Godzilla vs Kong novel: The differences between it and the movie

[imposterzilla]

Just putting this here.

[daveblackeye15]

Yeah my copy of it and the graphic novels are running late.

I guess I'm wondering if Nathan still loses his brother in this novelization or his fiancee I heard.

[Showzilla]

His brother

[Pkmatrix]

Yeah my copy of it and the graphic novels are running late.

I guess I'm wondering if Nathan still loses his brother in this novelization or his fiancee I heard.

It's his brother. So again, if it was ever his fiancee then it was a change that happened earlier in development and may never have been filmed that way.

I still haven't really dug into the novelization yet, but as I noted over in the main spoiler thread just flipping through it one thing I noticed is how much later in the book the monster action is than in the movie. For example:

In the movie, the Tasman Sea battle begins (starting with the scene of Jia playing with her Kong doll and noticing Godzilla's approach) about about the 38 minute mark (almost exactly 33% in). The novelization is 311 pages long, and that same scene of Jia noticing Godzilla doesn't happen until Page 171, about 55% into the book. I know the novelization isn't going to be 1:1 to the 2 hour 15 minute cut (I've got a strong feeling a lot of the first chapter or so were not scenes filmed for the movie), but if it were that suggests the Tasman Sea sequence didn't start until around the 1 hour 14 minute mark...almost 40 minutes LATER than it did in the theatrical cut! (For reference, in the theatrical cut that's about when Godzilla arrives in Hong Kong.)

I don't have the book in front of me right now so I don't have an exact page number, but the Pensacola attack comes much MUCH later in the book too because there's multiple CHAPTERS of scenes prior to the Pensacola attack establishing Madison's PTSD/Ghidorah nightmares, the Russell family's home life, establishing Monarch and what's happened to the Titans since KOTM, and Monarch tracking Godzilla as he headed toward Florida. I'm going to take a wild guess and say in the book Godzilla attacks Pensacola maybe a quarter of the way in, maybe even a third of the way in.

If this was the pacing of the movie in the 2 hour 15 minute cut, as much as I'd personally enjoy it no wonder they decided to change it post-KOTM. Can you imagine how annoyed some people would be if Godzilla didn't first appear until like 30 minutes in instead of the first 10 minutes?

[Breakdown]

Downloading the audiobook today. Will be back with info.

[Pkmatrix]

I'm home now and back to my copy, so I can continue with my point:

The scene of Bernie recording his podcast in the car before going into Apex, which is the first thing after the movie's opening credits (about 5 minutes in, I think) begins on Page 81 (it's the first scene of Chapter Six). Godzilla arriving in Pensacola (which is a tiny bit different than the movie, told from the POV of a park ranger) occurs at about Page 90 (again, that's at about the 10 minute mark in the theatrical cut).

This is almost exactly 25% into the book.

Again, if this is representative of what the 2 hour 15 minute cut was like, I'm not surprised they decided to change it. This would be basically a half hour into the movie!

So yeah, so far that's my big takeaway of differences between the movie and novelization: the movie gets going much MUCH more quickly, which is a definite point in favor of the theatrical cut.

[daveblackeye15]

Yeaaah but I'm a guy that is okay with SOME attempt at characters and can wait for a monster.

Oh yeah! So is there a reason why Ilene is nervous to meet with Nathan? Jia points it out. I got the impression they were exes honestly. I guess maybe if they were old friends and she was afraid to see him after a tragedy it could make sense.

[kaijukurt]

I've heard that novel mentions that Ren Serizawa was responsible for the Oxygen Destroyer, is that true?

[Hokmuto]

I've heard that novel mentions that Ren Serizawa was responsible for the Oxygen Destroyer, is that true?

Not per say. APEX was involved in the creation of the Oxygen Destroyer as they had some contract or something where they had the materials to make it. So not necessarily Ren specifically

[Pkmatrix]

Yeaaah but I'm a guy that is okay with SOME attempt at characters and can wait for a monster.

Oh yeah! So is there a reason why Ilene is nervous to meet with Nathan? Jia points it out. I got the impression they were exes honestly. I guess maybe if they were old friends and she was afraid to see him after a tragedy it could make sense.

