Why Godzilla is STILL Cinema's MVP

Godzilla has just walked out of Tokyo bay it started as something of a joke who knew a guy in a rubber suit stomping around Tokyo would become an icon I saw it when I was like five Godzilla's creators never figured he would last beyond one movie it's one of the first of those fear of nuclear disaster films what is Godzilla is he the embodiment of Japan's nuclear postwar trauma or is he Japan's national hope cleverly disguised as a fire breathing monster Godzilla has become these amazing mythological story to retell and it's they can always come back and be relevant please welcome the director of this Summer's epic Rebirth of Godzilla director Gareth Edwards Godzilla is taking over Hollywood tonight Godzilla versus Kong literally and figuratively is a monster movie the biggest Blockbuster of the pandemic it's a futuristic sci-fi fantasy film with the biggest fight scenes of all time Godzilla minus one is our feature film for this week while American studos have turned Godzilla into almost like an oversized wrestling match minus one brings the big guy back to his rout I watched Godzilla minus one and I it was a tremendous one let's give it up for the experience the Wonder the magic that is Godzilla minus one and the Oscar goes to godilla this is the first Master win and combination for the visual effects team from Godzilla minus one [Music] Godzilla honestly needs no introduction he's a pop culture in institution on par with the likes of James Bond Superman or Darth Vader from his iconic design to his distinctive Roar you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't have at least a passing awareness of the legendary Kaiju yet despite the degree of cultural penetration GOI has occupied A peculiar place in Western pop culture for most of his impressive 70-year career immediately recognizable yet somehow obscure more an abstract concept than a fully fledged character almost akin to a mascot like Mickey Mouse or a classical archetype like Hercules iconic but somewhat nebulous and far from a box office draw despite being a household named the world over the king of the monsters has consistently struggled to gain a reliable foothold beyond the shores of his native Japan or at least that was until very recently when it's all said and done we're going to look back on this past decade as the moment got Godzilla finally broke through in the West after a disastrous attempt to bring the tyrannical lizard to Hollywood in the late '90s too finally found a fruitful partnership in the west with legendary pictures and the rest as they say is history their first collaboration 2014's Godzilla was a staggering success thanks to an incredibly aggressive marketing push I mean geez you you remember those [ __ ] trailers man like oh my God those Trail were works of artart in and of themselves and it all also comes back to the fact that they hired someone like Gareth Edwards to make this movie and y'all already know how I feel about Gareth Edwards I [ __ ] love that guy I think he's an incredible filmmaker and his work on Godzilla managed to capture the essence of the series's horror roots and repackage it for a western audience and what is probably my favorite Godzilla film to date edwards's Godzilla was beautifully terrifying conveying the existential horror inherent in the character while some critics complained about the film's penchant for cutting away from the monster fights to zero in on the perspective of the humans caught in the middle of them the film was in unmitigated success and it set the stage for the monster verse a series of interconnected Kaiju films that has steadily become one of the most consistent cinematic universes this side of Marvel Godzilla has gotten so massive in recent years that his big versus movie against Kong managed to make over $470 million worldwide in the middle of the pandemic and just last year we finally got to see a Japanese helmed Godzilla reap the rewards of this success when Godzilla minus one became the third highest grossing foreign language film of all time at the domestic box office and scored a highly competitive VFX Oscar for its troubles after years of lingering on the periphery of Western culture the atomic Kaiju had finally arrived but the most impressive part of Godzilla's transition into a global box office Powerhouse is the way audiences have embraced the totality of what this series can be on one hand you have Godzilla 2014 and minus one both of which Hue closer to the darker tone in thematic richness of ishiro Honda's 1954 classic in the H era while on the other hand you have the sub quent monsterverse entries which have gradually shifted into the realm of over-the-top Science Fiction Allah the showa and Millenium eras and audiences have not only accepted both of these takes but embraced this versatility nothing more clearly illustrates this fact than minus one and Godzilla Kong releasing less than a year apart if minus one embodies the Soulful atmospheric side of this franchise then gxk is the total opposite an opulent maximalist piece of sci-fi absurdity that Rivals the Gonzo energy of even the silliest show of film there's an Impulse to pit these two sides of the series against one another to argue over which is a more valid interpretation of the series but if you ask me this is ridiculous because at the end of the day Godzilla is both and it always has been these films have been horrifying metaphors for the ravage of nuclear weapons pollution and man-made natural disasters and they've been surreal sci-fi romps about a silly lizard boy who