The Ringer-Verse - 'Godzilla vs. Kong' Instant Reactions

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

Van Lathan is joined by Miles Surrey and Lex Pryor of The Ringer to give their instant reactions to the blockbuster beat-'em-up 'Godzilla vs. Kong.' *SPOILER WARNING*: They discuss who was declared the winner, how the humans fared, where they would like to see the series go from here, and more. Host: Van Lathan Guests: Mies Surrey and Lex Pryor Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

into the ringerverse. This is the instant reaction show for Godzilla versus Kong. I don't know why Kong had to get second billing. I'm going to be honest with me. Kong got the short end of stick a lot in this film. Be real with you. Might as well get started right now.

They did my dog Kong dirty. I am Van Lathen of Higher Learning with Van Lathen and Rachel Lindsay. I am joined by Miles Surrey and Lex Pryor of the Ringer. We are giving you instant knee-jerk reactions over-impulsive emotions regarding this huge matchup between Titans in the Monsterverse. Now, remember, Fridays here on the Ringerverse,

we do the instant reaction show to Falcon and Aware a Soldier. That's hosted by the Midnight Boys. Charles Holmes of the Ringer Music Show and myself. But then Tuesday, Mallory does a deep dive. She gives deep dive, fan mailback questions, all of that stuff. So make sure you tune in to everything we're doing and follow us on all of our socials at Ringiverse. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms,

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See terms at fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash herms. But it's not about faculty to win a soldier today. It's about Godzilla versus Cone and everything that was happening with this movie. Now before we get into this, I don't want to tell people right now.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, spoilers are coming. Don't tweet me about spoilers. I get on here and I tell you guys, spoilers are coming and you still go, Van, I haven't watched it yet. It's no excuse. The world isn't open back up yet,

so you shouldn't be doing anything but in your house watching this stuff so you can react to it with us. Okay, I want to get into the podcast, but I have to say something. We have this new thing that we do called the 30 second reaction guys where I do a 30 second recap.

I'm not going to try it. Steven, TD, I'm sorry. I'm not going to try it for this movie. It was just entirely too much going on. I try. Look, I wrote a whole page. I wrote a whole page and stuff. Like, I tried.

At one point, Kong grabbed Stormbreaker or Mystical Axe, and it's just too much going on. Too much going on. So listen, I'll tell you right now, if either Miles or Lex wants to give a shot, at a 36, I'm punting. I'm punting.

Do any of you, either one of you guys, want to take a shot at a 30-second recap of Godzilla versus Kong? Either one of you or both of you. I mean, I could try. Start the clock, Stephen. No, hell, no, no, go. Okay, so, Ping Kong, he's very lonely. Skull Island sort of became a shit show ever since King of the Monsters.

So he's lonely. He's looking for a home. Godzilla's getting annoyed at a tech company that's up to some shady shit. And when Kong has to go to an entrance to the center of the earth, which has an entirely new ecosystem. like a planet within a planet basically. Godzilla shows up at the aircraft carrier that Godzilla's that King Kong's on says, we have beef you need to...

Done, Lex! Go for it! Right, so basically I'm gonna just go with large themes here, all right? King Kong is lonely, as Miles said. All right, Godzilla is kind of a sociopath. He's very angry throughout the entirety of the movie, right? They kind of meet up. They meet up on the water. It's a little bit anticlimactic.

Godzilla can swim, King Kong camp. Okay? Then we get to the midway point. We find out there's a robot. The robot may or may not be the brain of Gidora. Not entirely sure about that. There's also a person from the robot. Okay.

Listen, the 30-second recaps are tough. Listen, I'm going to be honest with you. I can't do a 30-second recap for a Falcon, No one of a soldier. I have yet to nail one. Friday, I'm telling you, I'm going to nail it. I'm a nail it on Friday, but it's hard. Doing a 30 second recap for this movie, it's trying to do a 30 second recap for like a day at Disney World. This is an amusement park of a movie. This is a theme park of a movie. They don't have scenes. They're more like attractions in this film. Okay, both of you guys, start with Miles, then the legs. Give me your instant reactions to Godzilla versus Kong. Miles, what's up?