I got the same impression as well in the movie, but there's no indication of that that I've seen so far. Illene describes him in her thoughts as an old friend, and she's nervous because apparently Nathan can become a bit obsessive and magnetic when he gets an idea, so she's worried immediately that he's got some idea of using Kong for something. Which I guess explains why other than that one moment there's no romantic subplot between them at all in the movie.

[Desghidorah]

More fleshing out on what was going on with Ren and Ghidorah. Essentially Ren was 'drifting' with Ghidorah and feeling some of those instincts, size, and power leaking through while piloting Mechagodzilla; a sense of power he gets addicted to in a degree, saying he feels like a god. His death is also a bit different where when Ghidorah 'wakes up' fully, his sheer presence and length of memory basically swallow up Ren's mind like an eldritch abomination. Perk of a written format vs. film, as it's easier to get that across.

[BennettCommando]

I would like to know if the novelization gave us more details about the lore of “Godzilla and Kong's feud”.

[Desghidorah]

I would like to know if the novelization gave us more details about the lore of “Godzilla and Kong's feud”.

It does, though it is still kept vague in some ways. Now just so it's easier to tell who I'm talking about, I'll call the individuals King Kong and Godzilla, and the species kong(s) and gojira. It appears at some point while in the Hollow Earth, Godzilla bonded with the Hollow Earth's energy and drastically boosted his power (it could be the gojira species either didn't have the atomic breath or had a much weaker version). The Kongs and ancient iwi, whom aided them with infrastructure and living, tried to force Godzilla out of the Hollow Earth. A war followed with the kongs killing a few of the gojira species but they were themselves, ejected from the Hollow Earth when Godzilla chased them out. His reasoning could be that a whole civilization of potential alpha titans was putting the world out of balance and possibly engendering wars as the kongs had allied with the ancestors of the Iwi. This is also why Godzilla instantly knew when the throne room was reactivated.

[BennettCommando]

I would like to know if the novelization gave us more details about the lore of “Godzilla and Kong's feud”.

It does, though it is still kept vague in some ways. Now just so it's easier to tell who I'm talking about, I'll call the individuals King Kong and Godzilla, and the species kong(s) and gojira. It appears at some point while in the Hollow Earth, Godzilla bonded with the Hollow Earth's energy and drastically boosted his power (it could be the gojira species either didn't have the atomic breath or had a much weaker version). The Kongs and ancient iwi, whom aided them with infrastructure and living, tried to force Godzilla out of the Hollow Earth. A war followed with the kongs killing a few of the gojira species but they were themselves, ejected from the Hollow Earth when Godzilla chased them out. His reasoning could be that a whole civilization of potential alpha titans was putting the world out of balance and possibly engendering wars as the kongs had allied with the ancestors of the Iwi. This is also why Godzilla instantly knew when the throne room was reactivated.

In Aftershock, Dagon, a member of Titanus Gojira, owns the title “Lord of Lightning”, I speculate it was the entire species instead of one individual that boosted their power by bonding with HE energy.While Godzilla himself becomes the champion of Titanus Gojira.

[miguelnuva]

I would like to know if the novelization gave us more details about the lore of “Godzilla and Kong's feud”.

It does, though it is still kept vague in some ways. Now just so it's easier to tell who I'm talking about, I'll call the individuals King Kong and Godzilla, and the species kong(s) and gojira. It appears at some point while in the Hollow Earth, Godzilla bonded with the Hollow Earth's energy and drastically boosted his power (it could be the gojira species either didn't have the atomic breath or had a much weaker version). The Kongs and ancient iwi, whom aided them with infrastructure and living, tried to force Godzilla out of the Hollow Earth. A war followed with the kongs killing a few of the gojira species but they were themselves, ejected from the Hollow Earth when Godzilla chased them out. His reasoning could be that a whole civilization of potential alpha titans was putting the world out of balance and possibly engendering wars as the kongs had allied with the ancestors of the Iwi. This is also why Godzilla instantly knew when the throne room was reactivated.

That would explain how the Muto were able to hunt down the Gojira species and why Dagon got one shotted by prime.

