Editor’s Note: Godzilla is one of Japanese cinema’s great inventions — but hey, can’t American cinema get some create for its own cool Godzilla flicks? Freeline Media critic Mike Fried explores that concept in the Amortization of the big guy? Read on!
By MIKE FRIED
Ok, so we have covered most of the Japanese efforts with respect to Godzilla.
Now, we come to the Americanization of the franchise via 1998’s abortive Roland Emmerich film (which I liken to the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms- because it ain’t really a Godzilla film) but also, more positively through the Legendary Monsterverse which created the concept of the quasi-governmental organization, Monarch that has, since the early 1950s, been tracking the Monsters that have inhabited the Earth for eons. If you love this concept, I highly recommend Apple TV’s Monarch: legacy of Monsters as it does a deep dive on two families whose whole existence has been tied to Kaiju activity – and in a neat bit of casting the series casts Wyatt Russell and Kurt Russell as the younger and older versions of Lee Shaw. And man, oh man does the son take after the dad.
Anyway, back to these movies – 1998 is discussed below but what the Legendary Monsterverse has done is not only create their own world but also pays heed and attribute to the Toho storylines so, for fans like me who believe that Big G is the greatest franchise ever, this is a welcome series of films that pays homage to the earlier films but also forge their own pathways and storylines.
Read on, friends!
Godzilla (1998)
3.5/5
OKAY EVERYONE- SAVE THE HATE!
Ok – it’s not your traditional Godzilla film. It is more of a B picture – a throwback, if you will, to films like THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA and THE GIANT BEHEMOTH and GORGO.
I struggle to understand why this movie is reviled so much. Is it because it tried to have a a sense of humor? Is it because Madison Square Garden didn’t look realistic. Is it because Siskel and Ebert were in the movie?? Was it because this was a new Godzilla that ran fast instead of lumbering around like its forbears?
It’s an update of the 1950s films. And it succeeds on that level – it’s intent was to be a cheesy film and when one considers the many bad Godzilla films that predated this film, especially GODZILLA V HEDORAH, SON OF GODZILLA and ALL MONSTERS ATTACK all of which stunk on ice, this was a breath of fresh air.
There’s no difference between the campy dialogue in those 1950s B-movies and this film. Of course, Kenneth Tobey isn’t around asking a pretty young assistant to give him a cup of coffee but you have Harry Shearer’s slimy reporter Charles Caiman (caiman – reptile – lizard get it?) taking advantage of Maria Pitillo’s assistant Audrey Timmonds who still has a fire burning for our hero, Nick Tatadopolis, Tatapopolis, I mean Tatopolis- or is it Tapadopolis. Sorry, it’s Tatopoulus, gamely and innocently played by Matthew Broderick. Hank Azaria is fine as comic relief cameraman “Animal” Palotti. But it is Jean Reno’s mysterious insurance guy/ French Secret Service guy that really shines among the humans. “Thank you- Thank you very much-Elvis Presley movies. He was the King.”
Ok, is it perfect? Not at all. Not even close. But there is a tremendous amount of technical skill on display that people seem to gloss over. First off, there is Godzilla’s landfall in New York City. Taking its inspiration from Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (which, because it was a success, gave Toho the ability to greenlight their 1954 Classic) it is an excellent combination of practical and special effects along with a couple of terrifically placed dolly zooms. In addition, Roland Emmerich stages some excellent crowd scenes and mass traffic scenes as he did in Independence Day.
And when all is said and done, the two things that engendered all of the hate were a) an absolutely crappy script combined with b) only 11 minutes of screen time in a 138 minute movie, far less than the Toho films.
I will agree that there are extraordinary implausibilities contained within the film – like where do you hide a 300 foot dinosaur below the streets of Manhattan. how did Sergeant O’Neill find the taxi cab ID after Nick threw it and how did they happen to pass each other at the right time. I will admit that a lot of the rendering of Manhattan looks generic – especially during the helicopter chase – but the same can be said for the many of the Japanese Godzilla films.
Sometimes a good sense of humor is all you need. And the special effects were pretty well done. Maybe that had to do with the rain! Yes, the rain was used to obscure the special effects because of a technical issue and the real intended look of the film was not corrected until the 2009 blu-ray which looks much better than the theatrical release version.