I mean, for better or worse, the movie is exactly as advertised. Godzilla and King Kong went at it for like about an hour and 45 minutes. I think also, you know, compared to the other three entries in the monsterverse, I think it's very satisfying in terms of the action. You know, it's very streamlined, easy to follow. I think in some of the other films, you know, there was like, it was either obscured from like rain or darkness or it was taken from like the perspective of people on the ground to show a sense of scale,

but you couldn't really see the action. So I think it was very satisfying that at least, you know, in terms of the actual like rounds between Godzilla and Kong, you know, it was very easy to fall and very infotaining. Yeah, I thought I thought it was better than I was expecting. You know, the dialogue obviously was pretty, you know, shitty. But the pacing was a little bit better than I thought it would be. And I agree, Miles, I thought the action sequences were really, really good. They were very legible. I was not expecting to actually be able to, like, tell who was winning.

throughout the fight. So I thought it was very good. I was very upset. Kong definitely got washed, but it's all right. It happens. It happens. You know what I wonder about movies like this? So in this movie, you have a lot of fantastic actors. You got Millie Bobby Brown, Becca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, you know what I mean? Damien, Bashir, Kyle Chandler, who everybody knows his face, but nobody knows his name. Kyle Chandler is the dude from something. Like he's too big of a star to be that guy. he's too big of a star to be the That Guy Award from the rewatchers. Everybody knows his face. Nobody knows his name.

And, you know, Alex Scarsgar, which, you know, he's a beautiful man. You know what I mean? Like, you got all of these people that are in the movie. I wonder if going into a movie, if the director looks at this cast of actors, these talented actors, and goes, listen, you don't have to act. it's not necessary in this film I need you show up read these lines

and a couple of monsters are going to jump on the screen and distract everybody from the fact that you guys are phoning it in here okay like I'll look at this when you said some of the dialogue

is shitty I don't know if the dialogue is shitty or I don't know if they were just in a different realm performance-wise I rewind a couple of scenes It's like, you know, at least that wasn't, I'm not shitting on the movie.

That wasn't the focus of this film in terms of that. That's not why you go to see this movie. And it feels like to me you could tell that the actors knew it. Now, you guys are both big monsterverse fans, right? Yes. Talk a little bit about the state of the monster verse, like coming into this movie. You know, you had had a bunch of films, some more successful than others. And it seems as if right now the future of the monster verse,

is resting on how well this film is received critically and how well it does in terms of its business. Yeah, I mean, it feels weird to say because, you know, it's literally about giant monsters, but it feels like this franchise has sort of fallen under the radar, you know, at least especially compared to some of the other big tentples that have been coming out. This is only the fourth, I mean only, but, you know,

the MCU is like over 20 films now. This is only, you know, four movies, but I think they're interesting, overall because they each bring kind of a different flavor. The first Godzilla from like 2014, you know, the director, Garrett Edwards, he also did the Star Wars spinoff Rogue One. He has a really good sense of scale in his direction, like whether it's Godzilla, the Death Star, you know, showing like kind of the awe, but also the terror of like what if this actually happened to you, whether it's a giant nuclear lizard or, you know, something like a weapon that can destroy

planet. Like, he brought a lot of, you know, kind of hard to the proceedings. But I think fans weren't happy with, like, the lack of Godzilla screen time. He was only in maybe like 10 minutes of that movie. So the sequels, the one with Kong and the second Godzilla movie, you know, they really up the Annie with the monsters. And like you were saying, Ben, I mean, like the actors sort of are like second fiddle because, you know, it's like you just bring in A list just say ridiculous things like, you know, Godzilla's in the Pacific Ocean. like we don't know what to do now. I think in terms of delivering like monster and monster action,

it's been a good four film run. I think the films kind of fit into two categories. Like on the one side, you have like the first Godzilla movie, which obviously it takes itself a little bit seriously. You don't actually see the entirety of like his lizard body until like the end of the film. And then you have Kong Skull Island,

which doesn't take itself seriously at all. A lot of fun. Noel Jackson like saying, you know, hold onto your butts, like a reference from the original Jurassic Park, you know, as foot soldiers being like, is that a giant monkey when they see Kong? And then, you know, the most recent Godzilla, the one with Gidora, it's kind of kind of both, I guess. It fits kind of halfway in between, I think, Kong and the first Godzilla film.

So I think it's still as a kind of cinematic universe, which is like a cringe statement and everyone uses it. But as a cinematic universe, it's kind of still trying to find its footing, trying to find the tone. You know, I don't think you can define like, oh, okay, this is what a Kaiju movie looks like now in ways that you know what you're getting when you show up to a DC film. You know what you're getting when you show up to a Marvel film.

I think these films are a little bit less definable. Yeah, you know what you're going to get when you show up to a DC film's disappointment to what you're going to get. It's like more often than not, you're going to get, God damn, why did you do that to goddamn Superman? Like, let my boy Superman have some fun. You know what I want to see in the next DC movie?

