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Since this is a passion of mine, I might as well start what's sure to be the Most Popular Thread on Halforums.

Legendary has dubbed their new shared universe as the MonsterVerse, which so far will include the films:

Godzilla (2014)
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Godzilla vs Kong (2020)

If some do better than others, they might branch out more, but for now this is the goal. Kong: Skull Island looks to be doing $60 million domestic for its opening weekend, which seems good from what the producers wanted. I don't think Kong's success was going to determine the overall franchise, just whether Kong would get a sequel of his own. The next shared universe movie is already underway.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters aka Godzilla 2 will be directed by Michael Dougherty, who has a mixed screenplay track record (X-Men 2, Trick r Treat, Krampus vs Superman Returns, X-Men Apocalypse), but a pretty solid director record. It looks like Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven from Stranger Things) is set to star. Things are looking good for that movie.

On the more mixed end of things, Legendary has assembled a group of writers to work on the Godzilla vs Kong script. I'm already not a fan of the committee format to screenwriting, and there's a mix of writing qualifications. My biggest concern is Terry Rossio, co-writer for the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies. You know, the pointless plot threads and macguffins team. I'm hoping the other writers and the director will help curb any of that kind of shit, but it's too early to tell where the project is going. At least they're starting work on it now rather than waiting until next year. If Godzilla vs Kong is coming in May 2020, only a year after Godzilla: KOTM, the last thing needed is a rushed script in a shared universe.

I know certain people want Pacific Rim to somehow join in on this, which would be fun, but unless Pacific Rim 2 introduces some parallel universe stuff that involves other versions of Earth, I don't see how it'd be possible.

But at any rate, it's an exciting time to be a fan of giant monster movies.

I want to see giant robots fighting these monsters, at least once. If not by including Pacific Rim, then at least give me Mecha-Godzilla.

I admit, I was very disappointed when the final "biggest" kaiju to come through the rift in Pacific Rim wasn't Godzilla. Or at least "Godzilla-like".

Zero Esc said:

I know certain people want Pacific Rim to somehow join in on this, which would be fun, but unless Pacific Rim 2 introduces some parallel universe stuff that involves other versions of Earth, I don't see how it'd be possible.

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There's also fan theories of Pacific Rim being in the Valve universe with Aperture Labs/Black Mesa (seeing as GLaDOS was in the movie). So maybe some experiments go awry and they open a portal to MonsterVerse.

Sara_2814 said:

I admit, I was very disappointed when the final "biggest" kaiju to come through the rift in Pacific Rim wasn't Godzilla. Or at least "Godzilla-like".

There's also fan theories of Pacific Rim being in the Valve universe with Aperture Labs/Black Mesa (seeing as GLaDOS was in the movie). So maybe some experiments go awry and they open a portal to MonsterVerse.

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There are ways to do it, depending on how much audiences are willing to believe, but I think Warner Bros is leery about mixing too much stuff together and potentially poisoning either side. You know, like they've kinda done with their DC universe .

Hopefully this means more counter-spite productions from Toho. I say, haven't not yet seen Shin Godzilla.

Covar said:

Hopefully this means more counter-spite productions from Toho. I say, haven't not yet seen Shin Godzilla.

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I don't think it's spite so much as seeing the time is ripe. Toho liked Godzilla 2014. But yeah, brofisting for hope of more from them. Shin Godzilla was incredible.

ThatNickGuy said:

View attachment 23476

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I kinda expect something like this . Both Godzilla and Kong are good guys in this continuity, so I'm sure there will be some third act turn that puts them on the same side.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/03/13/godzilla-anime-coming-netflix-year/

Huh. An animated Godzilla movie is coming.

ThatNickGuy said:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/03/13/godzilla-anime-coming-netflix-year/

Huh. An animated Godzilla movie is coming.

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I'm sure it'll be better than the Hannah Barbera one . After Godzilla Anime gets a theatrical release in Japan, it'll hit Netflix. Not sure if it'll be dubbed or subbed.

This is essentially the Japanese Godzilla movie for the year. I don't think we're going to see Toho return to annual live action films. They could get away with it right now if they wanted thanks to Shin Godzilla's financial and critical success, but they may have finally learned that doing a movie a year isn't the best way to maintain quality unless you have the money to spread around like Marvel. So maybe in 2018 there will be another Toho live-action Godzilla.

