Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Long Live the King

[Zhoban]

About that final scene featuring Ghidorah... It was at first a little difficult at first to tell what was going on; it initially looked like Godzilla and him were merging, but then it was apparent that Godzilla was eating him. Was that middle head all that remained from the blast, or had Godzilla managed to consume his body?

 

[Midlife Sperglord]

Saw it last night in IMAX. Had a couple of brews before getting in the theater. Watching this with beer goggles is recommended.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

I like Stuckmann's reviews to a certain point, but I've noticed her tends to begin the majority of his reviews with a "I'm such a big fan of--" qualifier. "I'm such a big fan of the Avengers." "I'm such a big fan of this director." "I'm such a big fan of this fandom." It's gotten to be quite tiresome.

All the same, I'm looking forward to seeing the movie as well. Hoping it stops by my tiny town in bumfuck nowhere.

Christ Stuckman is a huge fan of black people

 

[Muttnik]

I saw it last night in IMAX. It's a little messy in some areas for sure but overall it's big dumb awesome fun, especially if you're a long-time fan like me. I saw it with a very passionate audience and the reactions were through the roof during major monster fight scenes. All the monsters looked great and the fights got me really pumped.

All-in-all, it just ended up pissing me off even more that critics refused to open their minds about harmless entertainment. The flick gave me exactly what I wanted and I wasn't disappointed.

I'll probably give a more detailed review later but for now I'll say this much: Film is REALLY fun and I liked it a lot. Go check it out if you love kaiju as much as I do.

 

[Megaroad]

All-in-all, it just ended up pissing me off even more that critics refused to open their minds about harmless entertainment. The flick gave me exactly what I wanted and I wasn't disappointed.

Godzilla has always been the critics whipping boy. Roger Ebert dismisses the original for not being up to par with King Kong on the special effects level (nevermind it's a legitimately great film that is pretty haunting).

 

[The Great Chandler]

Godzilla has always been the critics whipping boy. Roger Ebert dismisses the original for not being up to par with King Kong on the special effects level (nevermind it's a legitimately great film that is pretty haunting).

While King Kong was a masterpiece on its own, it didn't have the long-lasting anti-nuke anti-war message Godzilla had.

 

[Muttnik]

Most critics of Godzilla I notice just tend to write the series off as "silly rubber suit films" that are more schlock than anything else. And while there is a tiny microscopic kernel of truth in there, it's really so much more than that. Godzilla himself is more or less a massive stomping radioactive metaphor for Japan's current public opinion. From the bleak warning of nuclear bombs in the 1954 original to the budding optimism of the Showa Era to environmental conservation in the 70's and 80's to a technologically superior era for the Millenium Series/Final Wars, Godzilla's grown and evolved so much over time and has reflected massive changes in Japanese culture along the way.

To write these films off as stupid or meaningless is exceptional beyond merit. There's a reason the fanbase is as passionate and loyal as it is. The series has always provided variety, commentary, and culture beyond all the mindless action and goofy moments. It always will as long as Godzilla remains relevant in pop culture.

I heavily recommend anyone interested to read Godzilla On My Mind by William Tsutsui if you want to learn more about the cultural impact and importance of the Godzilla series. It's a pretty good read.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

Just got out of the film after seeeing it with a couple friends. From a critica point of view I’d say its a 6-7. On a fun factor point of view I’d say its an 8-9

 

[Overcast]

Just saw it.

It was a fun movie. I was a huge fan of Godzilla as a little kid, so I felt giddy seeing him and King Ghidora brawl it out like in the good old days.

I didn't recognize the mammoth or bug looking monster. Anybody recognize those? Or were those just original monsters made for this movie?

 

[UE 558]

So far critics have been shidding and farding all over the movie while fans have been mixed on it

 

[StarkRavingMad]

Saw the movie.

In short: critics can get fucked. I loved it.

Spoiler

I even REALLY enjoyed the humans. I do not understand all of the complaints about them whatsoever. I feel like I saw a different movie?

The main family has their own arc in the movie. Like, I keep hearing the complaints about how underdeveloped the humans are ... Yet I saw development and things unfolding with the family, and it reached a satisfying conclusion. It completely worked for me.

And any "dumb" things that the humans decide to do? There was absolutely NOTHING I saw that was so dumb that it took me out of the film. Sure, there were some emotionally charged decisions made by some of the characters ... But they didn't feel out of character or out of place to me.

Also ... MOTHERFUCKING FIRE GODZILLA.

