X-ceptional!
X-citing!
X-ception to American Studios screwing up Toho properties!
WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
No spoilers because this film was filled with far too many outlandishly crazy surprises to want to take any of them away from viewers.
I shall definitely have to revisit it in "Litany" mode to discuss it in more depth.
Great King Kong stories are filled with lunatic ecologies and wild civilizations.
Great Godzilla stories are filled with lunatic powers and spirity aspects of the Kaiju.
This movie seamlessly blended the two.
Kong was a true "thinking animal" highlighting his intelligence and personality.
Godzilla was a force of nature, a being somehow above and beyond Earth's inhabitants.
I feel like movie studios are finally listening to me for a very important aspect of these films:
"When we go see a film with Godzilla in the title,
Godzilla Vs Kong was fun, but it had a boatload of people in it, separated into two groups, taking screen time away from the title monsters and providing a little too much help in the climax.
This movie chose the coolest person from the Kong group, young Jia with her connection to the giant ape, and the funniest member of the Godzilla group, Bernie, the often correct conspiracy nut. They were combined in a single group of humans. Yeah, we did see a few others here and there to show there were larger organizations at work, but nothing that limited more Kaiju time. The group was rounded out by Jia's Mom, because you need a scientist in these movies, and an over the top loopy Kaiju Veterinarian for extra insanity. The group was completed by a military guy to be in charge, have a stick up his butt, and act like a big jerk so no one cared when he got eaten. (That may be a bit of a spoiler, but no one who knows this kind of monsterfest will be at all surprised that it will happen. Also when and how it happens is still startling as all get out.)
There are a HUGE number of Kaiju in this film, both of the Kong "weirdly divergent, enormous evolutionarily line path" types, and the Godzilla "mystically powered, giant, weird looking thing" path.
Kong is the protagonist even more than in the last film. He's got relatable emotions (or maybe I'm just a large, hairy, tired old man) and follows a developing character arc.
The hollow earth environment continues to make zero sense, and HOORAY! that it does. It allows the playground of the Monsterverse to expand and flourish with new beings, races locations and other things. Those "things" are often a combination of the other three.
This was the first time I've seen a film on the giant IMAX screen where I felt it was 100% worth it. the Jurassic World franchise was close, but didn't compare as dinosaurs are no where near Kaiju size.
I need to see this again on the big screen. This is why movie theaters were made!
I have one, tiny complaint. The music was good, and fit the scenes. The individual song selections mixed into the story by the previously mentioned insane vet were spot on. However, can we please get Bear McCreary back to compose the next outing and have him work in some of the Toho themes again. The music is SO CLOSE to what was used in the Japanese films, most of the notes are the same. Just embrace the Ifukube themes!
No comments:
Post a Comment