Godzilla vs. Kong: A Fan’s Anticipation (Movie Predictions Issue #10)

 

Godzilla vs. Kong: A Fan’s Anticipation (Movie Predictions Issue #10)

 

The year was 2005. For my eleventh birthday I went to see a movie with a friend, and there was a trailer for some new film before the feature. For the first minute, I couldn’t tell what movie the trailer was for, but it looked like some fantasy adventure. There was a mythological island, a big wall, and the loud roar of some unseen monster. Then there was a giant hand reaching for a woman—I thought it was a giant human hand, at first. Wait, no…to quote Biff from Back to the Future Part 2, “There’s something very familiar about all this.” Finally, I realized what I was looking at: it was a trailer for a remake of King Kong! At that point I was the only one in my group of friends already familiar with King Kong beyond just the name and general pop culture knowledge, having seen the original 1933 film, which I would never forget. I was beyond excited for the new King Kong, and I distinctly remember something from our discussions leading up to its release: what if King Kong fought Godzilla? Who would win? We couldn’t understand why such a movie didn’t exist. The two most iconic giant monsters of all-time had to be in a movie together! Our discussion remained hypothetical.

I didn’t have a computer with internet in 2005, so it wasn’t until after King Kong was released on DVD in 2006 that I made a miraculous discovery: there did exist a King Kong vs. Godzilla film! Toho, the studio behind the original Godzilla, made it in 1962, using the same rubber suit effects I was already familiar with from the 1956 American re-edit of the original Godzilla. I had seen it multiple times, thanks to a VHS copy I’d received for Christmas years before, so it didn’t come as much of a shock when I finally got my hands on a DVD copy of King Kong vs. Godzilla and watched the legendary showdown for the first time, only to find it cheesy, dated, and strange, but lovable nonetheless. I was so satisfied to have finally witnessed something that I had wondered about for my whole life it seemed—at least since first learning about the existence of King Kong and Godzilla. Still, it was unfortunate that the only version of this monster fight to exist was such an old one. I loved all the classic King Kong and Godzilla films, but to think back on the 2005 remake and all those stunningly-realistic computer-generated effects, I wondered…what other possibilities were there with a new version of King Kong vs. Godzilla? The possibilities seemed endless to my young mind.

So I waited. I learned more and more about both monsters, I watched every movie that was out there with them in it, and after years of patience and growing into an adult, I finally got the chance to see a new Godzilla film in the movie theater in 2014. Unlike the last American Godzilla from 1998, which I grew to dislike as I got older, this one did the king of the monsters justice, in much the same way Peter Jackson’s King Kong had done for the eighth wonder of the world nearly a decade earlier. But then, when I didn’t think I could get any more excited, another announcement was made. The same studio that had successfully rebooted Godzilla was also rebooting King Kong, with Kong: Skull Island coming out in 2017. After having lost hope for so many years, the ultimate announcement was made: Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020. The rematch I had been waiting for, hoping for, wanting to see for so long, was finally going to happen.

As an adult, I had come to realize just how unique and special the original King Kong vs. Godzilla was, because it wasn’t as simple as “hey, can we borrow your giant monster to fight our giant monster?” Making two major intellectual properties with different owners share the screen is not an easy task, and that’s a big reason as to why it only happened one time. There were licensing issues, production budget concerns, division of profits—all that depressing behind-the-scenes B.S. But, at the end of the day, it comes down to money, and somehow, some way, studio executives at Legendary realized if they have the rights to both the Godzilla and King Kong characters and are able to put them in the same movie together, they will make money. And so, it came to be.

Godzilla vs. Kong will be the battle of a lifetime for fans of both monsters, and fans of monster movies in general. This is something I’ve been hoping to see for more than half my lifetime. Excited doesn’t really properly describe it. But, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I’m not a kid anymore, so let me take a step back and look at this situation with a little more clarity, a wider scope, and realistic expectations.

