Godzilla Vs Kong Trailer 1 and Full Breakdown

The first trailer for Godzilla Vs Kong has been released and it is amazing! Check it out below and I also have done our traditional full breakdown of the trailer looking out for all of the secrets. Don’t worry I’ll give a spoiler warning before talking about the big spoiler.

Wow they sure gave us a lot and also kept a ton of the movie secret. Hopefully this is the only trailer we get so we can keep most of the plot hidden. Well everyone let’s get to it:

First off we have a mountainside exploding outwards and it is sending giant boulders flying into the city. There is a clue showing us what is causing this explosion but I’ll save that for later.

This is the first look we get at the fleet that has captured Kong and is escorting him somewhere. The teaser audio from the YouTube ads hints that they may be trying to use Kong to lure out Godzilla.

This is Eiza Gonzalez’s character Maya Simmons. The trailer seems to be implying that she is a good guy but I think she may end up being our human villain. The way this shot is framed, she does not look very heroic.

Kong taking a nap on his transport ship. Too much berry juice will do that to you.

Very cool dual logos with WB’s being Kong focused and Legendary’s being Godzilla. Also very interesting that the Kong paintings are in the style of Skull Island and Godzilla’s look more ancient.

Kong looks very unhappy as he inspects his bindings.

Alexander Skarsgard plays Nathan Lind and appears to be the protagonist of the movie and looks to have some deep ties to Kong.

Next up we have newcomer Kaylee Hottle as a Skull Island villager who has a special connection to Kong.

Look at my Kong doll!

Looks like there’s gonna be a connection between the kid and Rebecca Hall’s Ilene Andrews.

Kong chained up outside during the rain and the little girl comes out to try to calm him down.

Very sweet and tender moment and also the first shot of the trailer that is wallpaper worthy. The cinematography is beautiful.

The look of fear on all of the characters including Kong is great for setting up the tone.

A king’s arrival is never silent and Godzilla’s entrance into the trailer is definitely loud. Godzilla slices a ship in half with his dorsal plates and doesn’t seem to care. Godzilla seems to be in a bad mood and unlike the previous films in the Monsterverse seems to be taking an antagonistic role.

Missiles do nothing to stop him.

Godzilla takes out one of the jets with his tail. He really is attacking the humans this time.

Kong roars at the water angrily and Godzilla pops out like a crocodile attacking it’s prey. As a note Kong is still chained up here and has not moved onto the aircraft carrier.

Believe it or not this is going to be Godzilla’s first fight in the day in the entire Monsterverse so far. It really shows off how detailed the CG model is and looks amazing. Also we are seeing a return to the Gareth Edwards style from 2014 with a shot looking up at the Titans from the deck of the ship.

Look everyone it’s the banner image! All joking aside this punch has an amazing sense of scale and weight to it!

Kong shoulder checks Godzilla off of the aircraft carrier but that quickly back fires for kong.

Godzilla goes under the carrier and charges up his breath attack.

Kong does his best John McClane impression and jumps off the carrier in the nick of time.

Godzilla swims away from the wrecked fleet.

Here we have Shun Oguri playing Ren Serizawa, the son of Ken Watanabe’s character who sacrificed himself to save Godzilla in King of the Monsters. Behind him is something very interesting but I’ll save that for the spoiler section.

This may end up being one of the most beautiful shots in the entire Monsterverse. Godzilla roars surrounded by the skyline of Hong Kong with it’s neon lights.

Kyle Chandler returns as Mark Russell and is commenting on how weird it is that Godzilla is hurting people. Also the news item on the screen is super important as it mentions Godzilla has destroyed Pensacola, Fl and destroyed the APEX plant there. What’s APEX? Tune into the spoiler section to find out.

Never thought I’d see Legendary Godzilla going full rampage but man oh man does it look great.

Ok there is a lot to unpack in this image but the basics are that Godzilla seems to be going around the world and attacking places with an APEX facility. I think that this is the conspiacy board of Julian Dennison’s character.

I love that Millie Bobby Brown is going to be driving a storm chaser vehicle after the Titans.

Speaking of Julian and Mille, here are their characters Josh Valentine and Madison Russel driving the van. She still seems to be on team Godzilla and suspects something is agitating him that noone knows about. Maybe he’s not really a villain after all.

Brian Tyree Henry plays Bernie Hayes and it seems like he believes Maddison’s story.

Kong surveying Skull Island. I thought this was the Hollow Earth at first but it has a sky.

Kong finds a hand print made by one of his ancestors deep in the Hollow Earth.

