It's Official: Kaiju Are Back

[cojo965]

So who saw King Kong's new trailer?


So, yeah this is happening. Back in 2013, Pacific Rim made kaiju a household term followed by 2014's Godzilla bringing the King of the Monsters back into the public eye. Ever since these two films a trend started, not a major trend, but still, a trend. When Legendary's Godzilla was a hit two sequels were announced as well as a new King Kong film and a Kong Godzilla crossover. Then Toho's Shin Godzilla was picked up for a limited North American release by Funimation that managed to gross close to 2 million over the course of its run (that means it did well for the record). Now Pacific Rim Maelstrom is making headway and the game Rampage is getting a movie.

Spoiler: Skipable digression

If I may, I would like to digress on the topic of the Rampage movie. See, I grew up with Rampage World Tour on the N64 and still remember enough to bring a few questions on the subject of how the fuck this is going to work. Rampage, at its core, is a dark subject matter made so ludicrous that it becomes funny. More simply the Black Knight in Monty Python. Man eating monsters are inherently dark but in Rampage its so silly that anyone can play and not be bothered. However, there is an even bigger problem: you notice how in Rampage those highly tasty people are tiny specks on the screen that help the lighten up subject matter? Well a movie can't do that, so now what d you do? Having established that monsters eating people by the thousands is inherently dark what could you do with the story to make it as enjoyable as Rampage but not so dark as to turn people away?

With all this, I'm reasonably sure the kaiju genre is back. What do you guys think of this?

 

[Kolby Jack]

Wow, I'm surprised at how light-hearted it looks. I dig it. Though I'm not totally sure how they can do a proper crossover with Godzilla if King Kong is the first "monster" the military has seen (unless this takes place before Godzilla, which it might given the tech shown). At least King Kong is properly gigantic for a plausible fight with Godzilla. He still doesn't look nearly as big as the big lizard, but a Peter Jackson-sized King Kong wouldn't reach Modern Godzilla's shin, so this size match-up is much better.

I've always loved Kaiju. IMO, Pacific Rim wasn't a kaiju movie. It had kaiju in it, obviously (it even called them that), but they were weird, nameless monsters that just kind of showed up. In my mind, a kaiju movie is about one or two kaiju, as in the narrative flows around them and what they do. Pacific Rim used its kaiju as roadblocks for the human characters, nothing more.

I don't know if I would say Kaiju films are "back." Gozilla in Japan hasn't been out of circulation that long before Shin Godzilla. I would say that Kaiju films are experiencing a real surge in America, which up until recently hasn't produced many noteworthy kaiju films. Can't say they've ever really been that big in America, so this sudden surge would be a real first.

Edit: Oh, okay. According to the youtube comments, this movie is set in the 70's, and King Kong is actually an adolescent 100ft tall monster. By 2020 he will double in size, making him still smaller than Godzilla, but not too much. Well, just over half the size of Godzilla, but still... better than Peter Jackson. XD

 

[Zontar]

Was Kaiju ever really here to begin with? I mean sure, in Japan it had a period in the 70s and the 90s of being pretty big, but here in the West it never really clicked outside of the original King Kong and King of the Monsters. Legendary has a niche that's evidently popular enough to warrant a movie or so each year, and they own it, but I wouldn't call it a trend. Though unlike superheroes I would call it a genre instead of pretending that having coloured spandex is enough to connect movies that otherwise wouldn't have anyone claiming any connection between them.

I'll say this though, I'm now kind of disappointing due to the fact the tone set by the first trailer was nothing like this, and I'm tired of the light hearted action movies that dominate the blockbuster scene.

 

[Zontar]

Wow, I'm surprised at how light-hearted it looks. I dig it. Though I'm not totally sure how they can do a proper crossover with Godzilla if King Kong is the first "monster" the military has seen (unless this takes place before Godzilla, which it might given the tech shown).

Skull Island is set in the 70s, which is why there's a Vietnam feel to it (they even use the time appropriate uniforms) so it's pretty explicitly set before Godzilla (though John Goodman's character very likely was involved with what we see in the opening given what his character stated about searching 30 years for monsters).

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Feels weird seeing Kong walk bipedally after seeing an entire movie of him accurately moving like a Gorilla:

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I was going to post who would win a Jaeger or King Kong, then I realized he's just a big ol' Gorilla. He aint no bio engineered two-brained bio weapon monstrosity built to fight robots. A single buzzsaw to the neck and Kong is down for the count.

SNIP

Rampage World Tour was awesome! I remember staying up as late as the bro and I could, eating BaggleBites, drinking Bawls and playing Rampage.

 

[Worgen]

Ehh, best kaiju is Applejack. Giant Applejack vs aliens, I'd watch it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Is Kong a kaiju? Aren't kaiju strictly Japanese?

 

[Fox12]

Oh, Jesus, not another King Kong vs Godzilla film. I thought we'd all agreed that that was a bad joke?

I'll take more American Godzilla films if they can improve the writing, though. Shin Godzilla was bloody phenomenal. Pacific Rim wasn't terrible either.

 

[Zontar]

Is Kong a kaiju? Aren't kaiju strictly Japanese?

Kaiju is just giant monsters, and Pacific Rim has made it clear Japan doesn't have a monopoly on the term anymore.

Oh, Jesus, not another King Kong vs Godzilla film. I thought we'd all agreed that that was a bad joke?

I'll take more American Godzilla films if they can improve the writing, though. Shin Godzilla was bloody phenomenal. Pacific Rim wasn't terrible either.

Well I don't know, Godzilla 2 is coming out before Godzilla vs. King Kong. Though I'm wondering what they'll make after it given they've made it clear the Monarch Movies will be using monsters new and old.

 

[Zontar]

Zontar you're alive? Where have you been? You wouldn't believe what happened the last months you were gone, it was amazing!

I was dead. I got better. I was watching things from the other side though. While I would have loved to take part, I did enjoy watching.

 

[Fox12]

Zontar you're alive? Where have you been? You wouldn't believe what happened the last months you were gone, it was amazing!

I was dead. I got better. I was watching things from the other side though. While I would have loved to take part, I did enjoy watching.

Huzzah! He was watching over us the whole time!

But seriously, that must have been a shitshow.

 

[pookie101]

they broke the first rule of making a good monster movie, showing in the trailer what a good chunk of the monsters look like