TALKBACK #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla

[lhb412]

Another great Godzilla related article from Kalat at TCM's wonderful blog. He starts with King Kong vs. Godzilla being associated with Thanksgiving via annual TV airings in the '70s, goes into the film's place in the franchise, clears up some misconceptions about the following 'Monster Boom,' and then goes into the Rankin/Bass Kong cartoon and KKE... so, a lot of ground covered!

http://moviemorlocks.com/2015/11/28/giv ... e-welcome/

[ebirahsmeg1]

^^
Interesting read. I posted a link to this same article on TK. Hope to see Kalat keep writing more of these (He wrote some nice articles/blogs on Rodan and GvsMonster Zero as well)

[Gman2887]

I love how the comments for this article miss the point completely. The horse blinders on some of these people are quite impressive--As if they only skimmed portions of the article.

[Legion]

Wow, a lot of idiots commenting on that article, huh?

[king_ghidorah]

[Legion]

He wrote this long and well thought out post, and the very first comment is from some asshat slamming the movie.

Twenty years ago you'd rarely see anyone totally rip this movie apart. Now this movie really gets a lot of hate from ignorant fools who don't understand it. But hell, you never saw people trash Mothra vs Godzilla back then either, but I see it all the time now. The hate the original King Ghidorah gets from younger fans is staggering.

[DannyBeane]

[lhb412]

[DannyBeane]

[Rody]

One of those comments suggests fans become "apologetic" when trying to explain this film as a comedy.
Methinks that fellow hasn't seen the original cut. No, it's not a laugh-out-loud American comedy, but it's a pretty sarcastic film if I do say so myself.

[ebirahsmeg1]

[jellydonut25]

KKvG isn't a FAVORITE of mine. It sorta was when I was a kid, and I owned like 7 total Godzilla movies, but it's certainly not a top ten Godzilla flick for me.

That said, there's never EVER been an ounce of me that thinks of it as a bottom-feeder in the series.

Also, the absolute WORST thing that I keep seeing pop up is the complaint that "King Kong is only 20 ft tall." Now, it's funny, because when someone will antagonize me by saying "Kong beat Godzilla" I will retort with "That was the Japanese Kong. The American Kong is only 20 ft tall and got stepped on in the middle of the fight." but this movement to have...I dunno, LOGIC? in these movies is staggering and utterly dumbfounding.

"How can Kong fight Godzilla? Godzilla's 400 ft tall! Kong is only 50!"
"How am I supposed to believe in King Ghidorah? It's not realistic at all! I bet he'll only have one head. That's more realistic."

Those are the two biggest comments/complaints in this logic movement that drive me absolutely BONKERS. You're talking about realism in a movie about a 300+ foot tall dinosaur that defies anything ever found in the fossil record, that can live under water for eons, and breathes fire? Really? You can buy that, with an "explanation" that amounts to "He exists. It's pretty crazy, right?" but if they made Kong 300 feet tall, or brought in an alien with three heads you'd be like "F*** YOU MOVIE! THAT'S NOT REALISTIC ENOUGH!"

It's infuriating. People don't mean 'realistic.' What they want is an explanation, which is even worse, imho. This is why movies are all 2+ hours long when most of them should be about an hour and forty minutes. Everyone wants everything spoon fed to them and everything explained. Use your GD imagination. "How did a giant three-headed gold space dragon come into existence and come to Earth?" Use your imagination, that's how. It's a crazy world where kaiju exist and fight each other essentially for our entertainment, roll with it. Would you watch a WWE wrestling match and say, "How can that guy win after being hit with a weapon?" or would you just roll with it and be like "It's wrestling. It's fake. It's fun."?

[O.Supreme]

[ebirahsmeg1]

I bet if GTTHM, GvsMonsterZero, or DAM were released today, they would each probably be around 2 1/2-3 hours long explaining all of the "back stories" behind each kaiju and human character and leave no stone unturned with nothing left to the imagination...should suit today's simple-minded "new fandom"...

[DannyBeane]

[king_ghidorah]

I just don't understand the new generation of fans (and that's ok to an extent as that's what our predecessors said about us).

KK vs. G is probably my favorite Godzilla movie of all time. The 62 suit is definitely my favorite suit of all time.

[DannyBeane]

[XvGojira]

[DannyBeane]

[lhb412]

... Yuki is actually a great character.

[O.Supreme]

[Gman2887]

Final Wars has more in common with Gamera: Super Monster than either Destroy All Monsters, as it's normally compared to.

My issue isn't so much the younger fans who are in to fantasy fights, powerful monsters, etc. That makes sense--We have to remember the things that got us into these films initially and that was, by broad definition, the monsters. What I find so headache inducing are those who have yet to grow out of that in their mid-20s to 30s. Yes we all still watch these movies for the fun monster battles, but... there is more.

[Garasharp K7]

Well, I'm in my 40s now, and while I can enjoy these films more than on a purely superficial level I'll happily admit that I'm still largely drawn to the sheer spectacle of monsters smashing stuff and fighting each other before anything else.
Even now I still watch various films and TV shows in Japanese without any subtitles, I can still get by with action and atmosphere and crazy monsters. I'll never really grow out of that.

Probably sound like I'm contradicting myself there, but I can appreciate this stuff on more than one level. I still tend to approach it the way I did when I was a young 'un as well. (that said, I try not to over-analyse the films too much. Takes some of the fun out of watching 'em for me)

[tbeasley]

Dr. Arnold Johnson's favorite book...
http://chasmosaurs.blogspot.com/2015/08 ... s-and.html

[O.Supreme]

so often I checked that book out in my childhood at the library...good times.