King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

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

Post by _JNavs_ »

The scores were phenomenal.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Dv-218 »

I will say that I was legit surprised at how memorable and full of identity the new Ghidorah and Rodan themes were. McCreary brought his A game here, atleast in my opinion.

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

Post by GuardianGhido »

Dv-218 wrote:I will say that I was legit surprised at how memorable and full of identity the new Ghidorah and Rodan themes were. McCreary brought his A game here, atleast in my opinion.
The translations of some of the vocals were also freaking deep. Ghidorah's theme had the Heart Sutra which talked about Emptiness and Nothingness that the world came from and will return to, which Ghidorah's plan involves with his genocide to reduce all life to nothingness. Goodbye Old Friend iirc uses ancient Babylonian (one of the oldest decipherable languages) and the lyrics not only have the phrase Goodbye Old Friend in them, but also talk about Serizawa's sacrifice and Godzilla himself. Overall his scores feel absolutely worthy of representing the Godzilla franchise. I hope we get Bear McCreary for more movies if the Monsterverse continues.
Last edited by GuardianGhido on Thu Jun 20, 2019 9:50 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Dv-218 »

GuardianGhido wrote:
Dv-218 wrote:I will say that I was legit surprised at how memorable and full of identity the new Ghidorah and Rodan themes were. McCreary brought his A game here, atleast in my opinion.
The translations of some of the vocals were also freaking deep. Ghidorah's theme had the Heart Sutra which talked about Emptiness and Nothingness that the world came from and will return to, which Ghidorah's plan involves with his genocide to reduce all life to nothingness. Goodbye Old Friend iirc uses ancient Babylonian (one of the oldest decipherable languages) and the lyrics not only have the phrase Goodbye Old Friend in them, but also talk about Serizawa's sacrifice and Godzilla himself. Overall his scores feel absolutely worthy of representing the Godzilla franchise. I hope we get Bear McCreary for more movies if the Monsterverse continues.
Same here man. I'm curious to hear what he'll do for Kong :)
And yeah, apperantely several tracks in the movie actually use lyrics written in ancient Babylonian- and even sung in the language. Now THAT is legit impressive.
Last edited by Dv-218 on Thu Jun 20, 2019 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

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

Post by Gigantis »

Dv-218 wrote:
GuardianGhido wrote:
Dv-218 wrote:I will say that I was legit surprised at how memorable and full of identity the new Ghidorah and Rodan themes were. McCreary brought his A game here, atleast in my opinion.
The translations of some of the vocals were also freaking deep. Ghidorah's theme had the Heart Sutra which talked about Emptiness and Nothingness that the world came from and will return to, which Ghidorah's plan involves with his genocide to reduce all life to nothingness. Goodbye Old Friend iirc uses ancient Babylonian (one of the oldest decipherable languages) and the lyrics not only have the phrase Goodbye Old Friend in them, but also talk about Serizawa's sacrifice and Godzilla himself. Overall his scores feel absolutely worthy of representing the Godzilla franchise. I hope we get Bear McCreary for more movies if the Monsterverse continues.
Same here man. I'm curious to hear what he'll do for Kong :)
And yeah, apperantely several tracks in the movie actually use lyrics written in ancient Babylonian- and even sung in the language. Now THAT is legit impressive.
is it comfirmed Bear's coming back for GVK?
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Dv-218 »

tyrantgoji wrote:
Dv-218 wrote:
GuardianGhido wrote: The translations of some of the vocals were also freaking deep. Ghidorah's theme had the Heart Sutra which talked about Emptiness and Nothingness that the world came from and will return to, which Ghidorah's plan involves with his genocide to reduce all life to nothingness. Goodbye Old Friend iirc uses ancient Babylonian (one of the oldest decipherable languages) and the lyrics not only have the phrase Goodbye Old Friend in them, but also talk about Serizawa's sacrifice and Godzilla himself. Overall his scores feel absolutely worthy of representing the Godzilla franchise. I hope we get Bear McCreary for more movies if the Monsterverse continues.
Same here man. I'm curious to hear what he'll do for Kong :)
And yeah, apperantely several tracks in the movie actually use lyrics written in ancient Babylonian- and even sung in the language. Now THAT is legit impressive.
is it comfirmed Bear's coming back for GVK?
Nope, just being speculative here.

