GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Full review

Spoiler

I'm sad to say that as excited as I was for this one I was disappointed. It just didn't really do it for me, and I say this as someone who has liked all the Monsterverse films very much. Especially GvK, which I was really hoping this movie would feel more like. 

My biggest issues were pacing and tone. Forcing this movie to be under 2 hours was a mistake. Every scene felt too short, like it had been chopped up in the editing room. The fight scenes, though there were many, all felt like they lasted just a minute (some did) and the final battle left me pretty underwhelmed. It all goes by too fast for anything to stick with you. It never gives itself time to slow down and let you appreciate the moment, which at times it could have really benefitted from. There was no anticipation or build up to anything. Combined with the movie constantly being cranked up to 11, there were no real standout moments and it all sort of blurred together into a big blob of a movie. As I was leaving the theater it felt like I hadn't even watched it.

And I was definitely not a fan of the sardonic Marvel style writing of the humans. The lack of sincerity and constant need for everybody to be funny and make quippy remarks really rubs me the wrong way. With one or two exceptions none of the jokes landed for me and their presence felt far bigger than it really was. The past MV films would have really crazy things happening onscreen but they would play it straight and the characters took it seriously for the most part. Not everything had to feel like a big joke. They only exist to give exposition dumps and the way they went about doing it felt very forced and unnatural. The movie could have greatly benefitted from more silence. Which strangely I felt was the original intention, but the execs must've forced them to have more dialogue.

There was potential for some very emotional character scenes with the titans that were not capitalized on. Kong discovering the other apes did not feel as grand or as emotional as it could have. And I was greatly looking forward to Goji's reunion with Mothra, but it just sort of happened and was over in an instant with no further contemplation. Godzilla was greatly underutilized this time around. I'm down with these movies being more Kong focused but Goji had very little overall presence in the film. Their team up happens too late and there wasn't much of a dynamic between them.

I may have to see it again for me to warm up to it, but this was the only MV I didn't enjoy the first time I saw it. Which is not a good sign. It's a noticeable step down from the previous entry. GvK just sort of clicked for me. I thought it had the perfect mixture of serious and absurd, and it knew when to slow down and let the moment just play out naturally. That all being said there were things I liked. Kong's story was great. All the monsters were brimming with character, and I am more confident than ever that an all monster film could work wonderfully. All the jokes involving the monsters I thought landed. Hollow Earth was beautifully rendered. And Godzilla was a total beast in this! He melts through kaiju in a way only Finalgoji out does. And there were some interesting lore developments and cool Easter eggs for keen eyed fans.

[close]

Final score: 5/10

Current MV ranking:
Godzilla vs Kong
Godzilla 2014
Skull Island
King of the Monsters
Godzilla x Kong

Spoiler

I agree with your comments, especially your criticisms regarding the monsters' interactions. Mothra, Godzilla, and Kong only come together really late in the movie, and when they do so they don't get any moments to slow down, interact, or develop any sort of dynamic. When they're all battling in Hollow Earth and Rio, it seems like the monsters are just having a few different 1v1s within the same general vicinity as opposed to feeling like a genuine team-up. This film did disappoint me a bit in that regard.

[close]

Spoiler

They did a lot of passing off one enemy to another. Skar King gets thrown by Kong Godzilla tail whacks him. Kong holds Skar, Godzilla givea look to Shimo who realizes she's free and blasts Skar with her ice power. It's all fast I grant you that, like each knew what they were supposed to do and did it.   Some were complaining about Godzilla being sort of mindless and nonchalant. I summed it up with this. This film was about Kong, his life and future. For Godzilla it was 9-5 on a Tuesday.

[close]

It is fun to think about how different things must seem from Godzilla's perspective. In the millions of years he's been alive he's seen and been through so much. In comparison all of the events since 2014 may have felt like just a week for him. Meanwhile Kong is probably just over 100 years old. The things that Godzilla has personally experienced (the great war) are ancient history to him.

It's true. Goji just does what he does. He's the balancer of nature a role he seems comfortable with. He doesn't get super emotional.  I still wonder at some of his decisions in GxK though it seems most fans/viewers are ok with everything he did. 

[Brocc21]

We learned a little more about the great war. It was confirmed (or atleast strongly implied) that Godzilla himself was Zo-Zla Halawa. The Gojira specimen who "swallowed a star and became wicked". So it seems the current story is that Kong's race was winning the war, and nearly genocided Godzilla's species. Before Godzilla became ultra powerful and defeated them single handedly.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

We learned a little more about the great war. It was confirmed (or atleast strongly implied) that Godzilla himself was Zo-Zla Halawa. The Gojira specimen who "swallowed a star and became wicked". So it seems the current story is that Kong's race was winning the war, and nearly genocided Godzilla's species. Before Godzilla became ultra powerful and defeated them single handedly.

