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Magic Hate Ball
May 6, 2007

ha ha ha!
you've already paid for this

K. Waste posted:

The bobble-head gimmick also ties them together, but the imagery of warriors or explorers marching on into a chaotic void is pretty generic adventure/creature-feature material, already. Obviously, it goes back to the persistent re-referencing of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but it's also not that different from the opening of, say, The Land Unknown. (Or Alien/Aliens.)

It always reminds me of the dangerous haboobs in the Iraq War, which obviously represented the obfuscatory, nonsensical violence of the war itself.

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CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

K. Waste posted:

The bobble-head gimmick also ties them together, but the imagery of warriors or explorers marching on into a chaotic void is pretty generic adventure/creature-feature material, already. Obviously, it goes back to the persistent re-referencing of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but it's also not that different from the opening of, say, The Land Unknown. (Or Alien/Aliens.)

Also, Slipco (??) is pretty much the Hudson of the group.

got any sevens
Feb 9, 2013

by Cyrano4747

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

I didn't love it but I got a heck of a lot of enjoyment out of it. Good Ape Film, looking forwards to future sequels. Although I have to say that it felt odd watching a Kong film where he doesnt die at the end even though I was aware that this film was pretty much just setting up the Monsterverse so Kong surviving was pretty much the main reason the film even exists. But even Kong seemed to be a bit nonplussed about the fact that he was just left at the end, standing around growling at the retreating humans like some kind of 100ft tall moping wallflower.

It also felt a bit weird that Kong was rewritten as a protector of humanity similar to some older versions of Godzilla although I guess that makes a lot of sense in this new Monsterverse context.


I was also pleasantly surprised that John C Reilly's character wasn't 100% comedy relief like I'd been expecting from the trailers.

Hiddleston was incredibly flat and his character could have been left out altogether without affecting the movie at all.

Well Kong always had a soft spot :flaccid: for girls so he's never been totally against humans, unless they attack him.

It's interesting that even Brie used a flare against the king skullcrawler, so even the pacifist was converted to the fight, like the end of Full Metal Jacket.

Great movie, basically Predator but with Kong. (Tone, not plot)

What happened to the kid that Hiddleston saved who then turned against Jackson? I don't remember the last scene I saw him in.

Raku
Nov 7, 2012

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Roll Tide
Movie was good and only got really dumb two or three times which is a miracle for how much happened in it.

Also it really pushed the amount of hosed up poo poo you can get away with in a non R rated movie

Karloff
Mar 21, 2013

Raku posted:


Also it really pushed the amount of hosed up poo poo you can get away with in a non R rated movie

Ha ha yeah, it's 12A over in the UK and I couldn't believe the amount of stuff they got away with.

This is worth a watch on the sheer amount of monsters alone; it moves away from the dinosaurian aesthetic of the original and goes more for the insects and the occasional weird oddity (the cow thing), it's kind of like the excised spider-pit sequence writ large. I can see why they moved away from the dinosaurs as Kong's enemy, as Kong versus another Rex might be too similar to what they are planning for later entries in the monster-verse.

The anti-war themes were really well, if sometimes humorously, applied. It doesn't beat you over the head with it but it's certainly there in a way it visually recalls certain war films and narratively deals with the impacts of the characters and the motivations of the soldiers, but it also doesn't let an overbearing solemnity weigh down the fun aspects, in fact it's openly and happily goofy at time in a way that felt almost gleeful.

However, the most interesting characters were all the supporting players, whereas as the seemingly romantic leads were as thinly sketched as they possibly could be. Plus, I felt it suffered some times from CG magic camera, the thing that made Gareth Edwards' Godzilla so effective for me is how he kept his camera often in very human spaces (inside office windows, cockpits) which made his monsters seem more viscerally terrifying, massive and awe inspiring. Vogt-Robert's camera spins madly in the air around Kong and is unbound by any sense of physicality which, while it does make for some great fights and awesome imagery, lacked the same power. There's nothing in this film comparable to the Golden Gate sequence in Godzilla 14.

But it is a lot of fun and very good, and if you like monsters, a must-see.

Sir Kodiak
May 14, 2007


Vintersorg posted:

Jacksons speech during that was pretty drat good. What an amazing loving voice.

The old cliche "read a phone book" applies to him.

Yeah, he really elevates the character.

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


I understand they needed to lose the choppers once they got to the island so I'm glass we got an excessive amount of cool chopper slo mo shots.