teams up with his monster pal to fight aliens and mythical creatures yeah the malleability of the concept is arguably the reason this Series has endured for so long and quite frankly it's incredible that we get to live at a time where we not only get to enjoy both versions of Godzilla concurrently but see them thriving alongside one another on the world stage so rather than contrasting this film Godzilla Kong against minus one as I'm sure countless other critics and video content creators whoever are going to do I want to instead focus on all that brilliant Insanity of gxk on its own terms because Adam windguard has managed to deliver something truly mad and I mean truly mad and I had an absolute blast with it but first it might have Tak Tak a while for Godzilla and Kong to iron out their working relationship but it shouldn't take you so long to work on your metabolic Health with this video sponsor Lumen Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach it's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath and on the app it lets you know if you're burning fat or carbs and gives you tailored guidance to improve your nutrition workout sleep and even Stress Management your metabolism is what keeps your body going is what keeps Kong going when he has to fight the big Monkey King if he eats a big banana that gets turned into the energy he needs to stop all the monsters from 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into your Lumen first thing in the morning and it'll tell you what's going on in your body whether you're burning mostly fats or carbs Lumen then will give you a personalized nutrition plan for the day throughout the day you can keep breathing into the Lumen to track all of your metabolic results so to get your free metabolic Health score go to go. lumen.me filmspeak or just click the link below and you'll get $100 off Lumen seriously guys this is an incredible offer you're going to want to click that link below to get $100 off and start improving your health today and thank you so much to Lumen for sponsoring this video it's no secret that pop culture has kind of become dominated by children's franchises while there's nothing wrong with loving Marvel Star Wars or Transformers as an adult hell I love a lot of these series but their primary demographic is kids which is when a lot of us first fell in love with them in the first place but lately a lot of the franchises have felt less and less geared toward kids sure there are things like Zack Snider's DC films which are explicitly steeped in adult themes and imagery but even the franchises that have stayed on a broadly familyfriendly course have started to cater more and more to people like me 20s somethings who grew up on the franchis and have remained a fan well into adulthood there are honestly too many examples of this to count but I think the recent X-Men 97 perfectly illustrates what it is I'm talking about out don't get me wrong X-Men 97 is a phenomenal show maybe one of the best things Marvel Studios has ever been involved with and you can check out my full thoughts on the first three episodes right here but quality not withstanding it feels like a show made for the adults who Remember Loving the Original Series in their childhood not kids growing up today but Godzilla Kong feels like the total opposite yes it's borrowing the sensibilities of showa era Godzilla films but that reference point feels purely functional it's a guide principle that informs the scale and tone of the film rather than an overt attempt to court older fans of the series which isn't to say that there isn't still a ton of love if you're an adult fan of this series like I said I had a [ __ ] blast but Godzilla Kong feels like an exception in the modern Blockbuster landscape the rare franchise film that doesn't seem to be prioritizing its adult fans instead it feels like a movie made for kids and I mean that as a massive compliment this is the kind of Godzilla movie I dreamed of as a 10-year-old boy brimming with imaginative set pieces and vibrant sets and bizarre Creations the kind of [ __ ] that would inspire a kid to go home and play with their toys the film opens with a montage of Godzilla squaring off against a murderous row of gnarly looking creatures and that momentum never falters this is the kind of movie where Kong and Godzilla have a zero gravity brawl with a sadistic red ape dictator and his mythical Frost Dragon at the center of the earth director Adam wingard's top priority was clearly to make sure every kid in the theater had the time of their life for 115 minutes and at the end of the day is there any pure distillation of showa era Godzilla than that the whole film feels like an amalgamation of the various things Wingard was obsessed with as a child from its 80s inspired synth score and vibrant neon color palette to its hair metal needle drops and PS adelic album cover visuals yet just like the way the film homages the showa era these points of reference don't feel like they were included as Nostalgia baate for the adults in the audience instead they're seemingly there as a conduit for wiard's inner child allowing him to access that childlike sense of wonder and excitement so that he can imbue the film with that energy and oh boy does it work oh I mean like it really works this film doesn't feel like some 50-year-old man playing with his old toys the way a show like book of Boba Fett did it feels like an actual child playing with their toys a totally unrestrained expression of Joyful imagination I mean Godzilla quite literally performs a goddamn suplex