I don't even want to see Superman save anybody. I just want to see a whole movie of Superman having fun. Superman doesn't have any fun. And people have fun, Superman's, he's very dour, he's very selling. I just want to watch a movie called Superman, colon, he's flying. He's flying around in different places, experiencing ice cream for the first time,

and doing all kinds of stuff like that, because he just doesn't have any fun. Anyway, I digress. Superman is a fun character. He's a fun, you know, Clark Ken is goofy. Clark Ken is whatever. I'll see how you guys got me. Tanihisi Coates is going to write the next Superman for them,

so maybe he'll inject a little more humor to the proceedings because that definitely, I mean, I like the Zach Schneider movies, but like, yeah, Superman is just like a cipher. He's just very depressed. Question for you. Miles, have you read a lot of coats? Well, actually, I do have the, uh, his, his run of Black Panther.

It is, yeah. Yeah. It's already announced. He's going to do it. It's not exactly a laugh, right? He's one of the most brilliant people on planet Earth. Yeah, he's amazing.

Right. Right. No. All right. The studio will punch it up. They'll be like, can you just add a joke somewhere? All right. Yeah, exactly.

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Shift your flavor to high gear with new Nass Energy Grand Prix Guava. Hit the street, grab a can and get after it. Watching the film, okay, so let's talk about a couple of things that you just have to address here. So we're watching this movie. And, you know, I got the big boy in the front. I got the 65-inch you're in the front.

You know what I mean? No, I'm watching the guy. I'm watching the style. We're not back in Baton Rouge anymore. We're doing better in life now. I got the big guy in the front. But still, though, this movie wasn't made for your 65-inch television. This movie wasn't made for your bedroom television.

This movie was made for prime time in the arc light, big, huge theater setting, gigantic screen being assaulted by these images in a very grandiose way. Lex, watching this. film at home, did you feel a sense of longing for the theater? Could you feel the difference in the experience? Did it take away from the movie at all the fact that Kong wasn't like 50 feet tall or 12 feet tall or whatever on a theater screen? Is it going to be the same for people at home?

I don't think it'll be the same. I think part of like the appeal of something like this is like the communal feeling that you get watching it. You know, like I don't think anybody's going into these. I'm thinking like, oh, okay, this is going to be like a really, like, heady, like deep experience. Like, you're like, I want to see monsters bash each other's skulls in with other people who want to see monsters get each other's skulls bashed in.

So, you know, like watching it on a television at home during the middle of a pandemic is just, it's not comparable. Also, I don't have a big TV because, you know, kind of broke. So I'm like, it's just, it's not, it's not, it's not, the same thing. What size TV did you watch it on? It's probably like 40 inches. Listen, I still have all my stuff from college.

So I'm like literally like this is like the TV that my mom bought from Target before like I came to GW. So it's just it's not the move. Like I, I wish I was home while I was watching it. I was like, oh my God. You got a visio? What kind of was it? Is it a visio over there? No, it's like a Samsung.

But like it has like an ass, which like you know it's old like when. TV is thick? Yeah, it's thick with it. Your TV thick? Damn. I know. thicker than Godzilla. Because Godzilla kind of thick, too.

I know. Godzilla got a wagon. Boy, we need to get out the house. Listen to us. We need to get out the house. We're talking about Godzilla's ass. Like Godzilla, beyond, look, man, shit. Miles, what about you?

Any, what do you feel, how you feel like the experience is going to translate for a lot of people that seen it? This is an instant reaction. What do you think people are going to think? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, it's one of those movies, I think, similar to when Wonder Woman 1984 came out over Christmas. I mean, it's nice to get that blockbuster experience, but you want to see it, even if it's kind of a silly film on the biggest possible screen. I know a lot of people didn't like Wonder Woman 1984, and I'm not going to touch that.

But I feel like, you know, if you're watching like Pedro Pescal in that movie, like kind of sweating and being like, wish granted, wish granted. Like, if you're in a crowded theater, like, I think that'll play better. And same with, you know, like, you seeing these monsters, like, bash each other's brains in, like, on, you know, an IMAX screen or something. Like, that'll cause, like, quite a reaction. Like, this is, like, no joke. Like, when I went to a, like, combined press and fan screening for Godzilla King of the Monsters a couple years ago, a fight broke out at the end credits. Like, people were pumped. Like, you know, like, I'm not saying, like, that's a good thing to have in a theater experience.

It's a very intense. So someone wanted to wait for the end credits For like a post credit scene And I guess some guy and his girl like got in the way Of you know got got in the way or didn't move their feet And it just it just got out of control But the fact that like this movie had people that charged up I think you want to see these movies on the biggest possible screen

If you can Well these two people white It was a white couple arguing with a black couple The black couple wanted to The black couple wanted the end credits Like they wanted that experience The black couple wanted the end credits.