First of all, let’s examine the groundwork that’s been laid leading up to this brawl. It’s interesting that just like the original King Kong vs. Godzilla, there were two Godzilla movies before it. First there was the original Godzilla, with its gritty, realistic approach, then Godzilla Raids Again, which was less serious and more about the spectacle of monsters fighting. I’m not suggesting 2014’s Godzilla and its sequel are all that comparable, though. Godzilla (2014) tried to take a realistic approach, but also tried to appease long-time fans by having him fight another monster, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) went all-out with the monster battles and world building. To this point, I’d say Godzilla vs. Kong has actually been set up even more effectively than the original King Kong vs. Godzilla.

Even though I didn’t love Kong: Skull Island as a film overall, it got King Kong right—in fact, I think it did a better job with Kong than the original King Kong vs. Godzilla. Toho’s take on the monster was faithful to the original only in concept; he was portrayed by an actor in a suit, which worked in the sense that Godzilla was previously realized with this special effects technique, so it maintained consistency in that regard, but even in 1962 the rubber suit looked inferior to the combination of effects used for Kong in the 1933 original (stop motion, mechanical effects, miniatures, etc.) As for this new American version of Godzilla, I don’t think there’s much more I need to say at this point. Just look back on my previous reviews (and, while I’m at it, I’ll throw in the link for my Kong: Skull Island review, too):

Godzilla (2014): http://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2014/05/godzilla-2014-review.html

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): http://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2019/05/godzilla-king-of-monsters-2019-review.html

Kong: Skull Island (2017): http://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2017/03/kong-skull-island-2017-review_16.html

So the two monsters have been set up well, but there’s something else about the setup that has me both excited and worried. Unlike their first battle in 1962, this movie isn’t just about the two of them. Godzilla: King of the Monsters established an entire planet of giant monsters, which means we aren’t only going to see Godzilla and Kong fight in this movie, we’re likely going to see a whole bunch of other monsters show up, too. This is obviously exciting because the more monsters we can get in one movie, the better, but it also feels like it might take away from the focus of seeing Godzilla and Kong fight each other.

I’ve avoided watching any trailers, mainly because Godzilla: King of the Monsters showed way too much in all of its trailers, and I want to be surprised by everything the first time I sit down to watch Godzilla vs. Kong. Everything that follows is speculative, but some of it may already be apparent from the footage released so far. Here’s how I’ve tempered my expectations: Godzilla vs. Kong may just be the title of the movie, and we may just see them fight once or twice, but that’s good enough for me. The tagline, “One Will Fall” may also be misleading, but the marketing (from what little I’ve seen/heard) seems to be indicating there will be a definitive winner. Everyone is probably wondering who I’m putting my money on, the lizard or the monkey. It seems obvious that Godzilla has advantages in this fight over Kong (atomic breath, atomic strength, more experience, a tail, spikes, etc.) and will be more likely to win. If they stay true to the original King Kong vs. Godzilla, Kong will actually come out victorious, but Godzilla has been set up as the new king of the monsters and a protector of humankind (for now) more than Kong has, so it’s anyone’s guess. Personally, I think the studio is anticipating a challenging future in making profitable Godzilla films (King of the Monsters was not as financially lucrative as the studio had hoped, and Godzilla vs. Kong will probably have a hard time recouping its budget due to the pandemic), plus, let’s not forget that Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are borrowing the rights to Godzilla from Toho, but they hold the full rights to Kong. I wish it wasn’t true, but the fact is that these movies are just business, so from a financial perspective, it might make more sense for Godzilla to be killed off and Kong to continue in more films. The winner may be determined by how much more money they could make in the future.