The level of detail on Kong in this shot is insane! Also check out the futuristic vehicle in the background! Looks like the H.E.A.V. (Hollow Earth Antigravity Vehicle) from the toys!

Kong raises his battle axe and roars! The axe handle glows red and the blade…well we’ll get there.

Kong fights the Warbats inside the Hollow Earth!

Kong and Godzilla have a stand off at dawn. Could this be after the Hong Kong battle?

Some sort of weird bat Titan down in the Hollow Earth. Maybe they are related to Camazotz?

Kong seems to be standing on a glowing ancient carving of Godzilla while he fights off the bat Titans.

Godzilla gets hammer fisted by Kong and pushed back.

Nathan doesn’t look so good here. He’s also wearing something that looks like a pilot suit.

Kong rushes at Goji with his axe glowing blue like Godzilla’s dorsal plates.

Whoa Kong catches Godzilla’s breath weapon with the axe and smashes it into Godzilla’s face! This is definitely the thing that will give Kong an edge over Godzilla in the final fight.

Who are you rooting for in this fight?

Time for the conversation about Spoilers:

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The opening shot of the trailer shows a mountain exploading but it’s so dusty you really can’t see the cause until this blink and you’ll miss it glimspe of our bigger threat of the film. MechaGodzilla is here folks and it looks like the mechanical Titan does not care about collateral damage.

The second glimpse of Mechagodzilla is actually a bit more obvious. If you look behin Ren Serizawa you can clearly see the blueprints of Mechagodzilla with some text that appears to say “Fury Systems: Maximum Charge.”

Now it’s time to talk about APEX Cybernetics. With a name like that you know that they are behind the construction of Mechagodzilla but what is unknown at this time is their motivations. As we saw in the brief second of actual Mechagodzilla footage, MechaG doesn’t seem to care about human death which leads me to believe APEX wants to destroy the Titans no matter what. Godzilla also seems to be attracted to APEX sites across the globe which is very interesting. I wonder if the Godzilla that is destroying cities is actually MechaG in disguise?

Opinion: Why 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters' Failed To Make An Impact At The Box Office

Hey there fellow G-Fans! Forbes recently put out an article about why King of the Monsters failed at the box office this summer and while some of their points are extremely valid, I feel like they missed some very important factors that could have helped the film. Let’s deep dive into the box office disappointment that was ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ and talk about what legendary should do in the future.

Giant Monster Competition

The aforementioned Forbes article brought up a bunch of good points regarding the 5 year gap between KotM and 2014’s Godzilla, specifically the targeting the influx of other Kaiju films during the time period. Now this is where I agree and disagree with their findings at the same time. They state that KotM couldn’t find success because of there being other giant monster films around to satiate that itch as a general audience goer. While there have been other films since 2014, Godzilla as a brand even in the general population carries a ton of weight (especially when it comes to giant monster films). I don’t think there is a fatigue for giant monster films in Hollywood yet and thus I don’t think the other monster films like Rampage and Meg releasing between 2014 and KotM made much of a difference.

Of course I would be a fool to not discuss the real box office competition for KotM this summer, the massive film juggernaut that is Disney and a few other movies in the same film genre. First of we have the titan that was ‘Avengers: Endgame’. Now the fact that Avengers released a month before hand so you would think that was enough time for it’s box office impact to calm down but unfortunately for KotM it’s box office run hadn’t even come close to finishing. Now sitting at $2.7 billion world wide, there is no denying the money Avengers stole from other movies this summer. To keep with the Disney trend, one of KotM’s biggest rivals in the box office was the release of the live action ‘Aladdin.’ This film released only a week before KotM and while it received mediocre reviews, the film had a decent word of mouth and the nostalgia factor going for it. ‘Aladdin’ ended it’s run with over $1 billion dollars worldwide.

The next two films that ruined the legs of KotM aren’t Disney films but they fall into the same genre (action summer blockbusters) and they sucked all of the wind from KotM’s sails in it’s second and third weekends. Of course I am talking about ‘Dark Phoenix’ and ‘Men in Black: International.’ Now these films didn’t do very well in the box office either and got horrible critic reviews but the impact they had on KotM is bigger than you would originally think. Successful movies usually make a huge lump sum their first weekend and then lose go down a maximum of 50-60% the next weekend due to competition. KotM did not make a huge impact in it’s first weekend (due to some other factors which I will get to) and then dropped a staggering 67% in it’s second weekend when it started competing with ‘Dark Phoenix.’ That is obviously not good at it only got worse the next weekend.

