GODZILLA: King of the Monsters (5-31-19 -NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

[KingKaiju]

[Gojira-2000]

Since some people thought that Rodan or Mothra was going to be in the last film, the trailers for the next film should totally make them believe Anguirus is going to be in it.

[Hybrid Gojira]

I have no desire to see KK vs G again. A 350 foot tall Kong just feels wrong. There are so many other monsters I'd take before KK.

[Jorzilla]

The fact that Mothra and King Ghidorah are being used is irrelevant because this is an American picture. The vast majority of the audience watching this film might know these characters are, but not enough to see them as being over-used. The simple fact that prolific appearance in the franchise means that Legendary has a richer history to pull inspiration from. I really don't see what the problem is.

[DannyBeane]

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

I was surprised to hear some morning zoo talk about the announcement of Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah on the radio this morning. It made the rounds...

[RapZiLLa54]

[jellydonut25]

I have some thoughts on this whole thing:

-Feels like a bit of a desperation move, if I'm being honest. Like Legendary knows they don't have a sure-fire absolute hit on their hands for a sequel and need to drum up interest somehow. I have to admit that while I found it to be really really cool news, my fanboy nerdgasm was pretty much non-existent, because it's gonna be YEARS (probably about four of them) until the next movie...that's so far away, it doesn't even make sense to get excited. I mean Jurassic World is next year, Kong is 2016, PacRim2 is 2017...there will be more than enough to distract me from Godzilla 2 thoughts for a while.
-I don't understand the point of contention I've heard from so many fans that it couldn't be done in one film because "these kaiju need background stories to establish their characters". What background do you need for Rodan aside from, "Oh snap! It's a giant pteranodon!"? Is "Holy crap! It's a three-headed flying space dragon that shoots lightning!" not enough background character for Ghidorah? I mean, come on people. Let's not make this harder than it needs to be. How many of us HONESTLY saw Rodan and Mothra before Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster? How many (of the presumably vast majority) of us who DIDN'T were confused and shouting "Wait! Who is that giant pteranodon thing? Explain this to me movie! Explain it now! God, I'm so lost! THIS SUCKS!"
-If Ghidorah isn't Godzilla's arch nemesis because "Godzilla has beaten him so much" then does that make the Joker not Batman's arch nemesis? I mean, Batman has foiled every plan the Joker has ever had...guess the Joker sucks and isn't even worthy of being a villain.
-I don't really care about the "overuse" argument for a few reasons. First, this is an American series, so the takes on each kaiju will probably look and feel fresh (and I'm sure die-hard fans will complain just as much as they did about Godzilla not having the exact same origin). Second, I never had a problem with each new series of Godzilla films attempting to re-interpret the classic characters....it was when the Millennium series began just shoving Mothra into every single film that it became tiresome. Third would be that Legendary's Godzilla feels like more of a Toho film than anything Toho's done in years and years and years. Would re-living the 60s vibe feel overdone when it's been 50 years since we've had that feeling from our kaiju films?
-Predictable and tried-and-true can be good, can even be GREAT. The Marvel movies are predictable inconsequential fluff...and a couple of them are great movies, and all of them are good enough, hell even the two or three that I'd call bad movies are still fun and entertaining. The Apes series thus far has basically remade Conquest and Battle...and are two of my favorite movies of the past five years.

[msweets13]

Well put Jelly. Pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter as well. To be honest, after the Blu-ray comes out I think I will go into hibernation mode as far as this forum and my Godzilla Fandom as a whole is concerned. Of course I'll check in every now and again just like I watched a few Godzilla movies a year for the past four (and a ton leading up to G'14 this past year). But I doubt I could keep a high enthusiasm for 4 straight years.

[Jinzo Ningen]

Yeah, these aren't human characters but rather big ole monsters. To me they really don't require reams of expositionary dialogue. They are giant whatzits that are attacking cities and people. Just grab your goods and run for the hills! In the latter Universal monster films, they covered the various creature characters' background stories with literally a couple lines of exposition and that was it - and it was enough. Characters of this type don't require as much backstory. Now if Godzilla were to show up dressed as GyaosMan then we'd obviously have to slog through the depressing exposition of how King Ghidorah murdered his Godzi's parents and Godzilla felt that a giant bat would scare his oppenents silly and whatnot and so forth.

Big scary monsters have more room to play fast and loose. Dinosaurs don't need explanation for what they are, only how they suddenly appear alongside us humans. Simple.

[Pkmatrix]

[jellydonut25]

I thought this was pretty funny.

[Jorzilla]

I think the concern for too many monsters in one picture is valid. If they want to spend any amount of time explaining their origin, while focusing on a human-centric plot I think you can get a situation where the monster action is given a squeeze again.

Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster worked because of all the monsters:

Godzilla was well known.

Rodan had a entire picture devoted to the monster(s).

Mothra had her own picture AND fought Godzilla previously.

King Ghidorah was the only monster that was straight up new, and had the monster character background fleshed out of the other 3.

Even if you hadn't seen Rodan or Mothra's previous entries, you probably saw Godzilla vs. Mothra at least. Rodan is easy to explain because he's just a giant flying dinosaur. Mothra on the other hand is much more nuanced. The Shobijin, goddess aspect, Infant Island, Larva/Egg/Moth, etc., aspects of Mothra all need to be understood by the audience to fully 'get' her character. GMK got around this by doing *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* references to her character, but came from an assumption that the audience already knew a lot about her character. Whenever I've shown that film to non-fans, I've always felt compelled to explain why these scenes are somehow significant to her character, otherwise they don't make a lot of sense. Similarly Tokyo SOS basically FOCUSED on Mothra as a new character, since Godzilla and Kiryu's relationship was already fleshed out.

I see the same thing in play here. Mothra and King Ghidorah are too 'big' of characters to be thrown into one movie together, immediately. They both deserve to be fleshed out, and I really want to smack people up side the head who say things like "Mothra can be a test tube creation, for all I care!" Ideally I would want to see something like:

Godzilla

Godzilla vs. Mothra

Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster

[Kailem]

Well since Legendary have clarified that they're talking about these monsters appearing in "future installments" and not all in Godzilla 2, I imagine that we will indeed likely see something like what you and a lot of people are suggesting, with Rodan and/or Mothra in the next one and King Ghidorah in the third film, either with or without Rodan and Mothra appearing again to help fight him (preferably with).

[Gojilove]

[lhb412]

I know Mothra's much more likely for a main sequel opponent... but I'd love to see a Godzilla vs. Rodan movie.

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

>_>...I think Mothra could work in a debut film...

[Gojiraknight]

So if Godzilla's still a good guy, what's the conflict in a potential Godzilla vs. Mothra?

The two "team-up" take on a mutual foe...Battra? Something else?

Or Godzilla, representing nature, goes after humanity, forcing Mothra to defend us? Yes, that's essentially just a remake of Mothra vs. Godzilla, but hey, steal from the best!

[Ultra T-Rex]

[Jorzilla]

There will be a justifiable "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" storm if Mothra is an antagonist in a sequel.

[Ultra T-Rex]

Depends on how it's done for me. She wouldn't necessarily have to be portrayed as a bloodthirsty beast, going out of her way to destroy cancer treatment centers and preschools in particular. It'd just be a matter of opposing interests/perspectives. She's caused death and destruction in the past, has she not.

[Gojilove]

[klen7]

[Benjamin Haines]

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

Maybe in the 2nd movie mothra is in larvae form only and cocoons at the end of it while Rodan and Godzilla sort of strike blows with maybe another new monster. O_o

jesus. forget it. i'm not doing this for another 4 years.