I don’t necessarily need a whole movie with just the two of them fighting. In fact, I’d rather see what I think/hope is coming: new and old monsters fighting both of them in a Batman v Superman style crossover where they fight in the first half, then are forced to settle their differences by the end in order to take down a bigger threat. Many rumors have been circling for a while such as King Ghidorah returning (possibly even as Mecha King Ghidorah), or Mechagodzilla showing up, or maybe even Destoroyah being born out of the Oxygen Destroyer that was used in King of the Monsters. My enjoyment of seeing any of these potential scenarios play out will depend on how they are handled. So here’s where I’m a little skeptical: this movie might end up being too ambitious. Godzilla: King of the Monsters managed to be a loving tribute to the heyday of Godzilla films without succumbing to being a highlight reel of stuff we’ve seen in the past. Hopefully Godzilla vs. Kong manages to deliver all the new possibilities of seeing them fight that weren’t possible with special effects limitations of the past, without forgetting that the two of them fighting is what fans want to see first and foremost, and anything else would be a bonus.  

But then there’s the elephant in the room, and I’m not talking about Godzilla here, or even Behemoth, the giant monster introduced in King of the Monsters that looks like a Mammoth crossed with a giant Sloth. The elephant in the room is the cast of human characters. Audiences are paying to see the monsters, not them, but this is a modern, American monster movie, so you can bet there are going to be too many humans anyway that get way too much screen time, and I have a feeling we aren’t going to care about most of them. In Godzilla, they got a pass, mostly thanks to Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe, then in Kong: Skull Island they got a fail, even with the all-around great cast of actors, and then in King of the Monsters they got another marginal pass, but for Godzilla vs. Kong I think there’s going to be yet another whole new cast of characters, with the exception of maybe two or three returning characters from King of the Monsters. That means all the new people need to be introduced and set up, so hopefully it’s dealt with in an interesting way and doesn’t take too long, that way we can get to the good stuff faster. At least the cast has some great new additions, such as the brother of Pennywise the Clown (A.K.A. Alexander Skarsgard) and Ricky Baker (A.K.A. Julian Denison).

I can’t imagine being too disappointed by this movie, because even if it sucks in terms of story, human characters, repeating stuff from older Godzilla and/or Kong films, or whatever it may be, just having Godzilla and Kong in the same movie again for the first time in nearly sixty years should be satisfying enough. What I find most disappointing of all, though, is that I won’t be seeing it for the first time on the big screen. Seeing a movie like this in a movie theater is more than a novelty for me. I still have vivid memories of sitting in that uncomfortable fold-down seat watching King Kong for the first time in December of 2005, being completely transported to this fantasy world for three whole hours—I mean, I was eleven, the fact that anything could hold my attention for that long is a miracle in and of itself. Seeing Godzilla in a theater in 2014 was unforgettable, too—my first Godzilla movie on the big screen, and it was good!

I’m trying to look at it from a realistic, reasonable perspective. I was lucky enough to see King Kong (2005), Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) all in theaters accompanied by great people every time, and chances are there will be other new ones to be seen in theaters further down the road. Plus, there was the uncertainty of getting a chance to see Shin Godzilla in Canada in 2016, because typically Toho Godzilla films only come out in Japanese theaters, and I got to see it twice, so that one was even more special, in a way. Technically, I could see Godzilla vs. Kong at the nearest open theater, but as much as I want to, my own health and survival are ultimately more important than a movie I can still see in a safer place anyway. After the pandemic ends, if theaters are still around, I bet it will get a re-release; it’s something that’s made to be seen on the biggest screen possible. But, I’d be lying if I said the circumstances surrounding why I won’t be seeing it in theaters on day one haven’t tainted the overall experience for me.

So that’s it then, nothing left to say until I see the movie and come back for the big review. Godzilla vs. Kong comes out in theaters and becomes available for streaming on the same day, March 31^st, 2021. 

 

UPDATE (2021-03-24)

As of right now, Godzilla vs. Kong will only be released in theaters in Canada, not direct to streaming. I cannot describe how frustrating and disheartening this is, but hopefully we will either get a streaming release in the not too distant future, or we can figure out some way to get to a theater that is open and see it as safely as possible. Review will be posted as soon as possible, but until then, stay tuned.