Jurassic World Dominion Trailer 1 - Full Breakdown

Well this was a pleasant surprise! Everyone was expecting a trailer to release with the Super Bowl this Sunday but Universal decided to do a surprise drop out of nowhere! Check out the trailer and full breakdown below!

Whoa! That was a lot of cool stuff wasn’t it? Well it’s time to over analyze the heck out of that glorious 3 minutes to see what we can find out:

First we get some amazing Cowboys Vs Dinosaurs action. Lets wrangle us some Parasaurolophus! Also I feel the need to mention how amazing the cinematography is. This movie is gonna be gorgeous!

Chris Pratt gets a great dinosaur whisperer moment with one of the Paras.

Our first look Maisie Lockwood who hopefully is feeling a little guilty and responsible for the giant ecological disaster she created. Also, nothing like a wandering Apatosaurus to stop your logging operation.

Introducing Blue’s bouncing baby, Beta! We must protect Beta at all costs!

Loving the amber Universal logo.

A snowy encounter with Owen and Maisie at a cabin. That’s the same vehicle we saw at the end of Fallen Kingdom so I’m gonna guess they built this cabin out here near Blue’s territory.

Hmm I wonder when this scene takes place. Later in the trailer it looks like we see Beta being captured by a net of some sort. Is this movie a rescue mission?

Well there goes the fishing industry. Man the Mosasaur is always impressive.

Rexy’s visit to the drive-in seems to be in the movie after all. In case you didn’t notice her design has been slightly altered in Dominion to match more closely with the animatronic from the original Jurassic Park.

Boots like that can only belong to one man in the JP franchise!

Welcome back Laura Dern and Sam Neil! You both look great! Also it looks like Ellie may be divorced from her husband from JP3. There is a distinct lack of a wedding band.

Spot the JP3 easter egg (bottom left)! Looks like Alan kept the velociraptor resonating chamber.

“You coming or what?” I wonder what they are investigating, maybe it has something to do with the scene we see later in the trailer on the farm?

Nature in harmony. I’d bet this is from the end of the movie when the dinosaurs and our modern fauna have fully integrated with each other.

The first dinosaur we see with feathers is a Therizinosaurus! This scene also leads to my favorite shot of the trailer! Therizinosaurus has a fun history in paleontology, at first it was thought to be a huge carnivore but once more of its remains were found it turned out to be a big Veggiesaurus.

Clean shaven Malcolm enters the trailer giving us our roll credits line, “We not only lack dominion…”

DNA replacement? Not sure what’s going on here but that’s definitely Ellie looking at the screen.

The nefarious Dr Wu has let his hair grow out and he sure doesn’t look happy. The shoulder on the left probably belongs to our returning villain Lewis Dodgson played by Campbell Scott. He runs the rival genetic company Biosyn but you may remember him most from the attempt to steal embryos from the original Jurassic Park with Dennis Nedry.

An Atrociraptor chases Claire across the roof tops of Malta. This sequence almost has a James Bond and/or Mission impossible feel to it. We see more of this sequence later but from Owen’s point of view. The Atrociraptors appear to be our main Raptor threat this movie and rumors are pointing to Biosyn as their creator.

So we have heard multiple times from Universal that this is the end of the current saga of 6 films. If/when the franchise comes back it’s going to look very different.

Welcome to Biosyn Mr Grant. I can’t help but notice that this building is in a deciduous forest and it has long been rumored we would be returning to Isla Sorna in this movie…could it be?

This feathery boy is named Pyroraptor. We also get our first look at our brand new character, Kayla. Rumors point to a surprising reveal of who she actually is but I won’t spoil that for now. This seems to take place after the plane crash we are about to see.

Love the classic throw back to Ellie’s JP look. Are those Locusts? Not sure what is going on here at all. Could we be getting some sort of cloned ancient insect?

“I always come back.” Well that’s a bit ominous. I highly doubt they will kill off Owen but I suppose you never really know.

Another part of the Malta chase, two of the Atrociraptor Squad are chasing Owen through the streets. Ghost is the name of the albino raptor on the right. We also get a brief glimpse of two other Carnivores attacking the city, an adult Allosaurus and a Carnotaur. No idea if the Carno is Diablo from Fallen Kingdom or could this be Toro from Camp Cretaceous making a live action debut.

