‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ is as Messy as it Looks

Godzilla is having a moment. The classic kaiju is in the middle of a monster renaissance following the critical and commercial success of Toho’s $15 million Godzilla Minus One – which also netted the big guy his first Oscar for special effects – and now his American counterpart is stomping the box office alongside King Kong in Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

I will preface this by saying I’m not always the biggest fan of the films in this MonsterVerse franchise. Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla left me cold when I first watched it – I still struggle with its pacing – and its sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, was exciting to me at first but it doesn’t hold up on rewatches. Meanwhile, Kong: Skull Island is criminally underrated as a fun creature feature period piece with a wild ensemble cast.

This brings us to Godzilla vs. Kong which, I feel, is the strongest film in this franchise. Despite the weird Hollow Earth science (more on that later), this movie gave me everything I wanted out of a movie in which Godzilla and Kong, well, fight each other. The set pieces are satisfying, the human cast doesn’t get in the way, and the inevitable conclusion in which the Titans team up to battle a common foe – in this case, Mechagodzilla – was great even though we all saw it coming. Director Adam Wingard nailed it, and I was confident that Godzilla x Kong would be just as big of a crowd pleaser. It is … but it also very much isn’t.

To start with what I liked most about this movie, I thought the finale was FANTASTIC. Seeing Godzilla and Kong form the biggest tag team of all kind against common enemies – all while a baby Kong-esque ape named Suko scurries around the battlefield – is an absolute delight. I sat with a stupid grin on my face watching monsters pull off honest-to-goodness wrestling moves, use buildings as weapons, fight in  zero gravity, and perform crazy anime-esque team-up attacks. And sometimes, that’s all you need to walk out of a theater happy.

Unfortunately, that action only accounts for a few minutes of the overall running time. In fact, Godzilla and Kong don’t even really interact with each other until the final battle as the film inexplicably chooses to keep them separated for most of the movie. You see, even though Kong saved Godzilla’s life in the last film, Big G would absolutely MAUL Kong if he ever left Hollow Earth. So, while Kong is dealing with Hollow Earth ape adversary Scar King, his captive ice monster Shimo, and an army of simian servants, Godzilla is … sleeping.

Yes, Godzilla sleeps a lot in this movie. Whether he’s celebrating a victory over a giant spider in Rome by napping in the Coliseum or he’s powering up with an arctic catnap to change into his new, slimmer, and massively toyetic new form, Godzilla spends a lot of time not being in the movie at all. This serves a narrative purpose for the most part (he senses danger in Hollow Earth and is evolving so he can deal with it), but one wonders why you would sideline the dude with top billing in the title for so much of the film.

That danger in Hollow Earth leads us to the human cast. Rebecca Hall and Kaylee Hottle return as Kong expert Dr. Ilene Andrews and her adopted daughter Jia, who has a strong connection with the native people who inhabit Hollow Earth. Brian Tyree Henry is back as Titan-obsessed conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes and Dan Stevens joins the group as Trapper, who is introduced while extracting and replacing a broken tooth from Kong’s mouth. Yep, kaiju dentistry is a thing.

The human cast does a fine job – Henry gets most of the one-liners and laughs here – but unfortunately the movie stops dead whenever it focuses on them. I know that’s a given in these types of movies, but I can’t stress enough how boring this movie is whenever it isn’t showing us giant monsters. And yet, here are the humans droning on and on about Hollow Earth science, gravitational wells and, oh, a “Chosen One” prophecy that both pulls the attention even further away from the main stars and seemingly retcons another movie in this franchise. Cool, cool, cool.

But from the Hollow Earth to the haphazard expansion of Titan lore, it’s beginning to feel like these movies are becoming a lot more complicated and confusing than they need to be. Although it’s almost unfair to compare the two at this point, I can’t help but think of how Godzilla Minus One told a compelling human story with characters that I cared about while also delivering on the spectacle I would expect from a modern Godzilla movie. There’s something to be learned here.

Overall, though, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a bewildering homage to the kaiju flicks of yesteryear – for better and for worse.  You’ll probably love the giant monster fights when they actually happen, but you’ll be tempted to look at your phone during just about everything else.  

