King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

For the discussion of the Legendary Pictures MonsterVerse. This includes Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island and any upcoming films under the MonsterVerse umbrella.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by GojiDog »

I posted a video review on my channel where I reviewed a ton of movies and stuff, Godzilla: KOTM included
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0xwlwAfhIc

Skip to 1:12:13 of the video to see the Godzilla review.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by SoggyNoodles2016 »

Godzilla: The whole cause of King King's Monster is in big demand this year. Strong shot of A-list. Best writer. Possibility of licensing tradition. And, of course, I wanted to make a huge pile of huge film fans for film FX today for decades.

What problem might it be? Within ten minutes of entering the film I started to feel unwell. It started with a scene where two characters played by Millie Bobby Brown and Vera Farmiga speak - and then the camera suddenly turns to the outdoors. My eyes are starting to tighten as the circulation is so fast and accelerating. This means that the director will not happen to the expert, or at least remember that he will stay on the floor of the cutting room. Well, I was thinking. I hope this is a fluke. My hope has gone short.

This movie is not terrifying when compared to the summer blockbuster standard. But he feels much worse than awful, because of the distorted potential tragic sense. And there is a buzzing sound directly on the shoulder of the director.

I forget the complaint about "Incoherent Plot". This plot is completely understandable, as the standard subject matter of action films for children is not as complex as Spy Kids. Add a huge monster. Good for me. Similarly, there is no performance penalty here. In particular, Brown exhibits stable performance as usual. Sure, their dialogue is absolutely ridiculous, but in fact, I thought it was a bit attractive. Classics in the name of Toho wake up horrific nonsense and meet fans looking at granular VHS tapes.

(My personal favorite line is the most persuasive person in the film, and cries out, "This is a dangerous road!" React to someone who is


The real problem with this film is that director Mike Dougati can not raise any material at all. In fact, he can not even leave it alone. The film is full of sharp cuts, sharp zooms, strange angles, unpleasant close-ups, and claustrophobic sensations. Gareth Edwards's Godzilla may have suffered from the lack of a monster scene, but when they were on the screen, boys, they were great. When we were immersed in the total pleasure of seeing massive primitive violence, we were long and quite quite still got the shots the monsters were moving against each other.

Dougherty is not confident in doing this. Due to concerns about CGI-it's certainly uneven from time to time, but mostly good-whether he is just inexperienced or not, he can not tolerate the screen remaining stationary for more than a second. Like a teenager who just bought the first HandiCam, he wants to zoom and swipe and push in as many directions as possible. Good directors like Edwards do the choreography and then the camera makes it possible to capture it. Bad directors like Dougherty let the camera do the choreography and give the impression that a lot of things are happening, powerfully quickly and violently. Somehow these giant monsters will eventually feel small. Men in miniature sets and rubber costumes felt larger and more threatened than this.

The grand finale, Battle Royale, is absolutely epic and that is why it would have been great to see some of it. Instead of having us look at it, Dougherty had a surprisingly bad camera job on his security blanket. The truly amazing scenes all consist of seemingly 1000 different angles and camera tricks, completely deducted from their power. On the other hand, we get a fairly uninterrupted shot (introduced in the trailer) that Godzilla is running so fast and looks so weightless-he should weigh nearly 100,000 tons The fight was supposed to be great, and on paper it was a big deal. However, Dougherty seems to be very self-confident, he can not help during all the good parts. It is sad to understand that the director's notorious "Suzan" seems to be stimulated by creative anxiety.

We are treated as human characters flying and sailing around the world in dim rooms, when the monster's behavior is disturbed and completely unconstrained by untrained camerawork and editing. In the favorite part of Star Trek, people are looking at the screen, talking at unbearable length about what they are doing, and shaking the camera to show something loud or dangerous just happening outside It is sometimes interrupted. -Monster scene. Otherwise you may also sleep through these parts. It certainly feels like the director did. I feel that the actor did his best to make it work, but what can you do in such a situation? Did the tears come when the camera starts shaking? More sighing if the computer monitor says something bad happened?

It should also be mentioned that Dougherty and the team have been promoting the film's "environmental message" for many months. But watching the movie, I found it
Spoiler: Bagan
That is an "environmental message". Environmental message as preferred by ExxonMobil management.

I am tired of writing about this. As a lifelong fan of Godzilla, who wanted to see these creatures shine brighter than ever, it is too depressed. You won't stop watching this movie, and I know that. 5 minutes All-Enjoy the good part. Just make sure to remember that you are not obligated to rationalize or excuse for the dissatisfaction you have by the time it is over. That feeling is a fairly normal response to a two and a half hour spectator watching the director with anxieties about his or her ability. By the time the film was completed, I strongly hoped to help him out and say, "You are right, Mike Doggett. You are not just a good director."

Pizza Time.
Last edited by SoggyNoodles2016 on Mon Jun 03, 2019 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by KaijuCanuck »

I concur, quite granular, granular indeed.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Godzilla21 »

Captured my thoughts perfectly. Nice review
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Mr_Goji_and_Watch »

Holy troll....
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by KaijuCanuck »

Mr_Goji_and_Watch wrote:Holy troll....
You just wish you could write something so thoughtful. ;)
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by JimmyD1318 »

Godzilla forever.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by TyrantGojira »

Just saw the film. Time for my breakdown.

