Godzilla vs Kong (2021)

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

While I would love for the monsterverse to continue, I don’t know if casual audiences will find future films as big of a draw as this one. This film is a big deal because it’s pitting the two most famous giant monsters of all time against each other. I don’t know if audiences will care that much about, say Destroyah, or maybe Biollante (trying to think of big dawg enemies).

I think the only thing that could be as big of a draw would be a Destroy All Monsters movie. Mainly because it would have both Godzilla and Kong in it, which yet again shows to me that the two monsters together are the biggest draw.

Oh I don't know, people thought that might happen with the MCU and more solo movies coming out after Avengers, and all of them made more than their predecessors. Give people what they want to see and more sequels with just Kong and Godzilla could easily be successful.

 

[samsnee]

Except they still haven’t found how to make the human characters interesting enough to get audiences to connect with them. The only draw of this movie is seeing two most famous movie monsters fight. If goes to back to Godzilla fighting another B or C level monster with boring humans standing around, there’s nothing new or exciting about it.

 

[Gothamsknight]

 

[DarkKnight88]

Except they still haven’t found how to make the human characters interesting enough to get audiences to connect with them. The only draw of this movie is seeing two most famous movie monsters fight. If goes to back to Godzilla fighting another B or C level monster with boring humans standing around, there’s nothing new or exciting about it.

I don't know if anyone has cracked that code yet, going all the way back to every Japanese Godzilla movie as well. Even the original 1954 classic doesn't have "iconic" characters like the way the original King Kong does in Ann Darrow and Carl Denham.

 

[Schlosser85]

Godzilla movies have never had good characters. But it's unfortunate that Hollywood is doing nothing to buck the trend. It shouldn't be an impossible task but it's like they don't even try.

 

[Arachnerd]

If the Monsterverse continues after this, I can see them maybe doing a Destroy All Monsters movie to wrap things up in a nice little bow. I'm not sure how they could keep this franchise going for ten more years like the MCU without the general audience growing bored of it.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

I'm so happy this movie is doing well at the box office.

 

[Another_Fool]

Except they still haven’t found how to make the human characters interesting enough to get audiences to connect with them. The only draw of this movie is seeing two most famous movie monsters fight. If goes to back to Godzilla fighting another B or C level monster with boring humans standing around, there’s nothing new or exciting about it.

I think what would help the human aspect is to have the Monsterverse incorporate and focus more on Kaiju who generally have deep connections to humans. So beyond Kong, I think Mothra and if they can get the rights, Gamera could be huge in having engaging humans to the story because they are integral to those kaiju.

I personally would love it if the Monsterverse could also try and stretch further into the wackiness and begin introducing very capable humans like a psychic Miki Saegusa of sorts. Right now the difficulty in caring about the human side of things is that they just feel so insignificant in the grand scheme of things in this universe.

EDIT: wow off to a good start with critics. 83% on the tomatometer. Hopefully it doesn't take a nosedive like WW84.

 

[samsnee]

Godzilla movies have never had good characters. But it's unfortunate that Hollywood is doing nothing to buck the trend. It shouldn't be an impossible task but it's like they don't even try.

True. But those movies also didn’t cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make either.

 

[ernesth100]

True. But those movies also didn’t cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make either.

Yeah this was a relatively low budget and I can tell high effort film. They tried with what they had. And I'm sure Covid made it impossible to do any reshoots with characters. The best they could do is give us a great story with the monsters.

I'm a believer that the next films will be more foreboding in terms of plot. The characters are a step up every film in terms of memory and they're finally starting to somewhat keep a them since Skull Island.

I'd say if the MV continues further past one more big outing then we have a lot of work to do before this is anywhere near the stability of the MCU or even the SnyderVerse. But it's a great leap forward no less.

 

[NightHun07]

I think if there is one more it’ll probably be the last one, because I don’t want an overload of MV films like some people want. Personally I’ll never get bored of watching Godzilla beat the crap out of another monster but the general audience will eventually feel like Godzilla fighting other monsters is stale. In my perfect vision I would have Kong 2, Godzilla 3 OR destroy all monsters. Also #ContinueTheMonsterverse

 

[Roose Bolton]

This film is still flawed when it comes to the humans (Millie Bobbie Brown’s stuff is, frankly, ****) but they do manage to make some big strides in creating a formula for some characters that could be emulated going forward.