on Kong while they're throwing hands next to the Pyramids of Giza like come on people that is so awesome if that doesn't sound rad as [ __ ] to you I mean like I I'm sorry I'm sorry for the loss of your inner child because that [ __ ] rules beyond the film's undeniably vibrant bombastic visuals a lot of this childlike creativity stems from a willingness to be weird there's so much wild [ __ ] in here even by monsterverse standards like a tribe of ewee people who communicate telepathically and reside in the Kaleidoscope crystalline Citadel below Hollow Earth harnessing gravity to power technology that would make atlanteans blush or the gargantuan robotic glove Monarch developed for Kong only the second instance of body augmentation in the film following Godzilla's upgrade in the middle of the film when he slays Tiamat at the North Pole and absorbs the solar rays trapped within her Lair to supercharge himself the film knows this Kaiju stuff is heightened as it is and it takes the creative Liberty afforded to it by the genre and runs with it say what you will about this film but it's anything but self-conscious it show a era levels of Madness on a $100 million Hollywood budget as if when and his team looked at those early entries with their Alien Invaders and anti-gravity battleships and said oh yeah well watch this which sounds like hyperbole but wiard has said as much in interviews wearing his intentions on his sleeve but as I said earlier the reason this reverence for the past works here while not feeling like Hollow corporate pandering in films like the recent Ghostbusters movie is that winguard isn't just referencing these earlier films in fact there are remarkably few overt nods to specific elements from the series's past instead the influence of the showa era is more intangible winguard is riffing on those films not replicating them and the result is a totally unhinged Thrill Ride that feels like a blood relative of those films but is never derivative if only every franchise were so thoughtful with its appeals to Nostalgia at this point you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a straightup Godzilla film but while it's undoubtedly informed by Godzilla's lineage Goji is far from the only monster in the film in fact similar to its immediate predecessor Godzilla Kong is first and foremost Kong's movie with the radioactive dinosaur playing more of a mildly antagonistic supporting role and when I say this is Kong's movie I mean it's Kong's movie if the style and structure of this film play out like a classic showa era Godzilla film then Kong is the equivalent to the human protagonists that lead those films Kong is questionably the protagonist of this film while the human characters who would normally fill this role act more as supporting characters with their own little subplots that serve the broader story being told about Kong's Quest to Vanquish the scar King and liberate his fellow Apes if I had to draw a comparison between Godzilla Kong and any other film it would actually be the more recent Planet of the Apes films not because they have a similar tone or level of sophistication because my God they definitely don't or even because they're about smart monkeys but rather because it comes down to execution all three of the recent Apes films Center on a motion capture performance of a largely nonverbal character Caesar in those first two films especially Caesar has very little dialogue and so most of his characterization is conveyed through Andy circus' brilliant performance his physicality and the micro Expressions the animators are able to articulate with motion capture technology large portions of those films play out like silent films relying almost entirely on nonverbal performances shot selection and the score to convey the story long stretches of Godzilla Kong are saddled with a similar burden with Kong and the other Kaiju being the sole character on screen and much to my delight it succeeds beautifully Kong and Godzilla have never felt so expressive with Kong in particular being able to communicate a whole spectrum of emotion with just a few Grunts and expressions Kong's descent into the scar King's domain his relationship with baby Kong stand out as particularly strong examples of what winguard and the special effects team on his film have achieved without a line of dialogue the film is able to convey an honest to God character Arc for Kong when the film starts Kong is completely alone he has the humans keeping a watchful eye on him but he longs to be with his own kind yet when he finds more Apes in a realm hidden under the hollow Earth they turn out to be far more antagonistic than he expected and Kong his face with the prospect of not only being alone but knowing that he has been rejected by the only others of his kind in the world yet when he discovers that these Apes aren't so much giant [ __ ] as they are just subjects to a tyrannical ape the scar King he fights to destroy the scar King and free the Apes from subjugation it's not a remarkably complex Arc but it doesn't have to be it's all we need as an audience to invest ourselves in Kong as more than just a monster but a fully fledged character and the fact that the film is able to express this Arc so coherently is a testament to the sheer craftsmanship of everyone both in front of and behind the camera this giant ape manages to have whole conversations with other characters without saying a goddamn word and I was able to follow every second of it if that's not impressive I don't know what is cuz it rules a few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend