Godzilla, Kong, Gamera & Co.: The Kaiju Mega-Thread
- Thread starter Kai "the spy"
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Apparently it wasn't 15 million but less.
https://www.godzilla-movies.com/news/godzilla-minus-one-cost-less-than-15-million
Okay, turns out that Lee Shaw of Monarch is not the same character after all as Shaw from the Godzilla: Awakening comic. That Shaw was in the Navy and recruited Ishiro Serizawa's father to Monarch after surviving a kaiju (sorry, Titan) attack in 1946 (which already contradicted the movies saying Monarch was founded in '54), while this Shaw is an Army lieutenant who sees his first Titan in '52.
So far, two episodes in, it seems like, rather than treating the comics as canonical as they were claimed to be, they're doing their own separate thing but maybe loosely borrowing ideas from the comics. Both Awakening and Monarch have a military man named Shaw bond with a Japanese scientist who joins Monarch and is a parent or grandparent of a main character in the present-day narrative, and both Skull Island: The Birth of Kong and Monarch have present-day characters discover a message thrown into the sea in a watertight container by a character who was stranded on Skull Island in the past.
Which is really what I should've expected; "canonical" tie-in books or comics usually get overwritten when screen canon covers the same ground.
Meanwhile, the giant crab that appears in the teaser of episode 1 of Monarch, apparently called a Mantleclaw, resembles the Trapdoor Crabs from the Skull Island animated series, although they're not quite the same. But there are things about that series that are hard to reconcile with the movie continuity, so I'm not sure if it's meant to be canonical or not, despite nominally being a sequel to Kong: Skull Island.
So far, two episodes in, it seems like, rather than treating the comics as canonical as they were claimed to be, they're doing their own separate thing but maybe loosely borrowing ideas from the comics. Both Awakening and Monarch have a military man named Shaw bond with a Japanese scientist who joins Monarch and is a parent or grandparent of a main character in the present-day narrative, and both Skull Island: The Birth of Kong and Monarch have present-day characters discover a message thrown into the sea in a watertight container by a character who was stranded on Skull Island in the past.
Which is really what I should've expected; "canonical" tie-in books or comics usually get overwritten when screen canon covers the same ground.
Meanwhile, the giant crab that appears in the teaser of episode 1 of Monarch, apparently called a Mantleclaw, resembles the Trapdoor Crabs from the Skull Island animated series, although they're not quite the same. But there are things about that series that are hard to reconcile with the movie continuity, so I'm not sure if it's meant to be canonical or not, despite nominally being a sequel to Kong: Skull Island.
So I rewatched the trailer for The New Empire again since it popped up on my Youtube homepage, and watching it again, I have to admit, you guys were right, and Godzilla running at the end really does look weird. He's just really not built in a way that's supposed to move like that.
One other thing that I remember finding odd in Godzilla vs Kong, and they seem to be continuing here, is that they're really anthropomorphizing Kong, and it looks like the other apes too. In Skull Island he acted pretty close to how real apes behave, but in GvsK and now it looks like TNE, he seems to be acting almost human.
One other thing that I remember finding odd in Godzilla vs Kong, and they seem to be continuing here, is that they're really anthropomorphizing Kong, and it looks like the other apes too. In Skull Island he acted pretty close to how real apes behave, but in GvsK and now it looks like TNE, he seems to be acting almost human.
I saw Minus One today and while I'll need to watch it again to cement it in place, I think it has taken the crown from '54 as the best Godzilla movie. I've never cried at the human plot of any Godzilla movie before, but this did it.
Honestly, I like a more humanized Kong. A real ape is boring in this context, and we got a completely gorilla (but larger) version of Kong in Peter Jackson's King Kong anyway. To fight Godzilla you need a Kong who is a lot more clever and capable then an average Gorilla, and even then he definitely lost the fight to Godzilla in GvK and was only saved by Mecha Godzilla arriving and Godzilla needing Kong for a team up.
To be fair, I say this as someone who really dislikes Skull Island, and didn't find Kong particularly interesting in it. I think that GvK has the best version of Kong possible for its type of story/universe, and probably the second best version overall after the original movie version (who wouldn't work in the Monsterverse but is still iconic).
I just learned that Kenpachiro Satsuma passed away today.