I didn't really get that implication. I recall Skar started the war between Kongs and Godzilla's species?  I can't recall what exactly it meant that he "swallowed a star" unless it's just a reference to his breath weapon? So that would mean other Godzilla's didn't have it?  There is also no explanation still for the flying Godzilla we've seen in cave paintings.

[Brocc21]

We learned a little more about the great war. It was confirmed (or atleast strongly implied) that Godzilla himself was Zo-Zla Halawa. The Gojira specimen who "swallowed a star and became wicked". So it seems the current story is that Kong's race was winning the war, and nearly genocided Godzilla's species. Before Godzilla became ultra powerful and defeated them single handedly.

I didn't really get that implication. I recall Skar started the war between Kongs and Godzilla's species?  I can't recall what exactly it meant that he "swallowed a star" unless it's just a reference to his breath weapon? So that would mean other Godzilla's didn't have it?  There is also no explanation still for the flying Godzilla we've seen in cave paintings.

It's during the scene where Ilene reads off the walls of the Iwi temple. I may have misunderstood, but she said that "The one who ate a star" sealed away Skar King and his apes in the Hollow Earth, and believed it to be Godzilla. Interestingly she didn't say the name Zo-Zla, and I actually thought it sounded like they had edited the original line post filming to remove his name. We didn't really learn much more about his feats outside of this and have no more information as to what his name means that wasn't already revealed in the books.

If Godzilla and Zo-Zla are one, then obviously he is no longer as powerful as he once was. But we've already seen Goji's power levels change multiple times now (Supercharged, Burning, Evolved). Zo-Zla being the only figure depicted in blue would seem to imply that he is Godzilla, at least in my opinion. By "eating a star" he must have absorbed some power source in the hollow earth, and if he was able to do this then I think it makes more since if atomic power was already innate to his species. The wings he's depicted with may not be real, but like the Mothra wings in Goji's atomic pulse.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

We learned a little more about the great war. It was confirmed (or atleast strongly implied) that Godzilla himself was Zo-Zla Halawa. The Gojira specimen who "swallowed a star and became wicked". So it seems the current story is that Kong's race was winning the war, and nearly genocided Godzilla's species. Before Godzilla became ultra powerful and defeated them single handedly.

I didn't really get that implication. I recall Skar started the war between Kongs and Godzilla's species?  I can't recall what exactly it meant that he "swallowed a star" unless it's just a reference to his breath weapon? So that would mean other Godzilla's didn't have it?  There is also no explanation still for the flying Godzilla we've seen in cave paintings.

It's during the scene where Ilene reads off the walls of the Iwi temple. I may have misunderstood, but she said that "The one who ate a star" sealed away Skar King and his apes in the Hollow Earth, and believed it to be Godzilla. Interestingly she didn't say the name Zo-Zla, and I actually thought it sounded like they had edited the original line post filming to remove his name. We didn't really learn much more about his feats outside of this and have no more information as to what his name means that wasn't already revealed in the books.

If Godzilla and Zo-Zla are one, then obviously he is no longer as powerful as he once was. But we've already seen Goji's power levels change multiple times now (Supercharged, Burning, Evolved). Zo-Zla being the only figure depicted in blue would seem to imply that he is Godzilla, at least in my opinion. By "eating a star" he must have absorbed some power source in the hollow earth, and if he was able to do this then I think it makes more since if atomic power was already innate to his species. The wings he's depicted with may not be real, but like the Mothra wings in Goji's atomic pulse.

In 2014 and in Monarch Godzilla was shown to not be that strong..surely not strong enough to take on Skar and his army. You did say he could have changed but we've never seen Godzilla go backward in terms of strength..yet.  It could have been another Godzilla..the star reference,flight, and the crystals of the hollow earth including Shimo's control ( mind control ) crystal makes me really feel a Space Godzilla is possible.  SG certainly could have imprisoned Skar and would have been a lot more powerful.

[HD-man]

I donated blood yesterday & got this shirt:

[MLMjp]

The worst part of the movie was the fact that I had to wait two weeks to watch it only for my best friend not being able to join me (we watched KOTM and GvK together).

