Editorials
Clash of the Titans: A ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ MonsterVerse Primer
“One will fall.”
In what’s shaping up to be a battle for the ages between two iconic movie monsters, the poster promises that the brawl between Godzilla and King Kong won’t end in a draw. That’s something that director Adam Wingard reinforced in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, stating, “I do want there to be a winner. The original film was very fun, but you feel a little let down that the movie doesn’t take a definitive stance. People are still debating now who won in that original movie, you know. So, I do want people to walk away from this film feeling like, okay, there is a winner.”
Godzilla vs. Kong is set to release on March 31 in theaters and HBO Max. While we’ll have to wait to discover the outcome of this epic brawl, first we need to look back on the three films in Legendary’s MonsterVerse so far. Whether you need clues for what’s ahead or a general reminder of the events that have transpired- including the secret government agency Monarch’s role in the chaos- consider this your primer.
Godzilla (2014)
Directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), this reboot gave a quick setup to the prehistoric predator in 1954. Cut to 1999, where Monarch scientists Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) investigating the remains of a giant monster in a Philippines’ cavern. Along with the remains are two spores, one of them hatched with a trail that leads into the sea.
Around the same time, the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant experiences catastrophic seismic anomalies that cause a breach in the reactor. It results in many deaths as the reactor is sealed closed, including lead engineer Joe Brody’s (Bryan Cranston) wife.
Fifteen years later, Joe’s son, Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), has grown up and created a family his own, while Joe still desperately searches for answers behind the plant’s downfall. With Ford in tow, Joe sneaks back into the long-condemned Janjira quarantine zone for clues. They’re captured by Monarch’s team and discover that they’re performing tests on a gigantic chrysalis that’s fed off the nuclear reactor since its closure. A giant winged creature, referred to as a MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), emerges and destroys the facility in its escape. That MUTO and a second wingless MUTO that emerges from underground near Las Vegas begin a path of destruction in their quest to feed off of nuclear energy and mate.
Enter Godzilla, who arrives from the sea to defeat the MUTOs before they decimate humanity. San Francisco provides the final battleground. The apex predator takes a significant beating but ultimately proves successful in taking out both the male and female kaiju. Dubbed “King of the Monsters” by the media, Godzilla gets an assist by humans; Ford leads the charge in destroying the MUTO eggs.
Key Takeaways: Godzilla establishes the eponymous monster as a guardian figure that keeps other monsters in line while paying respects to the original 1954 film. Edwards frames this Kaiju story through the lens of a young soldier trying to make his way back home to his family, keeping Godzilla just out of reach until a thrilling finale. Look for Easter eggs throughout, including nods to Mothra as well as the character name Ishiro Serizawa (a mashup of the original film’s director, Ishrio Honda, and that movie’s lead character Dr. Daisuke Serizawa). Perhaps more importantly, Godzilla establishes Project Monarch. This agency acts as the franchise’s throughline, connecting each entry.
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Much like Godzilla, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts‘s Kong: Skull Island opens with a past sequence. In 1944, two opposing fighter pilots of World War II parachuted onto an island and continued their dogfight on land until they were interrupted by a preternaturally massive ape. Cut to 1973, where Monarch senior officer Bill Randa (John Goodman) convinces a government official to give him the funding to assemble a team to investigate the recently discovered Skull Island.
Led by helicopter squadron leader Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), that team flew over Skull Island and immediately got grounded and separated by an angry Kong. The various groups of survivors run afoul of oversized creatures that naturally inhabit the area and a tribe of natives that revere Kong as a god. Through one of the surviving soldiers from the opening, Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly), it’s revealed that Kong is still very young and the last of his species. Kong’s family were destroyed by the “Skull Crawlers,” underground creatures that surfaced after strange seismic activity. Kong, named by Marlow, takes out the small ones as quickly as possible before they grow too large and dangerous.
Thanks to Packard’s vendetta, he tasks his surviving team with detonating bombs to trap and destroy Kong. Instead, it awakens the largest Skull Crawler of all. Kong, the island’s protector, goes toe to toe with the creature and manages to destroy it with some assistance from the humans. The giant watches as the survivors meet their rendezvous point and evacuate. Leads Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) and Weaver (Brie Larson) get detained by Monarch, where they’re informed that Kong is hardly the only monstrous king in the world.
Key Takeaways: Like Godzilla, Skull Island establishes its eponymous beast as a benevolent protector of the Earth or restorer of balance. Marlow comments explicitly on the ape’s still-growing status, laying the groundwork for a more level playing field in Godzilla vs. Kong. Skull Island gives a peek into an earlier Project Monarch era that teases upcoming introductions to Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Set five years after the events of Godzilla, Monarch has been hard at work tracking and studying the MUTOs, now reclassified as Titans. Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) witness the larval birth of Titan Mothra from an underground facility in China. Dr. Russell uses the opportunity to test out her device Orca, which emits frequencies to communicate with the giant monsters. Their calm moment gets interrupted when eco-terrorists, led by former British Army Colonel Alan Jonah (Charles Dance), slaughter Monarch employees and kidnap the Russells.