Look, I didn’t think it was great. But reviled? Come on. Even the critics got it wrong. They reviewed it using the same scale that they’d use for an Oscar contender. What rot!
There’s no intent to put this movie in the pantheon of Oscar contenders. This was a movie made to entertain on a B-movie level. The Japanese certainly got it, which is why this is the most popular American version in Japan.
And it does entertain.
A lot!
Leave your preconceived notions at the door and WATCH IT!
Fun Fact: George Carlin is NOT in this movie. And Roger Ebert thought him and Gene being mocked was hysterical.
Godzilla (2014)
4/5
In 1999, a mining company in the Philippines discovers a strange exoskeleton after a mine collapse. At the same time in Japan, an accident occurs at a nuclear power plant, causing our heroes Joe Brody and his son Ford to lose their wife and mother. Fifteen years later, Ford travels to Japan to get his father out of jail and his dad tells him that based on his readings there is something alive. Ford is in disbelief but, sure enough, two giant monsters appear, one that’s referred to as MUTO (massive unidentified terrestrial organism) and the other one, well, Godzilla. MUTO’s appearance in Japan takes Joe’s life and Sam, now in Hawaii, hears that the two are headed for San Francisco where his family lives. And there are two MUTOs, a male and a female, and the female is laying eggs so that could open up a whole new can of worms.
This is a full on reboot of the series that takes, as its starting point, the atomic testing at Bikini Atoll, which creates the original Godzilla. It is unclear – at least from this movie – whether Godzilla has appeared before.
And what fun it is.
Gareth Edwards’ is clearly a fan of the series and his first movie, Monsters, was a tremendous effort low-budget effort that caught Toho and Legendary’s eyes. By the way the destruction scenes are staged, I am guessing he watched all of the movies.
But this movie goes deeper. While it’s the start of what’s called the Monsterverse, it really should have been called the Monarchverse, as unlike all of the prior movies, this ingeniously introduces the concept of Monarch, the organization that has been in existence since the 1950s. And Max Borenstein’s script does a tremendous job of providing the background on Godzilla and creates an alternate history in which all of the 1950s nuclear bomb tests were not tests but were actually attempts trying to kill the monster they named Godzilla.
And it introduces us to Dr. Serizawa, the head of Monarch. While he is clearly based upon the heroic Dr. Serizawa from the original 1954 film, we never really get a sense of Serizawa’s lineage, which is a shame, a missed opportunity. And Ken Watanabe was the perfect choice to play the role. The original Daisuke Serizawa was reserved and conflicted with the work he had done and there is a similar reservation by this Dr Serizawa, first name Ishiro (in honor of the man who brought the OG to life), who believes that the monsters ruled the earth for millions of years, and who respects Godzilla and believes that Godzilla is the one to maintain order.
In fact, no pun intended – ok, pun intended – but Godzilla’s initial appearance is indeed legendary, emerging from a tsunami that he himself caused, to fight the MUTO in Honolulu where Ford Brody is.
This film is just so expansive and moves from Japan to Hawaii to Nevada and then San Francisco with ease. And the scenes of devastation are equally incredible and are a far cry from the miniatures from 60 years earlier.
The cast is adequate and game. If anything Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the weakest link as Ford Brody and sadly Elizabeth Olsen, as his wife, really isn’t given much to do. But Bryan Cranston is in fine form as his dad, Joe. Sally Hawkins is excellent as Vivienne Graham, Serizawa’s right hand person. David Strathairn is game as the Admiral who needs to try and save lives despite Serizawa’s warnings as is Richard T. Jones as his subordinate, Captain Hampton.
But they really take a back seat to the special effects. And that’s how it should be in a movie of this kind. The effects are done very well and seem almost photorealistic. When Godzilla attack the MUTO it is a wonderfully created set piece. Even the flames from the explosions are rendered terrifically and don’t look fake as they often do. There’s a scene right after an EMP takes out all power when Elizabeth Olsen looks up to see a man in a parachute and as the camera pivots around, we see a plane crash into a building. And San Francisco is absolutely toast from this point forward.
One of the best scenes in the movie is the scene on the Golden Gate Bridge which is not only suspenseful and well done but which also sets up a major plot line in Legendary’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters television show.
