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Fifth MonsterVerse Film (2024)
This is the place to discuss Legendary Pictures' Godzilla film and upcoming sequels, as well as Kong: Skull Island and the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong!! Let everyone know what you think and discuss your thoughts and ideas about the upcoming films!!!!
by lhb412 » Mon Aug 29, 2022 9:16 pm
We don't know what it's called, but we know Adam Wingard will be directing the next MonsterVerse film and it will feature both Kong and Godzilla.
Honestly, the last two films in the series have been, despite some fun bits, minor entries in the series overall... but still, whenever a new Godzilla movie is announced my feeling is always: "hope it's good!" I feel like the assemblage of Godzilla vs. Kong was quite chaotic, with a lot re-shot and otherwise changed during production. I think the best thing that can happen is if Adam Wingard has a steady hand on the overall story and can be consistent with it from production to completion. As for what new monsters Godzilla and Kong will no doubt face? I know everyone will plug in their favorite classic Toho monster, but I'd rather see an entirely unique original creature. The only thing better than an old favorite is a new favorite!
lhb412
Millennium Godzilla
Re: Fifth MonsterVerse Film (2024)
by Benjamin Haines » Mon Aug 29, 2022 11:05 pm
Very exciting! Toho themselves confirmed on their official Godzilla website at the beginning of July that Godzilla will return in this new movie: https://godzilla.com/news/godzilla-vs-kong-sequel-announcement/
Toho Kingdom shared Legendary's August 25 press release about this new movie: https://www.tohokingdom.com/blog/godzilla-vs-kong-sequel-news-roundup/
In addition to newcomers Dan Stevens and Fala Chen, the returning cast from Godzilla vs. Kong includes Kaylee Hottle (Jia), Rebecca Hall (Dr. Ilene Andrews) and Bryan Tyree Henry (Bernie), and apparently no one else.
It also has the same director of photography (Ben Seresin), the same production designer (Tom Hammock), the same editor (Josh Schaeffer) and the same composer (Tom Holkenborg) as Godzilla vs. Kong.
And the official plot synopsis:
"This latest entry follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new cinematic adventure, pitting the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own. The epic new film will delve further into the histories of these Titans, their origins and the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever."
March 15, 2024 is the release date.
EDIT: Fixed the link to Toho's Godzilla website.
Last edited by Benjamin Haines on Sat Sep 03, 2022 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Benjamin Haines
by lhb412 » Mon Aug 29, 2022 11:54 pm
Hmmmm... if the rumors about a new Toho film are true then we might be looking at 2 major feature films for Godzilla's 70th anniversary.
by Benjamin Haines » Wed Aug 31, 2022 7:39 pm
^ That sure would be unprecedented, after their previous deals with Hollywood studios precluded Toho from producing their own Godzilla movies at the same time. If Takashi Yamazaki's new Toho film really is a Godzilla movie, then Toho must have pushed to get rid of that restriction when WB & Legendary re-licensed Godzilla for their next film.
I, too, hope that Wingard returning with GvsK already under his belt will make this new flick less of a simplified patchwork. I think the fact that it won't be forced through any knee-jerk course-correction in response to G:KotM will bode well in that regard. This time they're following up a movie that people generally liked. While I've enjoyed how each MonsterVerse entry has had a different director with a unique style, the return of Wingard and so many key cast & crew makes me think that I'll probably like this new film at least as much as GvsK, which is cool.
The plot synopsis promises a story that "will delve further into the histories of these Titans, their origins and the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond." I'm guessing that means our main cast of heroes will encounter a society of people living deep within the Hollow Earth ready to share their history. It would be cool if they found Jia's family and the rest of the Iwi people from Skull Island down there, having been separated from Jia when they were forced to flee underground to escape the island's endless storm.
by Dai » Fri Sep 02, 2022 6:35 pm
Since the new movie retains the same director, DP and editor, we can probably expect the action to be on point. I can forgive a lot in the plot department if a movie offers up battling kaiju trashing cities in pornographic detail and we can actually see what's going on (ie. why I seem to be one of the few people who likes Pacific Rim Uprising).
Hopefully Tom Holkenborg will step it up a gear for the score this time. He's done some solid scores, but really seemed to be phoning it in for GvK, which was especially disappointing after Bear McCreary's labour of love for KotM.
Heisei Godzilla
by Benjamin Haines » Sat Sep 03, 2022 11:31 am
^ I agree about Godzilla vs. Kong's score. It's serviceable but wholly unremarkable, easily the weakest of the four MonsterVerse scores. When comparing Legendary's Godzilla vs. Kong to Toho's original King Kong vs. Godzilla, I find it's not a contest of which movie is better but an example of two complementary films from two different cultures made nearly 60 years apart with completely different styles, techniques and aesthetics that offer two wildly different takes on the same core premise. However, the music is the one area in which the modern film is just so drastically less effective than the original that it's a shame. I know it's an inevitably lopsided comparison when the original movie had one of Akira Ifukube's most iconic scores but Tom Holkenborg really invited the comparison with his Godzilla theme. The original King Kong vs. Godzilla brought the debut of Ifukube's classic Godzilla theme, which Bear McCreary had just adapted in Legendary's previous flick, only for Godzilla vs. Kong to offer a Godzilla theme that harks back to the classic theme for the first few notes before dissipating into generic and unmemorable background music, which unfortunately describes most of the score.
