Page 4 of 7

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 11:42 am
by LamangoKaijura
Oh wow, thanks G2000 and everyone else. This is interesting.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 8:51 am
by Olzh26
G2000 wrote:Interesting excerpt from the novel that I was reminded of today because it was so similar to a fan series I once read. There’s a bit during Rodan’s emergence in Mexico in which Mark speculates that Godzilla, Rodan and similar Titans are far more ancient and far more different than we initially thought, possibly having evolved during Earth’s infancy in the Hadean or Archean eons:

“Maybe the Monarch scientists had it wrong. They kept telling him the Titans were part of the natural order, but he didn’t see it. How could that be natural? Maybe the Titans didn’t arise when the rest of life on Earth did. What if they weren’t part of life as we know it at all? What if they came from before, when there was no water or free oxygen, when everything was a volcanic hellscape, the atmosphere a perpetual lightning storm, when radiation sleeted from the sky and pulsed from the ground at levels that would strike a human dead in the time it took to draw a breath of the poisonous atmosphere. The Earth was like that for billions of years, before it started to rain, the sky to cool, seas to form. Before bacteria. Before the first photosynthetic organism started pumping oxygen into the air. Plenty of time for another kind of life to evolve based on some other chemistry that didn’t need water or oxygen. It was easy to believe, watching the terrible flaming bird gain on them, that life as they knew it was just a pale attempt to imitate what came before, those earlier[…]”
No god please no

Added in 3 minutes 34 seconds:
Mothra is a Lepidoptera. How could she appear in archea? And if Godzilla is a creature that doesn’t need oxygen, why did he choke when Gidorah started choking him?

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:01 am
by GojiDog
I just read through the novelization.

Parts of it are awesome. The additional details on the monsters, their awakening, and what they do in the story are great little touches. It was great to have Kong play a part as well. It is the type of thing that would only slow the pacing of a movie down, but in book form, the added detail works. Also, introducing each chapter with notes from Serasawa or Chen's research was a nice touch that, again, works well in book form.

But some of the writing of the book was a little off putting to me. There is a lot more casual swearing throughout the film. Not that I'm a prude or anything, but sometimes they throw stuff out there to the point that it makes it feel like the book was written by a teenager. I get in some cases they are trying to convey how the characters are thinking and feeling, but it reads very awkwardly whenever it comes up.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:03 am
by G2000
Olzh26 wrote:[No god please no
Added in 3 minutes 34 seconds:
Mothra is a Lepidoptera. How could she appear in archea?
She probably didn’t. It stands to reason that different Titans arose in different time periods (for example, mammalian Titans like Kong and Behemoth are probably a lot younger than Godzilla and Rodan).

In any case the only source we have for Titans having possibly arisen that early is Mark speculating in the novel upon seeing Rodan’s volcanic nature, comparing it to Godzilla’s fire and and Ghidorah’s lightning, and wondering how such animals could have evolved naturally and concluding they must have been from a period in which Earth must have been almost unrecognizable

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:09 am
by Olzh26
G2000 wrote:
Olzh26 wrote:[No god please no
Added in 3 minutes 34 seconds:
Mothra is a Lepidoptera. How could she appear in archea?
She probably didn’t. It stands to reason that different Titans arose in different time periods (for example, mammalian Titans like Kong and Behemoth are probably a lot younger than Godzilla and Rodan).

In any case the only source we have for Titans having possibly arisen that early is Mark speculating in the novel upon seeing Rodan’s volcanic nature, comparing it to Godzilla’s fire and and Ghidorah’s lightning, and wondering how such animals could have evolved naturally and concluding they must have been from a period in which Earth must have been almost unrecognizable
I hope that he is mistaken because it will be nonsense. Where did they come from in the Archean? moreover, in the awakening it was said that Godzilla was from the late Permian.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 12:43 pm
by Hokmuto
Olzh26 wrote:
G2000 wrote:
Olzh26 wrote:[No god please no
Added in 3 minutes 34 seconds:
Mothra is a Lepidoptera. How could she appear in archea?
She probably didn’t. It stands to reason that different Titans arose in different time periods (for example, mammalian Titans like Kong and Behemoth are probably a lot younger than Godzilla and Rodan).

