Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) - Part 1

[superion]

Well regardless of the box office of GKOM Kong vs Godzilla is still going to come out. Besides I don't think Toho allowing Legendary to renew the license after Kong vs Godzilla was a sure thing anyway. It seems they have their own plans for a Godzilla cinematic universe.

My last word on Avatar I meant to say that the sequel would do at least as well as Jurrasic World. I don't expect the sequel to make nearly as much as the original

 

[Arachnerd]

I think people forget the first did 2bil overseas. Just overseas. Even if it makes half of that, it WW, that is a great success.

Again, I never said it wouldn't make money. I just think superion's claim of it making around the same money or even more than that is a bit far-fetched.

Btw, a question for the Godzilla fans:

Spoiler

Is King Ghidorah really supposed to be an alien from space? Never knew that before.

Spoiler

Yep. Three-headed alien dragon.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Guys, why are we talking about Avatar in a Godzilla thread? We have a thread for that discussion. Let's keep it Godzilla focused.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

I'm going to give this movie another watch to help out the box office and to see how a 2nd viewing plays.

 

[a user]

Hoping to catch it again in IMAX - but then again, it was so awesome that I forgot all about that while I was watching it. If not in IMAX, I'm definitely still seeing it again.

It maybe didn't have the strongest character drama, but it was actually quite engaging (for me, anyway) to keep me captivated while the MVPs of the movie (the monsters) were offscreen - and boy, does it deliver on the action.

I want to list things that I liked, but I don't know how to tag spoilers (at least not yet, and I'm on my phone at work at the moment.

 

[HBarnill]

Did anyone catch the part where they mentioned there was a titan under Stone Mountain? I mean, Dougherty’s half-Vietnamese, so that can’t be a coincidence but imagine the reaction this would get:

“Kailua will not replace us!”

“Very fine monsters, onbothsides!”

 

[Legendver2]

After letting this settle in for some time, I like this a lot. I don't understand the complaints about the disregard for the human characters, as if I'm watching this for Eleven or Lorraine Warren. I wanna see monsters kick each other's butt and that's exactly what I got. That final of the film is just a thing of legends. I need an HD wallpaper of that.

 

[Aurakles]

Came out of this a little disappointed, seemed like hollow spectacle. The story and dialogue was particularly poor.
Several moments were very enjoyable, the fights were impressive.

I enjoyed the 2014 film more, yes it was disappointing when Cranston died, but that's because of how good his character was up until then. KOTM has no character anywhere near that level.

 

[DarkKnight88]

I know the excuse is people don’t go to these for the human characters, but why does that have to be mutually exclusive. Can’t we have amazing monster action with compelling characters? Wouldn’t that make the experience even better?

Alien did it.
Jurassic Park did it.
Jaws did it.
Hell, the original King Kong did it.

 

[Spider-Fan]

For those curious, Cinemascore for this movie is a B+

 

[Lighthouse]

Was Cranston dying really the fault of the film? I just think the marketing was misleading.

 

[Lighthouse]

I know the excuse is people don’t go to these for the human characters, but why does that have to be mutually exclusive. Can’t we have amazing monster action with compelling characters? Wouldn’t that make the experience even better?

Alien did it.
Jurassic Park did it.
Jaws did it.
Hell, the original King Kong did it.

People are going to disagree with me but I'd say Pacific Rim did it too. Again, I wouldn't have minded the terrible human story, but it still gave the cringy plot preference over the monster fights.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Eh, I can honestly say that I never really cared about any of the characters in Pacific Rim. They were all effectively caricatures and disposable to me.

 

[InCali]

To me it wasn't horrible and wasn't that great. I wasn't sold on the whole concept. Seemed like an okay retread to me.

 

[Schlosser85]

Was Cranston dying really the fault of the film? I just think the marketing was misleading.

He was easily the most compelling character and hooked the viewer with the opening scene, so I'd say it was poorly-devised.

 

[Arachnerd]

I know the excuse is people don’t go to these for the human characters, but why does that have to be mutually exclusive. Can’t we have amazing monster action with compelling characters? Wouldn’t that make the experience even better?

Alien did it.
Jurassic Park did it.
Jaws did it.
Hell, the original King Kong did it.

Because the way I've seen some people review the film is: the human story sucks, therefore everything else sucks too because of it.

I don't entirely disagree with what you're saying, but c'mon, you can't tell me reactions like that aren't hyperbole.

 

[MbJ]

I've noticed a steep divide on the human characters from people who are pre-existing Godzilla fans and the general audience. The sentiment that the human characters are terrible and that their subplot drags down the film is largely a thing among the mainstream audience, while the fans are much more forgiving. One guy I follow whose opinion I usually trust (and who I didn't know until recently was a massive Godzilla superfan) basically said "Yeah, the human characters are boring and poorly written, but that's true for almost every Godzilla movie!" They're just in it for the big CGI monster fights.

