I’m really curious- do we know what Japanese audiences’ reception to this one has been?

 

Early Concept art from the kotm art book for some other titans inspired by Gigan, Kumonga, Kamacuras, and Gamera. The Gamera one is definitely not Gamera sense Toho doesn't own the rights to him so it's definitely a homage to him and it's unknown if they are still out there still.

Also Otachi and the Skinmites from Pacific Rim

 

Spoiler

As far I can remember Atlantis is new to the Godzilla franchise. Fire Godzilla could be an homage to Burning Godzilla as seen in Godzilla vs Destoroyah. As Mothra dying, my take is that she did die (sad face) and gave her life essence to Godzilla much like how Fire Rodan did for Godzilla

Spoiler

to give him his Spiral Ray breath attack.

If you want some recommendations on Godzilla films that are more contemporary I would recommend:
Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991)
Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla II (1993)
Godzilla vs Destoroyah (1995)
GMK (2001)
Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (2002)
Godzilla Tokyo SOS (2003)
Shin Godzilla (2016)

Bear in mind that Shin Godzilla can be very talky in parts and a bit heady but otherwise it is a great entry for the franchise.

 

Honestly I'm not in the slightest way worried about the Monsterverse only because at the end of the day the movie will continue to do gangbusters internationally, especially in Asian markets. In addition to that, I believe it will do well in home media purchasing, whether that's digital or physical. I know I'm buying it either way. There doesn't seem to be any major competition going directly up against Godzilla vs. Kong in the month of march, except maybe A Quiet Place 2. I doubt G.I. Joe: Ever Vigilant will be hurting them, if it even gets made.

 

I don't know about that one. The Terminator rip-offs, the "Godzilla protected poor Japanese soldiers from the evil Americans in WWII" and the villains turning out to be time-travelling Americans who's goal is to use King Ghidorah to destroy Japan because in the future Japan is the dominant power have aged... poorly.

 

The place that matters the most Godzilla: King of the Monsters Opens at #1 in Japan

 

I was going to put Battle for the Earth on the list. Mainly because I love Mothra and I really enjoyed the fight with Mothra and Battra vs Godzilla at the end. Also I feel the same way about King Ghidorah and MechaGodzilla. So if they are in the movie chances are I'm going to enjoy the hell outta it.

 

I saw a meme just now using Infinity War.

Eitri: Is it a good Godzilla movie?
Thor: Only if you like more monster battles than human drama.
Eitri: Yes, that’s what a good Godzilla movie means

 

I'm not sure if "more" is entirely truthful. There's certainly a lot more human scenes than monster battle scenes.

 

I was so disappointed by 2014 so I set my expectations low, again my experience is limited to the American movies and Shin (which is one of my fav movies ever), so I probably didn't get any of the references but I enjoyed it. Nothing really wowed me, but I did jump scare a couple of times!

 

Wow, one weekend in, debuting at #1 around the world, and youtubers are already declaring it dead.

 

The first movie did great numbers opening weekend because it had a one two punch of some of the greatest trailers of all time back to back. Seriously, go watch that teaser and that first trailer today and see if you're not sold on the summer blockbuster event to end all other summer blockbuster events.

Then the movie comes out. There's a couple of great, Spielberg esque sequences in there, like Godzilla making landfall in Hawaii (?) the part where the train tracks light up the MUTO and then they start chugging right towards it, etc. There's a nice sense of tension and mystery for a while there. A beautiful, Pixar esque opening that makes us fall in love with Bryan Cranston's character and want to see him succeed in life. But then we key in on Aaron Taylor Johnson and the whole movie hinges on us wanting to see him get back to his wife but we haven't been given a reason to be invested with them like we have with Bryan who is going to die soon anyway. So we spend most of this movie looking at some guy's face and we do not even remotely care what happens with him. Plus the whole tone kind of falls apart in the third act especially once Godzilla is treated like humanity's new hero in the last scene like a Saturday morning cartoon.

But most people and critics aren't all that introspective by nature so instead of explaining those feelings they simplify them into "Not enough monster action!" and some folks at least noting that Bryan Cranston was killed off too early. Word of mouth kills it by weekend #2.

A few years later, we get this;

The biggest thing about trailers is having a clear pitch. Those two Godzilla trailers are saying "What if we took Godzilla deadly seriously and put a lot of money behind it?" Plus what they give you is very teasing and secretive, you HAVE to go see it to see what they really have in store.

The Kong trailer is, comparatively, a huge mess. It's a monster you know but not with really any of the things you might associate with the character just from being a nobody on the street. Also it's kind of a war movie somehow and a period film but it's goofy and whacky and they want you to know it. There's a big water buffalo at one point. To assure you that things are in fact weird there.

So the movie doesn't do great domestically and word of mouth doesn't help it any (the movie is equally unsure what's supposed to hook you in about it).

Cut ahead two more years. Godzilla 2 comes out. The trailer is a bunch of things you don't know. It doesn't have a very clear hook either (that first movie's marketing campaign is kind of a one time per franchise deal). You didn't like the first one very much. You have no clue this is a different production team because you're a mouth breathing idiot who doesn't know what that even means. You have no idea this is somehow related to that Kong thing you barely remember. Your buddy saw it and said it was kind of weird and long.

If you were a GA member, what would compel you to see this movie?

 

To add to what Megasquared said:
SPOILER]Atlantis was going to be part of the Tristar Godzilla movie, basically he was supposed to be a monster created by Atlantis to protect the Earth from Monsters and Aliens, Roland Emmerich hated that as much as Godzilla and changed everything. So it's basically a nod to that.

Mothra is dead and very likely gave her live force to Godzilla to help him survive being supercharged by the nuke. The whole moment referenced a moment from a movie from the 90s.
But don't fret, Mothra's whole deal is that she dies, and then gets reborn, the egg that washes up on Skull Island is likely her new incarnation.
Something that's hinted at with having the twin Monarch members being from Infant Island, and shown to have a special connection to Mothra, like the Mothra priestesses they're obviously meant to be.
So she'll be back and kicking ass.[/SPOILER]

Something I just realized:
SPOILER] Remember the mural in the End credits of Kong? That showed Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan fighting alongside each other against Ghidorah.
Kong is still on Skull Island, in KOTM Rodan was fighting alongside Ghidorah due to his control , remember Rodan actually want and fought Ghidorah first.
Now Mothra is going to hatch on Skull Island and the eco terrorists have a Ghidorah head.
Could it be, that the mural from Kong wasn't referencing KOTM, but Godzilla vs Kong?[/SPOILER]

 

I think the main problem is that they spend way too much money to try and recoup later.

 

It might be true. But I think it’s too early to declare it a flop. I’ll be more interested to see it’s numbers when it’s leaving theaters. It is disappointing that it didn’t do big numbers right out of the gate, but neither did any other movie. It still dethroned Aladdin & still came in at #1. So that’s something.

 

They could do something with the

Spoiler

Atlanteans.

I feel you need some kind of built civilization, otherwise there's nothing to destroy! People will probably hate this idea, and I'm only throwing this out there just for the hell of it ... it occurred to me that Clash of the Titans was also a WB release and a Legendary production. Potential shared universe?

It'd be weird to see Pegasus in the same world with Godzilla, and I can't imagine anyone would want that. I didn't like their Kraken design in the redo, but I've long considered the Kraken scenes in the Harryhausen original to be Kaiju-esque. Might not be the worst addition to their lineup.

 

Am... am I not a member of the general audience?