But how’s Godzilla? In my opinion, he could have been onscreen more. But, on the other hand, this CGI rendered version of Godzilla is particularly impressive and fearsome. He lumbers as much as his Tokusatsu forbears and his roar is thoroughly menacing. The final confrontation between Godzilla and the MUTO is a site to behold. And the best enhancement done by the effects team was the Godzilla’s atomic breath which takes on a life of its own with its tail lighting up along with the whirring sound effects and then Godzilla blasts away.
Still, I think this movie could have been better. While 1954 was a meditation on the atomic age and the “what God hath wrought” notion, this movie seems to be devised in such a way that it appears that the set pieces were designed first and then the script was written. And yet, there is a fluidity of logic that makes some sort of sense. Still, there are lots of easter eggs in the film that make this all the much more fun for us loyal fans.
WATCH IT!
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
5/5
The thing about this movie is that well, there’s a man, I won’t call him a hero because what’s a hero. But sometimes there’s a man and I’m talking about John C Reilly here. Sometimes there’s a man , well he’s the man for his time and place – he fights right in there- and that’s John C Reilly on Skull Island and even if he was a lazy man – and Reilly was certainly that – quite possible the laziest on Skull Island which would place him high in the running for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there’s a man, sometimes there’s a man. Aw shoot, I lost my durn train of thought….aw hell
In 1944, two planes crash on Skull Island. One is flown by an American pilot named Hank Marlow and the other by a Japanese pilot named Gunpei Ikari. They begin to fight each other to the death. When a very large simian stops them in their tracks. 29 years later, in 1973, a guy named Bill Randa of Monarch, convinces a government official to provide a military escort to Skull Island. He recruits a sketchy mercenary, James Conrad and a war photographer, Mason Weaver. The military is led by a rabid Lieutenant Colonel named Packard who is itching for a fight. Oh, and he gets one. He gets way more than he bargained for.
This is the follow up to 2014’s Godzilla that we really needed. The legend of Kong is so well known, done and re-done and yet this movie takes the legend even further, inculcating Kong into the Legandary/ Monarch Monsterverse and it does it so well, to boot. By adding the notion of “Hollow Earth” to the equation it enables the island to provide newer and more disgusting species that are adversaries to Kong and, of course, eater of Humans.
This movie soars and, in my opinion, is the very best chapter in the Monsterverse thus far. It shows Kong as a killer beast but also retains a lot of his humanity, especially as he has his eyes set on this movie’s Ann Darrow, Mason Weaver.
But what this movie has is acting. MCU veterans Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson are outstanding as the two outsiders with whom many of the remaining soldiers place their trust. Toby Kebbell plays double duty as Major Chapman, Colonel Packard’s
Second in command, as well as Kong himself (via motion capture along with Terry Notary). John Goodman is absolutely terrific as Bill Randa, a character that would appear in the Monarch show. He is the voice of reason, trying to explain to the others what they are up against. “Monsters exist” he intones. “Ancient species owned this Earth long before mankind, and if we keep our heads buried in the sand, they will take it back.” He is the beating heart of the lore of this film.
But the movie is really owned by three actors. First off is Shea Whigham who, as Captain Earl Cole, provides a tremendous and entertaining level of humor in the film. After Kong first attacks, Cole is just sitting around eating and when called upon it he says “yeah, that was an unconventional encounter.” His laid back attitude, though, does not belie his tactical skills as a combat soldier.
Next up is Samuel L. Jackson as Colonel Packard. He is a lifer in the military and when his unit is rotating out he is more than happy to keep them together for one last mission. But when he loses his men to Kong’s attack, he is hellbent on vengeance. There’s a great scene where the camera first focuses on a close-up of Packard’s eyes and then a close-up of Kong’s and you know that it’s not going to end well for one of them. His job is to strike down Kong with great vengeance and furious anger.
But the soul of the movie belongs to John C. Reilly who plays the aged Hank Marlow. He has learned to live with the natives, the Iwi, and he mourns his friend Gunpei who was killed by what he calls a skullcrawler. When asked why he calls them that he says “because it sounds neat.” He provides a lot of humor but also a certain reverence, a warning that this island needs to be taken seriously. When we first meet him, he looks at Brie Larson and the rest of the Americans and says “You are more beautiful than a hot dog and a beer at Wrigley Field on opening day” and then he looks at his empty hands so lovingly and longingly, imaging them in his hands. It is, without a doubt, the best performance in the Monsterverse.
