Not that.

The other cock?

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Brace yourselves for a controversial opinion about this critically reviled film - I thought it was perfectly alright! You have a bit of human drama, you have a bit of monsters twatting each other, sometimes you have a bit of both. Unlike the first two films, there is no deceit that this is ‘proper cinema’ - it is just a fairly meaningless popcorn effects movie, but a reasonably entertaining one.

I was kind of shocked to see Thomas Middleditch in this - it really shows how close he was to gaining A-list fame before the sexual misconduct allegations damaged his career. Also, while the depiction of Asian people isn’t as bad as the first two films (“honour” doesn’t make an appearance), the Mexican piss filter does show up. It’s interesting that they don’t seem that interested in having an MCU-style recurring cast for this series and only a couple of minor characters from the original Godzilla make an appearance.

Edit: Oh yeah, I knew I had forgotten something - there is too much people watching stuff on screens instead of having it be directly shown in-camera. It happens enough to start denting the impact of events.

As much as this is reasonably fun, it is verging on quite long and could perhaps have been trimmed down a bit. All the monsters are dark in appearance so it can be a bit difficult to understand what you’re looking at when they make physical contact. I thought every component of this was alright if occasionally flawed but it doesn’t particularly excel at anything, it’s just mildly good. Overall, a reasonably good switch-your-brain-off popcorn movie but absolutely no good if you want to keep your brain in the ‘on’ position. ★★★★☆

I'd watch Gareth Godzilla.

Interested in this. But I think the trailer shows too much maybe.

EvilRedEye wrote:

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Brace yourselves for a controversial opinion about this critically reviled film - I thought it was perfectly alright! You have a bit of human drama, you have a bit of monsters twatting each other, sometimes you have a bit of both. Unlike the first two films, there is no deceit that this is ‘proper cinema’ - it is just a fairly meaningless popcorn effects movie, but a reasonably entertaining one. I was kind of shocked to see Thomas Middleditch in this - it really shows how close he was to gaining A-list fame before the sexual misconduct allegations damaged his career. Also, while the depiction of Asian people isn’t as bad as the first two films (“honour” doesn’t make an appearance), the Mexican piss filter does show up. It’s interesting that they don’t seem that interested in having an MCU-style recurring cast for this series and only a couple of minor characters from the original Godzilla make an appearance. Edit: Oh yeah, I knew I had forgotten something - there is too much people watching stuff on screens instead of having it be directly shown in-camera. It happens enough to start denting the impact of events. As much as this is reasonably fun, it is verging on quite long and could perhaps have been trimmed down a bit. All the monsters are dark in appearance so it can be a bit difficult to understand what you’re looking at when they make physical contact. I thought every component of this was alright if occasionally flawed but it doesn’t particularly excel at anything, it’s just mildly good. Overall, a reasonably good switch-your-brain-off popcorn movie but absolutely no good if you want to keep your brain in the ‘on’ position. ★★★★☆

My opinion on this series is pretty much aligned with yours. I enjoyed what I got.  Godzilla x Kong is a no brainer for me.  If you want proper Godzilla you look East.  Original, Shin and Minus 1  are in a different league.

The book is superb.

Secrets of a Wallaby Boy (2023) - This is an LGBT take on the Confessions… and Carry On comedy film series. Gay everyman Tom Coaster is down on his luck in money, employment and sex, but things promise to turn around when he gets a job with the new AI-driven delivery app Wallaby.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this but it turned out to be worth taking a punt on the bus fare as it turned out to be very funny and good fun to watch with a receptive audience. People you’ve actually heard of Colin Baker (from Doctor Who) and Mark Benson (also… from Doctor Who I guess) were lured into performing in this by the script and made a good decision judging by the final product.

It’s quite homespun but got more laughs than the cinema screening of the slick American Fiction I attended, which must count for something. ★★★★☆

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) - We catch up with Kong in the modern day and things aren’t going so well for him as Monarch are having to hold him in captivity for his own protection against the deteriorating environment of Skull Island and Godzilla. Meanwhile, for some reason Godzilla has gone rogue against an Apex Cybernetics facility. The same Apex Cybernetics is seeking a mysterious energy source in the Hollow Earth, the underground realm the Titans hail from. They manage to persuade the Monarch team overseeing Kong that it would be in everyone’s best interests to transport Kong to an entrance to the Hollow Earth so he can lead them to the energy source. But Godzilla has other ideas…

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, the Titan-level plot is quite interesting and the special effects sequences are really good. Kong is the main character in this and in some respects is played as the scrappy underdog - his disadvantage against Godzilla’s atomic breath is really appropriately handled and it’s not treated as, like, “Wow, aren’t these two popular monsters so evenly matched!”, which would be a bit wank.

On the downside, the human side of the plot is written in an aggressively dumb way and none of the characters have a meaningful plot arc at all. As my previous MonsterVerse reviews will indicate, I don’t have unreasonably high expectations of these movies as dramas but there’s not even a reasonable perfunctory human plot here. I also think with this one, it becomes a bit wonky what kind of tech level humanity is at here - in the previous film specialist organisations have near-future type tech but in this one suddenly they have borderline holodeck tech and far-future sci-fi type propulsion.

Overall, still good popcorn fun (I would happily go back in time to watch this in IMAX) but the writing is just needlessly resting on its laurels and weakening the film when it could have easily been a perfectly cromulent support for the monster action. ★★★☆☆

The boat fight is great though.

I watched The Fellowship of the Ring Extended edition last night and it's a pretty special film. I used to be slightly book snobbish about it but it's as good as an attempt as you could ask for imo.

It's the greatest trilogy ever.
Truly truly special

Damn, forum actually in agreement. Where's DS.

hylian_elf wrote:

Aye, I think the whole (extended) trilogy is magnificent.

Yes

Wookienopants wrote:

It's the greatest trilogy ever.
Truly truly special

Yes

regmcfly wrote:

Impeccable films

Yes

mannaboy wrote:

So good are those LOTR films, even the terrible Hobbit trilogy doesn’t lessen them.

It doesn’t but boy those Hobbit films!

Wookienopants wrote:

The LOTR trilogy is my happy place. It's my comfort food. It's where I go when I am in a bad mental place.
Ive seen each film hundreds of times and just adore the books.

I want to be a hobbit more than anything.

But you’ve never mentioned this?! I feel cheated. You have cheated on us with The Lord of the Rings.