King Kong vs. Godzilla

King Kong vs godzilla is my first venture into the classic kaiju Era of the two legends. Before this I normally watched the more modern Japanese ones or the American entiries and I liked all of them except the 1990s American one. So how does the classic Era fare so far. Well with Kong vs godzilla I definitely had fun with the monster battles and cool sets. The rest was interesting.
I'll start with what I liked. Firstly, I liked that it was an actual vs movie and not a bigger badder enemy is out there. It refreshing to see and I may disagree with the winner (godzilla has atomic breath come on) but there was a clear winner.
I also loved the sets. The minutures and how the kaiju destroy everything as they Traverse Japan is just cool to see. The train sequence was a favorite of mine. The kaiju were just guys in suits but that was just charming to see again.
Then the main event. The battles were fun snd exciting. The fight on Mount Fiji was the best part. Kong and Godzilla both have their time to shine and I loved seeing the old battles for the first time.
Where the movie falters for me is the human characters. Some parts were interesting like the island where the "natives" lived. That part may have some let's say questionable moments and choices. That being said it was the most funny part of the movie and the battle with the giant octopus was cool.
Now for the characters I don't like. The entire segments of the UN broadcast. They just repeated information you can get from watching the story and it was boring. It was just a big distraction making a short movie feel longer.
The characters in the story were fine. Nothing interesting but not to boring. The 2 best ones were the ones who went to the island. They were funny and their boss had me laughing too. The rest kind of forgettable.
As a comparison to the monsterverse movie. I like the monsterverse movie more. It has its flaws but it's just more entertaining to me and the human element while not great was better. It also got winner clearly right.
So king Kong vs Godzilla was fun. I liked it for the most part and the fights and humor was there. It just lacked the human element. For clarification I'm not looking for godzilla minus one levels of humanity but just a bit more for me to hope they survive. So it's fun but flawed.

King Kong vs godzilla is my first venture into the classic kaiju Era of the two legends. Before this I normally watched the more modern Japanese ones or the American entiries and I liked all of them except the 1990s American one. So how does the classic Era fare so far. Well with Kong vs godzilla I definitely had fun with the monster battles and cool sets. The rest was interesting.
I'll start with what I liked. Firstly, I liked that it was an actual vs movie and not a bigger badder enemy is out there. It refreshing to see and I may disagree with the winner (godzilla has atomic breath come on) but there was a clear winner.
I also loved the sets. The minutures and how the kaiju destroy everything as they Traverse Japan is just cool to see. The train sequence was a favorite of mine. The kaiju were just guys in suits but that was just charming to see again.
Then the main event. The battles were fun snd exciting. The fight on Mount Fiji was the best part. Kong and Godzilla both have their time to shine and I loved seeing the old battles for the first time.
Where the movie falters for me is the human characters. Some parts were interesting like the island where the "natives" lived. That part may have some let's say questionable moments and choices. That being said it was the most funny part of the movie and the battle with the giant octopus was cool.
Now for the characters I don't like. The entire segments of the UN broadcast. They just repeated information you can get from watching the story and it was boring. It was just a big distraction making a short movie feel longer.
The characters in the story were fine. Nothing interesting but not to boring. The 2 best ones were the ones who went to the island. They were funny and their boss had me laughing too. The rest kind of forgettable.
As a comparison to the monsterverse movie. I like the monsterverse movie more. It has its flaws but it's just more entertaining to me and the human element while not great was better. It also got winner clearly right.
So king Kong vs Godzilla was fun. I liked it for the most part and the fights and humor was there. It just lacked the human element. For clarification I'm not looking for godzilla minus one levels of humanity but just a bit more for me to hope they survive. So it's fun but flawed.

American version was funnier, Kong won fair and square

American version was funnier, Kong won fair and square

For reference; I own this on DVD and the only version of this movie I own is the English dub and while not as insulting as the English version of Varan but it still suffers from “dumbing things down for the dumbass Americans in the audience”. You’ll see scenes that are narrated over where they are telling you the information you could probably lay organically surmise from the actual scene that you’re not hearing dialogue from. Which is weird because doing all of that shaved off what? A minute? The original cut is 97 minutes and this version is 96 minutes so like, why reason? Now having to try and explain that this is a different Godzilla who was awoken after an ice burg thawed out because of the weird warming of the ocean okay I can understand that. In the timeline of events Godzilla was frozen on an island at the end of Raids Again however, Raids Again was not released in theaters in america before this movie came out, hell i don’t think it was ever released in theaters here. So people didn’t see what happened in that movie to explain why Godzilla is back and how he got frozen, okay I understand that. But there are scenes where Kong will be doing something, or Godzilla is doing something and then we all of a sudden cut to a room at the UN where a bunch of white guys inform you about some lore, or detail that again you could probably pick up on through the natural dialogue. It’s weird.

Also the monster suits just look kinda bad, Godzilla has a very distinct line of definition around his neck where you can see that’s where the mask gets taken on and off, Kong looks like they drug his suit through a dusty construction zone and their EYES. You can very clearly see their eyes in this movie and oh my god, Godzilla’s look alright maybe a little too close together but fine overall… Kong however just has these dead soulless orbs of white and black papier-mâché it’s bad and like really bad because as King Kong your supposed to almost have a sense of pity for him. He’s just a big dumb animal and is treated with fear and terror like a mountain lion would be if it walked through downtown Chicago. That’s understandable but even in that 1933 Original there was so much effort put towards making sure that without dialogue or anyone telling you how he’s feeling you could just see it all on Kong’s face, body language, how quickly or slowly he did something everything had his personality baked into it. Here he looks like a mop that was used to clean up chocolate milk and it’s not very flattering.

