Battle of the Titans Like Motra, the accents from a serious disaster film and horror were once Kaiju films like Godzilla and Radon, here we have a family blockbuster with a bias in comedy.
It's just such a script and such heroes. In the center of the plot is a confrontation between two pharmacological companies, one of which is in dire need of an advertising brand. And when one scientist discovers rare narcotic berries from a remote island, where according to legend, a huge “demon” lives, a small expedition is equipped there for an advertising stunt.
At the same time, the whole film is devoted to mysterious and natural anomalies - melting glaciers, sprouting a seed three thousand years ago, a person who survived a lightning strike and much more - all this is carried by a key rod through the entire script, explaining certain elements of the film or events taking place on the screen.
So while on a mysterious island, the expedition finds Kong - because of the melting of the ice, Godzilla, imprisoned in the previous film, dreams of revenge on all of Japan and immediately goes to do it. Ironically, the only way for the Japanese to defend themselves is to pit two monsters together, while Kong still manages to beat Godzilla, or even get a double knockout. The monkey is delivered to battle due to a unique new invention of the Japanese - ultra-strong threads - "stronger steel, tenderer silk", which turned out to be perhaps the stupidest moment in the entire film.
It's Kong's costume, which is probably the worst thing in this movie. Even for the sixties, it's just something with something. In the cinema, there were many parodies of the famous giant gorilla, and in most of the costumes there, even in the domestic comedy “Skin”, were better and more powerful, but there is one caveat – they all came out much later, even “The Mighty Gorga” was already in 1969.
Godzilla returned the signature theme, and composer Akira Ifukube wrote for Kong no less cool and memorable melody, as did the monster and his unique roar. And King Kong here receives power from lightning discharges and is generally immune to electricity. But Godzilla has his own abilities, why would Kong be not just a gorilla?
Indeed, Kong is not without reason at the top of the headline. Get Godzilla out of here and nothing changes except the ending. Their first encounter was too short and could have been removed. The picture is dedicated exclusively to a huge gorilla, and Godzilla is needed only so that the monster had a worthy rival.
However, the confrontation between the two titans is done very well. The only drawback is that they are not fighting in the city, so there are not so many different destructions and kaiju action in the film. But here everyone separately manages to walk around a little, for the first time in color after their black and white legendary solo.
The film makes homages to both films at once, repeating for each scene with an electric train, for Kong - the kidnapping of a beautiful girl and climbing a building, for Godzilla - the episode with power plants and much more. Even a life-size model of a monkey paw was made for episodes with the unfortunate lady, by the way, ironically, of course, one of the main characters of the picture became a victim of abduction.
The great Japanese lizard is also made worse than its previous counterparts, but still very tolerant and not bad in comparison with its worst costumes from some of the next films.
As for the fight itself, it is very memetic and not even as absurd as one might suppose. The very scene with the unwinding of the tail, advertised on the posters, does not look like this and is quite short, and the episode with the tree itself is still published on the Internet with individual funny giffs.
The fighting style of monsters is not very developed, but Kong is smarter – he tricks, ambushes, uses improvised items, while Godzilla in his scenes just moves ahead and destroys everything around, thanks to his atomic breathing. Here it is still not the steam, not the smoke, not quite the ray, which has become a famous integral part of the image of this monster.
Masters in special effects slightly blundered with costumes, but completely coped with the action of destruction. Honda even instead of city panoramas often shows urban layouts, so that the alternation of models and real objects reaches its maximum. Everything is in detail down to the smallest elements! Especially magnificent in this regard was the scene with the train - where before the evacuation clearly visible silhouettes of passengers inside, and after they left the car, the model of the train is already completely empty.
Small tanks - shoot, small excavators - dig, all miniature electronic devices flash lamps and headlights, for some time even a human model moves in the paw of the beast, where dolls were usually located (in American paintings, captured people moved thanks to frame-by-frame animation of models).
But the fight between two giant monsters is not all. In the picture there is Udako (Daidako) - a giant octopus! He is the first to attack the natives of the island shortly before the appearance of King Kong, and he is performed not by a man in a suit, but by a real living creature.
There were 4 octopuses in the picture. Legend has it that three were released, one was cooked and eaten for lunch. However, the monster itself subsequently appeared in Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Sande vs. Gaira, and Ultra Q. So I got my piece of fame. And on the screen, he has even more time here, it seems, than Maguma in “The Mountain”.
Some scenes with the octopus are filmed, both with the help of a model and even with a rare stop-motion animation of tentacles for Kaiju films. So in fact, the film is also great in the number of ways to show their monsters: people in costumes, a living creature with a mashup overlaying people and frame-by-frame animation, which even filmed one scene of the battle of King Kong with Godzilla, where Goji’s appearance, by the way, looks better.
The film is also good with its characters. The script gave its heroes just a huge number of bright little nuances, so they all turned out to be unmatchedly bright. Scenes with a coin, with a thread on the balcony, a moment with a steak of different sizes, comic episodes with a detonator and much more make the characters of the film incredibly alive, which plays into the hands of the whole picture.
Akihiko Hirata, Satio Sakai, Kenji Sahara together starred in the first “Godzilla”, but here they play completely different roles. Although Hirata again appears as a professor - this time Shigedzawa, not Serizawa.
“King Kong vs. Godzilla” is an entertaining fantastic blockbuster action movie of the 60s, not too raising the topics of environmental disasters and human military conflicts, does not contain edifying morality about the dangers of radiation and does not scare with its giant monsters. However, allows all Kaiju fans to enjoy this “Sunday bout of two yakozunas” in all its glory!
8 out of 10
Original