[Dv-218]

I would like to know if the novelization gave us more details about the lore of “Godzilla and Kong's feud”.

It does, though it is still kept vague in some ways. Now just so it's easier to tell who I'm talking about, I'll call the individuals King Kong and Godzilla, and the species kong(s) and gojira. It appears at some point while in the Hollow Earth, Godzilla bonded with the Hollow Earth's energy and drastically boosted his power (it could be the gojira species either didn't have the atomic breath or had a much weaker version). The Kongs and ancient iwi, whom aided them with infrastructure and living, tried to force Godzilla out of the Hollow Earth. A war followed with the kongs killing a few of the gojira species but they were themselves, ejected from the Hollow Earth when Godzilla chased them out. His reasoning could be that a whole civilization of potential alpha titans was putting the world out of balance and possibly engendering wars as the kongs had allied with the ancestors of the Iwi. This is also why Godzilla instantly knew when the throne room was reactivated.

That's cool as fuck, glad that the novelization fleshed out the whole ancient rivalry thing a little more. The Kongs nearly becoming a proper civilization due to unambiguously allying with humans is a fascinating idea, makes sense as to why Godzilla would have a beef with them. Godzilla himself incorporating the HE energy source into his physiology definitely explains why he achieved a level of prominence that other Gojira specimens seemingly didn't. A lot of dope worldbuilding here.

[imposterzilla]

I would like to know if the novelization gave us more details about the lore of “Godzilla and Kong's feud”.

It does, though it is still kept vague in some ways. Now just so it's easier to tell who I'm talking about, I'll call the individuals King Kong and Godzilla, and the species kong(s) and gojira. It appears at some point while in the Hollow Earth, Godzilla bonded with the Hollow Earth's energy and drastically boosted his power (it could be the gojira species either didn't have the atomic breath or had a much weaker version). The Kongs and ancient iwi, whom aided them with infrastructure and living, tried to force Godzilla out of the Hollow Earth. A war followed with the kongs killing a few of the gojira species but they were themselves, ejected from the Hollow Earth when Godzilla chased them out. His reasoning could be that a whole civilization of potential alpha titans was putting the world out of balance and possibly engendering wars as the kongs had allied with the ancestors of the Iwi. This is also why Godzilla instantly knew when the throne room was reactivated.

In Aftershock, Dagon, a member of Titanus Gojira, owns the title “Lord of Lightning”, I speculate it was the entire species instead of one individual that boosted their power by bonding with HE energy.While Godzilla himself becomes the champion of Titanus Gojira.

I concur, even the MUTOs seem to have evolved to counter the atomic breath, so maybe the species got the boost.

[KaijuKingGojira]

Curious about the “mauling” scene, who’s POV is it told through and is it the same or less violent/more violent?

[Pkmatrix]

Curious about the “mauling” scene, who’s POV is it told through and is it the same or less violent/more violent?

It's told from Nathan's POV. I'd say it sounds more or less the same?

[ClandestineCanine9]

It does, though it is still kept vague in some ways. Now just so it's easier to tell who I'm talking about, I'll call the individuals King Kong and Godzilla, and the species kong(s) and gojira. It appears at some point while in the Hollow Earth, Godzilla bonded with the Hollow Earth's energy and drastically boosted his power (it could be the gojira species either didn't have the atomic breath or had a much weaker version). The Kongs and ancient iwi, whom aided them with infrastructure and living, tried to force Godzilla out of the Hollow Earth. A war followed with the kongs killing a few of the gojira species but they were themselves, ejected from the Hollow Earth when Godzilla chased them out. His reasoning could be that a whole civilization of potential alpha titans was putting the world out of balance and possibly engendering wars as the kongs had allied with the ancestors of the Iwi. This is also why Godzilla instantly knew when the throne room was reactivated.

In Aftershock, Dagon, a member of Titanus Gojira, owns the title “Lord of Lightning”, I speculate it was the entire species instead of one individual that boosted their power by bonding with HE energy.While Godzilla himself becomes the champion of Titanus Gojira.

I concur, even the MUTOs seem to have evolved to counter the atomic breath, so maybe the species got the boost.

another tidbit backing this up is the fact that multiple axes were made with Godzilla spines