Raku
Nov 7, 2012

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Roll Tide

Karloff posted:

However, the most interesting characters were all the supporting players, whereas as the seemingly romantic leads were as thinly sketched as they possibly could be. Plus, I felt it suffered some times from CG magic camera, the thing that made Gareth Edwards' Godzilla so effective for me is how he kept his camera often in very human spaces (inside office windows, cockpits) which made his monsters seem more viscerally terrifying, massive and awe inspiring. Vogt-Robert's camera spins madly in the air around Kong and is unbound by any sense of physicality which, while it does make for some great fights and awesome imagery, lacked the same power. There's nothing in this film comparable to the Golden Gate sequence in Godzilla 14.


Kong also still isn't as big as Godzilla. As Steve Brule said he's not finished growing!

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

got any sevens posted:

Well Kong always had a soft spot :flaccid: for girls so he's never been totally against humans, unless they attack him.

It's interesting that even Brie used a flare against the king skullcrawler, so even the pacifist was converted to the fight, like the end of Full Metal Jacket.

Great movie, basically Predator but with Kong. (Tone, not plot)

What happened to the kid that Hiddleston saved who then turned against Jackson? I don't remember the last scene I saw him in.


Young Hudson ended up on the boat at the end.

Vintersorg
Mar 3, 2004

President of
the Brendan Fraser
Fan Club



"I sometimes don't even know when I'm talking. I wanna kill you right now. Did I say that?"

gently caress, Reilly kills it.

Mantis42
Jul 26, 2010

I was actually mad when Hiddleston took his sword from him.

Mecha Gojira
Jun 23, 2006

Jack Nissan

Vintersorg posted:

"I sometimes don't even know when I'm talking. I wanna kill you right now. Did I say that?"

gently caress, Reilly kills it.

My favorite bit is when he tries to convince the two nerds that the bird sounds coming from the trees were actually giant tree ants. But after seeing the giant bamboo spider crab and log insect, it's hilariously ambiguous whether or not he's loving with them because it's not out of the realm of possibility on this hosed up island.

IMB
Jan 8, 2005
How does an asshole like Bob get such a great kitchen?

Mecha Gojira posted:

My favorite bit is when he tries to convince the two nerds that the bird sounds coming from the trees were actually giant tree ants. But after seeing the giant bamboo spider crab and log insect, it's hilariously ambiguous whether or not he's loving with them because it's not out of the realm of possibility on this hosed up island.

Sounds like a bird. But it's a big fuckin ant.

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


IMB posted:

Sounds like a bird. But it's a big fuckin ant.

Probably my favorite F bomb in a PG-13 movie in a drat long while.

Ponderous Saxon
Jan 5, 2010
Fallen Rib
I was disappointed that there were no ants - the other insects were really nicely done.

Serf
May 5, 2011


Ponderous Saxon posted:

I was disappointed that there were no ants - the other insects were really nicely done.

I really liked the big old stick insect guy who get shot a few times and just walks away. Very chill giant bug.

Also it was weird to see Kong turned into a protector of humanity, especially since they're gonna bring in Mothra and that's more of her gig. And Monarch is definitely run by Mothra in some fashion, right?

Raku
Nov 7, 2012

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Roll Tide
Mothra is an evil blood god not a protector of humanity

Seriously in the first Mothra movie you see them doing some poo poo with blood (briefly) while they worship her and in like every movie she threatens to destroy Japan. Once because they finally find a weapon that can defend them from Godzilla!

Lobok
Jul 13, 2006

Say Watt?

Samuel L. Jackson said "hold on to yer butts"! Subtle reference to Jurassic Park or do they just like to hear him say it?

K. Waste
Feb 27, 2014

MORAL:
To the vector belong the spoils.

Raku posted:

Seriously in the first Mothra movie you see them doing some poo poo with blood (briefly) while they worship her and in like every movie she threatens to destroy Japan. Once because they finally find a weapon that can defend them from Godzilla!

It's just berry juice, it makes them invulnerable to radiation.

Mothra only attacks nations keeping slaves.

MrJacobs
Sep 15, 2008

Serf posted:

I really liked the big old stick insect guy who get shot a few times and just walks away. Very chill giant bug.

Also it was weird to see Kong turned into a protector of humanity, especially since they're gonna bring in Mothra and that's more of her gig. And Monarch is definitely run by Mothra in some fashion, right?

Kong isn't a protector of humanity, he just happens to gently caress up the poo poo that wants to kill humanity because it also wants to kill kong. The Humans built a wall for a reason. Also, Kong only saved the girl because he has a thing for white women.