The problem of course is that the ga outnumbers the hardcore fans, so the complaints about the bad writing and human characters are gonna carry much more impact.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

The writers need to let go of that “destroy the world to save the world” angle they gave Vera Farmiga and expand their minds. That narrative is tired and Thanos did it way better.

For these films it’d be more fun that aliens have come to Earth, they want to conquer and destroy so they send a monster, and then here comes Godzilla to defend us. While the Big G is fighting said monster, Project Monarch humans are fighting the aliens.

 

[JtheDreamer]

You mean why do people want more movies in this series? Simple, I like them

Not what I was getting at.

There's only so many Kaiju battles to be had before the concept wears thin. Hence the need for better character development for the human characters.

 

[Arachnerd]

So, basically Final Wars/Invasion Of The Astro-Monster?

 

[Sithborg]

The writers need to let go of that “destroy the world to save the world” angle they gave Vera Farmiga and expand their minds. That narrative is tired and Thanos did it way better.

For these films it’d be more fun that aliens have come to Earth, they want to conquer and destroy so they send a monster, and then here comes Godzilla to defend us. While the Big G is fighting said monster, Project Monarch humans are fighting the aliens.

I mean, that wasn't really her plan. While some destruction was to be expected, Vera fully expected the Titans to start to heal the earth, much like Vegas and San Francisco were.

 

[JtheDreamer]

I've noticed a steep divide on the human characters from people who are pre-existing Godzilla fans and the general audience. The sentiment that the human characters are terrible and that their subplot drags down the film is largely a thing among the mainstream audience, while the fans are much more forgiving. One guy I follow whose opinion I usually trust (and who I didn't know until recently was a massive Godzilla superfan) basically said "Yeah, the human characters are boring and poorly written, but that's true for almost every Godzilla movie!" They're just in it for the big CGI monster fights.

The problem of course is that the ga outnumbers the hardcore fans, so the complaints about the bad writing and human characters are gonna carry much more impact.

That's why I never understand the complete disregard by the hardcore fans. Everyone knows all they care about are the Kaiju's. But a box office is not made of only the ubers. The GA needs human characters to root for - someone they can relate to in a world they have zero familiarity with.

 

[jnmx2000]

Re “nothing left for him to do”:

Spoiler

They spend a metric crap ton of this movie setting up Megalon. If I didn’t already know Kong was next I would have guessed that’s the next big bad.

While I don't think you need to spoiler that but it's been forever since I've seen that movie, to me everything points to

Spoiler

Mecha KG

. What makes you say the other one as he never once crossed my mind while seeing the movie, and I saw it twice.

Also I get the criticism for the film. The human characters are pretty much there for exposition and Kyle Chandlers character is to much of the"I have the answer for everything" type, almost every problem that comes up he has a solution for. It really took away from the team dynamic that the human characters could have had. Just in the first scene with Godzilla his character has the 4 winning ideas, starting at the board room meeting to right before they get on the plane.

I will say I don't get the hate for the Orca machine, I liked that and thought it was pretty neat, they even have an explanation of how it came to be which I bought into.

 

[Sithborg]

Watching '14 the other night, the Orca device does tie a bit into what Cranston was working on. So, that is nice.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

While I don't think you need to spoiler that but it's been forever since I've seen that movie, to me everything points to

Spoiler

Mecha KG

. What makes you say the other one as he never once crossed my mind while seeing the movie, and I saw it twice.

Also I get the criticism for the film. The human characters are pretty much there for exposition and Kyle Chandlers character is to much of the"I have the answer for everything" type, almost every problem that comes up he has a solution for. It really took away from the team dynamic that the human characters could have had. Just in the first scene with Godzilla his character has the 4 winning ideas, starting at the board room meeting to right before they get on the plane.

I will say I don't get the hate for the Orca machine, I liked that and thought it was pretty neat, they even have an explanation of how it came to be which I bought into.

Yeah, Chandler’s character is a big part of the problem. I’ve seen him called a Gary Stu and while I generally hate that term, here I am forced to agree. Having him be always right sucks all the tension out of the human parts of the film. No one grows or learns, they just wait for him to tell them what to do. The problem isn’t that it’s dumb, the problem is it’s boring. Dumb can still be entertaining. Boring not so much.

Re the spoiler (ish) stuff

Spoiler

It hit me the minute the character I call Mr. Hollowworld starts talking about how he was right about a hollow world and the repeats it like three more times, followed by the sub getting sucked through a hollow world tunnel and ending up in what I was surprised no one actually called “lost Seatopia,” then finally they trigger a nuclear bomb, which of course is the catalyst for Seatopia sending Megalon out. I guess it was just me but it was like getting repeatedly hit in the face with a big rubber cockroach...