The Solution: Maintain The Original Release

One of the biggest mistakes Legendary made in this regard was the decision to abandon the original release date of March 22, 2019 for a summer tent pole date of May 31, 2019. ‘Kong: Skull Island’ thrived in the box office when it released in March because it had zero competition for two weeks. KotM would have only had to deal with ‘Captain Marvel’ at the beginning of the month and then ‘Dumbo’ at the end (‘Dumbo’ failed at the box office so KotM would have stood a chance). Avengers would have killed it’s standing as King at the end of April but by that time KotM would have had a fairly healthy run (Shazam! may have taken it down to number two but it would have still been there for awhile). The fact is that Godzilla is not big enough in the current cinematic landscape to be treated as a summer blockbuster. Hopefully ‘Godzilla Vs Kong’ won’t make the same mistake.

Reviews and Rotten Tomatoes: Why They Matter

Now for what is obviously a big factor in KotM’s failure, the reviews and more specifically the infamous Rotten tomatoes score. I know some of you out there have convinced yourselves that this score didn’t matter and people don’t pay attention to it or that everyone know that the algorithm is broken. Well as much as I hate to say it, the normal everyday movie goer does use Rotten Tomatoes to decide what film they go see on the weekend. The RT score shows up on various movie ticket buying sites and apps and is still the most quoted review rating in most circles. I will agree that the algorithm is a little broken (several reviews are 7 out of 10 on their respective sites and are counted as rotten) but in long run unless you are really searching for things wrong with it you are probably just going to trust the score at face value.

So now that we know the RT score is not good, it’s time to look at why KotM didn’t click with reviewers. So first we have to weed out the people who hated on the film because they have a preconceived bias or just hate the genre in general. The worst part about these reviews is that they do not look at the film objectively and for what kind of film it was trying to be. This may sound like me just trying to defend the film but I am well aware of it’s flaws and I still do respect the critics who point out those flaws. I am talking about the reviews that said stuff like:

“Budget is not normally the sort of thing you mention in a review, but when you see a film that is almost entirely driven by spectacle and you keep marveling at how slapdash and/or unreal everything looks, you do start to wonder where all the money went.”

“Is the picture any good? Uhhh. It's a Godzilla movie. So I'm going to say, "not really."“

“The whole movie is indistinguishable rubble.”

Of course a lot of these same reviewers are the exact same people who always give the Marvel/Disney films perfect scores even when their flaws are equal to if not worse than anything KotM did but I think you get the idea. One of the weirdest things that a lot of critics focused down on was the switch to being “too much monster action” when they previously said there was “not enough monster action in 2014.” This hilarious switch in opinions has been pointed out by many before but I think it’s really indicative of critics as a whole. Sometimes even they don’t know what they actually want. Sadly KotM is just not the type of film critics will like, as a Godzilla film it is a modern made Showa movie (for better and worse) and I really think an american audience doesn’t know how to process the little bit of cheese inherent in a Showa film.

Of course there is one last giant elephant in the room that I must point out that could have and should have saved this film’s bad reviews. As you saw in the image above there is a massive discrepancy in the critic score and the audience score. Also general word of mouth for the film was pretty universally positive and usually that will make a huge difference. Unfortunately I think the positive buzz for the film was killed off by the competition that I already mentioned above. There is definitely factor that halted any sort of growth for KotM that nobody seems to be talking about.

Merchandise: Where Was It?

This is by far the biggest mistake Legendary and Warner Bros. made with KotM, there was no presence of marketing or merchandise in any American stores. Now some of you might be thinking, why would there be? After all, neither Kong: Skull Island or Godzilla (2014) had that much stuff in stores. That is where you are wrong! During the marketing push of 2014 (sometime around March) store shelves were stocked full of toys, shirts, wallets, tote bags, and more. The merchandise was every where and it really helped general audience members and the families know that Godzilla was coming out soon. The impact on the box office of 2014 is extremely obvious, it opened to $93 million and made double KotM’s domestic box office overall. Believe it or not but kids like to get toys for upcoming movies and seeing Godzilla toys everywhere made them ask their parents if they could go see the film. Never underestimate the power of a film being on store shelves.

I’m sure right now you are all typing in the comment section that toys and shirts did exist for KotM and that I’m crazy but here is the biggest issue. Kong and KotM took the exact same approach to merchandise and that is the problem. Kong is not a small name to be sure but even at the height of Peter Jackson’s Kong there wasn’t a lot of merch for him. It made sense when Legendary decided to get a cheap toy making company to make the toys and of course to relegate them to Walmart only. Also keep in mind Kong was a March release which means that it had less competition so they could rely on just word of mouth and reviews to sell their film.