The special effects are even better than the first film and a lot of it has to do with the nature of the motion capture used to create Kong. It’s also a movie that is shot in daylight so there isn’t a lot of bad weather to hide these special effects. The Skull-crawler attack is a particularly well shot and played out sequence. There’s a reason why the Visual Effects were Oscar-nominated.
The cinematography is first rate and really shows off the beauty of Vietnam, standing in for Skull Island. The editing is top notch, even if the writing isn’t.
This movie has echoes of Apocalypse Now crossed with The Host. As the squad traverses the jungle, they want to get out but Colonel Packard’s insistence on finding his men mirrors Captain Willard’s clear intent on getting upriver. And The Host connection is obvious with the monsters. But the opening scene appears to have been heavily inspired by John Boorman’s Hell in the Pacific in which a Japanese and an American are stranded in an island and must learn to co-exist.
And everything comes together for a well-paced, quick moving experience that befits a monster picture. And the score by Henry Jackman adds tot he impact of the film.
Plus any movie that has Samuel L. Jackson utter the words “tip top” and “hold onto your butts” in one movie is alright by me.
And don’t forget to watch the mid-Credit AND post-credit scenes.
WATCH IT!
P.S. there is a neat little nod to the original King Kong. On Skull Island there is a derelict vessel called The Wanderer. This was the name of the ship the Carl Denham chartered to go to Skull Island in the original script- it was later changed to the SS Venture.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
4/5
LONG LIVE THE KING!
Right up front, I’m going to let you know that I am a big fan of old school Godzilla. As a kid I watched what I now know to be the Americanized 1956 Godzilla: King of the Monsters! in which all of the voices were dubbed into unaccented American – along with scenes of Raymond Burr as a reporter named Steve Martin relaying the play by play as Godzilla ravaged Tokyo. It wasn’t until later in life that I found and learned to love the 1954 Japanese language version (Gojira) which starred one of the greatest Japanese actors of all time, Takashi Shimura, who exuded such sadness at his beloved Tokyo being destroyed.
But still it was Godzilla, along with Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah, that made me happy. In fact, one of the best movies in the Shōwa Era was Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster in which Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan teamed up to fight, Monster Zero aka Ghidorah. It showed the lengths to which Kaiju films could go.
Anyway, to the new movie.
Sort of – Legendary Pictures has this movie as the third entry into their Monsterverse which began with the Godzilla reboot from 2014 and continued with Kong: Skull Island. But let’s face it the kid in me knows that this movie is a reboot of Destroy All Monsters. However, it takes bits from other Godzilla movies, most notably at the ending of Godzilla v Destoroyah! But it takes so much from other films. The US Military has developed an oxygen destroyer that they hope will eradicate these beasts. And Godzilla is once again a protector of humanity.
I really cannot understand why many of the critics derided this movie – it should be noted that the Rotten Tomatoes score was in the 40% from critics but in 86% from moviegoers. A lot of the criticisms appeared to be along the lines of the film having too much focus on the humans and not enough focus on the monsters – I am not going to pretend I understand that- If you just want destruction, go to a demolition derby. Plus monsters don’t talk – they roar, so you need humans around for exposition.
This movie picks up at the end of 2014’s Godzilla and then fast forwards a few years. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) live apart from Madison’s dad (Kyle Chandler), who are estranged because Godzilla’s destruction of San Francisco took their young son. What sounds and feels like an earthquake causes Emma and Madison, who are having a nice quiet breakfast chat about their dysfunctional family, to look up from their little breakfast nook and we see that they are near a Chinese Temple which is an outpost for Monarch, the organization that has been looking for these Titans since the 2014 film. Emma takes Madison to the outpost where we see that there is some movement and birthing of a large creature whom we come to know is Mothra. Emma’s work surrounds a device called an Orca which replicates audio signals and creates an Alpha signal that quiets down and controls the Titans. And, of course, in pure movie tropedom, she activates the Orca right before she and Madison are about to pummeled by this new larva. And then with more movie trope-dom, eco-terrorists led by the always suavely evil Charles Dance storm the facility.