a Q&A with Adam winguard at the Aero theater following a screening of this film and during the conversation he mentioned that the script for the film includes lines of dialogue for the monsters to succinctly communicate what it was the monsters were trying to communicate at a given moment and honestly this little production detail explains so much of what works about these nonverbal sequences writing the script this way lends Clarity and specificity to each interaction they aren't vague actions that resemble conversations they're conversations being acted out rather than spoken like a game of Charades with subtler expressions and gestures but not only is this incredibly effective storytelling it also contributes to a broader Motif running throughout the film this idea that not all communication is verbal not only do Kong and Godzilla communicate non-verbally but so do one of the key human characters Gia the young ewe girl from Godzilla versus Kong who remains in the care of Rebecca Hall's Eileen Andrews just like in that film Gia is deaf and thus communicates nonverbally through sign language something that only compounds the feelings of isolation living within a culture that isn't her own like Kong she longs to be with her own people but has given up in finding them believing herself to be the last of their culture but just like Kong she winds up finding them in the realm below Hollow Earth and when she does we learn that the e- communicate entirely telepathically yet another instance of nonverbal communication in the film but beyond an interesting Motif all of these instances of non-verbal communication drive at one of the film's core messages one of compassion over cruelty after all what is compassion if not the ability to understand someone's plight without them needing to explain their situation to you the inciting incident of the film is exactly this a telepathic distress call by the ewe who have sensed the scar King's return and need to summon help from the surface to repel him before he can escape his imprisonment below Hollow Earth and engulf the world in a second Ice Age compassion is what separates our protagonist Kong from the scar King who is a cruel and malicious creature who has enslaved his own kind in imprisoned shimu an ancient Ice Titan that he tortured in order to control conversely Kong is a creature of compassion when he first encounters scars acolytes he is hesitant to kill them even attempting to save an ape he threw himself over over a cliff during a skirmish obviously this Mercy is primarily driven by a reluctance to kill the only other Apes he's encountered in decades but it speaks to the goodness of his character which is then further demonstrated when he makes the youngest of his attackers a small red ape named suko or as you know him baby Kong to lead him to the scar King's domain suko starts off as a conniving little prick honestly exploiting his size in apparent innocence to take a cheap shot at Kong and resulting in one of the funniest moments of slapstick I think I've seen in a movie in quite some time he's almost Gollum esque as he leads Kong to the other Apes knowingly leading him into danger in the hopes of having some other monsters do what he can't kill Kong yet despite this Kong shows him patience in the camp scene I alluded to earlier Kong is eating the tentacle of the lake creature suko intentionally led him towards and rather than punishing suo for his betrayal he offers him food you get the sense that given his skittishness around Kong the way he expects violent retaliation for his insubordination suko is acting out of fear rather than malice he's a child who has only known cruelty and so acts cruel and you get the sense that Kong recognizes this in this scene and decides to show the child another way he shows him compassion and this results in an immediate sense of ease from suko who sits by Kong to eat despite previously standing at a defensive distance like with the ew's distress call suko's distress was communicated nonverbally placing the onus to recognize it and act with compassion in response squarely on Kong's shoulders likewise it's Kong's compassion that drives him to continue fighting for the Apes being subjugated by the scar King despite their Relentless attacks just as with suko it's incumbent on Kong to recognize that they're just victims of the scar King and show them compassion rather than holding them all responsible for the actions of their oppressor hell even Godzilla has to act compassionately in this film recognizing mothra's arrival at Giza as a sign to put aside his territorial dispute with Kong and join the fight to defeat scar King in Hollow Earth no character better personifies this idea of compassion than Trapper played by the delightfully charismatic Dan Stevens Trapper is very much a comic relief character there to give the human Centric scen some levity so that they can better match the heightened energy of the Fantastical Kaiju Mayhem but he's also the character who gets to speak most directly to this idea of compassion through mindfulness firstly he's a Titan veterinarian so compassion is baked into what he does taking care of these creatures who it would be very easy to hate and fear in his very first scene we get a clear sense of his comp passion as he replaces Kong's infected tooth but even once the Monarch crew Ventures into the hollow Earth he's constantly reminding us to view these creatures as beings rather than threats to understand their plight even if they can't communicate it to us directly and seek to offer