Spoiler

And the fact that I got spoiled that Mothra was in the movie, not because of the trailers that I purposely avoided, but because an idiot posted on instagram a custom Mothra figure back when we only had the first trailer (based on a leaked toy photo), and a reddit user who made a post without a spoiler, and a youtuber who I was just watching his Hiya toys reviews that had a video talking about it...All when we only had the first trailer.

All my efforts to avoid spoilers for nothing. To hell with them!

[close]

Spoiler

Anyway, the film itself, I had a blast and I came exhausted from the theater, it was apotheosic!. But I had this little voice in the back of my head telling me "there are a lot of things wrong here".

Now it is pretty obvious what GxK is supposed to be, dumb fun action blockbuster, and that is great, but I also think it can still be a fun ride while being a better film and not too dumb.

The major issue is the pacing, it's way too fast. The Kong side of the story was fine, but the Godzilla and human parts were always at x2 speed, straight to the plot, straight to the action. Give me a calm moment with the characters, give me some time to build up tension to the action scenes! When we meet the Hollow Earth Iwi tribe, give me a moment to get to know them like in Skull Island, instead of jumping directly into plot, build some tension before Godzilla does anything, like in the Pensacola attack or his first fight with Kong in the sea in GvK.

It's very obvious that they cut some stuff. With an extra 10 minutes we could have got some extended scenes that would have solved this pacing issue.

Potential plot holes,conveniences and errors that stand out:

-Why Skar King didn't find a way to the surface earlier if he was there for so long?
-Was Mothra summoned out of nowhere or somehow her larva went to Hollow Earth and cocooned herself where the Iwi were?
-If the Iwi worship Mothra and have a connection with her, what does that imply about the Cheng sisters from KOTM? You know, the supposed Shobijin of this universe...
-The BEAST glove is conveniently already in the Hollow Earth.
-How does the crystal that controls Shimo work exactly? Is it a part of her? At first I thought Scar King had telepathic abilities, when his blue eyes appeared in Jia's vision, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Now I heard the role of Mothra was actually originally given to a new titan, but after test screenings and realizing it was so similar to her, they changed it. Good call on their part, but they obviously forgot to tweak some stuff.

Scylla and Tiamat were wasted, especially the latter, her film debut and she gets killed. Damn.

Humans were fine, focusing on a smaller cast is a good choice, but again, we needed more calm moments with them. I liked the veterinarian guy, Bernie though, I found him a bit annoying here compared to GvK.

Godzilla's evolved form has grown on me, But I can´t help to think...Did he really need to evolve? Sure we did see him being more agile but that didn't exactly play a part in the final fight...And I am a sucker for the 2019-2021 design...

Ok, enough complaining, Kong's story as always is great, with a lot of it being told without a single word, body language is enough to communicate everything. His relationship with Suko and how they eventually bond with each other was great. Skar King was awesome, the whole sequence in his territory was fantastic, from Kong being kind, Skar King's presentation, their fight with the other apes chanting, Shimo..speaking of her, poor thing, she was so cute at the end.

Also I'm so glad Kong's axe didn`t get destroyed, one of my biggest fears was that the BEAST glove was a replacement for it.

The action was great, loved the zero gravity segment (we needed something like that) and the final battle was crazy, even Godzilla's rushed moments of action throughout the film were great (but again with a better pacing they could have been better and have some build up). For once I would have been fine if they did the stupid thing with him using his atomic breath to propel himself during the zero gravity moment, but they didn't.

I love that Mothra is back and her reunion with Godzilla was sweet, when they all made peace and roared to the sky it was great, but again, pacing said we don´t have time to recreate ourselves in these moments...

I never thought I needed Godzilla sleeping in the Colosseum in my life, but here we are. I would like to meet GhidorahStand64 by the way...

Overall, 50% greatness, 50% dumb stuff and issues, but epic and fun to watch. However, moving forward, I think we need to take a step back. The action Kaiju genre is full of dumb and silly stuff and that's great, is part of its charm, but I also feel like we should strike a better balance and make more sense within it's rules. Something more like GvK, but with a smaller human cast like this one would be good.

[close]

PD: I need that Hiya toys Shimo now...and a Skar King...

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

The worst part of the movie was the fact that I had to wait two weeks to watch it only for my best friend not being able to join me (we watched KOTM and GvK together).

Spoiler

And the fact that I got spoiled that Mothra was in the movie, not because of the trailers that I purposely avoided, but because an idiot posted on instagram a custom Mothra figure back when we only had the first trailer (based on a leaked toy photo), and a reddit user who made a post without a spoiler, and a youtuber who I was just watching his Hiya toys reviews that had a video talking about it...All when we only had the first trailer.

