Movie Review: Godzilla VS. Kong

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

What we all want from a movie that pits Godzilla and King Kong against each other is for it to be a lot of fun. Luckily that is just what this film is. 

This movie perfectly shows how you do big budget CGI spectacles right. This is certainly true of my friend King Kong. Kong has always been my favorite of giant movie creatures (the 1933 original has a special place in my heart). The reason for this is despite him being an ape, he was always the most human to me. He is massive and threatening while at the same time sympathetic and tragic. This has always been captured best by the way he was animated. He has never been a corny special effect, but a real breathing creature. Though he has gone from stop motion to CGI, this still remains true of him. The animation of him here is simply fantastic capturing all the emotions going through his head and making us forget he is animated. His relationship with a small girl (played by the scene stealing Kaylee Hottle) here adds a heart to the film that just reminds us why we love him so much. Godzilla is a very different character here. He is presented as simply a powerful force that shows up to destroy things and fight King Kong. Unlike Kong he doesn't appear out of an action scene and though he has his reasons for what he does, he never gets to act like Kong does. Still for what he is given to do, Godzilla does it very well here. The climatic battle is fricken awesome and if I was grading that alone this movie would have gotten an even higher grade. This fight is all that movie fans could ever hope it could be. Again this is CGI spectacle done right and we never stop to think about how these characters are actually CGI. At this point you don't take your eyes off the screen and you have a real blast. 

Unfortunately there is also a side-plot involving two teenagers and a podcaster investigating why Godzilla is all the sudden attacking. These scenes are simply put, not very good. The characters are boring, the humor isn't funny and the suspense is nonexistent. Whenever these scenes come up you simply groan and want the movie to go back to what it was doing elsewhere. Luckily they aren't as distracting as they could be, but that doesn't change that these scenes are poorly done. This film also tells us that King Kong and Godzilla have an "ancient rivalry," but neglects to tell us why. The story can a bit predictable as well.

Though this movie is available on both streaming and in theaters, if you are comfortable with going to the movies, certainly do so. I saw this in a theater and it was obvious that this film was meant for the cinematic experience and while it will be enjoyable at home, you certainly will be missing out by not by doing so.          

If Godzilla and King Kong fighting sounds like something you will enjoy, you will definitely like this movie. I certainly did. 

King Kong (1933)

Though this movie has been remade and imitated, nothing has ever and nothing will ever stand up to this masterpiece. Few films define the term movie magic like King Kong.

The story is the stuff of legends. A filmmaker (Robert Armstrong) is famous for making jungle pictures that are high on action but low on romance. Still noting that the public seems to want romance, he decides for the first time, he will make a movie with a woman in it. When he meets the beautiful Ann (Fay Wray), he knows that this woman should be the star of his next picture. So she joins the cast and crew on a perilous trip. No one but the director seems to know where they are heading, but knowing his reputation all of them except it to be dangerous. The place turns out to be more dangerous than any of them could have ever excepted. It is an island that was only believed to be a myth called Skull Island, which is ruled by a monstrous ape named Kong. The natives are holding a ceremony where they sacrifice a woman to the massive creature, and when they see Ann, they want her to be that sacrifice, so they kidnap her and chain her up for Kong. When Kong lays eyes upon Ann, he has a bit of a crush on her. Though Ann manages to barely escape with her life, the director decides that he wants to capture Kong for himself, so he can make a fortune. This proves not to be a good idea.

One thing that makes this movie stand apart from many similar films (especially Peter Jackson's remake) is the perfect use of pacing. This movie does not start off at a fast pace, but rather takes its time to introduce us to the characters and world. We get to know and care about each person making this journey and what brought them to this place. Yet this beginning never feels slow or uninteresting. Much of this is due to how cleverly written and involving the dialogue is. This is the kind of smart fast paced dialogue that simply does not exist in many movies today and is a huge part of why these old films still have major fan bases. When we get to Skull Island, the pace does not pick up immediately, but the atmosphere and the story telling completely change. There is a mystery and suspense to this island that completely captivates us. This is pure edge of your seat entertainment. Though we don't yet see Kong every moment is leading up to his reveal (another great thing about this movie is that there is never a wasted moment), and with each moment the suspense grows until he appears. Once we see Kong the pace picks up immediately. The movie then moves at a breakneck speed never letting up on the action and excitement audiences want when they watch a monster movie. Everything is perfectly set up and the film has you right where it wants to when the big reveal happens, with such there is nothing left for the movie to do but lead you on the thrill ride of your life and it does. This is simply filmmaking at its finest.

