GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS

[Shadowknight1]

Oh.
Also, for those who haven't seen Kong yet, I seriously recommend it. It's treated with a lot of respect for Kong AND the monsters.

Personally I preferred "Kong: Skull Island" over "Godzilla", but I'm still excited about this one. I doubt it will have the poor pacing and character development of the last film.

Personally, I've never been a fan of Kong in any instance, and the fact that the last Legendary Godzilla film will be Godzilla vs Kong is awful, in my opinion.

[Gwangi]

I'm not sure why there is such a bias against Kong around here. I guess it's because he's a mammal? Either way, the original "King Kong" is a film classic and a technological achievement the same way "Jurassic Park" was, for its time. Forget Kong himself if you don't like him, the movie still remains one of the best dinosaur movies ever made. Willis O'Brien's stop motion dinosaurs were the best put to film until 1966 with One Million Years B.C. I was disappointed that "Skull Island" didn't have dinosaurs but it made up for it with other unique creatures. I liked it well enough that I don't mind his impending fight with Godzilla, it should be good fun.

[Dilopho]

I think Kong works better without dinosaurs tbh. Skull Island's cast of creatures was brilliant, but I disliked the dinosaurs in the 2005 (2006?) film.
You have the V. rex, which are super dumb and all go for the tiny woman in Kong's hand instead of just ganging up and killing Kong.
And the poor Brontosaurs. I hate that scene so much. Why would any director write a scene where a group of animals crush eachother and slowly suffocate eachother to death??!  It's too distressing for me. That's why I can't rewatch the movie.

[Jose S.M.]

I'm really excited for this one. And the choice of music in the trailer was great for me, very different than what's used for this kind of movie trailers.

[suspsy]

I'm not sure why there is such a bias against Kong around here. I guess it's because he's a mammal? Either way, the original "King Kong" is a film classic and a technological achievement the same way "Jurassic Park" was, for its time. Forget Kong himself if you don't like him, the movie still remains one of the best dinosaur movies ever made. Willis O'Brien's stop motion dinosaurs were the best put to film until 1966 with One Million Years B.C. I was disappointed that "Skull Island" didn't have dinosaurs but it made up for it with other unique creatures. I liked it well enough that I don't mind his impending fight with Godzilla, it should be good fun.

I loved KSI. Loved it. I went into the theatre wanting to see good visual FX, lots of action, and a decent story, and I got all of that in spades. By contrast, the only part of Peter Jackson's KK that I really enjoy is the V. rex battle royale.

As I've noted before, I'm pretty sure Kong and Godzilla will end up joining forces against a mutual threat. I can't imagine the studio being stupid enough to have one kill off the other. And I'm really looking forward to seeing Kong in an urban setting. He'll have tons of material to fashion weapons from.

[Gwangi]

I've re-watched KSI many more times over than Godzilla. It has excellent re-watch value, it's just a fun movie. I might watch it tonight!

I liked Jackson's Kong when it initially came out but it's not holding up well. Kong as a character was great, Andy Serkis is a master of his craft. He brought a lot of heart to Kong and I genuinely enjoy the scenes between Kong and Ann. The creature designs were cool, the world building fantastic. I highly recommend "The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island", one of the best pieces of speculative zoology out there.

All that said, the movie is bloated with awful looking, physics defying CGI that take me out of the film. The Brontosaurus stampede is a prime example. Kong's fight with the V. rex pack was great in parts but then you have shots where they're fighting in the vines, and the MMA style fighting is where the V. rex scenes jumped the shark for me. I have the deluxe version on Bluray and I watch it every couple years but it's certainly a mixed bag for me.

[laticauda]

The only thing that made me kind of like Peter Jacksons Kong was how expressive Kong was.  I agree Andy Serkis is amazing.  The rest of the movie is forgettable. They really needed to cut 20-30 minutes of material and the movie probably would have been better. Somehow film makers feel the more action is better, which is not always the case. 

Kong skull island isn't perfect but is very enjoyable and works a lot better than the Peter Jackson remake. 

