Godzilla vs Kong: LOUDEST MOVIE EVAR!?!

Started by JasonPratt, March 31, 2021, 09:25:50 PM

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JasonPratt

Just got back from seeing GvK2021. Loudest movie I can recall ever hearing, in terms of ongoing noise pressure. Might bring a dB meter next time I come, out of curiosity, see what peaks.

Saw it in a theater; will definitely see it again on the big screen while still possible. No doubt best in IMAX, but none around here... and come to think of it, I'm doubtful it will look best in IMAX due to clearly being composited for widescreen. But since so much of the film is CGI anyway, maybe an IMAX copy would be redesigned from nearly the ground up for element composition.

3D is available, but I haven't seen it that way yet. I suspect it would be migraine inducing. Seriously, next time I go I'm bringing the best ear-plugs I can find, but IMAX would seem like sensory overload and meltdown.

Looks jaw-dropping great. The end, period. We live in a time of marvels, arguably have been since 2001 with the first release of Fellowship of the Ring, and I don't know how much we can even appreciate it anymore.

Sounds great, but music (by JunkieXL of the Hans Zimmer group) is sub-par. At best it sounds like Joel Schumacher's instructions to Eliot Goldenthal for those two Batman films: make the score sound like kids banging action figures together. That's at best. Echoes of the classic Ifukube Godzilla theme (or one of them, there are several) and the Kong 2008 theme. Plus some cute pop song picks. At worst the score is baffling, especially when synthz shoot in at such inappropriate times I wondered if there had been a mixup in cueing during post-production. G19 (aka King of the Monsters), the previous film, was miles better. But it doesn't suck, like G14 (the first film), nor is it totally forgettable like in Kong: Skull Island (the 2nd film and earliest chronologically).

The plot is far simpler than fan theories (unfortunately, and as might be expected), but is serviceable for the movie. The film tips its hand very early about what's really going on; from there, it's a race by the film to spell out what's going to happen before the audience guesses, which the film naturally loses. On the other hand, the film might be a masterclass in pacing and editing for efficiency. Maybe -- the editing can be jarring, too. (e.g., there's a blatant nod to how movies never bother explaining how Kong gets prepared for sea travel.)

If you're hoping for the film to make good on its teases and promises about revealing secrets of the origin of the Titans or anything about the prehistoric human civilizations, you can just get ready for disappointment because there are only more teases and some new (crazy) data but nothing concrete yet (maybe ever).

The film assumes you're hear to see a nuclear dinosaur vs monke meme, and keeps its focus squarely on that. This is primarily a Kong catchup film, despite being a direct sequel to GKotM, and that is not a bad thing.

The marketing has spoiled waaaay too much, but I'd say there are at least twice as many creature shots (or directly related) as revealed in the trailer, and the ones already revealed tend to last longer in the film. While rationally I know this can't be true, my brain feels like I watched a film made of about 80% big sfx.

I could say quite a bit more, but I'll leave more details for others to contribute.

I still like GKotM (G2019) the most of the four so far, but I can easily put this second best in the series, and I can easily understand a lot of fans putting it at the top of the list so far! (K:SI would be a close third for me, G2019 a very distant fourth.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
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Sir Slash

My prediction is they both team-up at the end to fight Lex Luthor.  :bd:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Gusington

I never used to like these Titan movies but the new generation of them are awesome. My younger daughter and I have had a date to watch Godzilla vs. Kong for months and will watch on HBO Max this weekend! I'll bring cotton for my ears.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

W8taminute

Thanks for the review.  Sounds very promising and I plan on seeing it as well.  Just a quick question however.

Is the atmosphere of this movie americanized or is the flavor true to Toho japanese style?  Not everyone will understand what I'm asking but I suspect you know what I mean JP.   :)
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

JasonPratt

No, super-Americanized in flavor. I don't know that I'd call any of the Monsterverse films Toho style, although G14 comes closest.

That said, Toho has had a BUNCH of styles in both the Showa and Millennium eras, plus the ShinG film, and the two (now) recent anime series. Even the more unified Heisei series (from 1984 to around 94) had some notable style variations within its range.

The Toho film this most reminds me of in style is G:Final Wars (the end of the Mil series), with a largely hyperkinetic visual and audio overload (though not as freaky as that film overall).

On another style point, much of the various Toho kaiju products (not all of them) tend to focus on anti-humanism as a theme in the sense that even if humans (typically scientists) manage to solve the kaiju problem, or contribute to it, there's still a sense that we scraped by this time but our luck won't hold out forever. I have a problem with the finale of GvK where one set of humans manages to save the day using a flask of old whiskey, and I couldn't even figure out what happened or why it worked. (It should have either done nothing or everything, but only creates a stunning effect? I think?) The situation should have taken care of itself, with the humans resolving any of their own problems. MOSTLY though GvK falls into that category of humans being along for the ride and, if anything, making the situation worse instead of better.

Relatedly, lots of civilian casualties this time. In that regard, the film has a strong resemblance of Gamera 3 (the finale of the Heisei Gamera trilogy).

So, take the sugar-rush eye-popping of Final Wars, mix with Gamera 3, visualized by a Michael Bay who wants you to be able to see what he's doing more often now, and that's the movie in kaiju terms. But you aren't going to get the usual slice-of-lifes human plots about what it's like, in this or that regard, to live in Japan (or anywhere else) nowadays (or in the near future), which is a common staple of the Toho (and other studio) kaiju series. Nothing like that at all, nor political struggles tacit or explicit (such as with deploying the Home Defense Forces and/or asking America for help), nor any symbolism, analogy, or allegory, to bother mentioning. In that sense, for another comparison, despite being highly artistic in its own way, you could consider GvK to be the absolute antithesis of Patlabor 2.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Destraex

I watched it as the first film I have seen in a theatre for years as a birthday gift to somebody.
The screen I saw was blurry in parts and the sound distorted. I think the theatre I was in must have decided to turn the thing up too loud.
For a monster movie it was as expected. Brainless and full of special effects. Not bad for what it was, but certainly not my usual fair.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

W8taminute

Thanks guys for the feedback.  I'll prep myself for when I go see it.
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

Sir Slash

Public Service Announcement: Your Popcorn Box CAN be used as a sound suppressor if placed upside-down on top of your head, with or without popcorn in it.  :bd:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

JasonPratt

Now that some other people have seen it, let me ask: how sold out were your screens when you bought your tickets? Mine was totally sold out except for the very farthest left and right seats on each row (I took a right seat near the stairs), the handicapped seats, and the useless super-front-row seat for late comers (which I thought about getting on general principle so that I could bask in the ultra bigness of it all, and now I'm glad I didn't because the sound nearly overwhelmed me where I was. On a humorous sidenote, I went to go see the first Harry Potter film on my birthday in 2001, and the screening was so nearly sold out that I was glad to get a front row seat near the center. Most of my recollection of that screening was of watching a bunch of floating candles near the bottom of the screen. Not all at once mind you, I had to turn my head from side to side. I didn't care, it was a fine distraction from some personal misery of mine at the time.)

Despite being almost completely sold out, my final tally once the movie was well-going and new people stopped coming in, was maybe half full but not quite.

Back when Captain Marvel was released, and I went to go see it with my brother (neither of us liked it), the same thing happened, and I later saw people talking about this online in various places, that the same thing had happened to them: nearly empty sold out theaters. The theory was that the studio was buying up seats to make the film look like it was doing well.

My guess is that it's just a relic of people buying reserve tickets for shows and then just not showing up. But it was weird (I don't recall other near-sold-outs being half empty or less) and reminded my of that conspiracy theory from a few years ago, so I thought I would ask around.  ???
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!