Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire | March 29, 2024 | They're boyfriends now

[Brainbug]

2 hours ago, poweranimals said:

Does this take place before or after Skull Island?

 

Both 😄 there are a few storylines in the series, one is set in the 1950s, where we meet a young Randa and the main one in 2015, one year after the events of Godzilla 2014.

[BadOlCatSylvester]

1 hour ago, Brainbug said:

 

Both 😄 there are a few storylines in the series, one is set in the 1950s, where we meet a young Randa and the main one in 2015, one year after the events of Godzilla 2014.

I haven't been hearing very nice things about the past two episodes though, and apparently the 50s storyline being absent in those is the main reason why they haven't been well received by the fans going off of the Godzilla subreddit. I'll get back to the series (I've watched the first three episodes so far) once I'm less busy with other matters, but this further hammers home that this franchise just isn't capable of writing compelling family drama, which is why I feel largely indifferent towards the modern storyline aside from Kurt Russell and all the Godzilla references. It's no coincidence that the 50s storyline, which is really good and carries the show, has a lot of the same elements that made Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs Kong much more warmly received than the rest of the franchise: adventure, mystery and exploration. So the episodes without that storyline, episodes where the bland modern day drama takes center stage, being poorly received in fan circles doesn't surprise me much.

[Brainbug]

4 minutes ago, BadOlCatSylvester said:

I haven't been hearing very nice things about the past two episodes though, and apparently the 50s storyline being absent in those is the main reason why they haven't been well received by the fans going off of the Godzilla subreddit. I'll get back to the series (I've watched the first three episodes so far) once I'm less busy with other matters, but this further hammers home that this franchise just isn't capable of writing compelling family drama, which is why I feel largely indifferent towards the modern storyline aside from Kurt Russell and all the Godzilla references. It's no coincidence that the 50s storyline, which is really good and carries the show, has a lot of the same elements that made Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs Kong much more warmly received than the rest of the franchise: adventure, mystery and exploration. So the episodes without that storyline, episodes where the bland modern day drama takes center stage, being poorly received in fan circles doesn't surprise me much.

 

Having just seen the newest episode ... i have to agree. The 5th one that came out today is imo the weakest so far. Its not BAD, since i actually kind of like the characters in the 2015 storyline (at least they dont annoy or bore me too much lol), but every time Kurt Russel is on screen the show gets much more interesting and better. So yeah, Episodes 1-3 are really good, 4 and 5 are ... a step down.

 

Though since i watched the trailer for the later episodes that came out a few days ago, i know that theres some cool stuff coming up, so ill be patient. Besides, having watched lots of anime shows trained me to tolerate Filler episodes lol

[Liiviig 1998]

Monarch.

 

First two episodes were pretty good.

 

Third one started to feel iffy due to the post 2014 plotline. Characters there with exception of Kurt Russell are starting to get boring for me.

 

1950 plotline is the strongest and it's the one with more of the lore and monster mayhem . Wyatt Russell and team definitely have more chemistry.

 

Honestly think it should have been the singular storyline and would have worked better.

 

If they want other periods ,hey why not try like anthology type setting which would be cool for such a franchise.

 

Didn't hear good things a bout 4 . So waiting for it to finish up before binging the whole thing.

 

 

 

[Avatree]

The 2015 storyline isn't *bad*, it's still better than the last two movies. It's just that the 1950s storyline is much more engaging, so when it cuts away from the 50s you're like "Hey I wanna go back to see more of that"

[poweranimals]

10 hours ago, Brainbug said:

 

Both 😄 there are a few storylines in the series, one is set in the 1950s, where we meet a young Randa and the main one in 2015, one year after the events of Godzilla 2014.

I didn’t ask about Godzilla 2014 though. Skull Island came out in 2017. Not really sure on the timeline for that though.

[Brainbug]

Just now, poweranimals said:

I didn’t ask about Godzilla 2014 though. Skull Island came out in 2017. Not really sure on the timeline for that though.

 

Skull Island takes place in 1973, so right in the middle between the two timeslines of the show.

[TheDude391]

On 12/6/2023 at 10:43 AM, Brainbug said:

Uh i knew i would have to do this someday and i have time today, so ...

 

Godzilla ranking!

