Post by abraxas on Oct 13, 2010 21:21:30 GMT -5
King Kong vs. Godzilla (Kingu Kongu Tai Gojira) is a 1962 science fiction film directed by Ishiro Honda with visual effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It was the third installment in the Japanese series of films featuring the monster Godzilla. It was also the first of two Japanese made films featuring the King Kong character and also the first time both King Kong and Godzilla appeared in color and in the same film.
Well lets start this review off by saying that this film has the worse looking King Kong ever put in a film, not only was it an abysmal Kong suit, its one of the worse gorilla costumes in the history of movies.
The story has Godzilla emerging from his icy prison due to an American nuclear submarine colliding with a huge iceberg. Meanwhile a Japanese television station is looking for a new and unique way to help their sagging ratings and second rate science fiction programs. An employee learns of a giant monster that lives on an remote island, soon they leave to capture this creature to use on their program. The natives of the island are a primitive Asian culture, rather then being portrayed as an African-like group, no doubt done for practical reasons.
King Kong drinks a ton of a red berry wine that the natives have used to appease Kong whom they consider to be their god, basically Kong gets drunk and passes out. A raft is constructed and Kong is taken to Japan, the two monsters meet and fight, but Godzilla quickly sends King Kong packing by using his radioactive breath.
As in the original King Kong, this Kong grabs the love interest of one of the main characters and takes her to the top of a building, this one however is a tiny stub of a building which oddly enough looks like the tippy top of the empire state building.
One of the strangest things about this movie is King Kong's new ability to absorb lightning and electricity and turn it into power with which to fight. He even has the ability to make the electricity come of of his hands, which he uses to shock Godzilla, who apparently can now be harmed by electricity, even though the first Godzilla film shows him invulnerable to its effects. In King Kong vs Godzilla this is justified by saying that they only used 300,000 volts in the first film, whereas in this film they use 1 million volts.
Its most controversial aspect is that only King Kong is shown swimming away at the end of the film, the Japanese version suggests that he is still alive, while the US version leaves little doubt that Godzilla was killed by Kong. The reason for this is simply that, at the time King Kong was more popular in Japan then Godzilla was, King Kong had been re-released in Japan in 1954, the same year of the original Godzilla. This sequence was essentially the end of any kind of continuity in the Godzilla series, its also another heavily edited Godzilla film in its American incarnation.
In contrast to the crappy look of King Kong, is the look of Godzilla which is considered to be one of the best looking suits that have been used in the entire series.
3 out of 5 roars (the look of Godzilla saves this film from getting a 2 rating)
Well lets start this review off by saying that this film has the worse looking King Kong ever put in a film, not only was it an abysmal Kong suit, its one of the worse gorilla costumes in the history of movies.
The story has Godzilla emerging from his icy prison due to an American nuclear submarine colliding with a huge iceberg. Meanwhile a Japanese television station is looking for a new and unique way to help their sagging ratings and second rate science fiction programs. An employee learns of a giant monster that lives on an remote island, soon they leave to capture this creature to use on their program. The natives of the island are a primitive Asian culture, rather then being portrayed as an African-like group, no doubt done for practical reasons.
King Kong drinks a ton of a red berry wine that the natives have used to appease Kong whom they consider to be their god, basically Kong gets drunk and passes out. A raft is constructed and Kong is taken to Japan, the two monsters meet and fight, but Godzilla quickly sends King Kong packing by using his radioactive breath.
As in the original King Kong, this Kong grabs the love interest of one of the main characters and takes her to the top of a building, this one however is a tiny stub of a building which oddly enough looks like the tippy top of the empire state building.
One of the strangest things about this movie is King Kong's new ability to absorb lightning and electricity and turn it into power with which to fight. He even has the ability to make the electricity come of of his hands, which he uses to shock Godzilla, who apparently can now be harmed by electricity, even though the first Godzilla film shows him invulnerable to its effects. In King Kong vs Godzilla this is justified by saying that they only used 300,000 volts in the first film, whereas in this film they use 1 million volts.
Its most controversial aspect is that only King Kong is shown swimming away at the end of the film, the Japanese version suggests that he is still alive, while the US version leaves little doubt that Godzilla was killed by Kong. The reason for this is simply that, at the time King Kong was more popular in Japan then Godzilla was, King Kong had been re-released in Japan in 1954, the same year of the original Godzilla. This sequence was essentially the end of any kind of continuity in the Godzilla series, its also another heavily edited Godzilla film in its American incarnation.
In contrast to the crappy look of King Kong, is the look of Godzilla which is considered to be one of the best looking suits that have been used in the entire series.
3 out of 5 roars (the look of Godzilla saves this film from getting a 2 rating)