The first thing people say about "King Kong vs. Godzilla" is that it should be no contest; an indestructible, radiation-breathing dinosaur as big as a skyscraper should have no trouble finishing off an ape the size of a house who can be killed with bullets. The second thing people say about "King Kong vs. Godzilla" is that it's great fun anyway.
One of these common observations is inaccurate.
I recently watched the widescreen, subtitled Japanese cut of the film. It had a lovely print, and I was in good company, and there was a bowl of chips on hand...and that was all fine...and yet, even in such an exquisitely cultivated atmosphere of elitist Godzilla fandom, I still did not enjoy this movie. Big problem number one - it's slow. How can a film be called "wildly entertaining" when it drags like a whale's corpse? Big problem number two - it's supposed to be a satire, but something has apparently been lost in translation. Okay, so advertising executives want to use the battle as a marketing ploy; that's a good idea. But it goes nowhere. That single joke is not enough to sustain an entire film!
The original "Gojira" and "King Kong" are classic monster movies - probably the two best of their kind, in fact - so it's a real shame that they've been taped together so clumsily here. Neither monster is done justice. Godzilla plays a tiny role; it takes him ages to bust out of an iceberg, before he melts some tinkertoy tanks and goes on the least exciting rampage since my mother last cleaned the house in a fit of pique. Worse yet, the Godzilla suit is silly. Why fans praise it, I'll never know - he looks like a stuffed alligator. King Kong fares even worse; his ratty monkey costume is thoroughly risible, and a far cry from the elegant stop motion effects that had animated him DECADES before! Kong's native isle is also badly depicted; it's populated by blacked-up extras (how offensive is that?) who carry on like refugees from a Busby Berkeley musical.
The much-vaunted fight is funny - if you go for that kind of thing - although it could be so much more. The concept that lightning is the source of Kong's power seems absurd, since it has no scientific grounding (what, do all apes love electricity or something?) and no basis in the original "King Kong." The indecisive ending is also something of a disappointing cop-out.
On balance, this is my least favorite Godzilla film, because it eschews the traditional Japanese mysticism and social commentary of the series in favor of imitating (poorly) an American classic. Better entries in the series include the original Gojira (best seen in Japanese), Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (avoid the American DVD, the translation stinks), Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. Mothra (1964), and Terror of Mechagodzilla (also best seen in the original cut, since the Americans heavily edited the ending!).
One of these common observations is inaccurate.
I recently watched the widescreen, subtitled Japanese cut of the film. It had a lovely print, and I was in good company, and there was a bowl of chips on hand...and that was all fine...and yet, even in such an exquisitely cultivated atmosphere of elitist Godzilla fandom, I still did not enjoy this movie. Big problem number one - it's slow. How can a film be called "wildly entertaining" when it drags like a whale's corpse? Big problem number two - it's supposed to be a satire, but something has apparently been lost in translation. Okay, so advertising executives want to use the battle as a marketing ploy; that's a good idea. But it goes nowhere. That single joke is not enough to sustain an entire film!
The original "Gojira" and "King Kong" are classic monster movies - probably the two best of their kind, in fact - so it's a real shame that they've been taped together so clumsily here. Neither monster is done justice. Godzilla plays a tiny role; it takes him ages to bust out of an iceberg, before he melts some tinkertoy tanks and goes on the least exciting rampage since my mother last cleaned the house in a fit of pique. Worse yet, the Godzilla suit is silly. Why fans praise it, I'll never know - he looks like a stuffed alligator. King Kong fares even worse; his ratty monkey costume is thoroughly risible, and a far cry from the elegant stop motion effects that had animated him DECADES before! Kong's native isle is also badly depicted; it's populated by blacked-up extras (how offensive is that?) who carry on like refugees from a Busby Berkeley musical.
The much-vaunted fight is funny - if you go for that kind of thing - although it could be so much more. The concept that lightning is the source of Kong's power seems absurd, since it has no scientific grounding (what, do all apes love electricity or something?) and no basis in the original "King Kong." The indecisive ending is also something of a disappointing cop-out.
On balance, this is my least favorite Godzilla film, because it eschews the traditional Japanese mysticism and social commentary of the series in favor of imitating (poorly) an American classic. Better entries in the series include the original Gojira (best seen in Japanese), Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (avoid the American DVD, the translation stinks), Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. Mothra (1964), and Terror of Mechagodzilla (also best seen in the original cut, since the Americans heavily edited the ending!).