Godzilla is a different beast altogether and has always relied on some merchandise to help the film (from Japan to America this is the case). KotM had the Walmart exclusive toys just like Kong did but they were only at the front of the toy section for a week or so (also this was in late March early April) before they were sent to the aisles or back of the store. Of course this means that even in the exclusive retailer, Godzilla was not front and center. T-shirts were non-existent in the US, with only one being sold by Hot Topic and even then 90% of stores didn’t carry it and you had to order it. As a point of reference for the shirts issue, JC Penny sold a t-shirt for 2014 and Hot Topic had two or three on shelves at all times. There were zero random accessories like wallets or shot glasses sold in America this time around. Essentially everything that worked with the merchandising push for 2014 they didn’t do for KotM for some reason.

This whole merchandise issue caused the American general audience to lose track of the film’s release date. I can’t tell you how many people I asked about KotM after it had released only to be me with “wait that movie is out already?” There is one final factor that really hurt KotM in the long run and this one might be one of the biggest missteps.

Social Media Hype Was Non-Existent

During the final marketing push for 2014, Legendary partnered up with a bunch of popular YouTube channels to create hype for Godzilla. All of these video’s were extremely silly and cringe worthy for a G-fan but most of these videos have hundreds of thousands of views and furthered the hype of new Godzilla films to the people who matter for a successful box office run. This is just one example of the ineptitude involved wtih the promotion of KotM.

Something that they should have leaned into way more is the history behind the three main titans: Rodan, Mothra, and Ghidorah. When a G-fan hears these names we get hyped just from the history behind these kaiju but general audiences needed some help in that regard that sadly Legendary didn’t do. General audiences maybe recognize Mothra but Ghidorah they only know as that three headed dragon thing and Rodan they don’t know at all. We should have gotten some individual hype videos for each one showing their history and how they are just as important as Godzilla.

While the Monarch Sciences viral marketing site was pretty cool and gave fans some interesting things to talk about even then I think they dropped the ball on several aspects. The biggest thing was there were several super long gaps where the site had no updates and Godzilla was kind of just swimming around doing nothing. Also they show all of the other Titan sites around the globe but then even after the film’s release did nothing with them. They missed a huge opportunity here as they could have given bios for the new Titan’s like Behemoth and Scylla as well as maybe talking about the ones we didn’t see in the film.

Looking To The Future

With ‘Godzilla Vs Kong’ on the horizon and the possibility of the continuation of the MonsterVerse I can only hope that the people in marketing over at Legendary learn from some of the mistakes from KotM and push ‘Godzilla Vs Kong’ as a huge deal. I want to see toys. I want to see wrestling/boxinf style videos where they are building up the two fighters (maybe even have a weigh in). I want that hype from 2014’s marketing push. KotM while not a complete failure was unfortunately not as big of a success as we all wanted it to be. Hopefully ‘Godzilla Vs Kong’ will be the big box office success we need for the MonsterVerse to continue on to a bright Kaiju filled future we should all want to see.

SDCC '17 News Round Up: Godzilla, Kong, and Pacific Rim!

Hello everyone! San Diego Comic-Con 2017 got started yesterday and while we haven't gotten our big Hall H panel which may reveal some Monsterverse goodies (keep an eye on the site on Saturday) we have been given quite a few cool Giant Monster things from the show floor and beyond. This includes several toy/collectible announcements, a "Kong: Skull Island experience", and of course a bunch of Pacific Rim: Uprising details including a short teaser trailer. 

'Pacific Rim: Uprising' Teaser Trailer and Viral Site launched!

It was announced via the director's twitter account a couple days ago that we would not be getting a full trailer for 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' at Comic-Con due to the film not being in a state that it is ready to show off footage but what he didn't say is that we would be getting a lot of new info. First gift we received is a recruitment style video for the Jaeger program that shows off some of the new Jaegers and our first footage of John Boyega as Pentecost's son Jake.

The viral marketing site gojaeger.com was launched alongside the trailer and it includes some intriguing details on all of the new Jaegers. Check each of them out below.

GIPSY AVENGER

Gipsy Avenger honors the heroic legacy of her namesake as the flagship leader of the Mark VI fleet. More than just a Jaeger, she is a symbol of hope to millions.

