Tony here. I’m a forever defendor of Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla picture. It’s an atmospheric, artful take on a big, blustery blockbuster featuring giant monsters. The acting is better than it has any right to be and there are images and wholesale sequences which evoke the best of Spielberg; Edwards sought to restore mystery and majesty to the genre. After Edwards’ film ONLY made $530 million worldwide, Warner Bros would return to the brainless goofiness of old (think the 1997 Godzilla) with Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, seeking out higher dollars by doubling down on dumbing it down.
Despite interesting directors at the helm, they’re both mildly entertaining if overwrought examples of studio factory filmmaking, and Godzilla v Kong looks to continue this trend based on its trailer, a piece of unintentional hilarity...
YES
- Watching a giant lizard and a giant ape do battle on the streets of Earth will always be aesthetically pleasing on a primal level. There are some captivating images of destruction here, culminating in a visually stimulating mano-o-mano with laser breath.
- Alexander Skarsgard, Kyle Chandler, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Demian Bichir, and Millie Bobby Brown? Through this entire “cinematic universe” the cast has never not been filled with great actors and notable character actors, even if they’re mostly wasted.
NO
- The worst needle drop since Evanescence in the trailer for 2003’s Daredevil. Nu-Metal went the way of the dinosaurs. Wait a minute, maybe that’s the point? Some sort of demented deep cut by way of subliminal marketing? Not likely. More than likely simply the result of bad taste.
- Another narrative about Kong bonding with a girl. It worked nearly a century ago and it worked when Peter Jackson did it again in 2005. I don’t think it’s going to work this time, particularly with a young child who doesn’t say much versus luminous starlet Ann Darrow in the original story.
MAYBE SO
- “It’s Godzilla, ”Godzilla's out there and he's hurting people and we don't know why!” Is this the worst dialogue ever or the best dialogue ever for a movie about gargantuan titans slugging each other through buildings? The po-faced seriousness here clashes with the utterly ridiculous nature of what they’re saying. And yet, maybe Adam Wingard will get the balance right unlike the last two filmmakers who aimed for something approaching high camp.
Where are you on this one? It opens in both theaters and on HBOMax on March 31st