Pros:
-Great Visual Effects
-Monsters are full of personality
-Amazing soundtrack
-Awe inducing cinematography
-Good brisk pacing and good suspense

Cons
-Meh Characters
-Story could use some more substance
-Some out of place humor
-No Maguma
Last edited by TyrantGojira on Tue Jun 04, 2019 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by gottatalktothefake »

That was an incredible reading experience there soggy.

But I wonder when the TK reviews will be up
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by BlankAccount »

He's not a member here but here's an interactive review by Fabian and his subscribers (probably misspelled that).



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfw7VPYB6_0

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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by The Zilla in Manila »

I quite liked, maybe even loved KOTM. I saw it twice over the course of the weekend and the first time I felt simply satisfied but truly enjoyed it the second time around. It has its flaws absolutely, but this felt like a modern day Heisei film on a Hollywood budget with Showa quality acting.

It felt most like Godzilla vs Biollante where the story is a bit convoluted, humans do illogical things and there's an implausibly capable protagonist doing things out of his paygrade because . . . plot. But just like GvB the overall atmosphere, the monster scenes, and generally engaging human activity no matter how illogical or dumb, elevate it to a thoroughly fun Godzilla film.

A Godzilla movie can, and probably should, be a quality above what we expect from our normal kaiju fare, however unlike what Michael Bay did to my Transformers, its very clear the director has a deep love for the Godzilla films and provided an experience that at least feels familiar to the brand. Its not a sustainable move to emulate the Toho film sensibilities of the series for a western general audience but as a fan, it works for me. I love Godzilla 2014, and objectively think its an overall better film but KOTM feels like it'll get more repeat viewings in the long run and be one of my sentimental favorites in the franchise.
Last edited by The Zilla in Manila on Tue Jun 04, 2019 4:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by MechaGoji Bro7503 »

I enjoyed it more on my second viewing, it's still a 5/10 for me because I can't gloss over some of the flaws.

Interesting how the second viewing seems to change it for people.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Dv-218 »

^Hence why i'm seeing it again next week. My overall opinion so far is that I liked and enjoyed it, but I want to revisit it in order to make up my opinion properly. Who knows, maybe i'll pick up a thing or two that I didn't notice the first viewing :)

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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by GuardianGhido »

It's like I said earlier, this isn't a movie you can just watch once. Maybe that's some sort of magical marketing strategy to get the same people to watch often? Mothra must have helped. :lol:
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by AllHailTheKing »

It was slow the other day at work, so I hid in the back of the IMAX and watched a good 50 minutes of it again. *L* Absolutely love the mythology they're building. Lovecraft is one of my favorite authors and this reminds me very much of the Cthulhu mythos. I really want to watch the WHOLE movie again in one sitting, but I only get one employee pass per week and there are way too many movies coming out right now. I work all this weekend.....then we're leaving for vacation on Monday, then when I get back we still have to catch up on Rocket Man and Dark Phoenix, and the Bill Murray zombie comedy....before I can see it again.

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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Ivo-goji »

Went in with low expectations from all of the hilariously defensive memes the movie inspired, left pleasantly surprised. What I expected to be a disappointment turned out to be exactly what I wanted in a Mothra movie.

Why were my expectations low, and why were they subverted?

After the years and years of circlejerking from the Gareth Edwards hatedom about how G14 was an awful film that didn't give the fans what they wanted and how Dougherty was going to implement the gratuitous monster action free of any pesky human drama that was the one holy orthodox way to make kaiju movies, what we actually got was, uh, a beat-for-beat whole plot reference to G14.

-similar opening
-similar protagonist with similar goal
-similar relationship between military characters and scientists
-loads of exposition
-nearly identical third act, only the nuke is replaced by a different kind of Macguffin
-kaiju action? Short, separated by huge chunks of human action, kaiju's bodies are nearly always obscured by clouds, water, or debris.
-Godzilla is hardly in it.

No wonder so many people acted liked they were ashamed to admit they liked the movie.

Of course, I myself loved G14 and ended up loving KOM for many of the same reasons.

The kaiju scenes are short, but they made the time they had count and showcased each kaiju's abilities smoothly. The monsters have so much personality, so many brilliant little touches to make each of them distinctive, and they emote so well that whenever one is on screen you know exactly what they're thinking. Godzilla makes up for his lack of screen time by being a presence that is constantly felt in the dialogue and the actions of the other characters. The human cast is solid, the dynamic between the male and female leads is convincing and builds on the themes of the previous two movies perfectly. I was intrigued by the direction they went with the mother and daughter characters from the start and the amount of subtlety that was worked into their story arc was impressive. All of the characters were handheld well, but the real MVP was Serizawa. Ken Watanabe's performance was so heartfelt, so intense and moving, it belongs right up there with Akihiko Hirata's original take on Serizawa as one of the defining roles in the history of the franchise.

