05
Apr
This article conatins spoilers for GODZILLA VS. KONG. Aside from studios Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, and certain behind-the-scenes executives, the four MonsterVerse movies to date have embraced largely different creative and directorial visions for each outing. This includes the latest installment Godzilla vs. Kong. But even though all four movies have had different directors, somewhat different tones, and mostly different casts, one of a handful of constant names has been that of Max Borenstein. Borenstein has had a writing credit on all four MonsterVerse movies, starting with penning the screenplay for 2014’s Godzilla. Since then he’s co-authored the…
05
Apr
Last September, Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan gambled that global audiences were ready to return to movie theaters in force with the cerebral blockbuster Tenet. But it’s anemic $20 million opening in North America (over two weekends in many markets) scared away Hollywood distributors for the rest of 2020. In fact, WB eventually pushed its entire 2021 film slate onto a “hybrid” model of simultaneous theatrical and HBO Max releases. In retrospect, perhaps we were all just… waiting for Godzilla? That’s one takeaway from the rousing theatrical debut of Godzilla vs. Kong, which despite being simultaneously available to watch in…
03
Apr
Director Peter Jackson’s 2005 version of King Kong is something of an anomaly: although the film was a box office hit—grossing $562 million worldwide against an admittedly hefty budget of $207 million—and garnered a generally positive critical response, it doesn’t seem to have made a lasting impression on the pop culture landscape in the same way that Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy did. In fact, in some quarters it’s considered an underperformer. That, however, apparently didn’t stop Jackson from developing the idea for a sequel to his Kong movie, reportedly titled Skull Island. And while Jackson himself was…
03
Apr
he following article contains Godzilla vs. Kong spoilers. After three movies of build-up, the battle lines are drawn. The mighty Godzilla goes toe-to-toe with the titan gorilla King Kong over who is the alpha of the MonsterVerse. While the movie doesn’t have the epic, apocalyptic feel which came with its predecessor Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs. Kong does deliver on the crazy fight scenes and makes good on a rivalry that has long had its foot in pop culture—if only because of an incredibly silly film from 1962. The original King Kong vs. Godzilla is not a movie…
02
Apr
At one hour and 53 minutes, Godzilla vs. Kong is the shortest of the four movies made so far in Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse. To be sure, none of the other movies are behemoths either. The longest, 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, clocks in at a still reasonable two hours and 12 minutes. But with big tentpole films regularly running anywhere from two and a half to, uh, four hours these days, Godzilla vs. Kong is the briefest of an already relatively compact franchise. Apparently director Adam Wingard did shoot quite a bit more footage that was not used in…
02
Apr
This article contains spoilers for GODZILLA VS. KONG. Godzilla vs. Kong is the fourth movie in the so-called MonsterVerse–following Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)–and it’s the culmination of the mythology and story arc built up over the previous three pictures. The MonsterVerse series so far has led to this climactic battle between the two most powerful Titans on Earth, and with the film’s ending leaving their futures open-ended, the question is where does the MonsterVerse go next? We have our own ideas and theories about how it should go, but of course…
02
Apr
When Hollywood’s history in the 2010s is written, it will be called the era of the big, extravagant shared universes. There were superheroes, yes, from Marvel Studios to DC Films; but there was also the failure to launch the Universal Monsters into the “Dark Universe,” and Star Wars going to TV. And then there was the MonsterVerse. Pound for pound, there was nothing bigger in scale (particularly when it came to protagonists’ height) than this Americanized vision of the kaiju. It’s the wild concept that brought Godzilla back to the West and put him in a death match with King…
01
Apr
The following article contains Godzilla vs. Kong spoilers. The future of the MonsterVerse is uncertain. If you had any doubt, just look at the lack of a post-credits scene in the latest installment, Godzilla vs. Kong. While Kong: Skull Island teased the coming storm of King Ghidorah and other kaiju, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters ended its actual credits sequence with the big ape waiting in the wings, there is a sense of closing out a chapter (if not the book) in the MonsterVerse’s Godzilla vs. Kong. This is in large part because it is up in the air…
01
Apr
This article contains spoilers for GODZILLA VS. KONG. Read our spoiler-free review here. As Godzilla vs. Kong enters its third act, multiple plotlines are coming to a head: an exploration team led by Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgard) and Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) has followed Kong through a tunnel from Antarctica to the center of a Hollow Earth, the kingdom deep under the Earth’s surface from which Kong’s race and other Titans first originated. A team of Apex Cybernetics personnel are also with them, and their goal is to discover a new power source in the Hollow Earth that’s…