Yeah. That is a reversal of fortune. Normally, we're trying to get out and so the black couple won at the end credits, boy, them white people was really feeling frisky. We're trying to watch the movie. We pay for the whole movie. Also, I mean, the end credits was amazing. It was like Charles Dance with like one of the skulls of Godora being like, you know,

let's continue our plan or whatever he was doing in that movie. When you saw this, did you intervene? No, actually. So you, so just so you can stop right there. you weren't being a good ally. Cool, moving on. You saw, like, you, like, that's okay, Miles. You saw, you saw some people, no, it's okay.

You saw some people of colority. It's very dark, but my first thought was, to turn on the other cheek. No, I genuinely, like, I was like, someone brought a, like, like, there's been so many shootings in America. I was like, I got to get out of here. Like, someone about going. What you thought the brother had a get?

Oh, no, I didn't. I didn't, I know. Screaming happened when it was dark. I heard screaming and someone's like, you know, oh, shit. Something's happening. And I was like, oh, man. And if I'm going to go watching a freaking Godzilla movie,

like this is just, I don't want my mom seeing me on the news. But then the lights came up and it was just like someone wanted to see the end credits. And that's a lot more relatable. I get it. Okay. Now, you guys, for me, I am a fan of the Monsterverse, meaning I go and I watch all of these films. I'm not going to lie, during these movies, I typically zone out.

I do. I zone out and just wait for the big set pieces. and just wait for the big, huge action pieces. It was harder to do this for this movie because, to be honest with you, this is a very story-heavy film. This is not just carnage for the sake of carnage. Like Pacific Rim goes,

hey, these big kajus are trying to destroy the world. We got mecks, go. This movie doesn't kind of do this. There's some emotional situations here between Kong and the sense of longing. Kong is trying to find a home here. I think everybody could relate to that, right? and his connection with the younger girl

that comes from the island, all of those things. There are some moments where they try to build up some story and make you invest a little bit. I don't know if they were completely successful in doing that, but they definitely tried. For people who are monster versus veterans like yourself, were there any surprises in here for you?

Were you guys surprised by anything? I mean, in terms of the fighting, Kong might have been done dirty a bit because Godzilla basically kicked his, ass, but Kong was basically the protagonist to this movie. He was. He was the hero. Much more screen time with him. And, you know, and that's not a knock, because I can see why, like, Kong has a lot of

pathos. Like, you know, he's lonely. He, you know, he wants, he wishes there were more of his kind. I believe in Skull Island, you actually see, like, skeletons of like what could have been his parents, which is, you know, in a silly movie, like, you know, that kind of hits the heart of it. And it was interesting because Godzilla, you know, it's not necessarily. like an out-and-out villain, but it's almost like he's like an indifferent god who doesn't

care about people and essentially only emerges when monsters are coming for his throne. Like, he doesn't care about the damage he causes, but like Kong will at least bond with like certain humans. So I could see why like he makes sense as a protagonist and like kind of the, the one of the two you might be rooting for more. Yeah, I was I was honestly so surprised first that like Kong baves. Like, bro, he took a shower. Like that was like the, first things in the film. Like my guy showed up under a waterfall. Hell yeah. Like scrubbing himself.

Getting it. Yeah, it was shocking. You know what I mean? I was just very surprised. They really kind of humanized my dude, you know? He can talk. Like, he can sign. Sign language. I mean, he comes from apparently in advanced, like, culture of like apes that like, you know, we're building

structures and apparently they built doors. Like, come on. I was not expecting all that. Like, it's a lot of mythology that I was not aware that was going to come, but honestly, I will, like, take it. Like, please explain to me how this, like, monkey civilization is, like, shudering, like, every layer of their society. Who did you think was going to win going into the movie? I mean, I thought it was calm. Like, we did a column about it. I was like, no, there's no way that, like, something, like, he has fucking thumbs. Like, what the fuck are we doing here? Like,

He is opposable thumbs. Like, he can speak now, but apparently, like, that shit didn't matter at all. Like, I was like, oh, yeah, no, he can build tools. Like, I'm going to go with the person who can build tools and climb things and all this stuff. And I was not given enough respect to the fucking laser that Godzilla just has coming out of his throat. Godzilla made the most sense because he's basically like a walking Chernobyl. I mean, if you remember, like, the end of King of the Monsters, he essentially annihilates Boston. And that's how he kills King Cedar.

He just nuclear bombs Boston, which, you know, I, it just, as impressive as Kong is, you know, this is a dude who got watched by, like, old airplanes, like, in his standalone movies. So it just didn't really seem like it was going to be much of a fight. No offense to a, no offense to the big guy. Atomic breath. Yeah. Like, he's a one-trick lizard, but, like, he looked his ass. That one trick is like, it's a crazy one-trick.