You have to thank these eco-terrorists for doing this because without them there is no movie – their insidious plot is to awaken all of the Titans (sounds like release the Kraken, no?) to destroy most of the improvements added to the earth so that the earth will turn into its lushly foliaged self that it was before man destroyed it (because what else are eco-terrorists going to do, right?)
Well, enter estranged dad, Mark, who used to work for Monarch and off goes the military and Monarch personnel in search of Godzilla who is our only hope to destroy all of the other Titans that Dance and his eco-terrorists have released. Aisha Hinds has a great role as a Colonel in charge of the military expedition and the always great Ken Watanabe reprises his role from the first movie as Ishiro Serizawa and pulls it off with such sincerity, echoing both of Akihiko Harata’s and Takashi Shimura’s roles combined in the first movie. Vera Farmiga is good as the anguished mom and Kyle Chandler is getting some heavy dad mileage out of his recent movie roles. Good in supporting roles are Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleitch and TV’s Bradley Whitford. The cast gives what they need to give. Ziyi Zhang plays twin sisters Ilene and Ling Chen but it is revealed that she is third generation Monarch and plays – in a photo – her mother and aunt as well as her grandmother and great-aunt. Is she a stand-in for the Shobijin from the original Mothra? Only the scriptwriters know for sure.
That’s the plot- it’s fairly threadbare but who cares? My belief is that I give as little plot as possible to avoid any spoilers; however, the city that gets destroyed this time is Boston, in case anyone wondered. Again, I think the set pieces were decided before the entire script was written but the notion that King Ghidorah is an alien species that is releasing all of the other monsters held in captivity by Monarch is a genius idea, the other monsters responding to Ghidorah’s call.
If you are going to see a Godzilla movie, you should know that you will like this – Plot lapses and all. It’s not the first time that a Godzilla movie had plot implausibilities and it won’t be the last.
My biggest complaint is that, unlike Shin Godzilla, which took place in bright sunlight and had the opportunity for some great cinematography, the movie here – as with 2014’s Godzilla – is filmed darkly, for the most part. The skies are clouded over and I don’t know if this is supposed to be some metaphor for a hard fought battle or a way to dull the edges of the special effects. Perhaps this is my only complaint with the film- and it is a minor criticism at that.
Interestingly, many of the “other” kaiju in the film are newly created for this film because like all things, Kaiju cost money and the fees to bring another Toho Kaiju into this film would have been astronomical and director Michael Dougherty felt that money could best be spent on more visual effects.
Bear McCreary’s score is luscious and does tribute to the Toho films, most notably when Mothra spreads its wings and the score includes an instrumental version of the Mothra Song from the 1961 film.
I’m still getting used to the idea of Godzilla as a good guy but that is not a difficult hurdle for me to surmount. The pure joy was in seeing the four movie monsters from my youth, updated and hitting the screen again and fighting each other. The special effects were just great – Godzilla loomed large, Rodan looked every bit the Pteranodon he was and Ghidorah was especially evil looking. Rodan’s attack of a small town in Mexico is especially impressive. What was really impressive was the beauty given to Queen Mothra. In the original movies, she looked like a larva and then a large moth – here they gave her an iridescence that finally gave Mothra her due. And the final scene whetted the audiences appetite for more destruction in the upcoming films. The motion capture creating Godzilla, Rodan and Ghidorah was outstanding.
The destruction of Boston was well done but a bit too well done if you ask me. Again, improbabilities abound as the main characters avoid destruction writ large.
I still enjoyed it – it was just the right length, moved briskly and kept the viewer engaged – and it paid homage to the Shōwa era.
I along with others applauded when the movie was over – and not in a bad way. It took me back to the 60s and being at the Saturday matinee. And that’s an A-Plus in my book.
WATCH IT!
It’s great fun!
THERE IS A POST-CREDIT SCENE SO STICK AROUND!
Fun Fact: In the anti-Titan protest during the opening scenes, one of the protesters’ signs reads Destroy All Monsters, a reference to the 1968 film from Toho, Destroy All Monsters.