That reminds me of one broad reservation I do have about this upcoming sequel. As a lifelong fan, I'm obviously psyched about seeing Godzilla and Kong together again onscreen in another new movie, but I can't help but feel that this is going to make the very concept of Godzilla and Kong sharing the screen into something less special, and that it will retroactively make 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong a less special movie. Right now, across nearly 90 years of Kong and nearly 70 years of Godzilla, these two monstrous icons of cinema have only encountered each other in two movies, one in 1962 and the other in 2021. With the films being so different from each other in every way, each of them stands out by encapsulating the filmmaking approaches of its respective era and culture. However, that's only going to be the case for about another year and a half, because soon there are going to be three movies in which Kong and Godzilla share the screen together. One of them will be from 1962 while both of the other two will have been released in short succession from 2021 to 2024. One of them will be a classic Japanese film while both of the other two will be modern Hollywood productions. One of the Kong/Godzilla movies will present the monster action through suitmation, miniatures and many other forms of practical SFX while both of the other two Kong/Godzilla movies will present the monster action entirely through computer-generated VFX. All of the qualities that currently set Legendary's Godzilla vs. Kong apart from the original will soon become qualities that it shares with its sequel. Again, I'm looking forward to this upcoming sequel and I expect to enjoy it but I do think it's going to make Godzilla vs. Kong a less special movie in the long run, and it's also going to make the very concept of bringing Kong and Godzilla together onscreen into something less rare and less unique.
by Dai » Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:17 pm
^ That's definitely a concern. GvK was tentatively the climax of the Monsterverse until unprecedented circumstances led to it dominating the box office by being the only game in town. With the Godzilla licence seemingly renewed, we can probably think of the next movie and the Apple series as the start of Monsterverse Phase 2. While it's early days to be guessing at the scope of the movie, the synopsis does seem to be billing back-story revelation over spectacle, making it sound very much like the intensity is being dialed back down for the start of another multi-movie build-up, and yet Godzilla and Kong are already sharing the screen again for it. I have to wonder if they'll be going full Lethal Weapon buddy kaiju for all future Monsterverse entries.
by Benjamin Haines » Sun Sep 04, 2022 12:41 am
^ The MonsterVerse is an odd duck of a cinematic universe. It all started with a standalone Godzilla reboot which didn't even end with any sequel tease or a post-credits scene, and Legendary & WB had been planning that reboot since late 2009 with an original release target of 2012.
The MonsterVerse isn't really analogous to the Marvel Cinematic Universe or even WB's DC Extended Universe. In terms of production, the first phase of the MonsterVerse was really just all of the years that it took to make that initial Godzilla reboot, and then the second phase was the three-picture plan that Legendary & WB hashed out in 2015 for a Kong reboot, a Godzilla sequel and a Godzilla/Kong mashup. Now they've moved on to a third phase with this new Kong/Godzilla film, the upcoming Godzilla/Monarch/Titans streaming series on AppleTV+ and the upcoming Skull Island anime series on Netflix.
While us fans tend to view every cinematic universe as a whole film franchise unto itself, they're really conglomerate franchises made up of multiple different film series. After Marvel brought together four different film series in The Avengers, they proceeded to make sequels to the Iron Man, Thor and Captain America movies along with more franchise-starters in Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. Conversely, the MonsterVerse consists of just a Godzilla film series and a Kong film series, and it's going straight from the first big Godzilla/Kong crossover film to the second big Godzilla/Kong crossover film. It would be like if Marvel's very next movie after The Avengers had been Avengers: Age of Ultron. It seems unlikely that Legendary & WB will produce another Godzilla movie without Kong after this or even another Kong movie without Godzilla. Streaming service spinoffs aside, they seem to be taking an old-fashioned sequel approach by not treating the MonsterVerse as a cinematic universe and instead just taking it one movie at a time. It's like they really have merged their Godzilla franchise and their Kong franchise into one single shared film series going forward, and it will just be how well this next Godzilla/Kong movie performs that will determine whether they make another one after it.
While the plot synopsis of this next movie does promise some historical backstory revelations, I imagine any flashback scenes of an ancient war between Kong and Godzilla's species would be similar to the mid-film flashback in Alien vs. Predator, just a brief sequence with a character narrating over several trailer-friendly shots of dozens of Kongs and Godzillas battling onscreen at once. I do hope that they go full buddy kaiju in this new movie, with the characters following Kong and Godzilla as they trek around and into the world together. It would be the most ridiculous thing ever but it would tread new ground and it would help set this movie apart from Godzilla vs. Kong.
by lhb412 » Fri Nov 11, 2022 12:06 am
Crew hats and shirts feature the the title "Godzilla and Kong," but it's all but confirmed to just be a placeholder. It does make it sound like a buddy movie or a romantic comedy, which might be a fun change of pace!
by Kailem » Fri Nov 11, 2022 12:33 am
Yeah I'm fully expecting them to actually team up in this one, just like Godzilla did with Rodan and Anguirus at various points in the Showa era.
I wouldn't be surprised if we get something along the lines of Kong encountering some big new monster in the Hollow Earth and having to come up to the surface to enlist Godzilla's help to fight it. Or the reserve where a new monster rises up and fights Godzilla, and he heads down there and teams up with Kong that way.
Regardless, I'm definitely not expecting the two of them to be at odds this time, which could help make this particular pairing of Godzilla and Kong on-screen still feel special even though we literally just saw them together in the last Monsterverse movie. This'll be the first time we've ever (potentially) seen them on the same page together throughout the course of the film, and that could certainly be pretty awesome to see them working as the ultimate giant monster tag-team!
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Kailem
Location: Oxford, England
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