What makes the character of Kong stick in our minds is that he is not merely a prop or something to be afraid of. He is instead a living and breathing creature and it is hard to buy for even a second that this character is not real. He is to us. Much this comes from the masterful stop motion animation done by Willis O'Brien (who had previously created the incredible special effects for The Lost World (1925)) and his crew. This is character animation at its best. The character emotes perfectly with no need for the dialogue that his human costars are given. The emotions are all not only on his face but in the way he moves. Just like any living creature this is shown in both broad and subtle ways. While the Peter Jackson remake would have Kong looking more realistic due to more technically advanced special effects, Kong feels more real in this movie, because the visual acting here is left unmatched. It is interesting to note that this film's director originally thought the movie could be done using real apes and trick photography to make them look giant. However when he saw O'Brien's test footage and models for an abandoned film called Creation, he decided that this stop motion animation would be the perfect way to make the movie work. We can all be thankful it happened this way.

A visually stunning movie like this needs a very impressive musical score. Luckily providing the score here was the one and only Max Steiner, who provides some of his finest work here. If you want to see how important this score is try watching some of the action scenes without sound and you will be surprised by how much is lost.

Watching this movie again I was amazed at just how much of a pre-code film this is. The violence of Kong killing many natives is startling and disturbing to this day. Even more shocking is a scene where Kong actually breaks a dinosaur's jaw and blood comes out. Though gore-wise these scenes are very tame compared to what comes out today, they have lost little of their unsettling effect. These scenes were cut for later showings, but luckily today we can watch them as intended.

This film was a project of passion for director, producer and writer Merian C. Cooper. When making the movie, The Four Feathers (1929), Cooper had done some shooting in Africa. This trip left him fascinated with gorillas and he soon wanted to make a movie about one. Cooper and his codirector Ernest B. Schoedsack can see in the plane (spoilers) that shoots Kong off the Empire State Building at the end.

Due to this film Fay Wray has become known as the "scream queen of the movies." This title is apt as she has perhaps the finest scream in movie history. However what is often overlooked is that there was more to her than a scream and a beautiful body. She was a talented actress and no one else could have played the role of Ann better. When Cooper offered the part to Fay, he told her "You'll have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood." This lead Fay to automatically think of Cary Grant. At the time this movie began production she was already working with Cooper and co-stars Robert Armstrong and Noble Johnson on a great and often overlooked movie called The Most Dangerous Game (1932). It was also planned for Fay's costar in The Most Dangerous Game Joel McCrea to play the love interest in King Kong, but his agent asked for too much money and the role instead went to Bruce Cabot, who had mostly been playing bit parts up to that time.

The film was a sensation when released. The following advertisement from Variety puts this movie's success into historical context.




A 1933 issue of Movie Classic magazine gave an article describing how this film was made. If you have any trouble reading click on one of the pages and use your touch screen to zoom in. (Note: This seems to be working for all the pages except for the first one. Until I figure out a solution feel free to read the other pages, they are very fascinating on their own.)

Also I love the below advertisement from Photoplay magazine.



In 1945 King Kong was rereleased on a double bill with its sequel Son of Kong (1933). The below page of The Motion Picture Herald showed how one theatre advertised this.


  

When King Kong returned to theatres in 1938, one theatre had a particularly great way of advertising this event. Again if you can't read the writing, click on the page and use your touch screen to zoom in.



-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2690/King-Kong/articles.htmlThe Essentials: 52 Must See Movies and Why They Matter by Jeremy Arnold