 

[averagejane]

@ discussion about chris stuckmann: i find him to be insufferable, personally. not even because i (sometimes) disagree with him, because i watch other movie commentators on youtube who i largely disagree with yet i enjoy to hear their perspective. it's just chris in general rubs me the wrong way with how pretentious he comes off. don't know what it is.

anyway, back to the godzilla sperging:
i loved the movie. i was definitely shaking with excitement by the end of it. rodan got a nice design upgrade, ghidorah was imposing as fuck, and godzilla's atomic breath charge up still gives me chills. i'm tempted to give the movie another watch just to see the big boys on screen some more.
the human characterization was a big step up from the last film, and they didn't make me too annoyed when attention was drawn away from kaiju violence.


looking forward to kong and godzilla going at it in the future. i'm actually a bit of a king kong sperg myself.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

@ discussion about chris stuckmann: i find him to be insufferable, personally. not even because i (sometimes) disagree with him, because i watch other movie commentators on youtube who i largely disagree with yet i enjoy to hear their perspective. it's just chris in general rubs me the wrong way with how pretentious he comes off. don't know what it is.

anyway, back to the godzilla sperging:
i loved the movie. i was definitely shaking with excitement by the end of it. rodan got a nice design upgrade, ghidorah was imposing as fuck, and godzilla's atomic breath charge up still gives me chills. i'm tempted to give the movie another watch just to see the big boys on screen some more.
the human characterization was a big step up from the last film, and they didn't make me too annoyed when attention was drawn away from kaiju violence.


looking forward to kong and godzilla going at it in the future. i'm actually a bit of a king kong sperg myself.

I’m a bit cautious about Kong vs Godzilla since its being directed by Adam Wingard who gave us the god awful death note movie

 

[Clown College]

Just got back from seeing this, as a life long Godzilla fan this was a very satisfying watch. Yes the human plot was a bit weak and the snarky quips dude could've been cut out but I didn't find it any worse than any other Godzilla movie. I really felt the monster action scenes with Godzilla and King G were well done, yes Mothra could've gotten a bit more screen time but this wasn't her movie. Someone mentioned over on SA that Rodan was basically Starscream from Transformers and the more I think about it the more I like that comparison. Anyways go see this movie it's meant to be entertainment and it most definitely delivered.

 

[Commander X]

DURR HURR THERE’S NO POLITICAL ALLEGORY IN THE BIG GIANT MONSTER MOVIE

At first, it seems that “King of the Monsters” might be playing a slick game, using a monster movie as the means of satirizing how people, in the current political era, react to a crisis — not by practically examining the problems at hand, but by falling back on ideology, even when ideology leads them down some demented side streets. In such a satire, the consensus that forms around Godzilla as a possible savior could be interpreted as the movie’s warning against investing hope in some totalitarian strongman.

But no. “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” isn’t presenting Godzilla as a symbol of incipient American fascism, but rather as a very big, green monster, who is there because filmmaker Michael Dougherty thinks Godzilla is kind of cool.

WHY OH WHY ISN'T GODZILLA A METAPHOR FOR THE PROBLEMS WITH PEOPLE SEEING TOTALITARIANS AS SAVIORS WAH THERE'S TOO MANY BIG MONSTERS AND THEY'RE "LOUD" WAH WAH WAH

Even if it's "just" a monster mash, characterizing a Godzilla movie that isn't all about "the human drama" with a few minutes of Godzilla action spliced in as just being about "big dumb monsters" is sort of pretentious and annoying.

 

[Commander X]

 

[The Nothingness]

DURR HURR THERE’S NO POLITICAL ALLEGORY IN THE BIG GIANT MONSTER MOVIE



WHY OH WHY ISN'T GODZILLA A METAPHOR FOR THE PROBLEMS WITH PEOPLE SEEING TOTALITARIANS AS SAVIORS WAH THERE'S TOO MANY BIG MONSTERS AND THEY'RE "LOUD" WAH WAH WAH

Even if it's "just" a monster mash, characterizing a Godzilla movie that isn't all about "the human drama" with a few minutes of Godzilla action spliced in as just being about "big dumb monsters" is sort of pretentious and annoying.

Good grief. It's like they want the political satire from the first act of Shin Godzilla, which was referring to the Japanese government's response to the Fukashima power plant disaster.

Is every mainstream movie now going to view through a political lens by critics?

 

[Muttnik]

Is every mainstream movie now going to view through a political lens by critics?

I remember reading a review for War for the Planet of the Apes (Pretty good end to a trilogy btw) where the critic basically said "TEE HEE A CHARACTER ASKED WHY THE NAZI BAD GUYS NEED A WALL REEE DRUMPH" and the context of what they were talking about was literally a character just asking why a wall was being built and it was revealed to be a last ditch effort to barricade the bad guys from incoming enemy troops. That's all it was.

Critics are exceptional. If the political lens shit continues, professional film criticism is yet one more thing that'll go out of stock in our lifetime. There's nothing wrong with reviewing movies--sometimes a good review will determine whether or not I want to spend 20 bucks on seeing a movie in theaters--but when you're looking at film through your own personal agenda then your criticism is automatically moot.

 

[Pumpkin Girl IRL]

Ghidorah's three heads having seperate, distinct personalities was a fantastic little touch.

Middle head being an enormously smug prick owned.

 

[Overcast]

Ghidorah's three heads having seperate, distinct personalities was a fantastic little touch.

Middle head being an enormously smug prick owned.

The left head gets picked on by him too. : (