 

01. Godzilla Minus One - yes, im already going there. 
02. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (my personal dream movie even with its script flaws)

03. Gojira 1954 - still holds up so well, especially thematically.

04. Godzilla (2014) - so goooooooooooooooooood

05. Shin Godzilla - after the 3rd watch or so, even the meeting room scenes i began to love

06. GMK (2001) - Minus One before Minus One came out, but ofc with way more cheese, delicious cheese

07. Godzilla vs Kong - Fun as hell.

08. Godzilla vs Destoroyah - good story, cool fights, emotional ending, a true classic in the series

09. Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991) - absolutely absurd, great entertainment

10. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla - Millenium goodness

11. Godzilla vs Biollante - I liked the plant monster very much

12. Godzilla: Final Wars - the most ridiculous movie after the Showa Era ended. Complete Trash, but very fun trash

13. King Kong vs Godzilla - One of the first anti-capitalism movies with in-depth media criticism as well. Oh, also the fights are so funny

14. Destroy all Monsters - Poor Ghidorah. Btw, 1st half of the movie better is skipped lol

15. Godzilla 2000 - very solid

16. Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S - solid as well

17. The Return of Godzilla - like the next 5 or so movies, these are interchangable. I like all of them.

18. Mothra vs Godzilla

19. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (Rodan is so funny in this)

20. Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II

21. Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla

22. Terror of Mechagodzilla

23. Godzilla vs Mothra - kind of ... boring at times 

24. Godzilla vs Megalon - i just cant hate this

25. Ebirah, Horror of the Deep - funny.

26. Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla - it drags, but also funny moments

27. Invasion of Astro-Monster - apart the final fights, there isnt that much here to enjoy sadly

28. Godzilla vs Megaguirus - trash. Even with the funny body slam scene and the whole "Lets put Godzilla in a Black Hole"-plot (yes, youve read that right), it just falls flat

29. The 3 Anime movies - animation style just threw me off, i dont like it.
30. All Monsters Attack - the only one i actually kind of hate. Although i have to admit - some scenes are cute.

 

Still havent seen Godzilla raids again, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs Hedorah and Godzilla vs Gigan.

 

Godzilla vs Hedorah is one of my faves!

Here's my ranking of every G film: https://boxd.it/fafj4

[ZeroHour]

Monarch is fun enough but it doesn't feel like essential viewing right now especially after some of the more recent episodes have meandered. I also spend a lot of time wondering, as someone who's seen all of these movies but who couldn't recount any of the human characters or much of the plot of any of them if I had a gun pointed to my head, if I'm missing something because I don't remember the films. Were any of these characters in the movies? I'm probably in trouble on that unless Ken Watanabe shows up lol.

 

I think the 1950s time line is more satisfying because the stakes are clearer, they're discovering these monsters for the first time. I'm not sure what the stakes are in 2015 beyond finding the dad (I haven't seen the most recent episode yet).

[Brainbug]

10 minutes ago, TheDude391 said:

Godzilla vs Hedorah is one of my faves!

Here's my ranking of every G film: https://boxd.it/fafj4

 

Yeah ive heard incredibly mixed things from it (extremely positive or negative), so ive been curious for years to watch it. I definetly know what to expect since ive seen clips and basically know the plot and its themes, but still, one of my life goals is to watch every single minute of every single Godzilla movie and this one is still on the watchlist. I hope i can catch it next year (ideally i want to watch the last 4 i havent seen yet before GxK: New Empire releases).

[Brainbug]

3 minutes ago, ZeroHour said:

Monarch is fun enough but it doesn't feel like essential viewing right now especially after some of the more recent episodes have meandered. I also spend a lot of time wondering, as someone who's seen all of these movies but who couldn't recount any of the human characters or much of the plot of any of them if I had a gun pointed to my head, if I'm missing something because I don't remember the films. Were any of these characters in the movies? I'm probably in trouble on that unless Ken Watanabe shows up lol.

 

I think the 1950s time line is more satisfying because the stakes are clearer, they're discovering these monsters for the first time. I'm not sure what the stakes are in 2015 beyond finding the dad (I haven't seen the most recent episode yet).

 

Unless im incredibly dumb, really the only "major" character from previous MonsterVerse movies that is present in the Monarch Show is Bill Randa, who was played by John Goodman in Kong: Skull Island. Ken Watanebes Dr. Serizawa has so far been only verbally mentiond once.

