Ever since it was announced, Warner Bros.’ Godzilla vs. Kong has held the promise of some titanic action between its two titular monsters.
With the film set to release in just over a month, Warner Bros. has finally given us our first look at the upcoming match-up, showing off what looks to be some spectacular action scenes as the two monsters go head to head onboard an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean.
That’s really all you need to know about the film, right? Kong. Godzilla. Aircraft carrier. Punches. I’m sold.
There is a bit more in the trailer—Kong’s been captured from his home on Skull Island, and is being brought somewhere onboard a huge ship, where he’s presumably being trained to protect humanity from another bigger threat. Along the way, there’s a little girl who’s formed a bond with Kong, who seems as though she can keep him calm when he’s stressed out.
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Then along comes Godzilla. The efforts of U.S. warplanes fall short in taking the beast out, and various humans realize that there’s something provoking him. Cue various shots of city-wide destruction. It looks as though they discover that there was some sort of war that took place eons ago between giant beasts, leaving Kong and Godzilla as the only survivors—and now, they get to decide the final battle once and for all.
The film is part of Warner Bros. and Legacy Pictures’ MonsterVerse cinematic universe, which kicked off back in 2014 with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, and continued with Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
The film was originally supposed to hit theaters in November 2020, but was bumped back to May 21st, only to be bumped forward to March 26th, when it’ll be released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max.
I gotta admit, I have zero interest in watching this. The writers appear to have a rough awareness that such a match up would end in flame toasted monkey in less than three seconds, and are very blatantly stacking the deck for Kong to make him seem like a threat to a giant atomic lizard. It just is not interesting when they do that.
I liked Kong: Skull Island, but I’m not going to a Godzilla movie to see him lose to a damn monkey. Not even once.
@1/kayom: You realize, don’t you, that the first King Kong-Godzilla matchup was in 1962?
https://wikizilla.org/wiki/King_Kong_vs._Godzilla
In fact, Kong was only the second kaiju that Godzilla ever battled, after Anguirus. And Kong won, since Godzilla was still a villain at that point (indeed, his third and fourth films were as the second-billed heavy to be fought and defeated by a heroic top-billed kaiju, first Kong and then Mothra in her second appearance). There’s a longstanding myth that Godzilla won in the Japanese version, but that’s not true; the only difference is that the spectators in the original are less convinced he’s dead.
As for the “three seconds” thing, Godzilla’s atomic breath is rarely his opening move. It’s usually portrayed as something that takes time and effort to summon, and it’s usually more effective on human buildings, tanks, aircraft, etc. than on other kaiju. Naturally the filmmakers want any kaiju battle to take time.
Just a reminder to everyone to be respectful toward others, keep the tone of this discussion civil, and not make disagreements personal. It’s not necessary to phrase your points in an aggressive, argumentative way to get your points across, nor is it conducive to further discussion.
I proposed to my friends that Kong was, for all intents and purposes, the only canonical American Kaiju. No one leapt to Cloverfield’s defense, but it turns out I know at least one die hard Sharktopus defender.
After the sublime Godzilla (2014) and a fun Kong: Skull Island I was really pumped for King of the Monsters. Sadly it was a almost total let down – the score was good, though. This trailer looks like it is more of the same and under normal circumstances I probably would skip it. If by the end of March the theaters have reopened, I will watch it – just to support my local cinema. That is a big if, though.
Monster scenes: look great
All human dialogue scenes: pure cringe
@5/benjamin: “I proposed to my friends that Kong was, for all intents and purposes, the only canonical American Kaiju.”
I’m not sure how you’re defining “canonical,” but I’d say there are plenty more. Godzilla itself was partly inspired by Harryhausen’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (and indeed the 1998 TriStar Godzilla movie was effectively more a remake of that than a Godzilla movie). There’s also the giant octopus from Harryhausen’s 1955 It Came from Beneath the Sea — significant because both it and Godzilla were irradiated and driven from their feeding grounds by the very same Marshall Islands nuclear tests. Then there was a horde of giant-insect movies in the ’50s, including Them! and Tarantula.
I would also nominate the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Godzilla vs the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Radioactive S’Mores for the entire planet!
Does it make sense that an aircraft carrier can stay afloat after Kong and G both jump onto its deck? No, it does not. Do I care? No, I do not. I like when they make a movie like this and just go for it. That dialog though…
@8, Christopher- Cultural penetration and staying power, basically. Certainly King Kong isn’t the only American movie featuring creatures who could be reasonably described as Kaiju, but he’s metaphorically (I’m sure someone has a size chart that would call me on it if I left out that word) head and shoulders above the rest of them I can think of when it comes to iconic status.
@11/benjamin: That’s a fair point. You mean in the sense of essential cultural referents, characters that have become household names. You’re probably right that Kong is the one giant American movie monster to be that popular — as evidenced by the fact that he’s the only one to make the jump to Japanese movies. (Frankenstein’s Monster did as well, but he wasn’t giant in the American movies, and his original creator was English.)
@12- That’s about the sum of it. There’s definitely room for different interpretations- like I said, one of my friends turned out to be ride-or-die for Sharktopus, and I’m sure one could make an argument for Harryhausen based on his influence on special effects in general. I suppose the T-rex from Jurassic Park might get a look in as well, or whatever sort of Megadoubleplusbadasauraus they’ve got up to in the current films.
Needs a giant wolfman.
Where’s Cthulhu when you need him?
My money is on Gamera.
Gertie dates to 1914…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32pzHWUTcPc
What a silly waste of film. Bad script, shockingly bad acting. There are so many wonderful literary science fiction books and stories that could be filmed and instead this dumb nonsense got green lighted, all because the producers wanted a quick buck and have no creativity.