Satsuma was the biggest name in kaiju suit-acting after the late Haruo Nakajima. He started out as Hedorah in "Godzilla vs. the Smog-Monster", went on to play Gigan in all his Showa era appearances (including on the TV show "Zone Fighter") and played Big G himself during the entire Heisei series from "Return of Godzilla" in 1984 till "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah" in 1995. During that time he also played the title monster in the notorious North Korean genre movie "Pulgasari" and was the eight-headed dragon Orochi in 1994's fantasy epic "Yamato Takeru".
Satsuma died of pneumonia earlier today, December 16, at the age of 76.
Satsuma was the biggest name in kaiju suit-acting after the late Haruo Nakajima. He started out as Hedorah in "Godzilla vs. the Smog-Monster", went on to play Gigan in all his Showa era appearances (including on the TV show "Zone Fighter") and played Big G himself during the entire Heisei series from "Return of Godzilla" in 1984 till "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah" in 1995. During that time he also played the title monster in the notorious North Korean genre movie "Pulgasari" and was the eight-headed dragon Orochi in 1994's fantasy epic "Yamato Takeru".
Satsuma died of pneumonia earlier today, December 16, at the age of 76.
I was watching on my big ass TV and didn't notice.
That's quite a resume. I didn't realize that he had played Pulgasari and Orochi as well as Heisei Godzilla. I guess that makes sense.
I went and saw Minus One while it's still out and it's pretty good as everyone says. For once, the human story actually has meat even if it maybe copped out a bit at the end. I can actually name multiple characters even.
The Godzilla kaiju action is good when it comes even if it's in short bursts. I thought they did a good job spreading it out enough so you don't miss it for too long. The final battle plan was fun, good stuff.
I think Doc is just flaunting that hair at us...
The Godzilla kaiju action is good when it comes even if it's in short bursts. I thought they did a good job spreading it out enough so you don't miss it for too long. The final battle plan was fun, good stuff.I think Doc is just flaunting that hair at us...
I went and saw Minus One while it's still out and it's pretty good as everyone says. For once, the human story actually has meat even if it maybe copped out a bit at the end. I can actually name multiple characters even.
I think Doc is just flaunting that hair at us...
I'd have to say the ending is the exact opposite of a cop-out.
The whole point of the movie is
that we should choose to live and not revel (even as movie-goers) in a heroic sacrificial death that didn't have to happen. And also that when we choose to live and work to fix problems the hard way we can often find things aren't as bad as we thought they were in the first place.
I thought the cop-out was Noriko surviving. I thought while it was nice and happy that it undermined the message somewhat. Plus just how the hell would that have happened?
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Yeah, I wasn't entirely sure about that either. However, @Grendelsbayne makes a really good point.
It’s funny. I was watching the latest of Monarch thinking that they should have made the company May was running from be the chaps later on who make Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs Kong and in the end they did exactly that. We actually got a reference to a future story.
So is Shaw trying to seal the holes so that can’t come up from hollow Earth? He said in the previous episode that he wasn’t trying to kill Godzilla and so this is the most likely outcome.
So is Shaw trying to seal the holes so that can’t come up from hollow Earth? He said in the previous episode that he wasn’t trying to kill Godzilla and so this is the most likely outcome.
A pretty good episode this week. It was scripted by comics writer Mariko Tamaki, and featured the kind of clever dialogue and character writing I associate with her work. (I liked Barnes not being able to remember what number base she was at.)
I was a little unclear on how Tim convinced Verdugo that she should take Monarch public. That was a pretty massive change of policy and he only said, like, one sentence to change her mind. Of course, we knew it was coming, since Monarch was public by KOTM. But I was hoping for a less cursory explanation of why it happened. (Similarly to how I felt in the '50s flashbacks last week where Keiko started using the name "Godzilla" without it ever having been established how the name was coined.)
I was a little unclear on how Tim convinced Verdugo that she should take Monarch public. That was a pretty massive change of policy and he only said, like, one sentence to change her mind. Of course, we knew it was coming, since Monarch was public by KOTM. But I was hoping for a less cursory explanation of why it happened. (Similarly to how I felt in the '50s flashbacks last week where Keiko started using the name "Godzilla" without it ever having been established how the name was coined.)