 

So its all new characters besides Randa so far.

[Brainbug]

You know, after having watched the trailer for this movie for lika a godzillion times, i woundt say that the movie feels like 70s era Showa anymore. I think its mostly the funny-looking running scene at the end that throws many people off. However, for one, i think that scene is already iconic and second, the rest of the trailer reminds me more of the pulpy, adventourous tone of Skull Island and Godzilla vs Kong.

 

I actually think this movie could not only excel at the monster action, but the emotional aspects as well. Mainly ofc through Kongs storyline, that is teased here. From thinking that he is the last of his species to finding out that there are many more of him, only to discover that they're all ruled by a tryannical ape and he needs to free his kind, as well (probably) his adopted son - i see potential here, unironically, because Kong has enough human-like features and expressions that make him an actual character we can root for easily. The trailer also focuses on Jia and i think we can all agree that she was the one human character that worked really well in GvK.

 

I dunno, call me a hopeless fanboy (youd be right btw), but i do believe that this movie has the potential to be a bit more than "just" cool action.

[poweranimals]

3 hours ago, Brainbug said:

 

Skull Island takes place in 1973, so right in the middle between the two timeslines of the show.

It does? I guess I need to rewatch that one. 😮

[Brainbug]

6 minutes ago, poweranimals said:

It does? I guess I need to rewatch that one. 😮

 

Yep, thats why it has the Apocalypse Now-asthetic and all that, its set right at the end of the Vietnam War.

[robertman2]

Godzilla vs Hedorah rocks. They should make more weird Godzilla movies

[poweranimals]

25 minutes ago, Brainbug said:

 

Yep, thats why it has the Apocalypse Now-asthetic and all that, its set right at the end of the Vietnam War.

It's been a while since I've seen it. Are there a lot of connections to Kong: Skull Island? It sound like it's mostly just Randa but he's mostly seen in the 1950s anyway.

[Brainbug]

1 minute ago, poweranimals said:

It's been a while since I've seen it. Are there a lot of connections to Kong: Skull Island? It sound like it's mostly just Randa but he's mostly seen in the 1950s anyway.

 

The first scene of the first episode is literally a scene from Kong Skull Island that takes place sometime during that movie (and it doesnt make much sense in the context of the movie, but whatever, its a cool intro lol).

 

Besides the younger Randa character though, there isnt much connection to Skull Island, the most heavily referenced movie by far is Godzilla 2014. Could be that i missed some easter eggs, but on a plot- and character-level, you woudnt actually need to watch Skull island so far to understand the show.

[Brainbug]

Main Trailer on YT surpassed 20M views, but at this point its clear that GxK will have far fever trailer views (atleast on YouTube) than GvK, though that was never the bar for success ofc, since GvK had a whole other world of circumstances around it. Its definetly an encouraging number and shows that interest is there.

 

The movie gets overshadowed right now because of Minus One's hype, but in the long run, the current overall Godzilla hype can only help this film. 

[marveldcfox]

I want this to be massive, but somehow I get the feeling this might underperform i.e. similar numbers to GvK or worse KOTM. 

[Brainbug]

5 hours ago, marveldcfox said:

I want this to be massive, but somehow I get the feeling this might underperform i.e. similar numbers to GvK or worse KOTM. 

 

GvK numbers (100M DOM, 470M WW) would actually be ok. Domestically it would be disappointing sure, but worldwide, close to 500M would ensure profitibility. Though atleast until the first tracking/presales numbers arrive, i wont allow myself to be worried. Mainly because the movie has numerous important factors going for it:

 

1) Reception to GvK was very good from the GA and made the MonsterVerse popular (again).

2) April is a total desert. Besides GxK, i see no other movie doing 100M+ that month. Bad news for theaters, but good news for this movie

3) The trailer has considerable buzz and in general, the Godzilla brand probably was never as popular and mainstream as today.

4) I trust in Adam Wingard to deliver a fun movie. Imo, he proved himself with GvK and i see no reason why he should suddenly make this a divisive or boring movie of sorts.

5) Coudnt stop myself from reading some leaks and if that stuff is true, this should be a crowdpleaser like GvK.

 

Right now, id say this movie has a good shot at outdoing Kong: Skull Islands numbers (168M DOM / 566M WW) and i do believe if its as crowd-pleasing as GvK, it can go over 200M.