Monsterverse: King Kong & Godzilla

Update: 2021-04-17

Description

Whether you call them titans or Kaiju, these two are iconic movie monsters. Godzilla has long reigned as the King of the Monsters, defeating all adversaries as both destroyer and protector. King Kong was unveiled as the Eighth Wonder of the World in the eponymous 1933 film, now he’s the last surviving member of his race, reigning over Skull Island. In this episode from the vault, we went exploring Legendary’s Monsterverse and their renditions of the giant ape and atomic lizard on the big screen, as well as Kong’s journey from the 1930’s to now.

Since their debut, these creatures’ stories have been told and retold. Remade and reimagined. We look back to Kong’s beginnings and his various cinematic outings. King Kong (Merian C. Cooper, 1933) features legendary stop-motion animation from Willis O’Brien. King Kong (John Guillermin, 1976) stars Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange in a big budget Dino DeLaurentiis production that relies more heavily on a man in a suit for its effects. King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005) carves out a performance from motion capture and CG-animation. We also touch on Mighty Joe Young (Ron Underwood, 1998) as well as his first title fight in King Kong vs. Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1962).

In the first American attempt since Godzilla (Roland Emmerich, 1998) is realised more closely to his Japanese heyday outings. He looms large and defeats the MUTOs to protect humanity in Godzilla (Gareth Edwards, 2014). When he’s brought back, the roster of titans expands as we’re introduced to Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Michael Dougherty, 2019). The godlike being stares down the opposition and obliterates them in epic fashion.

The performance capture of these larger than life creatures are carried through the films by T.J. Storm as Godzilla and both Terry Notary and Toby Kebbell contributing to Kong and are big factor as to why they’re so fun to watch. Others being the spectacle in scale, cinematography, choreography and action, with Skull Island excelling in its vivid colour palette too. Not all the humans are forgettable, we do highlight our favourite characters.

Plus we touch briefly on Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016) and Rampage (Brad Peyton, 2018). Finally, we theorise about how Godzilla and Kong will fare in the match-up teased at the time. You can tune in next week to hear what we thought of Godzilla vs Kong (Adam Wingard, 2021). And those of you who want to hear our thoughts on on the Oscars might be able to find us on Discord when they air…