All my efforts to avoid spoilers for nothing. To hell with them!

[close]

Spoiler

Anyway, the film itself, I had a blast and I came exhausted from the theater, it was apotheosic!. But I had this little voice in the back of my head telling me "there are a lot of things wrong here".

Now it is pretty obvious what GxK is supposed to be, dumb fun action blockbuster, and that great, but I also think it can still be a fun ride while being a better film and not too dumb.

The major issue is the pacing, it's way too fast. The Kong side of the story was fine, but the Godzilla and human parts were always at x2 speed, straight to the plot, straight to the action. Give me a calm moment with the characters, give me some time to build up tension to the action scenes! When we meet the Hollow Earth Iwi tribe, give me a moment to get to know them like in Skull Island, instead of jumping directly into plot, build some tension before Godzilla does anything, like in the Pensacola attack or his first fight with Kong in the sea in GvK.

It's very obvious that they cut some stuff. With an extra 10 minutes we could have got some extended scenes that would have solved this pacing issue.

Potential plot holes,conveniences and errors that stand out:

-Why Skar King didn't find a way to the surface earlier if he was there for so long?
-Was Mothra summoned out of nowhere or somehow her larva went to Hollow Earth and cocooned herself where the Iwi were?
-If the Iwi worship Mothra and have a connection with her, what does that imply about the Cheng sisters from KOTM? You know, the supposed Shobijin of this universe...
-The BEAST glove is conveniently already in the Hollow Earth.
-How does the crystal that controls Shimo work exactly? Is it a part of him? At first I thought Scar King had telepathic abilities, when his blue eyes appeared in Jia's vision, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Now I heard the role of Mothra was actually originally given to a new titan, but after test screenings and realizing it was so similar to her, they changed it. Good call on their part, but they obviously forgot to tweak some stuff.

Scylla and Tiamat were wasted, especially the latter, her film debut and she gets killed. Damn.

Humans were fine, focusing on a smaller cast is a good choice, but again, we needed more calm moments with them. I liked the veterinarian guy, Bernie though, I found him a bit annoying here compared to GvK.

Godzilla's evolved form has grown on me, But I can´t help to think...Did he really need to evolve? Sure we did see him being more agile but that didn't exactly play a part in the final fight...And I am a sucker for the 2019-2021 design...

Ok, enough complaining, Kong's story as always is great, with a lot of it being told without a single word, body language is enough to communicate everything. His relationship with Suko and how they eventually bond with each other was great. Skar King was awesome, the whole sequence in his territory was fantastic, from Kong being kind, Skar King's presentation, their fight with the other apes chanting, Shimo..speaking of her, poor thing, she was so cute at the end.

Also I'm so glad Kong's axe didn`t get destroyed, one of my biggest fears was that the BEAST glove was a replacement for it.

The action was great, loved the zero gravity segment (we needed something like that) and the final battle was crazy, even Godzilla's rushed moments of action throughout the film were great (but again with a better pacing they could have been better and have some build up). For once I would have been fine if they did the stupid thing with him using his atomic breath to propel himself during the zero gravity moment, but they didn't.

I love that Mothra is back and her reunion with Godzilla was sweet, when they all made peace and roared to the sky it was great, but again, pacing said we don´t have time to recreate ourselves in these moments...

I never thought I needed Godzilla sleeping in the Colosseum in my life, but here we are. I would like to meet GhidorahStand64 also.

Overall, 50% greatness, 50% dumb stuff and issues, but epic and fun to watch. However, moving forward, I think we need to take a step back. The action Kaiju genre is full of dumb and silly stuff and that's great, is part of its charm, but I also feel like we should strike a better balance and make more sense within it's rules. Something more like GvK, but with a smaller human cast like this one would be good.

[close]

PD: I need that Hiya toys Shimo now...and a Skar King...

I think a couple more days and we can forget the spoiler tags, most have seen it and those that haven't it's plot is everywhere but for now..

Spoiler

I loved it but I agree it was super fast. Maybe that's what is needed now for people who only have ten seconds to watch one Tiktok video? IDK. At least I can still follow it. lol

Let's see if I can help you on those questions.