I really enjoyed Godzilla 2014 when it came out as it look good on the BIG screen but watching it at home it is too dark and you really notice that every time you get interested in what Godzilla is doing, they cut away. 

I think that they are on the right track with these movies so I hope they take another step forward. 

[Simon]

I've re-watched KSI many more times over than Godzilla. It has excellent re-watch value, it's just a fun movie. I might watch it tonight!

I liked Jackson's Kong when it initially came out but it's not holding up well. Kong as a character was great, Andy Serkis is a master of his craft. He brought a lot of heart to Kong and I genuinely enjoy the scenes between Kong and Ann. The creature designs were cool, the world building fantastic. I highly recommend "The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island", one of the best pieces of speculative zoology out there.

All that said, the movie is bloated with awful looking, physics defying CGI that take me out of the film. The Brontosaurus stampede is a prime example. Kong's fight with the V. rex pack was great in parts but then you have shots where they're fighting in the vines, and the MMA style fighting is where the V. rex scenes jumped the shark for me. I have the deluxe version on Bluray and I watch it every couple years but it's certainly a mixed bag for me.

You've certainly nailed the film's CGI shortcomings pretty well there. 

I'll list the acting shortcomings as they are the other half of my disappointment with Jackson's Kong:

1. The actors didn't even try to speak as people in 1933 NY spoke.  The costumes were nice, the CGI-NYC was nice - but they spoke in 2005 English for Pete's sake!  That blew the illusion for me right from the beginning;

2. Jack Black was awful.  He is a fine comedic actor, but pulling off the manly Carl Denham was asking too much of him.  He read the lines, but the behind-the-eyes intensity the character required was missing;
 
3. Finally, Adrien Brodie was miscast as the "he-man" hero.  He may be a fine actor otherwise but he gives off a "Beta Male" vibe. Vulnerability is the wrong vibe to be giving off when you're battling all sorts of carnivorous beasties.  A "John Wayne"-type leading man is required.

I will (as I always do), give props to Peter Jackson for restoring the original 1933 King Kong and including it with the DVD set, and ESPECIALLY for re-creating the lost "Spider Pit" sequence using real stop-motion animation for the DVD set.  That by itself made the purchase of the set worthwhile.  Just wish that his new Kong had been better ...

[Patrx]

Man, what a cool trailer! I really disliked Godzilla 2014, but this seems like it will be miles better.

Chiming in on the other movies we're discussing here; I very much enjoyed Jackson's Kong, partially due to Jack Black's Denham being inexplicably likable, manic, and hyperfocused - much more interesting than the expected stereotype. More than that, though, I liked the naturalistic portrayal of Kong as an actual gorilla, so much so that I forgot that the '33 Kong was more of an "ape-man". With "Skull Island" going back to that creature design, I guess I just never got around to watching it, a lapse which I should probably correct at some point.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

If anyone else hasn't seen it yet, Netflix's Godzilla anime series just released part 2, much better than the first one.

[ITdactyl]

*screams*

I almost forgot... Woohoo... happy days!

*edit*
After 1 viewing... uh.. well... I'm really happy for another Godzilla release but it seemed nothing much happened in this "episode".

[tyrantqueen]

I'm not sure why there is such a bias against Kong around here. I guess it's because he's a mammal? Either way, the original "King Kong" is a film classic and a technological achievement the same way "Jurassic Park" was, for its time. Forget Kong himself if you don't like him, the movie still remains one of the best dinosaur movies ever made. Willis O'Brien's stop motion dinosaurs were the best put to film until 1966 with One Million Years B.C. I was disappointed that "Skull Island" didn't have dinosaurs but it made up for it with other unique creatures. I liked it well enough that I don't mind his impending fight with Godzilla, it should be good fun.

I agree...I prefer Kong over Godzilla. I just find Godzilla boring and overrated.

[Dilopho]

I like Godzilla more, because I will always see Kong as an animal first and foremost while Godzilla seems more like a powerful entity or a character. A balancer. 