Someone on Tumblr suggested Legendary get the licensing rights to Gamera as well and get him involved in the MonsterVerse. I doubt it would happen or if they'd want to muddy their playground with a flying, fire-breathing turtle, especially one that really isn't well-known compared to Kong and Godzilla, but I'm certainly not against it. I've wanted a Godzilla vs Gamera movie since I was little.

To the average moviegoer, ie not one who's paid attention to Japanese cinematic kaiju, Gamera is probably approximately as well known as Rodan and King Ghidora (that is to say, not that well known). So, really, a flying fire-breathing turtle won't feel any more out of place than a giant atomic-breath lizard or a huge silk-spewing moth.

I, for one, would welcome Gamera's addition if they manage to pull it off.

Not to mention that Gamera would be no worse than whatever weird-and-vaguely-insect-thing they would come up with to fight Godzilla anyway.

Tress said:

Not to mention that Gamera would be no worse than whatever weird-and-vaguely-insect-thing they would come up with to fight Godzilla anyway.

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No worse, certainly, but I feel like western general audiences are more willing to except something like the MUTOs or a generic giant bug than a giant flying turtle monster. The 90s Gamera films had their work cut out for them dislodging Gamera from the silliness of his roots and his concept, and did so by establishing a mythos before the monster showed up. (Shit, now I want to go watch Gamera: Guardian of the Universe again.)

I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but it'd be more difficult. Maybe in a later film. This assuming they could even get the rights. But that Gamera movie that was supposed to come out in 2016 fizzled into development hell, so I don't know how receptive they would be to licensing him to Legendary. Shame, since 2016 was Gamera's 50th anniversary.

Tom Hiddleston was so lost. "What are you guys talking about?"

I'm going to use this thread for other crap of this nature, especially with Toho involved.

The good news: The Godzilla anime movie being distributed globally by Netflix is now going to be a trilogy! Godzilla: Monster Planet is the story of monsters attacking mankind and mankind saying "we out." Humans abandon Earth to colonize a distant world, only to get there and find it uninhabitable. A team heads back to Earth to see if they can fix things while there's still time, only to find that through relativity, 20,000 years have passed, Earth has changed entirely, and now Godzilla rules the world.

The bad news: you know that new Berserk anime with the weird CGI animation stuff? It's those guys. Maybe this will go better. I hope, since this is all the Godzilla we're getting from Toho for a couple years.

We knew which monsters were showing up thanks to the Kong end credits scene.

I didn't expect this plotline though. I'm even more intrigued. (Not that I wasn't going to be there opening night, or earlier, anyway.)

Wow I didn't expect them to unleash ALL the kaiju for the sequel.

bhamv3 said:

Wow I didn't expect them to unleash ALL the kaiju for the sequel.

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It was very important to remake Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. Now we just need a princess who's possessed by the ghost of a Martian and we're all set.

Since Toho is so fickle about licensing, I have a feeling the producers only paid for the most popular monsters. No one was going to care if Megalon or Battra showed up. I think the only other really well-known one they could get would be Mechagodzilla.

I was always partial to Gigan, myself.

Tress said:

I was always partial to Gigan, myself.

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Gigan has a big bunch of fans, and I'd say he's the next in notariety after the ones in the new movie + Mechagodzilla, but I don't know how many people in mainstream know of him. There's a reason he was given such a notable role in Godzilla: Final Wars when many other monsters were slapped aside in a few seconds.

Although my mom referred to Godzilla as Gonzalez at one point, so maybe I'm overestimating how well any of them are known.

So, how long until we see tweets whining about "Why'd they have to go and put fake news climate change in the movie? Godzilla is about destroying things, not about the environment!"

figmentPez said:

So, how long until we see tweets whining about "Why'd they have to go and put fake news climate change in the movie? Godzilla is about destroying things, not about the environment!"

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At least we have an answer to that...

Designs for the monsters in Godzilla: King of the Monsters were revealed last night! Rodan looks as expected, Mothra has some interesting legs, Godzilla's design has been updated a little, and I think Ghidorah looks fantastic. These will make fun toys for kids next year!

Old school

The director tweeted out some new posters of the iconic kaiju making their first appearances:

I'm still gonna write out Category G, a Pacific Rim / Godzilla crossover.

evilmike said:

Old school

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I laughed so hard and also the shame of knowing each of those movies by shot.

MovieBob reviews the new movie:

I'm not watching any reviews, just going in as cold as the horrible trailer allows, but IM SO PSYCHED FOR THURSDAY NIGHT

Honestly, I was only mildly curious about seeing it before. I'm not a big kaiju nut like Hailey.