Potential plot holes,conveniences and errors that stand out:

-Why Skar King didn't find a way to the surface earlier if he was there for so long?
-Was Mothra summoned out of nowhere or somehow her larva went to Hollow Earth and cocooned herself where the Iwi were?
-If the Iwi worship Mothra and have a connection with her, what does that imply about the Cheng sisters from KOTM? You know, the supposed Shobijin of this universe...
-The BEAST glove is conveniently already in the Hollow Earth.
-How does the crystal that controls Shimo work exactly? Is it a part of him? At first I thought Scar King had telepathic abilities, when his blue eyes appeared in Jia's vision, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

- Skar seemed pretty happy where he was. He had power, slaves and all the females he could want. I think Kong is what made him attack or at least is escalated his plans faster.  It's really a plot hole. Skar is evil, wants to dominate everything. period.

- Mothra is according to the novelization I've heard, the Ultimate Mothra. All others are extensions of her. So they basically retconned her origins. Yes Mothra can be hatched, have a larva form and then cocoon and turn into her Imago form but they have no time for that to take place so now she can just appear when needed fully formed and more powerful.
- The shobijin / twins were a tip of the hat at best they didn't really have a huge plot point but it seems they have been forgotten.
- Yeah..who stores pretty much complete high tech weaponry near the very thing you want to keep it away from lol and he fixed it in 2 seconds the wunderkind.   It is funny Skar mocks Kong for having human help/tools/ his tooth but then uses tools himself and gets his butt kicked without the help. While on the subject of the BEAST glove, I don't see how it's helping Kong heal from frosbite damage to the nerves in his arm. It doesn't help either he "blocks" about 3 similar attacks with it as well..it's not a shield.
- Skar having telepathic abilities would have been so much better.  The control crystal is never explained so far anyway. My personal theory is that maybe it's a teaser for Space Godzilla who does have crystals and mind control abilities.

Sephera sp? The bird titan was the original and you can find pics of him online, honestly I see why they changed it, it's not a very impressive design and it's very Mothra-like.

Scylla makes more sense after reading the comics. Tiamat though is wasted I totally agree. Godzilla is the king they his subjects. He didn't need to kill her. Who is going to take her place and keep the poles frozen now? 

Bernie was better by the end. I think he accepted his bro-mance postion with the vet. lol

Godzilla, I don't think he needed to evolve either. It was just a plot device and a new design means new merch to collect.

I love Shimo, easily my current favorite titan design aside from the Toho roster. Always liked the four legged kaiju.  I'm glad they didn't kill her.

[close]

[Carnoking]

Spoiler

I thought it was weird that Shimo returned to the Hollow Earth with Kong at the end almost like she was a pet. All the other titans seem to operate with some autonomy so it would have made total sense for Shimo (you know, an ice monster) to take Tiamat's place at the poles and regenerate the ice caps. As is, her going back to the lava environment feels totally strange.

[close]

I will say though, Godzilla's evolved design has really grown on me to the point of it being quite possibly my favorite look from the Legendary franchise. I'm almost tempted to pre-order the spiral studio statue seeing as I have no Godzilla figures in my collection (which does feel weird now that I think about it)

Does anyone have any experience with Spiral? Seems like a fair price for something of this caliber but I'm not sure what to expect for the final product.

https://www.spiral-studio.co/product-page/godzilla-2024

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Spoiler

I thought it was weird that Shimo returned to the Hollow Earth with Kong at the end almost like she was a pet. All the other titans seem to operate with some autonomy so it would have made total sense for Shimo (you know, an ice monster) to take Tiamat's place at the poles and regenerate the ice caps. As is, her going back to the lava environment feels totally strange.

[close]

I will say though, Godzilla's evolved design has really grown on me to the point of it being quite possibly my favorite look from the Legendary franchise. I'm almost tempted to pre-order the spiral studio statue seeing as I have no Godzilla figures in my collection (which does feel weird now that I think about it)

Does anyone have any experience with Spiral? Seems like a fair price for something of this caliber but I'm not sure what to expect for the final product.

https://www.spiral-studio.co/product-page/godzilla-2024

Spoiler

Totally agree. I kept hearing she's the mother of all titans and she should take her place in Tiamat's lair if they still care about the whole "balance" angle. Instead she returns as a "horse" for Kong I guess proving he's the new ruler? 

[close]

Spiral has had a lot of issues. Their first King Ghidorah had production problems, from release, to shipping, to quality control.  I think some of the shipping has been addressed, QC is still an issue here and there.  The recently released a Godzilla with horrible eyes and then to fix it sent everyone a printable eye ? lol I mean it's the size of a pinhead so maybe no real issue but when pay what we pay for these things I feel a little complaining is warranted.   I have the BIG Spiral GMK Godzilla and he's fantastic, but I ordered through BBTS.  This new GXK figure I did preorder from Spiral, I figured 189.00 was fine to test them with. We'll see how it goes I guess.