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm

MrJacobs posted:

Kong isn't a protector of humanity, he just happens to gently caress up the poo poo that wants to kill humanity because it also wants to kill kong. The Humans built a wall for a reason. Also, Kong only saved the girl because he has a thing for white women.
Pretty sure Marlow says the wall is not because of Kong, it's for all the other stuff out there. Kong only attacks things that attack him.

Lobok
Jul 13, 2006

Say Watt?

Kong also has a Batman vendetta against those lizard things. They killed his parents. Good thing he won't be encountering any giant lizards from this point on - he'd probably be really antagonistic towards it!

MrJacobs
Sep 15, 2008

david_a posted:

Pretty sure Marlow says the wall is not because of Kong, it's for all the other stuff out there. Kong only attacks things that attack him.

Thats exactly what I'm saying. He is not the defender of humans that some people think.

Lobok posted:

Kong also has a Batman vendetta against those lizard things. They killed his parents. Good thing he won't be encountering any giant lizards from this point on - he'd probably be really antagonistic towards it!

Those weren't lizards, they were cousins to the sandworms in Beetlejuice.

Snowglobe of Doom
Mar 30, 2012

sucks to be right

MrJacobs posted:

Thats exactly what I'm saying. He is not the defender of humans that some people think.

There's a whole scene where Marlow explains that Kong's family protected the natives from the other kaiju. He doesn't protect all humanity from all threats, he just looks after the humans on his turf as long as they don't "come into his house and pick a fight".

FastestGunAlive
Apr 7, 2010

Dancing palm tree.
I was worried the Vietnam allegories would be hollow but I think they pulled it off. It dragged a bit in the middle but overall I enjoyed it. Great monster fights and although they showcased the island quite nicely I wanted even more humans vs giant bugs and other creatures. I'm also not sure how I feel about how the natives were portrayed.

Wasn't aware that this was a set up for future "monsterverse" movies - what's next? Also, I left after Reilly's credit footage - can someone spoil the other one?

Lobok
Jul 13, 2006

Say Watt?

FastestGunAlive posted:

Wasn't aware that this was a set up for future "monsterverse" movies - what's next? Also, I left after Reilly's credit footage - can someone spoil the other one?

If you already know of the future monsterverse these are barely spoilers but: Hiddleston and Larson are waiting in an interrogation room and saying to anybody who's listening behind the one-way mirror that they won't say anything about the island because they think they're being detained but nobody military shows up. Instead it's the two surviving Monarch scientists, who reveal to Hiddleston and Larson that Kong is not the first monster, not by a long shot. I forget everything they say but ultimately it comes down to a slideshow of various cavepaintings and maybe other various old images/paintings that show silhouettes of Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. I think Rodan must have been there too because immediately before the footage the credits list Rodan as one of the trademarked properties of Toto but I didn't catch it. The one that shows Ghidorah is clearly of it vs. Godzilla.

Magic Hate Ball
May 6, 2007

ha ha ha!
you've already paid for this
If we don't get a Biollante movie i'm gonna be pissed

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


Rodan is definitely on the montage of paintings shown during the post credit bit.

That said, the upcoming kaiju movies will be a complete failure if they don't include the best bros in kaiju films:

Serf
May 5, 2011


Magic Hate Ball posted:

If we don't get a Biollante movie i'm gonna be pissed

Same but for King Caesar.

Fsmhunk
Jul 19, 2012

by Fluffdaddy

Raku posted:

Mothra is an evil blood god not a protector of humanity

Seriously in the first Mothra movie you see them doing some poo poo with blood (briefly) while they worship her and in like every movie she threatens to destroy Japan. Once because they finally find a weapon that can defend them from Godzilla!

Mothra offer to take Kiryu's place and protect Japan from the monsters. It's worth noting that she's only upset because Kiryu is the remains of the original Godzilla that was killed by the oxygen destroyer, and though obviously he doesn't state it outright, I think that movie's Godzilla is enraged by it in a similar fashion.

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


Serf posted:

Same but for King Caesar.

I'm saying this as someone who loves King Caesar: nobody wants King Caesar.

But really, I want all the kaijus and weird poo poo. Give me this on the big screen:





Happy Noodle Boy fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Mar 14, 2017

Gyro Zeppeli
Jul 19, 2012

sure hope no-one throws me off a bridge

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

I'm saying this as someone who loves King Caesar: nobody wants King Caesar.