The stuff with Kong (who is the real protagonist of the film) and the little girl is basically how you incorporate humans into the Kaiju conflict in an organic and interesting way.

 

[Deck Rickard]

In anticipation of this movie, Double Toasted did a review of King Kong Lives.

I remember watching that movie a lot as a kid. I remember it being bad but I guess I didn’t realize it was that awful. The Jessica Lange one was bad too but it was watchable. King Kong Lives is up there in “Worst Movie of All Time” territory.

Linda Hamilton must have been taking anything she could get at that point in her career.

 

[Iceman]

Godzilla movies have never had good characters. But it's unfortunate that Hollywood is doing nothing to buck the trend. It shouldn't be an impossible task but it's like they don't even try.

Of course it's not impossible. The main attraction of Jurassic Park ahead of time was the realistic looking dinos, but the human characters added so much to that film. I also think the human characters in PJ’s King Kong are much better than what we’ve seen since.

 

[Iceman]

If the Monsterverse continues after this, I can see them maybe doing a Destroy All Monsters movie to wrap things up in a nice little bow. I'm not sure how they could keep this franchise going for ten more years like the MCU without the general audience growing bored of it.

Yeah, probably true. I predicted this from Transformers after the first film too even though I liked it. When the main characters aren't vaguely humanoid it's a bit difficult for long term attachment past a certain point, and in most of these films the human characters have been way below the outsized robots/monsters/dinosaurs.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I could easily see them doing another 2-3 films after this, provided they continue to be successful. The Hollow Earth is basically a fantasy world they can do anything with if they want to take a break from Kaiju fighting in cityscapes.

 

[Marvolo]

I want a Monarch hollow earth expedition film that leans into horror elements. This might be more appropriate as a limited series on HBO MAX.

Id also like to see them do a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea type film with deep sea kaiju.

Introducing some Lovecraftian elements wouldn't hurt either. Some new cosmic monster. Don't be afraid to get weird with the franchise and branch out.

 

[Bubba Gump Jr]

I think using Kong as the human-to-kaiju connection is a great idea going forward. While Godzilla is my favorite, that kind of approach doesn’t work with him. He’s a force of nature, in many ways a potential punisher of mankind. Trying to have a human connection with him would, frankly, feel weird.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

If Godzilla V. Kong does great numbers on HBO Max I can definitely see them considering doing more with the Monsterverse, especially if we aren't getting any more big budget films for a while.

I'm cool with the animated stuff we have been getting so far, but there needs to be more live action stuff as well and it would be a huge waste IMO to just let this franchise die when so much more can still be done with it.

Of course it will all depend on how successful GVK is, but man a Monarch series or a Hollow Earth series on HBO Max could have so much potenital and really change the game for Hollywood as a whole.

 

[Schlosser85]

 

[Deck Rickard]

Umm... that’s... interesting.

 

[HKpowerup]

I’m very surprised how positive the reviews are despite the fact that almost all of them have written off the human characters. There was no expectation from me that the monster scenes, fight scenes, special effects etc. would weigh so heavily in their positive feedback. Maybe the sense of adventure in the film, the fact it’s two iconic characters coming together and the high of watching a long awaited release amongst a global pandemic just tilted things more to the positive?

I’m glad the reception, so far anyway, is overwhelmingly positive. It makes me even more excited to see it.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

If they continue I am not asking for much, just give us Kong 2 (+3 if I am being greedy) and Godzilla 3, then top it all off with Destroy All Monsters.

Loving how well GvK is doing so far.

 

[Broseph44]

I’m watching these films for the spectacle of monsters and destruction and the big set pieces. And that’s what they’ve been delivering. So ready to watch this later in the week

 

[LvtLeeTDK]

I might be in the minority but I thought the film was really boring. The human characters are disposable, which is predictable. But even the character arc between the little girl and King Kong did not move me like it did with many other people, I just felt cheesy.

Maybe this film is simply not for me, though. Glad it’s doing well.

Ps: is this movie a sequel of Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla 2019?