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

Post by Gojira18 »

Alright, I decided to give myself time to let the movie sink in before sharing my thoughts. All in all, I enjoyed it! It's NOT a perfect movie, but it's within striking distance of being a perfect GODZILLA movie. As a movie movie, I'd give it 3/5. As a Godzilla movie, 4/5.

Pros:
+ Visual effects were really good
+ 10/10 musical score
+ The monster scenes and action was amazing
+ The updated designs for all 4 classic kaiju were amazing, particularly Ghidorah
+ The characters were much more interesting than in 2014, with actual character arcs
+ Overall solid acting, with Chandler, Watanabe, MBB, and Dance being the highlights
+ Was very entertaining, never got bored with it
+ The new monsters were really cool
+ Loved the personalities given to each monster, mainly Ghidorah
+ Loved all the little Easter eggs and references to previous Godzilla films
+ Loved the ancient rivalry feel between Godzilla and Ghidorah
+ Most of the cinematography, I really liked

Cons:
- Emma Russel's motivations were confusing and didn't make a whole lot of sense
- The Alpha titan thing, I’m mixed on. On the one hand, it’s kinda cool to see them as Gods with allegiances and personalities and not just dumb animals, but on the other hand, it does kinda contradict what the 2014 film established.
- The one-liners were hit or miss. Some were actually kinda funny (Oh yeah, sure, let's bring him in for a beer), while others are pretty bad (Gonorrhea for Ghidorah)
- The Oxygen Destroyer felt tacked on and only served as a plot device for the big "Ghidorah is an alien" twist, nothing more.
- While I love the idea of Godzilla and Ghidorah having an ancient rivalry and having a score to settle, and you can definitely see it from the way they look and fight each other, I do wish it was explored more
- As cool as Mothra and Rodan were, a little more screentime for them wouldn't have hurt
- It has my least favorite line: "As you know". A lazy way of spouting exposition because, if it's already known, why is it being said?
- Some shots of the monster action could've been improved
- A few more quiet moments to let the film breathe would've done wonders
- I feel 2014 did a better job in terms of making the creatures "feel" big. Here, while not nearly as bad as PR Uprising, it's still noticeable
Last edited by Gojira18 on Thu Jun 20, 2019 5:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by BlankAccount »

I wanna say this, everyone found Sam and Stanton's quips, sarcasm and jokes annoying. Honestly that's how I expect some people to act in the face of the end of the world. Some people just don't grow out of their teen years.

What felt unnatural to me was the beginning of the movie when one of the scientists is like "meet Titanus Moosura! Better know as" and then Maddie says "Mothra". Who are you guys talking to? Us the audience? You sound like your introducing her to someone whose never seen her before, which makes no sense cause everyone there has been working on Mothra for probably months if not years.

On a positive note, the music! Good lord this movie has an amazing soundtrack!

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

Post by HannibalBarca »

Yeah, for all the criticisms that are still bouncing around in my head, the score is essentially unimpeachable. Even the "generic action movie" tracks with no Toho influences are great.
Last edited by HannibalBarca on Thu Jun 20, 2019 5:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
In my opinion, of course.

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

Post by MechaGoji Bro7503 »

Terasawa wrote: This movie was just more Hollywood excess and that’s why I hated it. It didn’t particularly feel like a classic Godzilla movie to me, more like someone’s attempt to take elements of the old Godzilla movies and force them into the modern blockbuster template. In that regard it’s a lot like Final Wars.

If people like that, cool, but it’s nothing I have any interest in. Give Godzilla back to the Japanese.
Yeah, I see what you mean about the modern blockbuster template. I remember thinking it was more of a blockbuster than any normal Godzilla film after my first viewing. Mostly, it tried doing too much for its own good.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Gojira18 »

MechaGoji Bro7503 wrote:
Terasawa wrote: This movie was just more Hollywood excess and that’s why I hated it. It didn’t particularly feel like a classic Godzilla movie to me, more like someone’s attempt to take elements of the old Godzilla movies and force them into the modern blockbuster template. In that regard it’s a lot like Final Wars.