But Bob's review sold it for me. Seeing the movie give him that much child-like joy sells it.

Whenever he says, "Go see it. Just go see it," he's yet to steer me wrong.

I'mma go see it.

ThatNickGuy said:

Honestly, I was only mildly curious about seeing it before. I'm not a big kaiju nut like Hailey.

But Bob's review sold it for me. Seeing the movie give him that much child-like joy sells it.

Whenever he says, "Go see it. Just go see it," he's yet to steer me wrong.

I'mma go see it.

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NGL, Kurtz's two panel review of Superman Returns got me the same way, and is one of my favorite PvP comics.

ThatNickGuy said:

Honestly, I was only mildly curious about seeing it before. I'm not a big kaiju nut like Hailey.

But Bob's review sold it for me. Seeing the movie give him that much child-like joy sells it.

Whenever he says, "Go see it. Just go see it," he's yet to steer me wrong.

I'mma go see it.

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I'll definitely watch his review after I see it.

And here's that comic...

God that comic used to be so good.

Just came back from a viewing of Godzilla 2.

I haven't seen Moviebobs review but I agree. "Go see it. Just go see it". Anybody who watched Godzilla movies will have a good time. It has all the stuff we like from the Godzilla movies of the past. So much so I'm surprised they didn't start the movie with the Toho logo. There are some stupid moments you will roll your eyes on but the nods and mythology gags to the Japanese kaiju movies compensate for this.

Godzilla: KOTM was a lot of fun. I have a weird rapport with it though because some of the references to the older movies made me grin, while others I was less enthusiastic about since they're story beats I've seen in a dozen other Godzilla movies. BUT, most American audiences haven't seen those movies, so it's new to them and I understand that.

Some little things that made me happy:

And climax spoilers/end credits stuff

After the post-credits, a brother and sister beside me were arguing about the monsters. I would've loved to hear the rest of that argument, but I had to go. When I was little, no one else cared, so it was just nice hearing kids so psyched about this stuff.

Godzilla: KOTM was a lot of fun. I have a weird rapport with it though because some of the references to the older movies made me grin, while others I was less enthusiastic about since they're story beats I've seen in a dozen other Godzilla movies. BUT, most American audiences haven't seen those movies, so it's new to them and I understand that.

Some little things that made me happy:

And climax spoilers/end credits stuff

After the post-credits, a brother and sister beside me were arguing about the monsters. I would've loved to hear the rest of that argument, but I had to go. When I was little, no one else cared, so it was just nice hearing kids so psyched about this stuff.

evilmike said:

MovieBob reviews the new movie:

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I endorse this review ... especially smashing toys together.

EDIT: And another thing! 40% on RT is ridiculous. I know it's not a grade, it's a consensus, but that consensus shouldn't be so close in score to Batman vs Superman.

Also watched Godzilla KOTM last night. It very much knows its audience--if it sounds like the kind of movie you'd enjoy, you most likely will.

Hailey Knight said:

Spoiler

Ghidorah being coded Monster Zero at first
Mothra's theme
Godzilla's theme
The twins
Ghidorah's backstory

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Those made me happy likewise.

Hailey Knight said:

Spoiler

HE ATE HIM. GODZILLA FUCKING ATE GHIDORAH. A character says "Jesus" in reaction, and I'm just like, yeah, yeah that's exactly the right reaction. Holy shit.
I wish Mothra hadn't died for the twentieth time, but holy craaaaap.
They do a good job setting up how Godzilla and Kong will probably be rival alphas next movie since various Titans seemed to split between them. The scene with some bowing to Godzilla felt so weird, and I'm struggling to remember what movie had a similar scene and vibe besides The Chronicles of Riddick.
The post-credits scene ... I'm not sure what it's implying, but my first thought was Mecha King Ghidorah.

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About the RT stuff...One of the reviews I read said it was too violent. A movie about giant monsters fighting. Too violent.

Movie critics are usually fans of movies, but they tend towards a different genre than giant monsters fighting. Find a critic that aligns closely with you and listen to them. That Bob guy is a good example. Pure geekery.

Too violent? It's a Godzilla movie. What did they expect?

Dave said:

About the RT stuff...One of the reviews I read said it was too violent. A movie about giant monsters fighting. Too violent.

Movie critics are usually fans of movies, but they tend towards a different genre than giant monsters fighting. Find a critic that aligns closely with you and listen to them. That Bob guy is a good example. Pure geekery.

