Godzilla vs Kong is Too Big to Fail

1.

What makes a good Hollywood film? A simple question, and one that not many people seem to share opinions on. According to ‘HW’ a good film is one that makes money. And increasingly, that means films we’ve already seen, repackaged and sold to us again, because hey, we saw it the first time.

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So here we are, awaiting the second, or third film (it's the third) in a new ‘cinematic universe’ we hadn’t realized we entered. Godzilla vs Kong is the latest film in what is being called the Monster Universe. The first film in the series was not, Kong: Skull Island, as previously stated, but was Godzilla, which premiered in 2014. I have not seen that film so I cannot say whether it's good or bad, but Kong Skull Island is semi-okay-ish. Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the most recent film in the series is another more so kinda-fine film.

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Are these movies good? No. Are they enjoyable? Sure. Is Hollywood going to turn Godzilla vs King Kong into a franchise that rivals Disney’s Marvel films? Maybe.

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It’s obvious this is what most people want to see. Regardless of, well, anything that makes us think, we’re more than happy to turn our brains off for a few hours to watch some big-old monsters beating the crap from each other.

5.

But what grinds our gears is that, as purists, nothing is sacred anymore. Marin C Cooper, the creator of King Kong envisioned the monster to be somewhere between 40 and 50 feet tall. Now in comparison, Godzilla in the original 1954 film stands roughly 164 feet tall. So a fair fight between the two of them, in their original form, would not be much of a fight at all.

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Even matching up Kong at his tallest height of 104 feet, from the newly made Kong: Skull Island, he still falls a good 60 feet short of the shortest we’ve seen Godzilla. And comparing Kong at his tallest, to Godzilla at his, a whopping 300 meters or 984 feet, Kong would be lost in his shadow.

8.

So to say Hollywood, even for its own standards has twisted the gages on its monsters a bit too much for my liking. Sure it will be cool, but at what cost?

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What’s the deal, is bigger always better? Obviously, both characters have gotten bigger over the years, as have basically all Hollywood budgets according.

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But at this rate of growth, monster movies are unsustainable. How can we allow unmitigated monster growth without stopping to think of the ramifications? In 20 years, Godzilla will be the size of Rhode Island and King Kong, the size of NYC. The whole movie will last five minutes and the fight scenes will just be a close-up shot of Rochester being leveled, and Godzilla throwing Kong across the Atlantic oceans.

11.

So sorry if this is a bummer, or if you hold differing opinions on the scale of monster movies. We're sure it's going to be cool, but like we said, at what cost?

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Because I for one, do love a good monster film, I just worry we're getting a little too far ahead of ourselves here.