If people like that, cool, but it’s nothing I have any interest in. Give Godzilla back to the Japanese.
Yeah, I see what you mean about the modern blockbuster template. I remember thinking it was more of a blockbuster than any normal Godzilla film after my first viewing. Mostly, it tried doing too much for its own good.
Honestly, I felt the opposite. I thought it felt the closest to a classic Godzilla movie that these american films have ever been.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by GuardianGhido »

Gojira18 wrote:
MechaGoji Bro7503 wrote:
Terasawa wrote: This movie was just more Hollywood excess and that’s why I hated it. It didn’t particularly feel like a classic Godzilla movie to me, more like someone’s attempt to take elements of the old Godzilla movies and force them into the modern blockbuster template. In that regard it’s a lot like Final Wars.

If people like that, cool, but it’s nothing I have any interest in. Give Godzilla back to the Japanese.
Yeah, I see what you mean about the modern blockbuster template. I remember thinking it was more of a blockbuster than any normal Godzilla film after my first viewing. Mostly, it tried doing too much for its own good.
Honestly, I felt the opposite. I thought it felt the closest to a classic Godzilla movie that these american films have ever been.
Same here. The faithfulness and Showa-like monster fighting spirit was astounding.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by BlankAccount »

Obviously the monster fights are well done, but I wanna sing some praise for the human fights. The gun fight between G-Force, err, I mean G-Team and Alan's men was a very nice throwback to the gun fights of the Showa films and reminded me of the awesome gun fight between U.S. mercs/terrorists and Japanese soldiers in Godzilla vs Biollante. Where GFW felt like two different movies were going on, here the human fights felt very much connected to the conflict that would awaken the Titans.

Also nice to have human antagonists again. I like th aliens of the series just as much as the next fan, but we needed another group similar to the Red Bamboo Army. The Yakuza were wasted in Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla and felt like an afterthought.

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

Post by BARAGONBREH »

Living Corpse wrote:The gun fight between G-Force, err, I mean G-Team and Alan's men was a very nice throwback to the gun fights of the Showa films
No. It would have been if it had been filmed comprehensibly, but it wasn't. That part where they're in the tent or the tunnel or whatever it was and were (apparently?) ambushed by the "eco-terrorists" was impossible to follow. I've seen the film three times now and still can't make heads or tails of what exactly was going on there. It almost seemed as if they just started grabbing G-team soldiers and then guns started blazing? No clue and, once again, that's entirely due to a director being unable to film action sequences.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by HannibalBarca »

BARAGONBREH wrote:
Living Corpse wrote:The gun fight between G-Force, err, I mean G-Team and Alan's men was a very nice throwback to the gun fights of the Showa films
No. It would have been if it had been filmed comprehensibly, but it wasn't. That part where they're in the tent or the tunnel or whatever it was and were (apparently?) ambushed by the "eco-terrorists" was impossible to follow. I've seen the film three times now and still can't make heads or tails of what exactly was going on there. It almost seemed as if they just started grabbing G-team soldiers and then guns started blazing? No clue and, once again, that's entirely due to a director being unable to film action sequences.
Same. There's essentially no comprehensible sense of time or place in that fight.
In my opinion, of course.

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

Post by MegaEvilSaurus666 »

Gojira18 wrote:Alright, I decided to give myself time to let the movie sink in before sharing my thoughts. All in all, I enjoyed it! It's NOT a perfect movie, but it's within striking distance of being a perfect GODZILLA movie. As a movie movie, I'd give it 3/5. As a Godzilla movie, 4/5.

Pros:
+ Visual effects were really good
+ 10/10 musical score
+ The monster scenes and action was amazing
+ The updated designs for all 4 classic kaiju were amazing, particularly Ghidorah
+ The characters were much more interesting than in 2014, with actual character arcs
+ Overall solid acting, with Chandler, Watanabe, MBB, and Dance being the highlights
+ Was very entertaining, never got bored with it
+ The new monsters were really cool
+ Loved the personalities given to each monster, mainly Ghidorah
+ Loved all the little Easter eggs and references to previous Godzilla films
+ Loved the ancient rivalry feel between Godzilla and Ghidorah
+ Most of the cinematography, I really liked