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One of the negative review highlights: "I suppose action movie fans will be happy." That sentence says "I was pre-disposed to trash this." Like, I don't expect to put on Godzilla vs Mothra from 1964 and have it please a modern audience, but some of the reactions to this one come off as really doofy.

The audience score is high (91% last time I checked), so this is movie is making actual moviegoers happy. It wouldn’t be the first time that critics crapped on something that is made to appeal to geeks and action fans, only to have that movie go on to be a big success.

Gail Simone quoted a review that said you can't just have monsters hitting each other with the response "YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN".

Tress said:

They audience score is high (91% last time I checked), this is movie is making actual moviegoers happy. It wouldn’t be the first time that critics crapped on something that is made to appeal to geeks and action fans, only to have that movie go on to be a big success.

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<cough> Star Wars <cough>

chris said:

<cough> Star Wars <cough>

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And The Wizard of OZ, too.

—Patrick

PatrThom said:

And The Wizard of OZ, too.

—Patrick

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This always flummoxes me for never having lived in a time when film historians didn't worship that movie.

I remember what movie the ending reminded me of.

So, okay, can someone explain something?

ThatNickGuy said:

So, okay, can someone explain something?

Spoiler

Where was Kong in all of this? They kept referencing him on monitors and such, but I don't think he was in the group shot at the end or seen live once in the movie.

Producing-wise, I understand they're keeping him for the next movie, Godzilla vs King Kong, but was there an in-universe reason?

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Hailey Knight said:

Spoiler

Kong was trashing stuff for Ghidorah, but they didn't really get into it since he's on an island in the middle of the Pacific.

Godzilla didn't have all the monsters around him at the end. I don't know if you stayed through the credits, but one of the newspapers mentioned other monsters heading to Skull Island and Skull Island experiencing issues. It seems they're setting up that the monsters we didn't see with Godzilla are treating Kong as an alpha, and then Kong will have to leave his territory if Skull Island disappears, so ... reasons for them to fight until the after-credits scene introduces a villain for them to fight.

Oh no, it IS Batman vs Superman!

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Detective Pikachu is another good example of the reviewer problem. I knew I was going to like it when reviews had a definitive split between people who had a sense of joy towards Pokemon and the people who couldn't tell a Bulbasaur from a Turtwig.

Dei said:

Detective Pikachu is another good example of the reviewer problem. I knew I was going to like it when reviews had a definitive split between people who had a sense of joy towards Pokemon and the people who couldn't tell a Bulbasaur from a Turtwig.

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Yeah I know Pokemon but am not a fan and the movie bored me. My son IS a Pokemon fan and he liked it a lot more than me.

I'm more on the side of the critics and I love big giant monsters and such. I thought the story was such a mess, especially the new trend of Hollywood writers and producers now self inserting their divorced dad energy into fucking everything, which can fuck right off. The biggest crime was the monster fighting was mostly...well, shitty. Godzilla would bungle into Ghidorah, they would tussle, Godzilla would fall down and then take a nap for 10 minutes. There was nothing as awe-inspiring as the final big fight in the 2014 movie. Nothing as cool as Godzilla pulling the mouth of the other monster's mouth open and atomic breathing the shit out of it. They could have stolen some of the more terrifying aspects of Shin Godzilla, which also had more interesting monster interactions with the world, from his breath coalescing into the atomic beam or him sending that wave of destructive fire through the city.

I "liked" it, but I was definitely disappointed. Like I said in the other thread, it's not Pacific Rim 2 shit, but I felt it wasn't great either.

I'm gonna chuck the sequence from Shin Godzilla I was referring to here

KOTM isn't going to crack my top five Godzilla movies, let alone my top five kaiju movies, but I still had fun.

I'm supposed to check out Possum tomorrow, but now I want to re-watch Shin Godzilla. That movie is so good, every human scene feels intense. Scene after scene of this group, eager to do what they can and break through government bureaucracy to help everyone. And then the Godzilla scenes are straight-up horror. My second favorite Godzilla movie without question.

I’m going to see KOTM tomorrow. So excited.

I got a subscription to STARZ for a month (they have a bunch of Godzilla movies) and I watched the first one yesterday, the actual sub-titled original (which I’ve never seen before) not the version with Raymond Burr hacked into it. Wow, so much better!

Sara_2814 said:

I got a subscription to STARZ for a month (they have a bunch of Godzilla movies) and I watched the first one yesterday, the actual sub-titled original (which I’ve never seen before) not the version with Raymond Burr hacked into it. Wow, so much better!

