No fucking way this didn’t ignite a thousand fursonas. Delirious fun with real money put on screen. So many stunts that today only appear as motion blurred animation. Its shockingly propulsive too, uninterested in atmosphere and giddy to deliver Kong action as often as it can. As a result the human drama is trimmed of all fat, machine gunning plot and finding a queasy symbiosis with the monster love story. Only real misfire is a reliance on “rednecks” as fodder in the last act. Could of used some yuppies getting Konged.

Went to this screening with fingers crossed for the japanese original and it took maybe 30 minutes for my disappointment to subside and come around to laughing along with the audience. It’s true Godzilla’s reputation was tarnished in the west by bastardized localization efforts like this and only now seeing these films I grew up with in their original cuts as an adult has been an education. However, with this film I’d like to amend our kvetching with two notes not repeated nearly as much as the wrestling moves during the showdown or how goofy Kong and big G look. 

Firstly, those newscaster scenes were the highlight of the film second only to the action. The condescending delivery from actors barely containing their smirks interrupting the real movie had the crowd (and me) bursting with their Godzilla phrenology and children’s book as a visual aid. Secondly, you don’t gotta hand it to Toho, but you sure as hell should recognize the incredible racism they preserved for the Kong Island section. Not sure I’ve ever seen as many japanese extras in brownface before. Agonizing to think the cheapskates at Toho likely dropped this for future “native” scenes in Mothra et al because it saved time and money. 

Watched in 35mm at the Million Dollar Theater in downtown LA. I hope the children in attendance had a good time.