Monarch scientists Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) team up with Emma’s ex-husband Mark (Kyle Chandler) to track them down, though Mark bears a grudge against Godzilla for the death of his son in San Francisco’s destruction.
Emma has gone rogue, aiding Jonah in his quest to revive monsters King Ghidorah and Rodan. Attempts to stop them by Godzilla and Monarch fail, resulting in the awakening of dormant Titans and destructive battles. With Mothra and Monarch’s aid, Godzilla prevails against King Ghidorah and earns the submission of the remaining Titans as the King of the Monsters. Those Titans help heal the planet, and cave paintings tease a prophetic battle between Godzilla and King Kong. A post-credits scene reveals the possibility of King Ghidorah’s future resurrection.
Key Takeaways: Director Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus) unites some of the most popular Kaiju on screen for a big-budget monster spectacle. It serves as the introduction to favorites Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah, but it also establishes a Titan hierarchy. Earth’s Titans are shown to follow the Apex; they destroy under King Ghidorah’s lead yet restore nature under Godzilla’s resumed leadership. Monarch continues to flesh out the mythology as the audience proxy.
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) – What We Know So Far
Per the synopsis, King Kong will undertake a journey to find his real home. Joining that quest is a mysterious young girl named Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who shares a unique bond with the giant ape. They find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, sparking an epic clash between the giants that’s instigated by unseen forces.
Returning players include Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) and Dr. Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) from Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but expect several new human characters as well. That includes Shun Oguri’s Ren Serizawa, a probable relative of Monarch’s Ishiro Serizawa.
With Mechagodzilla speculated to appear, based on the teaser and a possible leaked toyline, it seems a safe bet to blame humans as a primary instigator in the grudge match between Godzilla and King Kong. While the mechanized Kaiju’s origin changes a bit, Mechagodzilla is often depicted as a human-made weapon meant to defend against Godzilla. Another supporting clue that humanity plays a pivotal role in this battle is an early interview with director Adam Wingard from Birth.Movies.Death, where the filmmaker stated an emphasis on character development in conjunction with the monster mayhem. With the previous films establishing a slew of Titans, from Skull Crawlers to allies like Mothra, it wouldn’t be surprising if at least one or two other Kaijus made an appearance, too.
In 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, it was Kong that emerged victorious. Or at least, emerged at all. The two juggernauts battled underwater, and only Kong surfaced. However, it was speculated that Godzilla could have survived, leading to a decades long debate which Titan won. If we’re going strictly by an even score and recent teasers, it’s entirely possible that Godzilla vs. Kong will give Godzilla the edge. The atomic beast is, after all, the King of the Monsters.
We only have to wait until March 31 to find out!
Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”
A bizarre recurring issue with the Amityville “franchise” is that the films tend to be needlessly complicated. Back in the day, the first sequels moved away from the original film’s religious-themed haunted house storyline in favor of streamlined, easily digestible concepts such as “haunted lamp” or “haunted mirror.”
As the budgets plummeted and indie filmmakers capitalized on the brand’s notoriety, it seems the wrong lessons were learned. Runtimes have ballooned past the 90-minute mark and the narratives are often saggy and unfocused.
Both issues are clearly on display in Amityville Karen (2022), a film that starts off rough, but promising, and ends with a confused whimper.
The promise is embodied by the tinge of self-awareness in Julie Anne Prescott (The Amityville Harvest)’s screenplay, namely the nods to John Waters’ classic 1994 satire, Serial Mom. In that film, Beverly Sutphin (an iconic Kathleen Turner) is a bored, white suburban woman who punished individuals who didn’t adhere to her rigid definition of social norms. What is “Karen” but a contemporary equivalent?
In director/actor Shawn C. Phillips’ film, Karen (Lauren Francesca) is perpetually outraged. In her introductory scenes, she makes derogatory comments about immigrants, calls a female neighbor a whore, and nearly runs over a family blocking her driveway. She’s a broad, albeit familiar persona; in many ways, she’s less of a character than a caricature (the living embodiment of the name/meme).
These early scenes also establish a fairly straightforward plot. Karen is a code enforcement officer with plans to shut down a local winery she has deemed disgusting. They’re preparing for a big wine tasting event, which Karen plans to ruin, but when she steals a bottle of cursed Amityville wine, it activates her murderous rage and goes on a killing spree.
Simple enough, right?
Unfortunately, Amityville Karen spins out of control almost immediately. At nearly every opportunity, Prescott’s screenplay eschews narrative cohesion and simplicity in favour of overly complicated developments and extraneous characters.