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
4.5/5
King Kong is living in a containment biosphere on Skull Island. Godzilla, shedding his “savior” reputation, has attacked the facility of a company called Apex Cybernetics. It is decided that because Kong and Godzilla are the two remaining Alpha Titans, Kong needs to be released to attract Godzilla and subdue him. The hollow earth that was preheated about beneath the Earth’s crust that enables the Titans to travel underground between countries and continents is fully realized as well as a more relevant subplot about Apex’s true motives and while they figure in to the story nicely, this is just a story about two misunderstood Titans that have the need to beat the crap out of each other and lay waste to cities and navy ships in the process.
This fourth installment of the Legendary-Monarch Monsterverse is a great deal of fun. It’s not going to define Pi, but it hews to not only the three preceding pictures but to the film legends as well. I still thought KONG SKULL ISLAND and GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS were better films in the Monsterverse, but this movie told its story ably.
Don’t come into this film expecting any quality acting. Performances by the actors are merely a plot device to get to the meat of the proceedings – the battles between the two greatest film monster legends. Because of course, Monsters Can’t Talk.
Millie Bobby Brown is front and center in this film as Madison Russell, continuing her role from King of the Monsters. She is kind of serious whereas her teammate Josh, played with great humor by Julian Dennison, is totally about the laughs. Furthermore, the entire film bears the heart and soul of Brian Tyree Henry, who as Titan conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes provides much needed comic relief. he is absolutely fantastic. Demian Bichir is terrific as Walter Simmons, Apex’s crafty Chief Executive as your ordinary crafty billionaire with a secret. Eiza González is just as sneaky as her father. While not given much to do, Shun Oguri as Ren Serizawa the son of Dr. Ishiro Serizawa shows that the apple does, indeed, fall far from the tree.
And it’s Alexander Skarsgard and Rebecca Hall as Nathan Lind and Ilene Andrews, two scientists who believe in Hollow Earth and Kong. Skarsgard absolutely looks like he is having the time of his life. And, it’s the mysterious ward of Andrews, Jia, played by Kaylee Hottie, the last of the Iwi tribe first seen in Kong: Skull Island who is deaf but who can communicate with Kong via American Sign Language that gets the necessary messages to Kong. And through her Kong relates showing his softer side.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Ronny Chieng’s hilarious cameo.
And it works. The special effects are tremendous and the action is enjoyable. The battle between Kong and Godzilla on the navy ship – which created one of my favorite memes from the Suez Canal Ever Given fiasco- and in the sea is marvelously choreographed and thought out. The battles in Hong Kong are also well done. Forget character development – it’s the action we want. And the cinematography in the special effects sequences allow those scenes to really pop, aided by a fantastic score by Tom Holkenberg.
And what I appreciated from the script – which many didn’t – was the batshit crazy storylines which reminded me of Godzilla: Final Wars. I mean, a hyperloop transport between Pensacola and Hong Kong? Come on! But it’s so crazy – just as the idea of these huge monsters roaming the earth are crazy – that it works so well.
What I really enjoyed was the fact that director Adam Wingard used real locations whenever practical instead of sets and this shows in the Final Cut of the film. In addition, at an hour and 45 minutes (without credits) this movie is perfectly paced and does not drag at all. Wingard knew the assignment, even if full performances had to be left on the cutting room floor.
The whole concept of Hollow Earth is beautifully rendered and it sets up the next film, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire nicely. The concept of the HEAV ships and Kong’s underworld kingdom is set forth nicely. And the final battle is tremendous.
And if you paid close attention to the trailer you could probably figure out the ending – I did and I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
Finally, the fact that these two big guys share the screen for the first time since 1963’s King Kong v Godzilla is something awe-inspiring. They make the last 35 minutes of this movie absolutely rock.
If you’re the type of person that enjoys special effects monster movies this is for you – WATCH IT. If you don’t enjoy these movies but want to then don’t start with this one. Start with 1933’s KING KONG and 1954’s GODZILLA, still two of the best movies ever made.
WATCH IT!
Godzilla × Kong: The New Empire (2024)
4/5
All of you who really know me know that I love Godzilla movies so that when I review them there is a certain sentimental/nostalgia factor involved. So don’t @ me when you read the review.
Having said that, I honestly don’t know where to begin. This was to me the least thought out of the Monsterverse movies and yet I still enjoyed the mayhem.
