Tag: Monsterverse

Film

Blog 846: Close, But No Biscuit — Godzilla vs. Kong

Rao Dao Zao

When we first recorded this, it was pretty timely. Godzilla vs. Kong was still in the popular discourse. Except then Chris’ mic turned out to have been broken, so there was only my side of the conversation. Then we tried again, but got distracted about 10 minutes in and ranted about how awful Disney and Marvel are for a few hours instead. Then I think the third time, we got super drunk and ended up appreciating Gerry Anderson’s model shot prowess into the small hours of the morning.

Even on the day we finally managed it, there was chaos on the trains and I barely made it to Glasgow for the session. Then it took about six months to edit because the acoustics were a bit off (and/or I started eating Pringles directly into the microphone). But at last, it is here! Godzilla vs. Kong is extremely full of holes, but every time I watch it I get fired right up, so it truly must be Close… But No Biscuit.

Film

Blog 767: King of the Monsters

Rao Dao Zao

It once felt like my love of Godzilla disappeared along with my childhood, but in truth it merely retreated underground and lay dormant, waiting for the moment it would emerge from the darkness to wreak havoc once more.

With Hollywood taking on the mantle of the Big G over the last few hears, that time has come. Since Toho have still refused to release everything in the UK, I had to turn to crime to work through every single kaiju film Toho ever made.

Why is this relevant? Because Godzilla: King of the Monsters bears a superficial resemblance to Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster, the very first time our favourite world-destroying space dragon appeared on screen, and a film that I never saw as a child. Crucially, in this outing King Ghidorah was only stoppable by the combined forces of Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra — the same four mon-stars appearing in King of the Monsters. As a firm fan of 2014’s Godzilla and its pseudo-prequel Kong: Skull Island, I was mightily intrigued to see how Legendary would approach that classic four-way rumble with the more grounded fiction of their modern franchise.

It was… quite something. I had to see it twice at the cinema before I could make up my mind. Needless to say, there is only one answer to such conflicted thoughts: Chris McPhail and I had to sit down and do a Close, But No Biscuit podcast about it.

Film

Blog 743: Close, But No Biscuit — Universe Building

Rao Dao Zao

I think Kong: Skull Island is one of my favourite films of all time. It’s a big, meaty monster movie with plenty of focus on the monster(s); Kong is not the footnote to a human story, but an integral part of a story that occurs in a natural world. It also strikes the perfect balance of fun with the straight faced delivery required to carry off a giant ape bashing giant dinosaurs in the face.

It also has a post-credits sequel hook, but you don’t need to watch that or the lightly-linked precursor Godzilla (2014) to enjoy it. This is the holy grail of shared-universe films: each one standing on its own, but quietly accentuating the others when taken in wider context. This is world-building done right.