BRACER PHOENIX

A Mark V brute that can still run with the VI’s, Bracer Phoenix shoots from the chest, with a centrifugal vortex cannon that is as spectacular as it is deadly.

SABER ATHENA

The sleekest and most elegant Jaeger ever created, Saber Athena is the fastest in the fleet, wielding twin blades in hyper-acrobatic combat.

TITAN REDEEMER

Built for brute force and armed with a seismic morningstar, Titan Redeemer is the walking wrecking ball of the new fleet.

GUARDIAN BRAVO

Designed for combat at range, Guardian Bravo wields the Elec-16 Arc Whip: a proto-metallic successor to the chainsword, and brings a new sophistication to the chainsword’s whiplash move.

'Kong: Skull Island' Experience

There is a really interesting walk through experience happening with Kong at the convention as well. Now there aren't many details about this as of yet but it does seem like it is similar to the Godzilla experience back at 2013's Comic-Con (maybe not on the same scale but still). No footage of this exists as of yet but it looks like Legendary has hidden Monarch crates and stuff within the experience and if enough photos get uploaded a "classified" photo will be released to the public. Now this photo could be anything from hints to Godzilla 2 or just some nifty Skull Island goodies but it is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

'Godzilla Vs Kong' Director Talks!

Fan Poster

Adam Wingard, the director of Godzilla Vs Kong, gave a few details about the upcoming film in a couple of recent interviews for Death Note. IGN and Birth Movies Death have the scoops, but here are some notable quotes:

"It's been a pleasure already in the first stages of it, having an excuse to go back and watch 30 Godzilla movies and justifying it to yourself. For me, it's about taking the series to the next level."

When asked about the similarities in the way both the monster films as well as Death Note deal in shades of grey, Wingard continued, "I think they're very similar in a lot of ways. It's easy to demonize Godzilla on one hand, but I have a lot of emotional attachment to both monsters." In regards to the size difference between the two beasts, Wingard added, "They gave us a good out in Kong when they mentioned that Kong is still growing, but that'll be a challenge we have to deal with, and we're very aware of that issue." - IGN

“It’s funny—the day I had my first meeting scheduled with Terry Rossio, the writer on Godzilla vs. Kong, was the day it was announced that Lord and Miller got fired, so that was kind of an eye-opening moment,” Wingard says. “I mean, you hear—especially within the industry—a lot of rumors about directors who have silently been replaced, or the movies have been reshot by other directors because the producers were unhappy with them, and things like that. But firing them was a completely different situation.

“Ultimately, I don’t think it affects me that much,” he continues. “The most important thing when you’re making this type of film is that it’s not about pushing against authority; it’s about everybody getting on the same page. When you’re doing anything that involves a lot of money, it should not be an ‘us vs. them’ kind of thing, and as soon as you start treating it that way, it becomes that way. But as long as you’re open to ideas when they come—and sometimes they’re good and sometimes you have to push back—it’s just about being able to communicate.”

On Death Note, which had many producers and a lot of oversight on it, I felt like I was 100 percent able to make the movie I wanted to make,” he states. “The reason for that was because I was able to communicate with everybody involved, and we were all making the same film, you know? That’s the most important factor.”
 

He also sheds some light on the Godzilla vs. Kong scripting process, which involved a “writers’ room” consisting of Patrick McKay, J.D. Payne, Lindsey Beer, Cat Vasko, T.S. Nowlin, Jack Paglen and J. Michael Straczynski. “Terry ran the writers’ room,” Wingard explains, “so he’s the personification of it, and everything we’re working on is first and foremost based on the outline they created there. We’re going in very great detail through all the characters, the arcs they have, how they relate to one another, and most importantly how they relate to the monsters, and how the monsters relate to them or reflect them. We’re also going beat by beat on the outline, because I have things that I want to add.

“So once again, it’s a discussion, and about feeling out how to make it as strong as possible, so that when Terry goes to write the screenplay, he has a definitive breakdown of what to include. He’s not the type of guy who wants to be handed a bunch of problems to solve, you know? He wants to be able to have a good creative flow based on an outline that works.” - BirthMoviesDeath

New Company Providing Godzilla and Kong Collectibles!

Chronicle collectibles has gotten the license to produce high quality statues of the Monsterverse! This company does really good work but their items are a little pricey. Check out the T-rex and Indominus Rex they are releasing!

Look how cool they look! I expect great things from their Monsterverse line when they reveal them!

This is a crazy time for us giant monster fans and I hope to see a lot more goodies on Saturday during the Warner Bros./Legendary Hall H presentation!