Godzilla, Kong, Gamera & Co.: The Kaiju Mega-Thread
- Thread starter Kai "the spy"
- Start date
Gorillas are one of my favorite animals, so I love the fact that they actually stuck fairly close to real Gorilla behavior with Kong. It bugs me when you see something like Kong that they say is a specific species, and then it doesn't act like that species.
One of the things that drives me crazy with the old Planet of The Apes movies is that they have the Gorillas as the violent soldiers, and the chimps as peaceful scientists, while in reality chimps are the most violent apes, and Gorillas are fairly peaceful. So in reality it would be the reverse.
I honestly don't care for treating Kong as nothing but a giant gorilla. If he's so much larger, he should logically be a different great ape species. And most versions do depict him as more bipedal and erect than gorillas, due to the makers of the original films (including the Toho films and the Dino DeLaurentiis reboot) not understanding gorilla anatomy that well. The original Kong comes off as more a sort of Giganto-gigantopithecus, almost more of a hominin than a gorilla.
Although I think it's really only the Peter Jackson version that portrayed Kong as exactly like a gorilla but scaled up. The Legendary version is back to the traditional, more humanlike posture and anatomy.
Also they portrayed orangutans as the heads of the social institutions (politics and religion), when real orangs are the least social, most solitary great apes. So they got all three backwards.
The problem, of course, was Paul du Chaillu. He was the first European to encounter gorillas, and he liked to shoot them and stuff them as trophies. So he lied and claimed they were savage, man-eating predators that he slew in self-defense, since the truth that he gunned down a bunch of harmless, placid leaf-eaters wouldn't have been as manly or heroic. And his lie shaped Westerners' public perception of gorillas for generations.
To be fair, I said I find Kong boring outside of the context of GvK, I liked him well enough in the movie itself (although Godzilla will always be the best for me). I actually liked Kong's relationship with the girl in GvK and how they could communicate, maybe if Skull Island had something like that to make Kong less boring I'd think better of that film (although the lame humans would probably still bring it down).
So, while I don't really want another solo Kong film, I'm up for him to keep showing up,I'm just not all that interested in seeing him by himself without another big Kaiju as a focus.
So, while I don't really want another solo Kong film, I'm up for him to keep showing up,I'm just not all that interested in seeing him by himself without another big Kaiju as a focus.
I thought I saw something where they did mention gigantopithecus in relation to Kong.
Yeah, I guess he was a bit more anthropomorphized in the Legendary movies.
Is the DeLaurentis version worth watching?
I always forget about that with the Orangutans. Most of the ones I've seen are on shows where they're in groups in sanctuaries or zoos, so I always forget that they're more solitary in the wild.
So that's where that image of Gorillas came from, I always wondered about that.
I follow the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund on Instagram, and I was pretty amazed when I saw just how close their people get to the wild Gorillas they study. They practically walk right up to them with no problem.
Not sure I remember. It's probably the weakest of the four American versions, but I'm fuzzy on the details. It tries a bit too hard to be topical, and if I recall, its excuse for getting Kong to climb the World Trade Center in the climax is rather contrived. It's the film debut of Jessica Lange, for what it's worth.
It had a sequel a decade later called King Kong Lives, with Linda Hamilton. It's not well-regarded.
Some are claiming that this is going to be a Kong focused film:
https://twitter.com/KaijuNewsOutlet/status/1506412612686426114
No source is given so take it for what it's worth. I'm totally fine with a standalone Kong film. Kaiju cinema basically began with him and he's always been one of the most empathetic creatures. I'd also say that the Kong fights in both K:SI and GVK are the best in the Monsterverse.
https://twitter.com/KaijuNewsOutlet/status/1506412612686426114
No source is given so take it for what it's worth. I'm totally fine with a standalone Kong film. Kaiju cinema basically began with him and he's always been one of the most empathetic creatures. I'd also say that the Kong fights in both K:SI and GVK are the best in the Monsterverse.
I wonder... I gather that Legendary's license from Toho only extended through GvK and they'd need to renew it afterward if they wanted to continue using Godzilla or other Toho kaiju. It would make sense to refocus on Kong if they or Toho decided not to renew the license. And I could see Toho having an incentive not to renew, since my understanding is that the Legendary license precluded Toho from making another live-action Godzilla film, which is why they've only done anime since the MonsterVerse started.
In other Kaiju news, season 2 of Pacific Rim: The Black is coming next month:
https://twitter.com/PacificRim/status/1506642727827480579
Annoyingly, it's said to be the last season. This means that for now, it's the end of the Pacific Rim franchise.
https://twitter.com/PacificRim/status/1506642727827480579
Annoyingly, it's said to be the last season. This means that for now, it's the end of the Pacific Rim franchise.
Out today:
^Oh hell yeah.
This came out last week, and is definitely on my wishlist:
The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi's first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy.
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls "an animal rights organization." Tom's team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.
It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
Godzilla got two movies, so it's only fair Kong get at least one more.
This came out last week, and is definitely on my wishlist:
The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi's first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy.
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls "an animal rights organization." Tom's team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.
It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
LoL! Well you know what’s going to happen here.Out today:
We find out Godzilla is actually Zordon?LoL! Well you know what’s going to happen here.
It looks like we're getting another kaiju tv series. This one based on the Project Nemesis book series:
https://deadline.com/2022/05/projec...ion-jeremy-robinson-novel-sony-tv-1235018093/
https://deadline.com/2022/05/projec...ion-jeremy-robinson-novel-sony-tv-1235018093/