In any case the only source we have for Titans having possibly arisen that early is Mark speculating in the novel upon seeing Rodan’s volcanic nature, comparing it to Godzilla’s fire and and Ghidorah’s lightning, and wondering how such animals could have evolved naturally and concluding they must have been from a period in which Earth must have been almost unrecognizable
I hope that he is mistaken because it will be nonsense. Where did they come from in the Archean? moreover, in the awakening it was said that Godzilla was from the late Permian.
I would mostly roll my eyes and thoughts like these, but I totally agree in this case. Don't have these creatures come to life in the Pre-Cambrian supereon. That's just absurd.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 6:40 pm
by TheInfiniteAeon
Given Rodan's pteranodon-like skeletal structure one can presume that he started flying since the Cretaceous. Based on the description given of Mokele-mbembe he could be another Titan that came from the Mesozoic era. It's interesting though that even though the Permian era was the only noted period to have such high levels of surface radiation we see Titans popping much later. Any post-Permian hotspots of surface radiation must've been sufficient enough to give rise to these newer Titans.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 8:17 pm
by Ivo-goji
G2000 wrote:
There were at least two. The most prominent is Mokele-Mbembe. Unlike the “real life” cryptid it’s named after (generally depicted as a sauropod living in the Congo) here it’s depicted as some sort of horrific reptilie-elephant beast with downturned trunks, a glowing green horn in the center of it’s head, a long reptilian tail, and a “snakelike” trunk that snatches people off the ground and throws them into it’s “crocodile-like” jaws. It sleeps beneath the Nubian Pyramids in Sudan, and when it wakes up it eats most of it’s containment personnel. We later get a scene where it defeats an attempt by MONARCH and the Egyptian military to kill it, and is about to eat a POV character before Maddie activates the ORCA in Boston, causing it to freeze in place and allowing the survivors to escape.
It sounds like a Gamera kaiju.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 8:21 pm
by Tyrant_Lizard_King
They came from the time of the fire monsters when radiation was much more prevalent than it is today.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:39 pm
by miguelnuva
The entire point of the OD scene is Godzilla needs Oxygen and radiation to survive, he's not Shin Godzilla.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:20 pm
by Tyrant_Lizard_King
No the point is to lead into the Ghidorah is as an alien reveal.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:44 pm
by BlankAccount
They should have used the ANEB instead.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 5:12 pm
by miguelnuva
I don't mind the Oxygen Destroyer especially when you think of home it works in American Godzilla films.

It is heavily implied the OD didn't kill Godzilla in Godzilla 1985 and the OD did kill Godzilla here. His heart stopped, just luckily for him he restarted.

Was it a cop out yes, forced in maybe, but i moved the plot of the film.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 5:45 pm
by Terasawa
miguelnuva wrote:Was it a cop out yes, forced in maybe, but i moved the plot of the film.
That shouldn’t be a defense for bad writing...

Having Barney the dinosaur subdue Godzilla underwater while Ghidorah gets away also would have moved the plot along.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 7:45 pm
by miguelnuva
Terasawa wrote:
miguelnuva wrote:Was it a cop out yes, forced in maybe, but i moved the plot of the film.
That shouldn’t be a defense for bad writing...

Having Barney the dinosaur subdue Godzilla underwater while Ghidorah gets away also would have moved the plot along.
There's a difference between bad writing and us Godzilla fans not liking how something was used.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 7:58 pm
by daveblackeye15
While I wish there was a little foreshadowing I just love how this Serisawa and the situation with Godzilla is a complete inversion of the original.

One was angered/created by nukes and dangerous but a victim.
One is a creature that while dangerous has benefited us.
One Serisawa believes Godzilla is a menace but he has something worse.
One Serisawa believes in Godzilla.
The Oxygen Destroy is made by a scientist that doesn't want the military to have it.
The Oxygen Destroyer is made by the military.
One uses the OD to kill Godzilla, and himself, because atomic bombs had a role.
One uses a nuke to sacrifice himself and heal Godzilla because the OD nearly killed him.

So yeah it coming out of no where was a little annoying but y'know I like the inversion and I'll be seeing the movie a seventh time tomorrow since I think it'll be out of my theaters, unless they haven't updated the schedule yet.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:03 pm
by Terasawa
miguelnuva wrote:
Terasawa wrote:
miguelnuva wrote:Was it a cop out yes, forced in maybe, but i moved the plot of the film.
That shouldn’t be a defense for bad writing...