Cons:
- Emma Russel's motivations were confusing and didn't make a whole lot of sense
- The Alpha titan thing, I’m mixed on. On the one hand, it’s kinda cool to see them as Gods with allegiances and personalities and not just dumb animals, but on the other hand, it does kinda contradict what the 2014 film established.
- The one-liners were hit or miss. Some were actually kinda funny (Oh yeah, sure, let's bring him in for a beer), while others are pretty bad (Gonorrhea for Ghidorah)
- The Oxygen Destroyer felt tacked on and only served as a plot device for the big "Ghidorah is an alien" twist, nothing more.
- While I love the idea of Godzilla and Ghidorah having an ancient rivalry and having a score to settle, and you can definitely see it from the way they look and fight each other, I do wish it was explored more
- As cool as Mothra and Rodan were, a little more screentime for them wouldn't have hurt
- It has my least favorite line: "As you know". A lazy way of spouting exposition because, if it's already known, why is it being said?
- Some shots of the monster action could've been improved
- A few more quiet moments to let the film breathe would've done wonders
- I feel 2014 did a better job in terms of making the creatures "feel" big. Here, while not nearly as bad as PR Uprising, it's still noticeable
Just about all of this I can agree with. Unfortunately, I gave this film a 6/10, and my opinion of it hasn't improved. I was quite bored of it, but not because the visuals were subpar or that there wasn't enough action, but it was a case of the opposite. Too much is going on in the film, and there's a level of fatigue to it. And, each joke made pulled me out of the film, and I never quite got back into it. I have the same opinion on the invoked scale of the monsters, and I gave my thoughts on it in the Spoiler thread. It's the perspective used in the monster scenes, and the magical floating camera that essentially killed Pacific Rim Uprising. While it's not as bad here, it's noticeable enough and definitely makes me feel like these are merely CGI monsters fight, rather than the pretty realistic giants in 2014.
Living Corpse wrote:I wanna say this, everyone found Sam and Stanton's quips, sarcasm and jokes annoying. Honestly that's how I expect some people to act in the face of the end of the world. Some people just don't grow out of their teen years.
It doesn't fit with the seriousness of the events in the film. When making a film, it's about finding a balance between those ideas, and not poorly sticking things in that just do not work for the tone that is set. Cutting the jokes from the film gives the film more tension and a sense of higher stakes. The jokes undercut the importance of what is being presented and make it feel like a poor attempt at an action comedy at times. Jokes were unnecessary. The gonorrhea "joke" could've been replaced with another callback, like mishearing Ghidorah for "Ghidrah" instead. That would have been no worse than "gonorrhea."
HannibalBarca wrote:
BARAGONBREH wrote:
Living Corpse wrote:The gun fight between G-Force, err, I mean G-Team and Alan's men was a very nice throwback to the gun fights of the Showa films
No. It would have been if it had been filmed comprehensibly, but it wasn't. That part where they're in the tent or the tunnel or whatever it was and were (apparently?) ambushed by the "eco-terrorists" was impossible to follow. I've seen the film three times now and still can't make heads or tails of what exactly was going on there. It almost seemed as if they just started grabbing G-team soldiers and then guns started blazing? No clue and, once again, that's entirely due to a director being unable to film action sequences.
Same. There's essentially no comprehensible sense of time or place in that fight.
It's probably because they imply action in some areas of that fight. That's an action misstep. The scene sets up something important but is sort of on the "mindless action" side of things.
There's no sense of time for the entirety of the film, I feel. It's almost as if we're watching it all happen in real time at many points.
Last edited by MegaEvilSaurus666 on Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Stump Feet »

I don’t know how anyone could be content with the fight scenes…
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Dv-218 »

Stump Feet wrote:I don’t know how anyone could be content with the fight scenes…
I do agree that the Mexico fight should have been slower and more focused on and that there should have been more focused shots with a clear perspective in general, but overall I was rather statisfied with the Antarctica and Boston battles. Do I agree they were fast paced and full of cutaways? Yes, but I didn't think that was a bad thing for the most part. The cutaways did get jarring in some places, but most of it was awesome imo.
But yeah, to each their own, and I can definitely see why a lot were unstatisfied.

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

Post by Spuro »

I personally got a kick out of the framing and shot composition for a lot of the fights. But these sorts of things (whether a fight in a movie is enjoyable) are pretty subjective.
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Re: King of the Monsters Member Review Thread (No Spoilers)

Post by Stump Feet »

I just feel the movie was void of any standout moments that weren’t ruined by the fast pacing and camera work.

G14 has quite a few “holy sh¡t” moments that worked perfectly because the camera work was perfect and the sense of scale was on point.

Most of G:KOTM’s fights look like they were filmed in fastforward.
Last edited by Stump Feet on Sat Jul 06, 2019 7:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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