Pterosaur attack! First off we get our first look at Quetzalcoatlus who easily takes out the engines of the plane our heroes are in. Then we see a Pterodactyl heading straight for Claire! I love that they gave Quetz the down like feathers.

A herd of Naustoceratops attack a jeep convoy at night. Loving the silhouette nature of the cinematography here!

Beta no! Somebody set a trap and the baby got caught in it. Were they trying to catch Beta or was this just a coincidence? The vehicle behind Blue doesn’t appear to be Owen’s car.

On first glimpse I thought this was the Giganotosaurus but on further inspection it actually appears to be Rexy! The skin texture and tooth shape matches a Rex more. Also this is actually a very clever nod to the book version of Lost World! In the novel, Arby gets into a cage very similar to the one we see Maisie in. It does not go well for him and he gets tossed around by some raptors. I wonder if Maisie will share the same fate but with Rexy trying get a snack.

I think these shots are of thee bowls of the Biosyn facility we saw earlier in the trailer. This is also the first shot of our heroes meeting up.

Dilophosaurus is back baby! Love this practical animatronic!

The whole gang is here! This is definitely the money shot of the trailer and for sure will put some people at ease that thought we’d have another Star Wars seuqels situation on our hands.

The new Giganotosaurus shows up just in time for the big finale. Don’t get a good look at its design here but it looks to be pretty close to the one we saw in The Prologue scene.

That’s a wrap for our first trailer! What did you think about it? Did I catch somethings that you didn’t?

Godzilla Vs Kong News Round Up 2/22

A bunch of news dropped this morning so I thought I’d collect all of it for everyone to see!

Chinese Poster!

Very cool Chinese poster has dropped!

IGN FanFest Godzilla Vs Kong Special!

Set Visits and Interviews!

Beware of some potential SPOILERS!

• Collider Godzilla Vs Kong Set Visit

• Collider Godzilla Vs Kong Adam Wingard interview

• Comicbook.com Set Visit

SPOILER REVEALED!!!

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Welcome to Mechagodzilla’s cockpit! Looks like APEX used the remaining Ghidorah skull and possibly even it’s brain as the internal components of Mechagodzilla. Also it looks like Ren Serizawa is the pilot!

The marketing is going all out now and the hype train is going full steam ahead!

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?

Godzilla Vs Kong Viral Marketing Site Found!

Fan Art

This been a wild morning of research and deep diving but thanks to one of our Discord members it looks like a new viral marketing site has been revealed!

UPDATE 1/18/21 - The twitter account has come out as fan made. The website however is still owned by Warner Bros and may still be a viral marketing site for GvK. Original article follows.

CStafford on the Tokyo Lives Discord server noticed some suspicious activity on a seemingly unconnected Twitter account this morning:

A possible hint of GvK marketing coming up: a Twitter account titled "WPKW26 News" just started following pretty much every official Legendary and official Godzilla Twitter account, which is significant because the website for that account (http://www.wpkw26.com/) is owned by WB, and is showing some trademark stuff for 2014. There isn't anything on that website yet, but it could be a part of the GvK marketing push, an ARG that looks like a news website with articles about the Titans and such

After looking into this further the twitter account WPKW26 was set up last June which would line up with a viral marketing strategy for a November release. Also if you search WPKW26 on Youtube you get search results for Godzilla and Kong without there being any direct connection.

The nail in the coffin actually comes from the credits of Godzilla King of the Monsters!

Look at the website on the right side

The fact that the news site has already appeared in the MonsterVerse makes this no longer a coincidence and now an actual fact.

The biggest thing to note about all of this is that the follows of the official Twitter accounts happened very recently which may hint that the viral marketing could be about to kick off! Get excited G-Fans!

Godzilla Vs Kong - Did Legendary Just Tease The Trailer Release Date?

Legendary pictures just updated their Facebook with a new banner image that may give us a tease of when to expect the first trailer for the hotly anticipated Godzilla Vs Kong.

