split between them. The scene with some bowing to Godzilla felt so weird, and I'm struggling to remember what movie had a similar scene and vibe besides The Chronicles of Riddick.
The post-credits scene ... I'm not sure what it's implying, but my first thought was Mecha King Ghidorah.
Click to expand...
And for the twentieth time the end credits reveal that Mothra laid a egg and will come back

The bowing at the end felt weird. Expecially with Rhodan. He reminded me of Starscream.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
About the RT stuff...One of the reviews I read said it was too violent. A movie about giant monsters fighting. Too violent.

Movie critics are usually fans of movies, but they tend towards a different genre than giant monsters fighting. Find a critic that aligns closely with you and listen to them. That Bob guy is a good example. Pure geekery.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Dave said:
About the RT stuff...One of the reviews I read said it was too violent. A movie about giant monsters fighting. Too violent.

Movie critics are usually fans of movies, but they tend towards a different genre than giant monsters fighting. Find a critic that aligns closely with you and listen to them. That Bob guy is a good example. Pure geekery.
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One of the negative review highlights: "I suppose action movie fans will be happy." That sentence says "I was pre-disposed to trash this." Like, I don't expect to put on Godzilla vs Mothra from 1964 and have it please a modern audience, but some of the reactions to this one come off as really doofy.
 
Tress

Tress

The audience score is high (91% last time I checked), so this is movie is making actual moviegoers happy. It wouldn’t be the first time that critics crapped on something that is made to appeal to geeks and action fans, only to have that movie go on to be a big success.
 
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chris

chris

Tress said:
They audience score is high (91% last time I checked), this is movie is making actual moviegoers happy. It wouldn’t be the first time that critics crapped on something that is made to appeal to geeks and action fans, only to have that movie go on to be a big success.
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<cough> Star Wars <cough>
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

I remember what movie the ending reminded me of.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, when they acknowledge Caesar as leader again. That's what it felt like when the monsters bow to Godzilla.
 
Cog

Cog

The guy who announced the oxygen destroyer weapon sounded like he knew how ridiculous that name was
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

So, okay, can someone explain something?

Where was Kong in all of this? They kept referencing him on monitors and such, but I don't think he was in the group shot at the end or seen live once in the movie.

Producing-wise, I understand they're keeping him for the next movie, Godzilla vs King Kong, but was there an in-universe reason?
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
So, okay, can someone explain something?

Where was Kong in all of this? They kept referencing him on monitors and such, but I don't think he was in the group shot at the end or seen live once in the movie.

Producing-wise, I understand they're keeping him for the next movie, Godzilla vs King Kong, but was there an in-universe reason?
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Kong was trashing stuff for Ghidorah, but they didn't really get into it since he's on an island in the middle of the Pacific.

Godzilla didn't have all the monsters around him at the end. I don't know if you stayed through the credits, but one of the newspapers mentioned other monsters heading to Skull Island and Skull Island experiencing issues. It seems they're setting up that the monsters we didn't see with Godzilla are treating Kong as an alpha, and then Kong will have to leave his territory if Skull Island disappears, so ... reasons for them to fight until the after-credits scene introduces a villain for them to fight.

Oh no, it IS Batman vs Superman!
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Hailey Knight said:
Kong was trashing stuff for Ghidorah, but they didn't really get into it since he's on an island in the middle of the Pacific.

Godzilla didn't have all the monsters around him at the end. I don't know if you stayed through the credits, but one of the newspapers mentioned other monsters heading to Skull Island and Skull Island experiencing issues. It seems they're setting up that the monsters we didn't see with Godzilla are treating Kong as an alpha, and then Kong will have to leave his territory if Skull Island disappears, so ... reasons for them to fight until the after-credits scene introduces a villain for them to fight.

Oh no, it IS Batman vs Superman!
Click to expand...
Ah, I hadn't caught everything from the headlines during the credits, so yeah, I missed that part. I wonder if they'll rename Skull Island to Monster Island by the end? They're already leaning hard on the rest of the mythology. Might as well go all out.

Also, funny enough, I've had this image saved since they announced their intentions for the MonsterVerse. Funny it's even more relevant now that Mothra was killed.

Save Mothra.jpg
 
Dei

Dei

Detective Pikachu is another good example of the reviewer problem. I knew I was going to like it when reviews had a definitive split between people who had a sense of joy towards Pokemon and the people who couldn't tell a Bulbasaur from a Turtwig.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Dei said:
Detective Pikachu is another good example of the reviewer problem. I knew I was going to like it when reviews had a definitive split between people who had a sense of joy towards Pokemon and the people who couldn't tell a Bulbasaur from a Turtwig.
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Yeah I know Pokemon but am not a fan and the movie bored me. My son IS a Pokemon fan and he liked it a lot more than me.
 
Frank

Frank

I'm more on the side of the critics and I love big giant monsters and such. I thought the story was such a mess, especially the new trend of Hollywood writers and producers now self inserting their divorced dad energy into fucking everything, which can fuck right off. The biggest crime was the monster fighting was mostly...well, shitty. Godzilla would bungle into Ghidorah, they would tussle, Godzilla would fall down and then take a nap for 10 minutes. There was nothing as awe-inspiring as the final big fight in the 2014 movie. Nothing as cool as Godzilla pulling the mouth of the other monster's mouth open and atomic breathing the shit out of it. They could have stolen some of the more terrifying aspects of Shin Godzilla, which also had more interesting monster interactions with the world, from his breath coalescing into the atomic beam or him sending that wave of destructive fire through the city.