our help regardless of whether it's asked for simply for its own sake which dovet Tales neatly into a theme that Godzilla Kong inherits from its predecessor namely the importance of unity over isolationism throughout the film acts of compassion are framed as a means of bringing characters together pulling loners out of isolation and creating Unity Kong's compassion for suko doesn't just differentiate him from the scar King it enriches Kong on a personal level bringing him one step closer to the sense of belonging he Longs for at the beginning of the film in a similar vein Dr Andrews compassion for her adopted daughter's struggle to find purpose on the surface results in her willingness to give her up so so that she can rejoin her people in Hollow Earth a selfless Act of compassion that is rewarded with an affirmation of the unity between the two with Gia reiterating her mother's words from earlier in the film that the two of them belong together even Kong's new tooth and badass mechanical glov serve to bolster this idea of unity as a strength in showing compassion for Humanity in fighting to protect them the human characters of the film imbue Kong with the gifts that Empower him by contrast the scar King embodies isolationism dwelling in his layer under the hollow Earth in a strict hierarchical society that places him alone at the top of the food chain a tyrant the Pinnacle of isolation this isolation is reinforced through cruelty punishing everyone beneath him in the end this cruelty is paid back when Kong and Godzilla destroy the crystal scar is using to control Shima an act of compassion that results in Shima turning on her old m to join forces with the other Titans showering the great red ape in her frost breath so that Kong can deliver the cigra in a broader sense the film takes this concept of unity through compassion and uses it to extrapolate on one of the most enduring themes of the monster verse and really just Godzilla films in general it's environmentalism as with the other films in this franchise Godzilla Kong lionizes symbiosis with nature one in which humans and monsters coexist Harmon L rather than adversarially this is evident in everything from Dr Andrew's attempts to dissuade countries like Italy from attacking Godzilla after one of his fights led to him crashing sections of Rome to the nature of ewe society which revolves around a reverence for nature and a commitment to maintaining balance even the ewe technology adheres to this principle harnessing the Earth's gravitational forces rather than extracting natural resources the way societies on the surface do although the humans don't play a terrible large role in the final battle the small part they do play is contingent on a union with nature Gia fulfills her Parts in an ancient prophecy by Reviving Mathra and leading her to Godzilla so that she can convince him to join forces with Kong while Trapper uses the Adaptive camouflage on the cruise ship to draw a flock of leaf Wings to the confrontation between Kong Godzilla the scar King and Shima essentially joining forces with the creatures to run an offensive on Scar's Army if there's one thing these films have repeatedly reiterated it's that Earth doesn't belong to humanity alone we are just one of many inhabitants and the presence of the Titans is a stark reminder that we have no right to act as if we're above it all but rather than resisting the fact or using it to rationalize nihilism the way the humans above from previous monsterverse films do Godzilla Kong finally gives us a look at the alternative that scientists like Dr Andrews have been advocating for a look at what true Unity between monsters and Humanity would look like and you know what metaphor for the need to take better care of our environment aside it looks [ __ ] cool dude I grew up loving monster movies by their very nature they take place in a heightened world where anything is possible in Godzilla Kong the new Empire feels like a return to the kind of monster movie they just don't really make anymore it's light and Breezy jam-packed with ridiculous ideas that wouldn't work in any other movie I hesitate to call this movie Dumb fun because I think that does injustice to the genuine thought that was put into it on every single level but maybe that's the secret maybe the key to dumb fun is the intersection between the skill that comes with competence and The Reckless abandon that comes with incompetence almost like pairing the imagination of a child with the mind of an adult Adam winguard has managed to make a movie that anyone can enjoy but every 10-year-old will be obsessed with and at the end of the day that's all that really matters I genuinely can't wait to see what this franchise does next I'm loving it between this movie the Monarch TV show it's just the monsterverse continues to crush it long live the monsterverse May the Sun never set on its new Empire [Music] [Music]

Channel: FilmSpeak

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Keywords: filmspeak, video essay, ending explained, explained, godzilla x kong, godzilla x kong the new empire, godzilla x kong review, godzilla x kong movie review, why godzilla remains cinema's mvp, godzilla video essay, godzilla x kong explained, king kong, godzilla minus one, godzilla, godzilla x kong the new empire review, godzilla analysis, godzilla x kong analysis, godzilla x kong ending explained, monsterverse, godzilla x kong breakdown, godzilla vs kong, godzilla x kong is great

Id: 8muWpdETniI

Length: 30min 16sec (1816 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2024