I'm not happy with every decision the film made, and there were a couple of points that bugged me, but nothing so big it ruined the viewing experience. The worst bits were definitely the bad jokes peppered throughout the movie. Should have played it classier.

All in all a great movie, one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in a long time. I give Mothra and Her Boyfriend a 9/10.
Last edited by Ivo-goji on Wed Jun 05, 2019 8:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

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Ivo-goji wrote: I give Mothra and Her Boyfriend a 9/10.
That's messed up.

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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by G2000 »

I saw the movie last Thursday, and I would have posted my thoughts on it earlier were it not for Maritonic being a humorless tool.

Anyway, I enjoyed it overall. Wasn’t nearly as good as I had hoped, but it’s a fun popcorn type movie. Certainly doesn’t deserve the 40% RT rating it’s getting, as it’s leaps and bounds ahead of Uprising or the Bayformers films I see many detractors compare it to I would say it’s roughly on par with Skull Island or most MCU movies. That being said I do think the fact that I knew pretty much the entire plot beat-for-beat thanks to numerous leaks and the early release of the novelization had a negative impact on my enjoyment; I knew basically every line of dialogue, every battle scene, etc. before I went in. Had I not I probably would have had a more enjoyable experience.

Listing as a means of getting points out quick as I can without fretting too much over phrasing.

PROS:
- The pacing. Never a dull moment, the movie doesn’t drag at any point. As some others have pointed out, the pacing also helps the quips feel more “natural” as the movie never really pauses for a laugh on any of them
- Plot was simple but not too bad at all, nowhere near as “convoluted” as some have made it out to be. While it’s not as good as it could have been, it’s serviceable, and nothing really stood out as particularly bad enough to detract from my overall plot enjoyment.
- Human cast was decent. Everyone plays his or her part as well as they can. No one’s exceptionally annoying or hard to bear, with the occasional exception of Rick Stanton (some of his lines are humorous but most fall flat).
- The monsters really are the high point of the movie. The VFX are good (as most everyone has noted), but even that aside it really is neat to see how much character they’re given. Standout moments include the Ghidorah heads in Antarctica, Rodan smirking before barrel-rolling the Argo’s F-35 escorts into oblivion, Godzilla’s look of sheer hatred when seeing Ghidorah for the first time, it goes on.
- Kickass soundtrack.


CONS:
- The pacing. The movie is so fast your head spins, and moments that should be allowed to breathe and really “sink in” so to speak are almost forgotten right after they happen.
- Many of the actors are woefully underutilized. Sally Hawkins probably gets the worst of it. Charles Dance makes every moment of his shine with his dry and sardonic delivery but he really doesn’t get to do all that much. If they had kept some of his bits from the novel intact where he threatens Madison’s life and they explore a bit more of why he’s decided humanity deserves to die things might have been better off in that regard.
- A bit too quippy. It’s nowhere near MCU-tier, thank God, but it’s there. As mentioned, while some of the quips really aren’t that bad, a decent number (mostly from Bradley Whiford’s character) fall flat on their face. Most egregiously, a good dialogue between Serizawa and Mark about how the latter man must overcome his personal demons is undermined by the joke about “a really long fortune cookie” (to be honest it would have been both funnier and more organic if he had responded to Mark’s “did you just make all that up” with a flat “yes”). Luckily the fast pacing actually helps in this regard because it really never tries to pause for a laugh like some other blockbusters do.
- As others have said, the soundtrack is often drowned out by the action, which is really unfortunate seeing as it’s pretty good and deserved a bit of the spotlight.
- The camerawork isn’t anywhere near as bad as some people make it out to be (for the most part it’s pretty good) but there are a few bits that aren’t that great. The brief battle between Godzilla and Ghidorah in the Gulf of Mexico is very muddled and hard to make out, and the snap zooms (each of the main four Titans gets one) just look too much like reaction gifs for me to really take seriously. The camera is also a bit shaky at times, and while I feel this works well in some of the more “natural” scenes (like Millie making breakfast) it doesn’t work so well in many of the Titan’s introductory scenes. I can understand that they were attempting to convey chaos and a sort of “man-on-the-ground” perspective, but ultimately it just looked amatuerish. Thankfully those bits are fairly brief, and I thought the movie looked good overall.


Overall I enjoyed it and would probably rank it a 7/10. It’s not as good as it could be, not the best the genre has to offer, but it’s still a fun monster romp. Would like to see it again but haven’t been able to find the time; perhaps this weekend or this Friday
Last edited by G2000 on Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

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GuardianGhido wrote: Mothra

Reeeeeeee!

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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by goji89 »

G2000 wrote:I saw the movie last Thursday, and I would have posted my thoughts on it earlier were it not for Maritonic being a humorless tool.
Its not that the guy is humorless but that most of you guy's take to this fucking board like as if its your fucking job or an internship to something greater. And the off chance you guy's want to joke around no one takes it as humor because most of you are so dead serious 99% of the time. Also, was your review supposed to be full of humor or something? But anyway case in point this fucking post just now.......shiit, I dont know if your joking or not. Hope you and Maritonic are good if not then........I don't know what to tell ya.

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