396: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

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[00:00:30] 104. Let's get to Godzilla Kong or Godzilla X Kong, Godzilla Times Kong, whatever you want to call it. The New Empire. It's directed by Adam Wingard, who also directed Godzilla vs. Kong, which we reviewed on the show. And you can check that out in the show notes. It stars Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hoddle, Alex Ferns, a few others.

[00:00:59] And the synopsis is two ancient titans, Godzilla and Kong, clash in an epic battle as humans unravel their intertwined origins and connection to Skull Island's mysteries.

[00:01:11] So last year I did review all, I think it's five, universe monster universe films on a bonus show, which you can check out at filmbuds.bandcamp.com. And I think there's a teaser on the main feed, but please check that out if you haven't yet. Thanks to those who have.

[00:01:28] And as I said, we did also initially do the Godzilla vs. Kong most recently on the regular show and I liked it to a certain degree. I still think Godzilla, the Gareth Edwards film, stands tall by far as the best movie. I thought Kong Skull Island was pretty terrible. I liked Godzilla King of the Monsters. And then I thought Godzilla vs. Kong was, eh, watchable, but nothing really more than that.

[00:01:58] And so this one I wasn't really highly anticipating. I'm really much more interested in watching Godzilla minus one. And it's a shame that I think the two have come out and they've had vastly different responses, at least from what I've read. So I just happened to check this one out now that it's on digital.

[00:02:15] And I think the reviews have been somewhat mixed with critics and audiences. Some people have been saying this is an amazing movie. It's plenty of monster mashup destruction, all that. And it's a great return to form and it's a great new leap for the franchise. And then other people have been hating it across the board. So I wasn't really sure when in wanting to love it because I'm always up for a good monster beat him up sort of film.

[00:02:45] And I hate to say it, I might be in the minority, but I thought this movie was horrible. I thought it was a absolute slog to get through. I do not understand. I don't mind a dumb action movie at all. For anyone who's new to the show, I'm always up for it. I love Transformers. I love anything that's dealing with this sort of thing.

[00:03:07] And I'm a big Godzilla fan. I like King Kong, at least to a certain degree. So no issue with that. But I think Adam Wingard, he peaked at the beginning of his career. Things like The Guest, You're Next, fantastic movies. And then I feel like he has sort of petered out maybe because he's got more money, more control. I don't know because he's had successes.

[00:03:32] But I think he, I wish they had chosen someone else to make this movie. I think that these two are some of the worst of the whole franchise. Not to say that's saying a lot. But this was, it started out okay. I didn't mind being on hollow earth with Kong and he's basically just living life trying to find his family, commoners, anyone related to him.

[00:03:59] And he can't. And I thought it was kind of interesting to see just having time spent with Kong, not interacting with people, not in a conflict. It was just him being himself. And I like Rebecca Hall for the most part. I think Dan Stevens is pretty good. Brian Tyree Henry, I don't mind him performance wise, but the writing is so annoying.

[00:04:21] I hate these characters who are sort of the newbie, the scaredy cat where everything is at 11 out of 10 all the time. They're so excited or they're so scared and it's, I guess trying to reemphasize or emphasize that is how cool something is, how scared you should be, how happy you should be. And so I hated the writing for that character. He's fine.

[00:04:47] But I thought that once they got to, I won't spoil too much just in case you haven't seen it, but once they get into the journey of the movie, maybe 30, 40 minutes in, I was so checked out. And I'll do my best to skirt around some of the big points, but I could not care less about this hollow earth conflict on a subterranean level of it where there are these apes who are just trying to find their family.

[00:05:17] We knew nothing about, at least in Planet of the Apes, there's sign language, there's communication, some of it verbal, some of it not. But we have a sense of who those characters are, good and bad. But in this, they're basically just manic apes. And then Kong is pretty much a blank slate because he's just with apes. So he's not really communicating. So we aren't getting that much of a sense of how he feels, who he is aside from very primal reactions.

[00:05:46] And the biggest thing, actually, it's called Godzilla Kong. Godzilla is barely even in it until pretty much the very end. And I think, sorry if it's a hot take, I think Godzilla is vastly a more interesting character than Kong. Not just in these movies, but in general.

[00:06:05] The stuff with nuclear power and threats, and even the design of the character. Because with Godzilla, you can basically go nuts with color, with his movement, his tail, his scales, how he uses his powers. You can do whatever you want, basically, with Godzilla. So thematically and visually, he is so much more of an interesting character to me than Kong.

[00:06:33] Kong in this is basically just a name. And that's all he's ever really gonna be. You can give him some gray hair, change his body shape a little bit, but he's basically going to be the same thing in every movie. And I still like King Kong, but with Godzilla in the picture, I'm always gonna be more interested in Godzilla. So the balance of this movie was not in my favor.

[00:06:57] And I don't know if that's how a lot of people feel. Let me know what you think in the comments, if you're listening to this on YouTube or wherever else. But I thought that the Hollow Earth conflict was so uninteresting, unengaging, could not really follow it. The pacing is so quick, scenes move so quickly, I was just not getting any sort of sense of time of really thinking about how characters were reacting.

[00:07:27] Who they were, you don't know anything about anyone. Because even in Godzilla, the Gareth Edwards one, some people called that boring, but at least you had some more time to think about who these characters were and what they were doing. And also, it was basically just with Aaron Taylor Johnson, not five, six, seven characters and then cutting away to somebody else and blah, blah, blah. So script and direction really bad to me.

[00:07:55] The final conflict, it's okay. But we already saw Godzilla and Kong fight in one movie, I don't really need to see them fight again, for the most part. And even if they're teaming up a little bit or fighting each other, actually, like I don't really care. It's pretty much just the same thing as the last one. And there is some cool destruction, there's some cool use of color and effects.

[00:08:22] But especially when they were on Hollow Earth, and people were like floating around and spinning and flying, I was just like, what is going on? I don't care. It really was pretty nonsensical editing wise, I was just not following it. Alright, where are they now? Who's where? Like I thought direction and editing were very confusing.

[00:08:46] And so I thought that for being a movie that was under two hours, it felt so long. I wanted to love it all the time. But I thought that this almost like Avatar-esque civilization that they come across, that's not really spoiler, it's not really big deal. Maybe that's in the trailer, I didn't see it. But that stuff, I get the stuff with the daughter of Rebecca Hall, that's okay.

[00:09:11] But there's just so little there to latch on to, to understand, to learn that it felt sort of injected in for no reason, just for something to be there. So really not a fan. Not that I was expecting a whole lot, but I thought it was terrible. I will not go back and revisit this anytime soon.

[00:09:32] I think it's probably my least favorite of the whole franchise so far. I think I even like Kong Skull Island a little bit more just because it's more focused, a little smaller scale, a little bit more cohesive.

[00:09:46] So if you like this movie, I can understand it to a certain degree. But I really don't see how all these movies for the most part are being seen the same rating wise. I feel like the first two Godzillas are so much better. Maybe I'm crazy, but I just feel like there's a huge drop off quality wise and what I'm really remembering, what I'm taking away from it emotionally, I'm not going to go back and revisit.

[00:10:16] Visually, so I'm really hoping that they, I don't know if they've announced it yet or not, but I'm hoping that they get someone else other than Wingard to make this. I think he needs to go back and do smaller scale, small budget movies because I don't think he's the right choice for this series. So that one is a one and a half out of five.

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