Fans who follow Legendary on Facebook were treated to an interesting surprise when they uploaded this new banner image:

On the Christmas tag on the right side of the image you can clearly see a Godzilla footprint. What is interesting about this is there are no other teases on this image for any other upcoming movies from Legendary. Wonder Woman 84 comes out on Christmas day and that would be the perfect time/place to release the first trailer for GvK. Is this a real tease or just an innocent reference to one of Legendary/Warner Bros.’ biggest upcoming films? Well the plot thickens because shortly after that first image was posted they changed their banner once again:

Okay so the foot print has been replaced with a different symbol which still kind of looks like a footprint. Wait a minute I recognize the footprint from the first picture!

That’s just the teaser footprint from the beginning of the Shin Godzilla marketing! Also the new footprint actually matches the Godzilla King of the Monsters foot design better.

I have a theory, the first image was a mock-up image that wasn’t supposed to be posted. They used the ShinGoji footprint image as a test. They then made one modeled after KotM as the real image and the social media guy must have posted the wrong one. This is really the only thing that makes sense and still leaves us with a potential trailer release window of December 25th.

What do you all think?

Godzilla Singular Point Trailer and Breakdown!

Well that was unexpected! We just got our first look at the new Godzilla anime coming next year! Time to dive in and see what’s in store!

Whoa we are getting way more monsters than we ever could have imagined and they are deep diving into the Goji lore for some of these. I feel a breakdown coming on.

The trailer opens with our new Godzilla charging up that classic blue breath while surrounded by a mysterious red mist. Red colored mist and water show up in the trailer several times and I’m sure that’s going to be extremely important.

First glimpse of our favorite flappy boy and look what he’s trailing behind him.

Here’s our new Rodan! They went with a very Pteranodon look this time around but they kept some very iconic pieces of the Toho design just to make him recognizable enough. I really like the white coloration on his face.

This is the one that took everyone by surprise! Jet Jaguar is here but this time it looks like he might be a pilot-able mech instead of a straight robot. Very clunky looking.

Here we see a tail of a creature attacking a helicopter. Now I have read multiple theories of whose tail this might be but honestly we don’t have enough evidence. I’ll talk more about the tail in a bit.

Another big surprise! I recognize that green warty skin anywhere, Gabara has returned. Wonder if there’s gonna be a baby Goji for him to bully this time around.

The only kaiju in the trailer that doesn’t have some sort of red around him, it’s really good to see Anguirus back! I really love his coloration and how spikey he is. That guy looks to be trying to harpoon him.

Looks like we may have some sort of snake like kaiju in these two shots and the coloration matches that tail we saw earlier. Manda maybe?

So first off it looks like we are getting some sort of ProtoRodan or at least and offshoot of the main Rodan we saw earlier. We also get a shot of a swarm of these creatures and once again that mysterious red mist is involved.

Is that who I think it is? Looks like Titanosaurus is getting a major overhaul and redesign. It is a bit interesting that he seems to have some Godzilla dorsal plates running down his back. Maybe the new canon is they are related?

This shot is interesting because it appears to be some sort of Mecha base or maybe a containment facility. It’s way more advanced than the place Jet Jaguar was.

Finally we end on a quick red mist hidden look at our Godzilla design. Wonder how long they’ll keep him hidden.

And that’s all the interesting footage in the teaser trailer! I’ll leave you with the official synopsis and poster!

When danger comes up from the depths, only young geniuses Mei, Yun, and their team can face the threat in Godzilla Singular Point!

Episode 77 - Godzilla: Rulers of Earth Part 1 NEWS ONLY

Hey there Tokyo Lives listeners! So it turns out we had so much news and so much to say about the comic that we ran super long so for the first time in podcast history we are splitting up the two. The episode will post a little bit later today but for now here’s all the news!

SHOWNOTES

No Time to Die delay (3:18)

James Bond is going to try to kill Godzilla and Kong in November

Godzilla Vs Kong artbook (14:28)

Artbook is on the way!

Toho and Legendary are attending Licensing Expo in May (15:58)

Maybe some GVK stuff?

Jurassic Word: Camp Cretaceous release date (16:48)

Coming in August.

Global Program for GVK (21:30)

Got some more details on some partners for GVK’s marketing

Jurassic World 3 title and possible plot (31:33)

New Era was just a rumor apparently.