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It's criminal what localization did to that movie.

I liked it. It was fun.

Sara_2814 said:

I liked it. It was fun.

Spoiler

The human story was a bit meh. The parents annoyed me. I agree with the soldier who said that if they were his parents, he'd run away, too. Poor Maddy. And they were just... I don't know. The dad who hates kaiju and wants to kill them all (understandable given the back story) but then suddenly is Godzilla's biggest fan, without any conflicted feelings. And then the mom, who wants to Kill All Humans in honor of her dead son—putting her daughter's life at risk... ooookaaaaayyyyy. Also, the military/Monarch was incompetent, like they really thought some puny automatic weapons would do anything to Ghidorah? And then buzzing their planes around giant flying creatures for... reasons. When Rodan whacked the first jet, they should have moved a bit farther away?

Ok, the humans were kinda dumb, but I loved the kaiju.

I'm sad that Mothra died, but hopefully Daughter of Mothra will be back. (Mothra Twins activate?)

I like that Godzilla gave Rodan the stink-eye at the end. "I'll be watching you, buddy..." LOL

It was kind of overdone, but every time Godzilla suddenly appeared to save the day, I was all "WHOOOOOO YEAAAAAHHHHH!!! (in my head)

I really liked the mythology, that the kaiju are the legendary Titans. And Godzilla's home, could that be Atlantis? I hope they keep going with developing the mythology of the kaiju.

Missed the post-credit, because Potty Emergency, so that will have to wait until I buy the movie.
[\spoiler]

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Are the CG Godzilla flicks on Netflix worth watching?

Frank said:

Are the CG Godzilla flicks on Netflix worth watching?

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I haven't watched them yet (I keep meaning to ...) but from what I'm told, no.

Hailey Knight said:

I haven't watched them yet (I keep meaning to ...) but from what I'm told, no.

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I watched the first one. It was garbage.

KOTM was FUN on the bun, and all the critics besides Moviebob should silence themselves.

Finally saw it and loved it. I’ve been a Godzilla fan for most of my life, and I feel like this did a good job appeasing me in that regard. I don’t know how much a non-Godzilla fan would get out of this. And yes, most of the human plot line was dumb. Still had a good time overall.

Tress said:

Finally saw it and loved it. I’ve been a Godzilla fan for most of my life, and I feel like this did a good job appeasing me in that regard. I don’t know how much a non-Godzilla fan would get out of this. And yes, most of the human plot line was dumb. Still had a good time overall.

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I wouldn't really call myself a Godzilla fan. I'd only heard of or seen brief clips or gifs from the older movies. Saw the American 90s one with Matthew Broderick and I think the one where Godzilla fights THAT version for like 5 glorious seconds. And I thought the one from a few years ago was...okay.

So I inch close to non-fan than fan. And I dug the HELL out of it.

Yeah I loved the hell out of it. It's dumb, the plot's kind of nonsense, but it promises massive monster fights and mass destruction, and it fucking delivers. That's really all I asked for.

Also, I could still see this leading into a Pacific Rim crossover. "The Aliens, learning of King Ghidorah's death, decide that to conquer Earth, they must destroy its defenders - the Titans - with their Kaiju. To fight alongside the Titans against the Kaiju, Monarch institutes the Jaeger program."

Ran across this bit of silliness today

"...and Godzooookiiiiieeee...."

--Patrick

evilmike said:

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I was about to go on Twitter and share these until I saw it was Mike Baron tweeting it. And he's Comicsgate now.

Fuck Comicsgate.

“M’lady,” quickly followed by *loud monster screech*

Overnight, Netflix and Kadokawa announced Gamera Rebirth, the first Gamera movie since 2006's Gamera the Brave. Little is known about the details of Rebirth so far other than its Netflix distribution and the fact that the director of the Heisei Gamera trilogy, Shusuke Kaneko, won’t return. Also unknown: the medium of the film, which could either be a live-action film or potentially an animated movie, given the fact that Kadokawa is streaming the brief new teaser on its anime YouTube channel (Gizmodo)

Chibi Godzilla Raids Again

Godzilla: Minus One

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

I was just coming over here to post this.

Oh yeah, I'm in.

evilmike said:

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

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Already on my watch list. If this follows the trend of quality shows Apple's been putting out, it's going to be fucking epic.

History's Greatest Monsters

They finally did it... they gave Godzilla human breasts...

Their shoes last night were amazing!