Out of all the Shared Cinematic Universes Hollywood tried to put out, funnily enough it was the Monsterverse that succeeded. It wasn’t something that was even planned, just something they thought of once they by accident got the rights to King Kong. They gave us a much needed rematch of Godzilla vs King Kong and while it has had its ups and downs, we have to give it to the monsterverse for just existing in giving us big budget B-Movie Kaiju fun. That doesnt mean the movies are all gold, so here is a run down of the different movies.
Godzilla 2014
Godzilla 2014 got its own full review when it came out, my thoughts definitely changed after that first viewing though for the worse. After years of being disappointed with it I decided to check it out again to build hype for the fight against Kong. One thing I noticed is that I cant see much and it’s annoying, it worked for Cloverfield but it’s overdone here. I really love the theme they chose for Godzilla, it was a gutsy move but it paid off. In genreal some scenes are genuinelly good. The first 40 mins were pretty damn fun, then it got really boring really fast despite Godzilla being involved, not that you’d know what is happening. The human plot was just not necessary, the movie tries to be realistic but unlike Shin Godzilla it fails at it since it feels like a generic Hollywood movie. A disappointment and surprised they were able to move the franchise along with this since Shin Godzilla outdid it in a realistic take and it somehow had to shift to a more cheesy Kaiju monster fight to be relevant. saving the girl was nice
Kong: Skull Island 2017
I’m still bitter over not getting the original version of Skull Island that would be a prequel to the Peter Jackson King Kong. But not taking that into account the beggining is rather strong. ANd don’t forget the cool 3D VR 360 experience they made for the movie. They made a Kong that I could see as someone that could fight Godzilla. Sadly the momentum tops. I did hear the iconic “hold on to your butts”. Being set in the 70s was a smart move, it’s a far less realistic take over the previous movie but it was the right move. King Kong is coola tt his giant size. Sadly there are no dinosaurs because of Jurassic world movies apparently but we get plenty of Skull Island creatures liek the Spider that just work out. The movie feels like it was made to be seen in 3D.
It’s still really random to see a gigantinc kong, he seems more human in some scenes, kong is god here. The skull crawlers were great creatures. The scene with natives is weird but I’m glad they made it in there. It is neat to get a very ifferent take on King Kong even if not as good as the other movies. Overall I think Jackson’s skull island was more dangerous ironically enough, there’s going to be a lot of references to jackson’s skull island. Like Godzilla the movie is too long and starts to get boring. In a way Kong looks faker in this version compared to the 2005 one since it has more human like proportions and is bigger. There are plenty of jurassic park like scenes with the brachiosaurus. This is basically a big budget b-movie, and I love it for it. Having Samuel L Jackson obsessed with kong is interesting. I’m glad that it does feel like a kong movie more than a Skull Kaiju vs Kong and while not my definitive Kong, it’s a good kong story that could fight godzill. we get cool characters, the man lost in time and the others, cliche but love the sercret ending.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters 2019
Godzilla gets a sequel and it’s a very different take, they do plenty of world building with just a few phrases in the beginning and that’s good. It feels like a different world in the tone but in a good way where 2014 was boring here not so much. Things escalate quickly, from the first movie but I guess the first movie having a monster also had things really fast happen as well. weird hearing the Japanese godzilla theme when the 2014 godzilla already had his own theme and it was good same with the Japanese Gojira sounds, they should’ve stuck wth their own take. The story is insane but at least it makes sense on why there are more titans.
Larva mothra is alright a bit too cg. King Ghidorah looked cool and on point. Rodan also made a cool monster
Having the oxygen destroyer is cool too and it is used appropriately. Monarch seems kind of pointless but I guess it’s the main thing tying everything together. Like the previous movies the story loses a bit of steam halfway through.
The whole death and rebirth of godzilla is a good enough idea, but it gets a bit boring. The japanese music was a mistake, it needed its own identity. It’s weird since this feels almost like a different godzilla, which is not necessarily bad since the original godzilla was not to my liking. It’s still impressive to see a silly kaiju movie with such a high budget. King Ghidorah while cool they made a mistake since he also did not feel as menacing. Then we get to the bad with super saiyan fire godzilla. The movie went all out silly later on, and it’s just weird the tone of the movie is all over the place, like it still doesn’t know what it wants to be. Grusoeome death. The ending is abit cheesy but cool and I liked the the kong godzilla tease. Should this really have been the second godzilla movie? Is kong really a bigger threat than Ghidorah?
Godzilla vs Kong
The one we all wanted. Like previous movies it starts good but slows down. And even if less epic, it’s more interesting to see the match up of these two titans. There is plenty of cool action. They’re a bit of a mess and too focused on Kong. Godzilla attacking is neat bt in genreal the movie could be better paced. It’s a bit gory overall with the decapitation, but all the movies in a way where. The ghidorah twist was good. The neon city fight spectacular. In general the fights were all really good but the movie suffers the same as all the previous ones, they’re too long. I also understand the humans need to be a big part of the movie to make it work but this type of B-Movie about monsters doesn’t need to be 2 hours. It’s a Kong story more than a Godzilla one but I’m sure this was done deliberately. The ending is cheesy fun and Kong redeems himself after losing to Godzilla against mecha Godzilla. The whole arc of Mecha Godzilla was well done as well and that’s saying a lot since we’ve had mecha Godzilla done in many forms.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
A new movie coming out, I’ll likely update this with my thoughts on this movie once it comes out.
Tv Series: Godzilla and the Titans – Skull Island
The Monsterverse is also getting some TV shows, but these will likely go in a separate article.
The idea of the Monsterverse is great, perhaps it should’ve used original monsters for the most part instead of relying on Toho monsters which strips it of its identity. I also think they could’ve designed cooler titans, even godzilla 1998 and hanna barbera had better looking original kaiju. Can the monsterverse survive without Godzilla?The whole monsterverse is built around him, kong is cool and this is a cool kong but not enough for a monsterverse, they ened someone bigger, Gamera? I think with work it could be done but at least for now it appears Godzilla will remain. 2014 still feels like a different movie without it being part oaf ashared universe, it was still just a standalone movie,t he other movies jsut feel like they’re too interested in getting the shared universe to work, which is both good and bad. Excited to see where the Monsterverse goes.
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