Idk I have a lot of nostalgia for this movie, it was one of the hypest things I found as a 10 year old in an FYE. I desperately searched for it for years but because of the legal nightmare that is King Kong I figured we’d never see an actual release of it, so finding that as a child was like a big deal for me. Now we live in a world where that beautiful criterion collection box set exists (which I don’t have… yet) and this obsolete DVD is now just a constant reminder that I’m getting older and more cynical. Watching these dudes in rubber suits beat the shit out of each other doesn’t excite me the same way it did 8 year old me 10 year old me hell even 16 year old me. 27 year old me has seen Godzilla minus one, and misses the characters having a meaningful personality and depth. Idk movie’s fine, I think the American remake in 2020 is better less charming maybe but a better structured movie especially for Kong.

For reference; I own this on DVD and the only version of this movie I own is the English dub and while not as insulting as the English version of Varan but it still suffers from “dumbing things down for the dumbass Americans in the audience”. You’ll see scenes that are narrated over where they are telling you the information you could probably lay organically surmise from the actual scene that you’re not hearing dialogue from. Which is weird because doing all of that shaved off what? A minute? The original cut is 97 minutes and this version is 96 minutes so like, why reason? Now having to try and explain that this is a different Godzilla who was awoken after an ice burg thawed out because of the weird warming of the ocean okay I can understand that. In the timeline of events Godzilla was frozen on an island at the end of Raids Again however, Raids Again was not released in theaters in america before this movie came out, hell i don’t think it was ever released in theaters here. So people didn’t see what happened in that movie to explain why Godzilla is back and how he got frozen, okay I understand that. But there are scenes where Kong will be doing something, or Godzilla is doing something and then we all of a sudden cut to a room at the UN where a bunch of white guys inform you about some lore, or detail that again you could probably pick up on through the natural dialogue. It’s weird.

Also the monster suits just look kinda bad, Godzilla has a very distinct line of definition around his neck where you can see that’s where the mask gets taken on and off, Kong looks like they drug his suit through a dusty construction zone and their EYES. You can very clearly see their eyes in this movie and oh my god, Godzilla’s look alright maybe a little too close together but fine overall… Kong however just has these dead soulless orbs of white and black papier-mâché it’s bad and like really bad because as King Kong your supposed to almost have a sense of pity for him. He’s just a big dumb animal and is treated with fear and terror like a mountain lion would be if it walked through downtown Chicago. That’s understandable but even in that 1933 Original there was so much effort put towards making sure that without dialogue or anyone telling you how he’s feeling you could just see it all on Kong’s face, body language, how quickly or slowly he did something everything had his personality baked into it. Here he looks like a mop that was used to clean up chocolate milk and it’s not very flattering.

Idk I have a lot of nostalgia for this movie, it was one of the hypest things I found as a 10 year old in an FYE. I desperately searched for it for years but because of the legal nightmare that is King Kong I figured we’d never see an actual release of it, so finding that as a child was like a big deal for me. Now we live in a world where that beautiful criterion collection box set exists (which I don’t have… yet) and this obsolete DVD is now just a constant reminder that I’m getting older and more cynical. Watching these dudes in rubber suits beat the shit out of each other doesn’t excite me the same way it did 8 year old me 10 year old me hell even 16 year old me. 27 year old me has seen Godzilla minus one, and misses the characters having a meaningful personality and depth. Idk movie’s fine, I think the American remake in 2020 is better less charming maybe but a better structured movie especially for Kong.

Not sure why Criterion only has the dubbed version available, but the goofiness of the dub probably added a lot more fun to the movie than there would've been if I'd seen the original.

And why is Godzilla suddenly weak to electricity? I know these are technically two different Godzillas, but it feels counterproductive to have this guy weak to electricity when the first one has such an iconic scene where he melts radio towers and crashes through electric wires. Godzilla should've smoked Kong.

Not much else to say besides the fact that I LOVE watching two monster-costumed actors tackle each other. I sure do hope there are 12 more of these for me to watch.

Not sure why Criterion only has the dubbed version available, but the goofiness of the dub probably added a lot more fun to the movie than there would've been if I'd seen the original.

And why is Godzilla suddenly weak to electricity? I know these are technically two different Godzillas, but it feels counterproductive to have this guy weak to electricity when the first one has such an iconic scene where he melts radio towers and crashes through electric wires. Godzilla should've smoked Kong.

Not much else to say besides the fact that I LOVE watching two monster-costumed actors tackle each other. I sure do hope there are 12 more of these for me to watch.

having now seen the Japanese version, whilst neither are great, the over the top camp of the American version some how makes it stupid to the point of being boring?? idk how that's even possible but despite being such a silly and simple entry into the franchise it is just sooo boring!

Godzilla Marathon

having now seen the Japanese version, whilst neither are great, the over the top camp of the American version some how makes it stupid to the point of being boring?? idk how that's even possible but despite being such a silly and simple entry into the franchise it is just sooo boring!

Godzilla Marathon