 

‘Godzilla Minus One’ Is One of My Favorite Movies of 2023

 Me and Godzilla? We go way back.

Growing up in Westchester, NY, each summer I would eagerly look forward to WPIX 11’s annual “Godzillathon,” which promised a weeklong celebration of The King of the Monsters and his titanic assemblage of enemies and allies, including Mothra, Mechagodzilla, Rodan, King Ghidorah and a giant crustacean named Ebirah, to whom I can easily attribute my lifelong affinity for lobster. I would tape 4-hour stretches of the marathon on VHS and obsess over them … although if I’m being honest, I would mostly fast-forward to the monster fights and skip the human stuff.

Looking back, I wouldn’t say I’ve necessarily carried that immense love of Godzilla to my adult life. I have an immense appreciation for the classic and haunting 1954 original Gojira, I made the 1998 Roland Emerich film my personality for at least a month that summer – thanks in no small part to its incredible soundtrack and not much else – and I’ve had a complicated relationship with the current run of American Godzilla films. I’ve added some of the Bandai and Super 7 figures to my collection, sure, but if someone were to grill me on the ins and outs of The Heisei Era, I would be at a loss.

But something happened when I saw the trailer for the first time a few weeks ago. This looked FRESH. This looked INTENSE. This looked MUST SEE. So, I linked up with a fellow kaiju-curious buddy and ventured out on a cold December evening to absorb Godzilla Minus One and to see if it lived up to the monstrous hype. And … man. This Godzilla Minus One movie is SPECTACULAR. And it’s sad. And I also can’t stop thinking about it one week later.

Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Godzilla Minus One is a new beginning for The King of the Monsters set in the wake of World War II as a survivor’s guilt-ridden kamikaze pilot named Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) struggles to rebuild his life in war-torn Japan. His internal conflict is magnified by external forces, as an unkillable creature known to locals as Godzilla emerges and begins destroying U.S. warships en route to Japan. Kōichi and his found family are pitted against this unspeakable horror as they fight to defend their homeland against further obliteration.

What immediately struck me about Godzilla Minus One is that it owes as much to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws as it does to the 70-year canon of Godzilla films. It’s hard not to compare Kōichi’s new friends on a minesweeping boat to the crew of the Orca, nor is it a stretch to think of Chief Brody when our heroes were trying to trick Godzilla into catching maritime mines in his mouth so they can shoot them and make them explode in his maw. There is also a satisfying emphasis on suspense, a touching human story, humor that doesn’t feel forced, and some heart-wrenching character moments that make Godzilla Minus One feel like classic Spielberg in the best way possible.

Let’s talk about The Big Guy. At a meager budget of just $15 million, Godzilla is stunningly rendered in CGI that looks better than most major U.S. studio films released this year. His immense scale is felt throughout, and each time he uses his heat ray is suitably terrifying, as it carries with it the force of an atomic bomb. If you can, see Godzilla Minus One on the biggest screen possible. Streaming on TV won’t do the raw ferocity of this new Godzilla justice.

Godzilla Minus One is the first Godzilla movie I have seen as an adult that has absolutely blown me away, and I hope Toho continues this story with more films and more monsters.

Legendary and Warner Bros. Officially Announce 'Godzilla vs. Kong'

Despite my own ill feelings toward Gareth Edwards' Godzilla reboot last year, I understand that it was a fairly popular film that thrust everyone's favorite mutant dinosaur back into the mainstream (even if he barely appeared in the movie). Now, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. have announced officially that three new films will be set in Godzilla's universe, including Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla 2 (2018) and Godzilla vs. Kong (2020). 

King Kong last battled The King of the Monsters in 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, where both monsters were similarly scaled to make the match-up seem plausible (or at least as plausible as a radioactive dinosaur fighting a giant ape can be). Should this Kong have the proportions of most of his other cinematic incarnations, like Peter Jackson's 2005 version, we're looking at a pretty short movie. Spoiler alert: Godzilla goes over.