I don't dislike Kong, I like Kong a lot! But Godzilla is my favourite out of the two.

[suspsy]

Kong is a scrapper. A survivor. An underdog. And buried not that deeply beneath his ferocity and brute strength is a sad and lonesome soul who yearns for peace and companionship. We relate to him on an emotional level because he's so much like us.

Godzilla is a living god. Unyielding. Uncompromising. Unstoppable. Utterly without fear, cruelty, or compassion. He has no more affection for us than we have for ants crawling at our feet. He is a loner who has no interest in forming bonds unless they are a direct means to an end. He's more a force of nature than a sentient being. We are drawn to him because he is power.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

*screams*

I almost forgot... Woohoo... happy days!

*edit*
After 1 viewing... uh.. well... I'm really happy for another Godzilla release but it seemed nothing much happened in this "episode".

Really? I liked the Mecha Godzilla reference, Mothra and Ghidorah tease.  The aliens that created MG were also very Vulcan on overload.  It had more interest for me than the first one where like the movies it usually takes forever to get into any fighting.  I found the story arc much more to my liking than before.

[Gwangi]

Kong is a scrapper. A survivor. An underdog. And buried not that deeply beneath his ferocity and brute strength is a sad and lonesome soul who yearns for peace and companionship. We relate to him on an emotional level because he's so much like us.

Godzilla is a living god. Unyielding. Uncompromising. Unstoppable. Utterly without fear, cruelty, or compassion. He has no more affection for us than we have for ants crawling at our feet. He is a loner who has no interest in forming bonds unless they are a direct means to an end. He's more a force of nature than a sentient being. We are drawn to him because he is power.

Well stated, but I couldn't help but imagine some of Godzilla's sillier moments while reading that. Seriously though, you nailed it.

[Syndicate Bias]

Im surprised the americans finally got the hang of Japanese monsters. I grew up with all of the godzilla films and watched the older ones from the Showa and Heisei series which came before the millennium series and final wars. Would love a campy reference to that particular scene tyrant queen has in her comment from the showa series lmao. Im pretty stocked for it tbh, king Ghidorah is getting a serious upgrade and he's supposed to create hurricane level winds when he flies so my hopes for this movie are high

[Syndicate Bias]

Man, what a cool trailer! I really disliked Godzilla 2014, but this seems like it will be miles better.

Chiming in on the other movies we're discussing here; I very much enjoyed Jackson's Kong, partially due to Jack Black's Denham being inexplicably likable, manic, and hyperfocused - much more interesting than the expected stereotype. More than that, though, I liked the naturalistic portrayal of Kong as an actual gorilla, so much so that I forgot that the '33 Kong was more of an "ape-man". With "Skull Island" going back to that creature design, I guess I just never got around to watching it, a lapse which I should probably correct at some point.

I loved King Kong, jack black was one of the key characters for the movie for me at least. I don't get why it got so much hate it was well done imo. As for Kong i will say i didn't have many hopes but Long turned out to be great. The humans don't exactly have the main focus of the movie as it goes and there's more Kong than you'd ever think which is good since this is his movie and i liked that he actually had more focus than your generic monster movie monster that shows up only for a few minutes throughout the entire movie rather than most of the movie

[Dilopho]

This is barely on topic, but it's not worth it's own discussion (and I haven't checked if there already is one  so sorry if there is) but has anyone here seen ready player one?
Not a very good movie in my opinion, but we see some very familiar faces as it includes hundreds of pop culture characters, but three very specific ones that I think forum members would be interested in are:

Spoiler

Mechagodzilla, 2005 King Kong and the male T. rex from JP  the lost world

[close]

[Gwangi]

I actually didn't mind the actors chosen, and their characters, for Jackson's KK. They weren't what you would expect but they subverted expectations and made for interesting characters. The movie itself acknowledges that Adrien Brody isn't the typical hero type. Bruce Baxter was the "John Wayne" for the movie Denham was making.