31
Mar
If the release of Godzilla vs. Kong has you feeling nostalgic for the golden age of giant monsters, you’re not alone. There was a time when it felt like giant monsters ruled TVs and theater screens everywhere. They were even prominently featured in one of the most beloved arcade games of the 1980s: 1986’s “smash-em-up” Rampage. Actually, there were quite a few years after Rampage‘s release when it remained one of the best ways to live out your giant monster fantasies. Later games would more fully realize the “destroy everything” philosophy that Rampage was built on, but it took a…
31
Mar
this article contains spoilers for godzilla vs. kong. It may not have quite the cache or iconic status of Mothra or King Ghidorah, but Mechagodzilla has managed to become a consistent element in the Godzilla movie universe for years. And now the metallic wonder makes its Hollywood debut (not counting Ready Player One) in director Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong, the fourth film in the modern MonsterVerse that kicked off in 2014 with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla. Ever since making its first appearance in 1974’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, the gigantic robotic reptile has stuck around as a relatively constant thorn in…
31
Mar
This feature contains Godzilla vs. Kong spoilers. Read our spoiler-free review here. Despite existing for only four movies, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse has become one of the densest and most colorful cinematic universes. It may not be as long (or smoothly executed) as Marvel Studios’ MCU, or as high-minded as WB’s own superhero stable, the DCEU, but the MonsterVerse has successfully crafted an interconnected world where Titans rule over all. The best we humans can do is make peace with that hard truth. In this strange, fearful vision of a primal world, enormous behemoths the size of mountains…
30
Mar
Godzilla and King Kong are not characters one approaches lightly. As two of the most iconic monsters in cinema, the big ape and even bigger lizard carry plenty of history on their shoulders as they march into Godzilla vs. Kong, the new monster mash-up from Warner Bros. and HBO Max. Composer Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL) is of course keenly aware of this since he had the task of updating their sounds for 2021. Holkenborg, a lifelong aficionado of nearly every style of music, cites the composer for the original King Kong (1933), Max Steiner, as a personal inspiration and…
30
Mar
Ever since Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures announced they were building a “MonsterVerse,” this is the fight everyone’s been waiting for: Godzilla vs. Kong. Fire meets fur. As the undisputedly most popular monsters in movie history, King Kong and Godzilla are responsible for the entire idea of a “kaiju versus” film thanks to their first bout nearly 60 years ago. Since then they’ve each appeared in countless sequels, spin-offs, and reboots. But never again have they crossed paths. Until now. Some might say that’s because one movie isn’t big for the both of them. After all, there’s a reason why…
29
Mar
Legends collide as Godzilla and Kong, the two most powerful forces of nature, clash on the big screen in a spectacular battle for the ages. As a squadron embarks on a perilous mission into fantastic uncharted terrain, unearthing clues to the Titans' very origins and mankind's survival, a conspiracy threatens to wipe the creatures, both good and bad, from the face of the earth forever.Rated: PG-13Release Date: Mar 31, 2021
29
Mar
Thirty-eight minutes. That’s how long you have to wait for the good stuff in Godzilla vs. Kong. And by good stuff, I of course mean the sight of a gorilla punching a lizard so hard that the aircraft carrier beneath them buckles from the impact. It’s the image Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. have been building toward for the better part of a decade in their four-film MonsterVerse saga. Yet now that it’s here, it arrives less like the crescendo of an epic shared universe than it does as a late night B-movie on cable TV. But B-movies starring Godzilla…
23
Feb
When Godzilla vs. Kong debuts in theaters and on HBO Max on March 31, it marks the fourth film in Legendary’s MonsterVerse, along with the third appearance of this American iteration of the swole lizard, and the second for this hairy ape from Skull Island. In terms of franchise team-ups, it’s a couple films shy of an MCU phase, but director Adam Wingard said he set out to create a “legitimate sequel,” and avoid the problems of Toho’s 1962 film, King Kong vs. Godzilla—as well as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Though Wingard is known for R-rated horror films…
22
Feb
By now you’ve probably seen the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer. You know, the one where a giant ape not only punches a giant lizard in the face (and does what almost looks like the Henry Cavill arm-cocking maneuver) suggesting there’s a new contender for the title of “King of the Monsters.” Audiences will find out who wins when the film drops on HBO Max and in theaters on Mar. 26, 2021, but in a 2019 visit to the Australian production, Den of Geek learned there is more to the movie than a mere clash of Titans. Instead, executive producer Alex…