Funko Godzilla board game (36:35)

Another board game to add to my collection.

Ultraman official website and new mobile game (38:23)

Ultraman continues to have a bigger impact in the US.

Ultraman Marvel comic (40:35)

A comic is on the way too?!

Toho and Legendary heads at Cinemacon (42:26)

We already knew that the two companies were going to be there on the 31st but now we know there are going to be some higher ups.

Rumble Trailer (43:23)

Wrestling kaiju movie? Yes please.

Project GG trailer (44:46)

Henshin A Go Go Baby!

In the Wake of Giant Monsters (48:42)

Toei is making a movie about giant monster corpse clean up.

Monster Hunter Posters (49:57)

The Monster Hunter movie gets some teaser posters and a trailer is supposed to be on it’s way soon.

Credits

Our music comes from the extremely talented Eclectic Method. We thank him for the permission to use the song "Monsters" throughout the show.

Art is drawn by Matt Frank.

If you’d like advertise with us or sponsor us, please e-mail tokyolivescast@gmail.com. Also check out our Patreon here!

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.

Tokyo Lives Is Going To G-Fest XXVI

In case you missed the announcements in the cast, Rob, Cameron, and myself are all going to be at G-Fest in Chicago starting tomorrow evening!

We will not be having a panel or anything but we would love to say hello to all of you fans who are going to be at G-Fest. So I’m here to announce that there will be 3 ways to find us! First off we will be walking around the convention with Tokyo Lives shirts 90% of the time. Second we will be attending the Kaijucast party on Friday night. Finally we also set up a meet up for you guys!

The meet up will take place in the main lobby of the G-Fest hotel on Saturday from 1-1:30 pm. After words the tentative plan if for us to go get some delicious pizza from GINOs which you all are welcome to join us for.

We will be recording an episode live from the convention and of course we will be taking a ton of pictures that we will post in an article sometime shortly after the con. I hope that we have a chance to meet some of you! See you at G-Fest 2k19!

'Godzilla: King of the Monsters" Final Look Trailer and Breakdown

Well I’m kind of surprised we got one more trailer for this movie since it releases literally a week from today but here we are. Keep in mind that this trailer does contain some footage that some would consider spoiler territory. Consider yourselves warned! If you don’t care about a super minor spoiler that we’ve known about since the toys released and Trailer 2 happened…well then you have come to the right place!

First thing to notice (and most G-fans have already jumped on the hate train) is the song choice of ‘Mama said knock you out’. I may be crazy but I think this is a reference way back to the year of 1996 when Godzilla won the Lifetime Achievement Award from MTV.

Anyway enough about the music let’s breakdown the few new shots we got in this trailer.

First up we have another brief glimpse of the Rodan and Mothra battle. Not sure what that big flash is…

I don’t think this shot is new but this is a really nice moment between Goji and Serizawa.

Looks like adult Mothra has a new ability! Or should I say a carried over ability from her previous form? Mothra used String Shot!

Okay so I accidentally stumbled upon this terrifying shot of Ghidorah chasing after and destroying this vehicle. Jesus the Ghidorah in this movie just might give some people nightmares.

Ok so we’ve definitely seen this shot in a different trailer but we get to see what happens right after this.

Godzilla is a such a good boy in this movie. He protec but he also attac.

Now the next photos are the ones some would consider spoiler territory!

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Be warned!!

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You still here?

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Ok but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

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This is the clearest look we have gotten of our MonsterVerse version of Burning Godzilla (who we have learned is called Fire Godzilla officially). I love that every crease and fold of Goji’s skin is glowing red like lava. Also look at those glowing red eyes!

Looks like Fire Godzilla has lightning jumping between his spines! This is legitimately something that I have always wanted to see on a Godzilla design!

Look at that size difference! Right after this screenshot Mothra actually bitch slaps Rodan with her new claw like appendages. This Mothra can scrap!

Finally we have 100% confirmation that the object falling from the sky is Godzilla. How in the heck will Kong stand a chance against a creature that can survive an orbital drop? I guess we’ll find out next year!

What did you guys all think about the Final Look at Godzilla: King of the Monsters? Have you bought your tickets yet?