But really, I want all the kaijus and weird poo poo. Give me this on the big screen:







Not interested until the song is confirmed. Then I will mail the director a blank cheque with instructions to take however much he feels he is owed.

SuperMechagodzilla
Jun 9, 2007

NEWT REBORN

K. Waste posted:

The bobble-head gimmick also ties them together, but the imagery of warriors or explorers marching on into a chaotic void is pretty generic adventure/creature-feature material, already. Obviously, it goes back to the persistent re-referencing of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but it's also not that different from the opening of, say, The Land Unknown. (Or Alien/Aliens.)

I'd narrow things down and call it a Wizard Of Oz reference, akin (but superior to) the 'you're not in Kansas anymore!' cliche in Avatar. The point is less the chaotic storm than the sudden shock of the transition to daylight.

Serf posted:

Also it was weird to see Kong turned into a protector of humanity, especially since they're gonna bring in Mothra and that's more of her gig.

Kong and Mothra have always been thematically linked, in the Toho films, by the red berry juice used by their respective Islanders. The Infant Islanders use it as a treatment and defence against radiation poisoning, while the Faro Islanders use it as a drug to pacify Kong. The Skull Islanders in this film are a sort of ambiguous mix of the two.

SuperMechagodzilla fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Mar 15, 2017

IMB
Jan 8, 2005
How does an asshole like Bob get such a great kitchen?
I had a good time at this movie, came away thinking "hey that worked," got home and realized not one thing from it really stood out. I guess what I did like was the really vibrant use of colors, but other than that it was just "good."

K. Waste
Feb 27, 2014

MORAL:
To the vector belong the spoils.

IMB posted:

I had a good time at this movie, came away thinking "hey that worked," got home and realized not one thing from it really stood out. I guess what I did like was the really vibrant use of colors, but other than that it was just "good."

Here's one thing that stood out: Kong eating a squid in homage to the scene in Oldboy.

SuperMechagodzilla
Jun 9, 2007

NEWT REBORN

K. Waste posted:

Here's one thing that stood out: Kong eating a squid in homage to the scene in Oldboy.

Giant octopus! Also, we're talking about a movie where a collosal Sasquatch spontaneously invents & deploys the flying guillotine.

Cacator
Aug 6, 2005

You're quite good at turning me on.

I'd say this is a solid 6/10 from me. It wasn't horrible by any means but felt surprisingly pedestrian and not as energetic or inventive as the trailers led me to believe. I wasn't too hot on the Godzilla remake either but I think they handled a lot of the mythos behind the character well and maybe Kong just isn't at that level. But it felt sloppily edited for a lot of the movie (fights were decent though), you have these giant monsters sneaking up on people somehow and scenes like Hiddleston finding the dog tags/dude's skull and not telling Jackson about it until they're basically at the same spot where he died and so many characters that added nothing to the movie. Was not expecting John C. Reilly to be the most interesting character considering who else was in the cast, although the end credits scene felt completely unearned.

The end fight would have really benefited from Larson's character being awake the whole time when Kong grabs her.

Cacator fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Mar 15, 2017

Gatts
Jan 2, 2001

Goodnight Moon

Nap Ghost
I wish I could have seen Brie Larson go full Rambo on some monsters though...and rescue Tom Hiddleston.

SomeJazzyRat
Nov 2, 2012

Hmmm...
I thought it was a perfectly cromulent film, one of three very distinct segments each doing something mutually, and very distinctly right. The first segment did a lot of excellent 70's period/military/sleazyness right. Plus, will probably hold the title of best title cards this year. The middle had a lot of hosed up monster shenanigans, which only included Kong in fleeting segments. Namely, the introductory one where Kong was treated as a first in a parade of hosed up creatures, and then momentarily as a mechanic to show off giant squid fuckery. Then the third, which paid off on the giant ape fight in a fun fashion.

All in all, it's a film that aims to be fun and pretty. And it's worst all you can say is that it's a dumb, fun film, which is hardly a great cinematic film. But the best about it you can say is that it only aspires to be dumb fun, not completely unlike Bay or so (but at least it's not morally questionable). So it's a double edged sword of a film, but it's one that works for me as someone who wanted to watch a giant ape punch a thing, and got a decent wilderness survival horror to go with it.

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Megaman's Jockstrap
Jul 16, 2000

What a horrible thread to have a post.

SuperMechagodzilla posted:

Giant octopus! Also, we're talking about a movie where a collosal Sasquatch spontaneously invents & deploys the flying guillotine.

I like what you're trying to do here.

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