[suspsy]

Saw the movie at a matinee on Monday with my six year old son (school was closed because of the eclipse). We both thoroughly enjoyed it. We went in wanting lots of battling between monsters and we got precisely that. I especially enjoyed how Kong got to take centre stage for the most part while Godzilla was busy doing more typical Godzilla stuff. We both really liked Suko as well. My son keeps comparing him and Kong to the two of us now.

[MLMjp]

I think a couple more days and we can forget the spoiler tags, most have seen it and those that haven't it's plot is everywhere but for now..

Spoiler

I loved it but I agree it was super fast. Maybe that's what is needed now for people who only have ten seconds to watch one Tiktok video? IDK. At least I can still follow it. lol

Let's see if I can help you on those questions.

Potential plot holes,conveniences and errors that stand out:

-Why Skar King didn't find a way to the surface earlier if he was there for so long?
-Was Mothra summoned out of nowhere or somehow her larva went to Hollow Earth and cocooned herself where the Iwi were?
-If the Iwi worship Mothra and have a connection with her, what does that imply about the Cheng sisters from KOTM? You know, the supposed Shobijin of this universe...
-The BEAST glove is conveniently already in the Hollow Earth.
-How does the crystal that controls Shimo work exactly? Is it a part of him? At first I thought Scar King had telepathic abilities, when his blue eyes appeared in Jia's vision, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

- Skar seemed pretty happy where he was. He had power, slaves and all the females he could want. I think Kong is what made him attack or at least is escalated his plans faster.  It's really a plot hole. Skar is evil, wants to dominate everything. period.

- Mothra is according to the novelization I've heard, the Ultimate Mothra. All others are extensions of her. So they basically retconned her origins. Yes Mothra can be hatched, have a larva form and then cocoon and turn into her Imago form but they have no time for that to take place so now she can just appear when needed fully formed and more powerful.
- The shobijin / twins were a tip of the hat at best they didn't really have a huge plot point but it seems they have been forgotten.
- Yeah..who stores pretty much complete high tech weaponry near the very thing you want to keep it away from lol and he fixed it in 2 seconds the wunderkind.  It is funny Skar mocks Kong for having human help/tools/ his tooth but then uses tools himself and gets his butt kicked without the help. While on the subject of the BEAST glove, I don't see how it's helping Kong heal from frosbite damage to the nerves in his arm. It doesn't help either he "blocks" about 3 similar attacks with it as well..it's not a shield.
- Skar having telepathic abilities would have been so much better.  The control crystal is never explained so far anyway. My personal theory is that maybe it's a teaser for Space Godzilla who does have crystals and mind control abilities.

Sephera sp? The bird titan was the original and you can find pics of him online, honestly I see why they changed it, it's not a very impressive design and it's very Mothra-like.

Scylla makes more sense after reading the comics. Tiamat though is wasted I totally agree. Godzilla is the king they his subjects. He didn't need to kill her. Who is going to take her place and keep the poles frozen now? 

Bernie was better by the end. I think he accepted his bro-mance postion with the vet. lol

Godzilla, I don't think he needed to evolve either. It was just a plot device and a new design means new merch to collect.

I love Shimo, easily my current favorite titan design aside from the Toho roster. Always liked the four legged kaiju.  I'm glad they didn't kill her.

[close]

Spoiler

Meh, the whole Skar King situation is still a bit...messy, let's just say that.

Retcon is just a pretty way of saying, we need to contradict what was previosly stablished in order for or new plot to make sense, aka we are lazy. It may work to create a more effective storyline sometimes but it doesn't most of the time, and I dont think it works here.

I just got an idea, replace Bernie and that one female Monarch executive with the Chen Sisters. Dr. Ilene came to Bernie because she said Monarch scientist didn´t think out of the box when analysing the soundwaves, well, have one of the Chen sister to actually think out of the box, like she was in KoTM. One of them goes to the Hollow earth the other stays in the surface supervising Godzilla. She could also serve as another mentor for Jia.  And discovering that both the Iwi and they share that conection with Mothra would actually have been a good addition to the story.

In fact, they were supposed to appear in GvK, but they were cut!

I love the monsterverse, but there is always wasted potential in each film...

Yeah, it is so obvious that the evolved Godzilla desing is just for more merch.