Having Barney the dinosaur subdue Godzilla underwater while Ghidorah gets away also would have moved the plot along.
There's a difference between bad writing and us Godzilla fans not liking how something was used.
Yes, definitely, but that's kind of my point: the Oxygen Destroyer was the prime example of bad writing in this movie.
  • No build up, just Stenz calling to say, "Hey we have this secret weapon we're using right now. It's called the "Oxygen Destroyer" and it kills everything. Good luck, bye."
  • It does not, in fact, kill everything. It critically weakens Godzilla and Ghidorah is unaffected.
  • Barely mentioned after this point. It's literally only in the film to knock Godzilla out for one act.
That's bad writing.

Compare this to Gamera being nuked by the Legion Flower in G2. In that case, the Legion Flower is already well established as being catastrophically destructive, so having Gamera limp to stop it at the very last moment creates dramatic tension that is entirely missing from the Oxygen Destroyer scene in KOTM. Likewise, we know that both Gamera in that film and Godzilla in this one will rise again for the climax, but at least in the former we're not sure how Gamera is going to be revived; that's how devastating his defeat was. In KOTM Godzilla just kinda sinks to the bottom of the ocean and not even a minute after the device is declared "deadly to everything," we hear Godzilla's heart beating.

In other words, Kaneko and Ito planted the seeds (no pun intended) for the big knockout blow early in the film, unlike the writers of KOTM who opted instead to throw something at the audience with zero setup or time for dramatic considerations. Seriously, so much else is going on. Furthermore, with Gamera, the filmmakers were wise to let Gamera's "death" cast some doubt on the outcome of the film, whereas in KOTM our characters are working on a solution nearly immediately.

Also, the Legion Flower does prove to be the threat it's made out to be: had Gamera not severed his link with humanity, Legion probably would have overrun the Earth. In KOTM, the Oxygen Destroyer is not fatal, despite Stenz' claim, because... something. I don't know. It's bad writing.

An example of Godzilla fans not liking how something is used is fans complaining about Ghidorah being a heroic creature in GMK. I'd also argue it's not a nerdy complaint either to expect something called the Oxygen Destroyer to live up to its name and especially when it's ever-so-briefly hyped up as a superweapon.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:06 pm
by BlankAccount
The Oxygen Destroyer is worse than a nuke. Look at how it's handled in the original movie. Dr. Serizawa is hesitant to let anyone know it exists, let alone use it. He wants to find a peaceful use. When he is eventually convinced to use it, he destroys his blue prints and kills himself. And when it's finally used on Godzilla, it's not quick, it's not pretty or humane. It kills him in a long and painful death that is drawn out.

And KOTM just drops it in like no big deal. I like KOTM, but I don't like that scene. Someone said they should have just made it a big maser bomb, I agree. It's not like Godzilla hasn't been harmed by other weapons like ANEB or cadmium. Heck just make it a cadmium bomb. Even in future movies that use the Oxygen Destroyer as a plot point, such as Destroyer and Kiryu, Toho never fully brought it back.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:08 pm
by Terasawa
Living Corpse wrote:And KOTM just drops it in like no big deal. I like KOTM, but I don't like that scene. Someone said they should have just made it a big maser bomb, I agree. It's not like Godzilla hasn't been harmed by other weapons like ANEB or cadmium. Heck just make it a cadmium bomb.
It's almost like either of those would have fit better with Godzilla ultimately requiring a nuke to the face to beat Ghidorah.

Re: King of the Monsters: Film vs Novelization Differences

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:09 pm
by Hokmuto
miguelnuva wrote:
Terasawa wrote:
miguelnuva wrote:Was it a cop out yes, forced in maybe, but i moved the plot of the film.
That shouldn’t be a defense for bad writing...

Having Barney the dinosaur subdue Godzilla underwater while Ghidorah gets away also would have moved the plot along.
There's a difference between bad writing and us Godzilla fans not liking how something was used.
Yes, although the implementation of the Oxygen Destroyer is lazy and bad writing. You don’t just introduce something out of nowhere; that’s bad writing 101