The press release, which you can read here, hints at other monsters appearing in this "shared cinematic universe," including Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidora. That's all fine and well, but if we don't get a gritty Jet Jaguar reboot before 2030, I riot. Who's with me?

'Godzilla' - A Haiku Review

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' Godzilla had a monstrous opening weekend, pulling in more than $93 million and ensuring that The King of the Monsters will soon wreak havoc on our movie screens again. Yet, before we look ahead to the already-confirmed sequel, just how was the Gareth Edwards' American revival of the iconic Japanese monster? 

If you follow me on Twitter (and, really, why wouldn't you?), you know I was pretty disappointed in the film, which seemed to marginalize its title character in favor of two-dimensional stock characters and the real stars of Godzilla, the insect-like Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms (MUTOs if you're nasty). Worse yet, whenever the film did bring us the monster-on-monster action we came to see, it would cut away to where the action isn't. Not cool, guys. 

I could go on and on, but in honor of Godzilla's country of origin, I've summed up my thoughts on the film in the haiku below. 

Godzilla's not great,

The big guy needs more screen time

In the next movie. 

Critics Weigh In on New 'Godzilla'

The embargo has been lifted for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' monstrous franchise reboot Godzilla, The King of the Monsters' first cinematic stomp since 2004's Godzilla: Final Wars. So what did the critics have to say about director Gareth Edwards' attempt to revive this classic kaiju?

The Hollywood Reporter: "Generally, Edwards honors the trust invested in him, taking his responsibility seriously, delivering the action goods and bringing it all in at a well-paced two hours. Where the film lets down is in the interpersonal scenes with the younger characters, which engage virtually no interest."

Variety: "Godzilla movies, like wrestling matches, are ultimately judged by the quality of the mayhem, and Edwards excels at blowing things up."

Time: "The title character looks imposing, in the CGI work of Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital sorcerers, but the movie is often so dark, using a palette of gray and brown, as if coasted in rust, that he’s hard to see. (The sound effects do most of the scary work.) And he gets little screen time. Godzilla isn’t even the main monster: he is the referee, rival or enabler — we won’t say which — to a pair of other creatures."

IGN: "Legendary Pictures' Godzilla origin story carries the weight of unwieldy expectations, but rather than buckle, it is ultimately a fantastic - though imperfect - example of the genre. Gareth Edwards both depicts what is beloved about this magnificent creature and creates a film that is distinctly its own entity, one that brings Godzilla to gorgeous new life."

Empire: "As you’d expect, Edwards excels in creating awesome kaiju juju — be it toppling aircraft like dominoes or Godzilla swimming under a battleship — that always leaves you wanting more until the battle for San Francisco delivers on the promise. This is not the men-in-suits wrestling we’ve seen before; instead it’s a beautifully shot (very Apocalypse Now-y) and choreographed smackdown that, for once, doesn’t feel like a bunch of pixels hitting each other."

The early reactions are encouraging, but Time's critique that Godzilla isn't "the main monster" is a bit discouraging. That said, it seems as though reviewers were mostly impressed by the special effects-charged action — the main reason we're all excited about this movie.

Judge Godzilla yourself when it hits theaters this Friday. 

International 'Godzilla' Trailer is Monstrously Good

I want this. All of it.

Godzilla hits U.S. theaters May 16.

From The Nerd Cave: Feb. 26, 2014

It’s probably not the best sign that I relate more to the giant, fire-breathing, radioactive dinosaur than Bryan Cranston in the new Godzilla trailer, but that’s just how my week is going. Oh, well.

LiveJournal-worthy lamenting aside, the trailer is pretty great, and it promises some other monsters to go up against the big guy in Hollywood’s latest attempt to revive the Japanese icon. I’m holding out for a Jet Jaguar cameo myself, but I’m not about to get my hopes up.

In addition to a kickass Godzilla preview that adequately washes away memories of Matthew Broderick playing with his worms, there’s more than enough nerdy stuff out there lately to momentarily distract us all from the incapacitating horrors of reality.