Unfortunately I have not read the comics, but I saw a video explaning the whole Scylla situation, that why I said Tiamat's case was worse.

[close]

Saw the movie at a matinee on Monday with my six year old son (school was closed because of the eclipse). We both thoroughly enjoyed it. We went in wanting lots of battling between monsters and we got precisely that. I especially enjoyed how Kong got to take centre stage for the most part while Godzilla was busy doing more typical Godzilla stuff. We both really liked Suko as well. My son keeps comparing him and Kong to the two of us now.

That's sweet.

[Carnoking]

Thanks for the insight @Blade-of-the-Moon I'll be keen to hear how that shakes out for you. Perhaps by the time they start shipping my fixation with the design will have worn off but if not and it proves worthwhile, I just might take the plunge myself!

[MLMjp]

Thanks for the insight @Blade-of-the-Moon I'll be keen to hear how that shakes out for you. Perhaps by the time they start shipping my fixation with the design will have worn off but if not and it proves worthwhile, I just might take the plunge myself!

You can always get a Hiya, smaller, cheaper and you can pose it.

Or if you are fixed on a statue, wait for Xplus or Bandai to release one.

[Carnoking]

Thanks for the insight @Blade-of-the-Moon I'll be keen to hear how that shakes out for you. Perhaps by the time they start shipping my fixation with the design will have worn off but if not and it proves worthwhile, I just might take the plunge myself!

You can always get a Hiya, smaller, cheaper and you can pose it.

Or if you are fixed on statue, wait for Xplus or Bandai to release one.

Oh man, I'm trying valiantly to resist those Hiya toys! Given their relatively affordable nature, I know if I got one of those, I'd have to get them all eventually!

[Cretaceous Crab]

I took my son last week to see it. I went in with realistic expectations and we were not disappointed. It was a fun ride. I encourage others not to overthink it too much. It's a kaiju film after all.

Loved the interactions between Kong and Suko, especially in the beginning. I also loved punching the lights out of the one hench-ape that got up in his face.

I do wish they explored the mechanics of Skar controlling Shimo with the crystal. I also wished we saw Behemoth again, especially in his domain in South America.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Thanks for the insight @Blade-of-the-Moon I'll be keen to hear how that shakes out for you. Perhaps by the time they start shipping my fixation with the design will have worn off but if not and it proves worthwhile, I just might take the plunge myself!

You can always get a Hiya, smaller, cheaper and you can pose it.

Or if you are fixed on statue, wait for Xplus or Bandai to release one.

Oh man, I'm trying valiantly to resist those Hiya toys! Given their relatively affordable nature, I know if I got one of those, I'd have to get them all eventually!

Hiya is a bad bug to catch lol I started with an on sale Burning Godzilla and now I have most of them.. lol I order through Kowkis or Hiya direct, they seem to get stock first.

There is another Godzilla Evolved coming out..but it might be difficult to get. It's a Banpresto also known as a Sofvic or Ichibansho that will be sold via lottery prize in Japan. I'm pretty sure like the Minus One version it will end up on Yahoo Japan and maybe other stores like BBTS later.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I think a couple more days and we can forget the spoiler tags, most have seen it and those that haven't it's plot is everywhere but for now..

Spoiler

I loved it but I agree it was super fast. Maybe that's what is needed now for people who only have ten seconds to watch one Tiktok video? IDK. At least I can still follow it. lol

Let's see if I can help you on those questions.

Potential plot holes,conveniences and errors that stand out:

-Why Skar King didn't find a way to the surface earlier if he was there for so long?
-Was Mothra summoned out of nowhere or somehow her larva went to Hollow Earth and cocooned herself where the Iwi were?
-If the Iwi worship Mothra and have a connection with her, what does that imply about the Cheng sisters from KOTM? You know, the supposed Shobijin of this universe...
-The BEAST glove is conveniently already in the Hollow Earth.
-How does the crystal that controls Shimo work exactly? Is it a part of him? At first I thought Scar King had telepathic abilities, when his blue eyes appeared in Jia's vision, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

- Skar seemed pretty happy where he was. He had power, slaves and all the females he could want. I think Kong is what made him attack or at least is escalated his plans faster.  It's really a plot hole. Skar is evil, wants to dominate everything. period.