I "liked" it, but I was definitely disappointed. Like I said in the other thread, it's not Pacific Rim 2 shit, but I felt it wasn't great either.

I'm gonna chuck the sequence from Shin Godzilla I was referring to here

 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

KOTM isn't going to crack my top five Godzilla movies, let alone my top five kaiju movies, but I still had fun.

I'm supposed to check out Possum tomorrow, but now I want to re-watch Shin Godzilla. That movie is so good, every human scene feels intense. Scene after scene of this group, eager to do what they can and break through government bureaucracy to help everyone. And then the Godzilla scenes are straight-up horror. My second favorite Godzilla movie without question.
 
Sara_2814

Sara_2814

I’m going to see KOTM tomorrow. So excited.

I got a subscription to STARZ for a month (they have a bunch of Godzilla movies) and I watched the first one yesterday, the actual sub-titled original (which I’ve never seen before) not the version with Raymond Burr hacked into it. Wow, so much better!
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Sara_2814 said:
I got a subscription to STARZ for a month (they have a bunch of Godzilla movies) and I watched the first one yesterday, the actual sub-titled original (which I’ve never seen before) not the version with Raymond Burr hacked into it. Wow, so much better!
Click to expand...
It's criminal what localization did to that movie.
 
Sara_2814

Sara_2814

I liked it. It was fun.

The human story was a bit meh. The parents annoyed me. I agree with the soldier who said that if they were his parents, he'd run away, too. Poor Maddy. And they were just... I don't know. The dad who hates kaiju and wants to kill them all (understandable given the back story) but then suddenly is Godzilla's biggest fan, without any conflicted feelings. And then the mom, who wants to Kill All Humans in honor of her dead son—putting her daughter's life at risk... ooookaaaaayyyyy. Also, the military/Monarch was incompetent, like they really thought some puny automatic weapons would do anything to Ghidorah? And then buzzing their planes around giant flying creatures for... reasons. When Rodan whacked the first jet, they should have moved a bit farther away?

Ok, the humans were kinda dumb, but I loved the kaiju.

I'm sad that Mothra died, but hopefully Daughter of Mothra will be back. (Mothra Twins activate?)

I like that Godzilla gave Rodan the stink-eye at the end. "I'll be watching you, buddy..." LOL

It was kind of overdone, but every time Godzilla suddenly appeared to save the day, I was all "WHOOOOOO YEAAAAAHHHHH!!! (in my head)

I really liked the mythology, that the kaiju are the legendary Titans. And Godzilla's home, could that be Atlantis? I hope they keep going with developing the mythology of the kaiju.

Missed the post-credit, because Potty Emergency, so that will have to wait until I buy the movie.
[\spoiler]
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Sara_2814 said:
I liked it. It was fun.

The human story was a bit meh. The parents annoyed me. I agree with the soldier who said that if they were his parents, he'd run away, too. Poor Maddy. And they were just... I don't know. The dad who hates kaiju and wants to kill them all (understandable given the back story) but then suddenly is Godzilla's biggest fan, without any conflicted feelings. And then the mom, who wants to Kill All Humans in honor of her dead son—putting her daughter's life at risk... ooookaaaaayyyyy. Also, the military/Monarch was incompetent, like they really thought some puny automatic weapons would do anything to Ghidorah? And then buzzing their planes around giant flying creatures for... reasons. When Rodan whacked the first jet, they should have moved a bit farther away?

Ok, the humans were kinda dumb, but I loved the kaiju.

I'm sad that Mothra died, but hopefully Daughter of Mothra will be back. (Mothra Twins activate?)

I like that Godzilla gave Rodan the stink-eye at the end. "I'll be watching you, buddy..." LOL

It was kind of overdone, but every time Godzilla suddenly appeared to save the day, I was all "WHOOOOOO YEAAAAAHHHHH!!! (in my head)

I really liked the mythology, that the kaiju are the legendary Titans. And Godzilla's home, could that be Atlantis? I hope they keep going with developing the mythology of the kaiju.

Missed the post-credit, because Potty Emergency, so that will have to wait until I buy the movie.
[\spoiler]
Click to expand...
The post-credits scene wasn't much of anything. I took a bathroom break and apparently missed the explanation of symbiotic relationship between Godzilla and Mothra, so you made the better choice.
 
Tress

Tress

Finally saw it and loved it. I’ve been a Godzilla fan for most of my life, and I feel like this did a good job appeasing me in that regard. I don’t know how much a non-Godzilla fan would get out of this. And yes, most of the human plot line was dumb. Still had a good time overall.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Tress said:
Finally saw it and loved it. I’ve been a Godzilla fan for most of my life, and I feel like this did a good job appeasing me in that regard. I don’t know how much a non-Godzilla fan would get out of this. And yes, most of the human plot line was dumb. Still had a good time overall.
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I wouldn't really call myself a Godzilla fan. I'd only heard of or seen brief clips or gifs from the older movies. Saw the American 90s one with Matthew Broderick and I think the one where Godzilla fights THAT version for like 5 glorious seconds. And I thought the one from a few years ago was...okay.

So I inch close to non-fan than fan. And I dug the HELL out of it.
 
Null

Null

Yeah I loved the hell out of it. It's dumb, the plot's kind of nonsense, but it promises massive monster fights and mass destruction, and it fucking delivers. That's really all I asked for.

Also, I could still see this leading into a Pacific Rim crossover. "The Aliens, learning of King Ghidorah's death, decide that to conquer Earth, they must destroy its defenders - the Titans - with their Kaiju. To fight alongside the Titans against the Kaiju, Monarch institutes the Jaeger program."
 
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