After the events in Hong Kong, Godzilla maintains the peace above ground and Kong maintains the peace in Hollow Earth. A Monarch monitoring station is destroyed by a large unseen entity. Meanwhile on the surface, Jia has been having problems at school. Jia, once again played by Kaylee Hottie, is distracted at school and one day draws three pyramids in a sheet of paper which her mom, Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), notices as similar to readings that Monarch has received from Hollow Earth. Somehow, Jia is the key. As Dr. Andrews, Jia and some others travel to Hollow Earth, they find that the Hollow Earth monitoring station has been destroyed. Kong falls into a sinkhole and goes deeper into Hollow Earth than he has ever gone before and he meets a juvenile ape as well as some nasty acolytes of a Titan named Skar King who has trained another Titan, Shimo, who is an ice breather capable of freezing anything it turns its breath on, and Shimo gravely injured Kong. This leads to a Titan battle the likes of which the world has never seen – since the last movie.
This movie should have been called Kong X Godzilla: The New Empire because it was really a Kong movie with Godzilla and while Godzilla was onscreen, he was onscreen a fraction of the time Kong was, only 8 minutes, the smallest amount since the Monsterverse began. There was really very little Godzilla had to do with the story except towards the end of the movie; however, there is a crucial scene where Godzilla kills another titan named Tiamat and absorbs its radiation, a big plot point for the ending battle. Besides that, the story was mostly about Kong and some of the people that we had previously been introduced to.
From that point of view, the movie is somewhat of a letdown; however, the action scenes were excellent and redeemed the movie. Comparing the effects, these effects were like DCEU effects that are clearly fakery. Even the scene with Godzilla and Kong running side by side towards the new bad titan seemed to me a ripoff of the George Clooney/Chris what’shisname running toward the camera as Batman & Robin. Maybe Warner Brothers was going for a subliminal thing.
The acting was nothing to speak of and while it made sense to bring Rebecca Hall back to the movie because of the enhanced role that Jia had, it made absolutely zero sense in bringing Brian Tyree Henry back to this film. He was just there as comic relief, no more no less and he added very little value (or humor) to the movie. Dan Stevens – the British Bradley Cooper wannabe – was okay as a veterinarian named Trapper who deals with Titans and who repairs Kong on a couple of occasions, but his role seems superfluous. Even his replacement of one of Kong’s teeth early on violated Chekhov’s law because the new manufactured tooth did not come into play later on.
Adding to this, this new villain, a titan called the Skar King was really just another version of Kong and it just did not seem that two titans needed to fight this Skar fella as he looked smaller than Kong – but there were other factors which I will not discuss in order not to spoil the plot.
But from a different perspective, Skar is an evil version of Kong just like there are good and bad human beings. His backstory is that he has fought Godzilla before and was imprisoned in the very portion of Hollow Earth that Kong fell into and is very desirous of getting back to the surface. In Skar’s world the law of Caesar, the Ape shall not kill Ape does not apply. Skar treats other apes like crap. And the same can be said of humanity itself.
And the humanity doesn’t end there. Bernie is concerned that he has lost podcast listeners because no one believes his adventures from the prior film and wants to seriously document his time in Hollow Earth. But as Trapper points out, how many times has documentation of lost civilizations led to their demise because of man’s encroachment. It’s a nice touch.
In addition, on a very big positive side, the last 30 minutes of Kaiju mayhem were thoroughly outstanding – the destruction of the pyramids was quite entertaining, thank you – and had the rest of the movie had that vibe, then my rating would have been higher. I have heard people call this a throwback to the Showa Era with its focus on battles and not on story and to an extent that is true but they needed more battles in the film, earlier on. Despite what some of the reviews on IMDb are saying, this is NOT the best Monsterverse movie so far.
And there are hat tips to Godzilla’s prior incarnations. When Godzilla’s atomic breath changes from blue to pink, it is a nod to the red spiral ray that Godzilla achieved when Rodan sacrificed himself in the Heisei era. And Godzilla coming out of an iceberg was a nod to the Shōwa era’s King Kong v Godzilla.
When this was released, I’m glad I was there for the first showing. I’m glad I saw in the large screen RPX format. I bought it on 4K ultra high definition Blu-ray. But I am sure that the Monsterverse can offer better than this. This is the cheapest Monsterverse film to date and it shows.
I originally rated this as a 3.5/5; however, it has grown on me tremendously so now it is a 4/5, primarily because of the messaging and the mayhem.
WATCH IT!
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.
