Amph "There's More Than One King" - The MonsterVerse [Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire]

This actually makes me think a bit about how each iteration of Godzilla (barring the Millennium era, since that's just reboot after reboot apart from the Kiryu duology) tend to start with a much darker movie with more dramatic stakes at play, and then lose whatever traces of realism/tangibility it had by movie three as it mutates into something much goofier.

Showa: Godzilla (1954), Godzilla Raids Again, King Kong vs Godzilla
Heisei: The Return of Godzilla, Godzilla vs Biollante, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (time travel, woo!)
MonsterVerse: Godzilla (2014), Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs Kong

In the MonsterVerse we started at a point where Godzilla's arrival on the mainland causes tsunamis and leaves a path of destruction around him, and are now at a point where what was a slow, lumbering beast that felt enormous a few years ago is now running around like a six foot guy in a monster suit. I personally find both takes to be equally valid, though pretty strikingly different, so it always amuses me to see just which particular "flavor" each individual filmmaker goes with. Gareth Edwards is all about that sheer sense of scale and making the human beings feel tiny in comparison (which he also showed off in the way he shot Rogue One), and Adam Wingard just went right for it with a crazy monster brawl where Godzilla straight up laughs and emotes at various points like in an old Showa era film. It amuses me that both exist in the MonsterVerse, even though they aren't really compatible, and that canon is already starting to feel a bit loose.

Also, since Pacific Rim was brought up, I'm just going to add that that is actually my very favorite film of this wave of American "kaiju" films that have been coming out since 2010 or so. I absolutely adore what Guillermo del Toro did there. Then comes the four MonsterVerse films, in some jumbled order (I feel like that fluctuates a lot, but I enjoy each of them for different reasons), and then Pacific Rim: Uprising, which I really didn't enjoy much at all. I also haven't bothered watching movies like Rampage or Monster Hunter.

Also, since I mentioned Godzilla vs Biollante above, that one was actually my very favorite Godzilla movie as a kid, but I haven't seen it since I was a kid now since the DVD and Blu-ray releases are out of print here in the States, with no way to get ahold of them for anything even resembling a reasonable price. I think overall, my top three Godzilla movies are likely Godzilla (1954), Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, and Shin Godzilla.

One monster that I would really like to see in a future MonsterVerse movie, presuming there are indeed more to come post-Godzilla vs Kong, is Gigan. I'd love to see him go through a series of upgrades as the film progresses (similar to his shift from the hook hands to the chainsaw hands in Godzilla: Final Wars, but to a more extreme extent) over time as the film goes on; maybe have him come down to Earth with an alien race that is acting as his caretaker of sorts and providing all of these insane new upgrades, with all kinds of new machinery and weaponry constantly being grafted to his skin, destroyed by Godzilla, and new machinery then put in place. They could channel a bit of a modern Doom video game series aesthetic with him, in the way that various demons there have all sorts of tech haphazardly grafted onto their bodies.

I would also be pretty interested in seeing a modern take on Hedorah, with some really grotesque depictions of his transformations into his various forms.

 

If you turn your brain off, Godzilla v Kong is enjoyable. The human story is thin and they’re only there for exposition. If you think too hard about the nonsense that comes out of the humans mouth then you’ll stop enjoying so keep your brain off.

I did like Half In the Bag’s review where Jay said for good and for bad the movie felt like a kid playing with his toys.

I also watched Screen Rant’s Pitch Meeting and I didn’t make the connection because my brain was turned off but

Spoiler

the axe that Kong used is made of a piece of a scale off of an old Godzilla’s back. Makes sense why it was able to absorb Godzilla’s attack energy. I just thought it was a sharp piece of rock that had the same radioactive elements that were used to power Mechagodzilla

tags plz, movie has only been out a few days. /heels


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

@heels1785 Sorry, I'm an idiot. I used strike out instead of spoiler tag. Thanks for tagging. If you can fix the strike out part in the tags, that would be cool.

 

Saw it Wednesday, loved it

 

It looks like it's a big hit (even more so as it debuted on HBO Max as well) so how about a sequel?

 

The logical sequel would be a teamup with some Jaegers to form a league or squad and battle alien kaiju to save the human race.

 

Can a sequel be made? I thought the rights have to go back to Toho now which is why they could only make 4 movies.

 

I've been meaning to post briefly here. When Peter Jackson's King Kong film came out, I was one of those that was very disappointed and found it to have deeply distasteful racial overtones. Mostly, I found it implausible that he would be so dismissive of the native presence that was so obviously trying to interact with him, but so extremely solicitous of the first white woman he ever met. In making his human connection an indigenous child, they at least addressed that critique somewhat. I am glad of it.

The film overall was also okay. Honestly though, I probably liked the last Godzilla just as well. The series has a consistent quality.

 

Toho could always lease the character to Legendary again. And why not? They get to distribute the film in Japan without the costs of actually making the movie. So it's very possible a deal can be reached.

 

Toho were wanting to reboot their series again with no conflicts the last heard. I certainly hope they do reach an agreement since I want the MonsterVerse to continue.

 

I do hope that Toho proceeds with their "World of Godzilla" project in the near future, so if the Godzilla side of the MonsterVerse does continue (I have no doubt that the Kong side will continue, even if we never see Godzilla again), I hope it is in a way that doesn't prevent Toho from also continuing to make live action Godzilla films concurrently.

 

A modern take on Hedorah would be very unsettling (I like him for how -gross yet silly- his forms were in the original), and Gigan would be fun too. Naturally, I’d throw Megalon in there because giant icky bug-weird Kaiju who spits flaming meteors (a.k.a. fiery meatballs according to seven year old me)...but I’d be super happy with more with Mothra and Ghidorah.

 

This latest Monsterverse quadrilogy did seem to kinda end with a note of finality, but whatever happens, there will no doubt be more films here, there, and everywhere, and we are all together.

Great ideas from y'all on possibly including more kaiju like Gigan, Hedorah, and Megalon.

Wherever the studios and their deals or lack thereof take things; surely kaiju fans will follow.
I know I'll be there.

And more Mosura please.

 

I am looking forward to whatever Toho and their licensees come up with next.

Oh...lots of Gojira, Mothra merch incoming

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Search?SearchText=Godzilla
^
I think I need the Monopoly Godzilla edition.

 

One thing the film industry has taught me is the power of the almighty $$. If executives think there is profit to be made, deals will happen. I hope somehow we can have both Toho original Godzilla movies while Legendary keeps using their version too, even if as a supporting character who pops in to help out at the end.

 

I actually have that Godzilla Monopoly. It's sweet!

 

Noooooooooooo!

The last thing anyone here needs is for something to have a Monopoly of Gojira!!!

 

“You stomped my city!”

and what happens when you pass Go? (Go directly to Monarch’s kaiju holding pen )

 

Some of the properties should be "Crater that was once San Francisco" or "Footprint Hole"