• Ellen Ripley action figures are on the way, based on Sigourney Weaver’s character from Alien and Aliens. There’s no word yet on whether we’re getting Alien 3 or Alien: Resurrection versions of Ripley, but I wouldn’t put it past NECA to churn those out later on. The toymakers are clearly at war with our bank accounts. I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
• Girls star Adam Driver is in talks to play a villainous character in J.J. Abrams’ forthcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, Variety reports. I’m still wondering how this massive movie is going to hit its 2015 release date if it’s still in the casting phase, but that’s just me.
• Marvel’s Netflix-exclusive  live-action TV series will film in New York City, starting with Daredevil. Other heroes set to appear in the miniseries include Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist. Rad. At this rate, we’re almost guaranteed a Howard the Duck TV series by 2020. Feathers crossed.

That’s it from me for now. Get bite-sized nuggets of The Wort Report by following me on Twitter.

Godzilla Wreaks Havoc in New Trailer

As maligned as the Americanized Godzilla was back in 1998, you’ve gotta admit: Everything around the movie was pretty spectacular. Godzilla: The Album introduced millions of pre-teens to the work of Led Zeppelin by way of Puff Daddy/P. Diddy, and Edy’s “Limited Edition” Godzilla Vanilla Ice Cream was a thing of confectionary beauty. The toys by Trendmasters were also kind of neat, allowing kids everywhere to create monster adventures that didn’t involve Ferris Beuller playing with irradiated worms.

Now, after Toho did its best to wash the taste of Sony’s effort out of moviegoers’ mouths overseas, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are preparing to unleash The King of the Monsters once again with next summer’s Godzilla. The first trailer’s been released online, and although we don’t really get a good look at the big guy himself, the tone of this rebooted monster mash seems just about right. Check out the teaser below.

'Pacific Rim' Gets the Toho Treatment

Despite reports that Pacific Rim is cleaning up at the international box office, Guillermo’s quirky and ambitious movie about giant robots battling equally giant monsters didn’t exactly catch on domestically. Why? I wish I knew.

Whether or not Pacific Rim ultimately spawns a franchise, it has no doubt reignited interest in old-school Kaiju films, which is a good sign for Warner Bros. forthcoming Godzilla reboot stomping into theaters next summer. While we await city-stomping goodness, check out this fan-made trailer reimagining Pacific Rim as a Godzilla-esque Toho flick, complete with Japanese dubbing and some familiar music.

Hollywood to Resurrect Godzilla in 2012

Thanks to Netflix, I recently revisited Roland Emmerich’s 1998 Godzilla remake, and you know what? I didn’t completely hate it. But I did feel a pang of embarrassment for my 14-year-old self, who actually saw the thing more than once in theaters and later bought it on VHS. I even have a copy of Godzilla: The Album kicking around somewhere. Keep in mind, Godzilla was the movie of summer 1998, and many of us weren’t about to admit that the year’s most anticipated blockbuster was a huge letdown. Or maybe we were unknowingly preparing ourselves psychologically for the release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace the following year.

While Godzilla has since starred in a string of man-in-suit monster films in his native Japan—concluding with Godzilla: Final Wars on the King of the Monsters’ 50th anniversary in 2004—a lukewarm reception to the American reimagining of the iconic Toho monster has kept him from resurfacing in the United States. But, Variety reports, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. are co-producing and co-financing a Godzilla film that will hit theaters in 2012.

“Godzilla is one of the world’s most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise,” said Thomas Tull, chairman and CEO of Legendary. “Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop-culturally relevant for as long as it has.”

This could be pretty cool, as long as Legendary and Warner Bros. deliver in terms of giant monsters (CGI or otherwise) and massive amounts of simulated property damage. I have many fond memories of spending Saturday afternoons with Godzilla movie marathons on New York’s WPIX (channel 11) when I was younger. And, as an adult (snicker), I still love Ishirō Honda’s original 1954 Gojira, a post-World War II cautionary tale about the dangers of nuclear weapons that bears only slight resemblances to the cheesier 1956 American re-edit, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and its increasingly campy sequels (although many of those are fun too).

With Hollywood’s current obsession with reviving all things with built-in fanbases, I’m honestly surprised it took this long for producers to exploit Godzilla. Did I say exploit? I meant…exploit.