Take, for example, the wine tasting event. The film spends an entire day at the winery: first during the day as a band plays, then at a beer tasting (???) that night. Neither of these events are the much touted wine-tasting, however; that is actually a private party happening later at server Troy (James Duval)’s house.
Weirdly though, following Troy’s death, the party’s location is inexplicably moved to Karen’s house for the climax of the film, but the whole event plays like an afterthought and features a litany of characters we have never met before.
This is a recurring issue throughout Amityville Karen, which frequently introduces random characters for a scene or two. Karen is typically absent from these scenes, which makes them feel superfluous and unimportant. When the actress is on screen, the film has an anchor and a narrative drive. The scenes without her, on the other hand, feel bloated and directionless (blame editor Will Collazo Jr., who allows these moments to play out interminably).
Compounding the issue is that the majority of the actors are non-professionals and these scenes play like poorly performed improv. The result is long, dull stretches that features bad actors talking over each other, repeating the same dialogue, and generally doing nothing to advance the narrative or develop the characters.
While Karen is one-note and histrionic throughout the film, at least there’s a game willingness to Francesca’s performance. It feels appropriately campy, though as the film progresses, it becomes less and less clear if Amityville Karen is actually in on the joke.
Like Amityville Cop before it, there are legit moments of self-awareness (the Serial Mom references), but it’s never certain how much of this is intentional. Take, for example, Karen’s glaringly obvious wig: it unconvincingly fails to conceal Francesca’s dark hair in the back, but is that on purpose or is it a technical error?
Ultimately there’s very little to recommend about Amityville Karen. Despite the game performance by its lead and the gentle homages to Serial Mom’s prank call and white shoes after Labor Day jokes, the never-ending improv scenes by non-professional actors, the bloated screenplay, and the jittery direction by Phillips doom the production.
Clocking in at an insufferable 100 minutes, Amityville Karen ranks among the worst of the “franchise,” coming in just above Phillips’ other entry, Amityville Hex.
The Amityville IP Awards go to…
- Favorite Subplot: In the afternoon event, there’s a self-proclaimed “hot boy summer” band consisting of burly, bare-chested men who play instruments that don’t make sound (for real, there’s no audio of their music). There’s also a scheming manager who is skimming money off the top, but that’s not as funny.
- Least Favorite Subplot: For reasons that don’t make any sense, the winery is also hosting a beer tasting which means there are multiple scenes of bartender Alex (Phillips) hoping to bring in women, mistakenly conflating a pint of beer with a “flight,” and goading never before seen characters to chug. One of them describes the beer as such: “It looks like a vampire menstruating in a cup” (it’s a gold-colored IPA for the record, so…no).
- Amityville Connection: The rationale for Karen’s killing spree is attributed to Amityville wine, whose crop was planted on cursed land. This is explained by vino groupie Annie (Jennifer Nangle) to band groupie Bianca (Lilith Stabs). It’s a lot of nonsense, but it is kind of fun when Annie claims to “taste the damnation in every sip.”
- Neverending Story: The film ends with an exhaustive FIVE MINUTE montage of Phillips’ friends posing as reporters in front of terrible green screen discussing the “killer Karen” story. My kingdom for Amityville’s regular reporter Peter Sommers (John R. Walker) to return!
- Best Line 1: Winery owner Dallas (Derek K. Long), describing Karen: “She’s like a walking constipation with a hemorrhoid”
- Best Line 2: Karen, when a half-naked, bleeding woman emerges from her closet: “Is this a dream? This dream is offensive! Stop being naked!”
- Best Line 3: Troy, upset that Karen may cancel the wine tasting at his house: “I sanded that deck for days. You don’t just sand a deck for days and then let someone shit on it!”
- Worst Death: Karen kills a Pool Boy (Dustin Clingan) after pushing his head under water for literally 1 second, then screeches “This is for putting leaves on my plants!”
- Least Clear Death(s): The bodies of a phone salesman and a barista are seen in Karen’s closet and bathroom, though how she killed them are completely unclear
- Best Death: Troy is stabbed in the back of the neck with a bottle opener, which Karen proceeds to crank
- Wannabe Lynch: After drinking the wine, Karen is confronted in her home by Barnaby (Carl Solomon) who makes her sign a crude, hand drawn blood contract and informs her that her belly is “pregnant from the juices of his grapes.” Phillips films Barnaby like a cross between the unhoused man in Mulholland Drive and the Mystery Man in Lost Highway. It’s interesting, even if the character makes absolutely no sense.
- Single Image Summary: At one point, a random man emerges from the shower in a towel and excitedly poops himself. This sequence perfectly encapsulates the experience of watching Amityville Karen.
- Pray for Joe: Many of these folks will be back in Amityville Shark House and Amityville Webcam, so we’re not out of the woods yet…
Next time: let’s hope Christmas comes early with 2022’s Amityville Christmas Vacation. It was the winner of Fangoria’s Best Amityville award, after all!
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