- Mothra is according to the novelization I've heard, the Ultimate Mothra. All others are extensions of her. So they basically retconned her origins. Yes Mothra can be hatched, have a larva form and then cocoon and turn into her Imago form but they have no time for that to take place so now she can just appear when needed fully formed and more powerful.
- The shobijin / twins were a tip of the hat at best they didn't really have a huge plot point but it seems they have been forgotten.
- Yeah..who stores pretty much complete high tech weaponry near the very thing you want to keep it away from lol and he fixed it in 2 seconds the wunderkind.  It is funny Skar mocks Kong for having human help/tools/ his tooth but then uses tools himself and gets his butt kicked without the help. While on the subject of the BEAST glove, I don't see how it's helping Kong heal from frosbite damage to the nerves in his arm. It doesn't help either he "blocks" about 3 similar attacks with it as well..it's not a shield.
- Skar having telepathic abilities would have been so much better.  The control crystal is never explained so far anyway. My personal theory is that maybe it's a teaser for Space Godzilla who does have crystals and mind control abilities.

Sephera sp? The bird titan was the original and you can find pics of him online, honestly I see why they changed it, it's not a very impressive design and it's very Mothra-like.

Scylla makes more sense after reading the comics. Tiamat though is wasted I totally agree. Godzilla is the king they his subjects. He didn't need to kill her. Who is going to take her place and keep the poles frozen now? 

Bernie was better by the end. I think he accepted his bro-mance postion with the vet. lol

Godzilla, I don't think he needed to evolve either. It was just a plot device and a new design means new merch to collect.

I love Shimo, easily my current favorite titan design aside from the Toho roster. Always liked the four legged kaiju.  I'm glad they didn't kill her.

[close]

Spoiler

Meh, the whole Skar King situation is still a bit...messy, let's just say that.

Retcon is just a pretty way of saying, we need to contradict what was previosly stablished in order for or new plot to make sense, aka we are lazy. It may work to create a more effective storyline sometimes but it doesn't most of the time, and I dont think it works here.

I just got an idea, replace Bernie and that one female Monarch executive with the Chen Sisters. Dr. Ilene came to Bernie because she said Monarch scientist didn´t think out of the box when analysing the soundwaves, well, have one of the Chen sister to actually think out of the box, like she was in KoTM. One of them goes to the Hollow earth the other stays in the surface supervising Godzilla. She could also serve as another mentor for Jia.  And discovering that both the Iwi and they share that conection with Mothra would actually have been a good addition to the story.

In fact, they were supposed to appear in GvK, but they were cut!

I love the monsterverse, but there is always wasted potential in each film...

Yeah, it is so obvious that the evolved Godzilla desing is just for more merch.

Unfortunately I have not read the comics, but I saw a video explaning the whole Scylla situation, that why I said Tiamat's case was worse.

[close]

Spoiler

It really is. Skar was a great character but his threat level was way over exaggerated. He didn't seem to be preparing for war or anything really, just happy to be where he was. Kong actually saw what he was doing as wrong and made it a problem. If he had more Kongs say in full battle armor with weapons ala the original great war then maybe we would have had a real fight. Probably too close to Planet of the Apes though.

I think they are just ignoring most if not all the cast from the first two Godzilla films.

Just watched a video on Youtube trying to explain Tiamat's fate, it's interesting and more plausible than I thought but I still liked her design and hate to see her go.

[close]

[JPuggy]

Spoiler

I thought it was weird that Shimo returned to the Hollow Earth with Kong at the end almost like she was a pet. All the other titans seem to operate with some autonomy so it would have made total sense for Shimo (you know, an ice monster) to take Tiamat's place at the poles and regenerate the ice caps. As is, her going back to the lava environment feels totally strange.

[close]

I will say though, Godzilla's evolved design has really grown on me to the point of it being quite possibly my favorite look from the Legendary franchise. I'm almost tempted to pre-order the spiral studio statue seeing as I have no Godzilla figures in my collection (which does feel weird now that I think about it)

Does anyone have any experience with Spiral? Seems like a fair price for something of this caliber but I'm not sure what to expect for the final product.

https://www.spiral-studio.co/product-page/godzilla-2024

I have a small head canon for why Shimo returned, maybe she wanted to try to help the Kongs as a sort of apology for being Skar's execution device. I'm sure she killed plenty of kongs under his orders, and probably had a lot of regret.

[Brocc21]

https://x.com/khitwins/status/1780174301716697179

Wanted to share this really cool animation of one of my favorite Monsterverse scenes. Was really hoping for a scene like this in GxK. Would have been cool to have something like this to take place in a dream sequence, perhaps while Godzilla is evolving and right before he breaks out of the ice. Hopefully he'll get more moments like this in Wingard's next film.