"The Future of Monster Movies Looks A Lot Like Its Past " Topic

"The film industry has been churning out creature features for as long as its been around. There's something about a monster tearing through downtown Manhattan that packs people into theaters, transcending decades and generations. The filmgoers of 1933's King Kong got the same pleasure from that movie as the people who caught Pacific Rim on opening weekend, with the only difference being the massive leaps in CGI and special effects. There's a visceral appeal to seeing humanity's pride get toppled by that rare creature above us on the food chain, and in a nutshell, that is what we get out of the genre.

What's perhaps most interesting about all this is the fact that amidst all the growth and change of Hollywood, monster movies have largely remained the same spanning a 50 plus year tradition. The story behind the original King Kong: Humanity's own hubris leads to their downfall at the hands of a monster they can neither control nor understand. Every installment in both the Japanese and American Godzilla films paints a similar picture, as well as just about every modern monster flick we've seen over the last decade.

Nowhere is this most evident than with the plans Warner currently has for the King Kong and Godzilla franchises. We've talked briefly in the past about the plans for the former, but since then, an even more ambitious undertaking has been proposed. Yes, King Kong: Skull Island is still happening, acting as the prequel for our favorite giant ape. Meanwhile Godzilla is getting a sequel, following a successful reboot effort that made over half a billion dollars. All this will culminate in the massive King Kong vs. Godzilla, acting as a sort of Avengers equivalent for movie monsters…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

Kong versus the Robot Kong: that's patently what we all really want to see…

John T

C'mon, filmgoers in 1933 also got to see a massive leap in special effects, they went from near zero to 50 in one movie. As much as I like Pacific Rim, nothing in it was a great leap versus movies released in the last decade.

And I think the article is greatly simplifying the themes in King Kong and the original Godzilla, there's a lot more going on there than just humanity's hubris.

One of the more subtle, and unintentional special effects in King Kong (1933) was the wind rippling through Kong's fur while he was on the ESB. The changes were actually from the finger-imprints in the model's plush coat from the repositioning of the model's limbs between camera snaps. Totally unintentionsl, but marvellous nonetheless.