Kaiju films are a specific genre. It is necessary not only to show the fight of several giant monsters, but also to dilute it with additional scenario elements about the characters, otherwise the viewer risks getting bored. This is where the franchise has problems. MonsterVersethe studios are responsible for Legendary Pictures and Warner bros…
Released in 2014 “Godzilla“(Godzilla) caused many spectators to burn somewhere in the area of the fifth point. The point is that the director Garrett Edwards managed to “deceive expectations” before Ryan Johnson made it mainstream in “Last Jedi“(The last jedi).
Yes, Godzilla looked impressive, only the director was constantly trolling the audience. Fights of monsters were shown on the TV screen in the room, from the eyes of people in the subway, when the doors are closed, in the pitch darkness of the night, and so on.
The director stubbornly tried to make the audience empathize with the main characters who were in the center of the disaster. However, Garrett Edwards does not know how to work with actors at all, who, under his command, turn into walking logs.
Watch for Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnsondevoid of all emotion, it just hurt. I only tried Brian Cranstonwho was only put in to be shoved into trailers because he was quickly disposed of in Godzilla itself.
The only thing that Edwards managed to do was to show the size and power of Godzilla. The giant lizard looked really impressive, but it was difficult to see it.
As a result, it turned out that the battles of monsters do not normally show, and it was simply painful to follow the relationships of the characters. Despite fatal mistakes, “Godzilla” collected the box office and launched the entire MonsterVerse.
The film released in 2017 “Kong: Skull Island“(Kong: Skull Island) also has a number of problems. At the release, many joked that the plot of the tape was written by the producers, who organized a brainstorming session in a stuffy office.
The result was a trash goulash, in which fiction, horror and comedy were mixed, and the members of the cast were regularly used up. Fortunately, the number of walking logs was reduced to one (Brie Larson), which can already be called an achievement.
Kong turned out to be a sane one-time blockbuster for movie theaters. In the world box office, the film has collected more “Godzilla” (but the costs were higher), but the US market collapsed – the audience did not forget Edwards’ tricks.
But the real disaster was the movie released in 2019 “Godzilla: King of the Monsters“(Godzilla: king of the monsters). Its creators tried not to repeat the mistakes of Garrett Edwards, but they failed to regain the trust of the audience.
The battles between the kaiju turned out to be more spectacular and exciting, but the creators were again let down by the problem of log actors, who are again not interesting to follow. Many also did not appreciate the abuse of the blue filter, which created an atmosphere of extraterrestrial threat.
As a result, “Godzilla 2” was recognized as a commercial failure (it beat off the production budget, but not the advertising costs). This jeopardized the release of the film. “Godzilla vs. Kong“(Godzilla vs. Kong), which began to shift, while cutting back on advertising costs.
But now we have the spring of 2023. Hungry for good films, audiences rushed to the theaters to watch a movie about a giant lizard fighting an oversized monkey. The studios report on the record collection in a pandemic, the journalists, in unison with the audience, praise the filmmakers. And the question arises: why?
From my point of view, the most successful kaiju film is the first one “Pacific Rim“(Pacific rim). Guillermo del Toro’s team managed to strike the above balance: to show the power of kaiju and dilute it with segments with characters that were interesting to follow.
The Japanese experiment turned out to be an interesting experiment as well. “Godzilla. Revival“(Shin gojira). In the film, the giant lizard was a kind of typhoon that officials have to deal with, who must evacuate the population from the disaster zone.
The tape “Godzilla vs. Kong” was supposed to be the quintessence of MonsterVerse, taken to the point of absurdity. Giant Lizard versus Giant Ape, Asia versus East, “Jungle crash“, fight of the century! The result is an incredibly stupid film, after watching which you begin to appreciate creativity more Michael Bay and even Garrett Edwards.
The script for the film is frankly bad due to the lack of exposure. The premise is as follows: Godzilla suddenly goes into berserk mode and begins to destroy settlements. The leadership of a never evil corporation Apex solves with Conga get to Hollow Earthto find a source of strength there to fight the maddened raptor.
The concept is quite simple, but the writers managed to ruin it, forgetting to patch the holes. What happened to Skull Island (it was necessary to study the credits of “Godzilla 2” under a magnifying glass)? Why is the doctor’s son Sarizawa (is this his son?) decided to fight Godzilla? Where did anti-gravity super-mega gliders come from (all sci-fi in previous films was limited to a giant plane)?
The character work in Godzilla vs. Kong is just awful. The main caste is divided into several groups. The first includes the disgraced scientist (Alexander Skarsgard), Conga study doctor (Rebecca Hall) and her adopted deaf-mute daughter (Kylie Hottle), who knows how to communicate with the monster. They try to bring the kaiju to the Hollow Earth with the help of Apex.
The second team consists of a grown-up girl from “Godzilla 2” (Millie Bobby Brown), her chubby New Zealand friend (Julian Dennison) and a paranoid black blogger (Brian Tyree Henry). They are trying to figure out why Godzilla started attacking the Apex factories.
The writers clumsily try to juggle two genres: a fantastic adventure about a journey to the Center of the Earth and a comedy about the struggle of conspiracy theorists with a never-evil corporation. The result is a mess, because the creators are not good at humor or drama.
In the second half, the intensity of delirium is only exacerbated. The main plot twist has been stolen from “Transformers 4“(Transformers 4), and before that the scene unfolds in the spirit of “Batman v superman“(Batman v superman). It seems that the script was not written by professionals, among whom was one of the creators “Pirates of the Caribbean“(Pirates of the caribbean), but a small child who plays with toys.
Compounds everything that the director Adam Wingard managed to surpass Garrett Edwards. The acting in the film is simply disgusting, because everyone is monstrously overplaying. Skarsgård and Hall are constantly puffing their eyes, opening their mouths and yelling endlessly, Brown and her team of freaks go into hysterics, getting into another idiotic scrape. Everything is so bad that I did not remember anyone by name, and when one of the secondary characters was used up, you do not understand for a long time who it was at all.
What about the main course? What’s up with Godzilla and Kong? After all, everyone went to the theaters to watch the epic fight between two kaiju! Here, too, everything is ambiguous.
You see, the filmmakers failed to convey the power of kaiju correctly. Instead of slow titans, the creation of which they tried to take into account the laws of physics, on the screen two CGI models on speeds beat each other on the screen, which are spreading cardboard houses. Godzilla was especially badly affected, and its size was halved.
Before Godzilla vs. Kong, I reviewed all of the MonsterVerse releases. Therefore, the differences were striking. In 2014 Godzilla, a monster could demolish an aircraft carrier. In the new film, the lizard climbs onto the aircraft carrier, leaving room for Kong.
CGI graphics are worth mentioning separately. Apparently, because of the failure of “Godzilla 2” cut not only the advertising budget of the new project. When Godzilla and Kong are shown in close-ups, the limitations of 3D models become apparent.
Worst of all was the giant monkey, which is having some kind of trouble with its fur. It does not improve the situation that kaiju often fight during the daytime. The actors also constantly show off against the background of a bad chroma key.
From my point of view, Godzilla vs. Kong is the worst MonsterVerse movie. But the pandemic has made its own adjustments. People are tired of hiding in their homes, they want to relieve stress. However, filmmakers continue to postpone the premieres of their blockbusters for fear of not recouping costs.
In such circumstances, “Godzilla vs. Kong” looks like the perfect movie for a trip to the cinema: two iconic kaiju find out who is worthy of the title of King of the Monsters. People don’t need anything else now.
4/10
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