You know what I mean? Like Street Fighter back in the day. I don't know if you guys, how old are you guys? 28? You're 23. Oh my God. That's a fucking daycare center here at the goddamn ringer. Why I don't tell people.

It's a goddamn daycare center here at the ringer. Jesus. Bill, what are we doing here? What are we doing? I was more of a mortal combat guy if that helps. Well, here's a deal. When Street Fire 2 first came out before we got on, before we got into, you know, advanced play. I got into Marvel versus Capcom 2

and I became, you know, so a couple of years I didn't go, I didn't have any sex because I was trying to get good at video games. I don't take it back. I don't regret it at all. You guys are making faces. I don't care.

But there were guys that used to just fireball, fireball, fireball, uppercut, fireball, spinning kick. And you couldn't do anything about it at first, but it worked. And I feel like the atomic breath is Godzilla's

fireball, fireball, fireball, uppercut because the entire fight is about Kong trying to avoid being hit with that. Now, we have to talk about Hollow Earth, because Hollow Earth is something that's explored in this film. You know what the interesting thing about this is? Just recently, I've decided that because there's not a lot else to do, that I'm just going to go into different conspiracy theories that exist on the Internet, right? So one of them is this conspiracy theory about hollow earth. I'm sure you guys know about it, right?

There was this admiral who went up to Antarctica. When I'm telling you this goes deep, this goes deep. I'm not going to get into all of my weird history channel, ancient aliens type of situations. But this is this theory, this is admiral. He goes up there to Antarctica. And what he really found in Antarctica was that in the middle of Antarctica, there's a place where you could drop down and there's all these untold resources

which is supposedly, according to these people, why Antarctica is the only place that is sort of you can't go there or something like that. All of these, it's a non-area in terms of government. It's really deep. Go look into it. A lot of people think that the answers

to all the world's questions are in Antarctica and you can drop down, you guys are laughing, whatever people believe this stuff. You know what I mean? Like you guys are, looking at me crazy. I'm just telling you what people think. You can drop down in the middle. It's essentially hollow earth, even with the whole deal.

And I thought that by far the most interesting part of this movie was the whole hollow earth thing. Going there, seeing a place where Kong could be his Kong self at the end of the film, he's flipping around, jumping around hollow earth, but also with this untold sort of untapped energy source, which is what these people who believe in this really believe, that would like solve the world's energy problems. It's also where he finds like an enchanted axe made of one of Godzilla's fins or something like that. It's an axe made of one of Godzilla's fins that he then uses as a weapon. What were you guys' thoughts of Hollow Earth in this movie? It's the first time we've really seen it explored in one of these monsters.

I honestly loved it. I mean, I think like maybe there was like, you know, a director from the studio. Because King of the Monsters, you know, not the best reviews, didn't do well at the box office. it's a bit more, you know, kind of grim and serious. So I can't think of like anything campier than like, you know, you're just taking like a little shuttle, you know, following King Kong and like going through some kind of wormhole that looked like the Stargate sequence from 2001 of Space Odyssey and like taking you to this world that like, I guess, doesn't even obey the laws of physics because, you know,

you can almost like float between different landscapes and there are like weird dinosaurs there. And it's absolutely ridiculous. but I think for a movie that's, you know, not trying to take itself seriously and kind of taking these weird sci-fi swings, I think it's like a really fun idea and something that, you know, if they were to make more movies in the monsterverse, it would be fun

to kind of explore the whole hollow earth thing a little further. Yeah, I thought the same thing. I was like, oh, if they're going to do like sequels, it's definitely going to either be set here or somehow, like, in space. I thought those, like, those scenes were

were actually like very like aesthetically pleasing. It was great. Like I was like, oh, this actually like looks nice. Like I enjoyed it. I enjoyed all the kind of like mythos building behind it to, you know, like finding out Kong's family, like all that stuff I thought was cool. The guy's name is Admiral Bird. Okay.

And it's called Operation High Jump. And you act like Vance making up all of this kooky stuff. People believe it. I'm not saying that it's true. I'm saying that that's probably where. they got all of this shit for the movie from. Now, was there a clear winner? Because this is the way this went.

It seemed as if there was a first round because Godzilla, Kong gets the axe, and he has to use the axe to fight Godzilla. It's clear that without the axe, he's just getting destroyed. It's like Jake Paul versus Ney Robinson, a complete mismatch that everybody saw and makes you wonder why we even wasted time.

It's like, You know how Nate Robinson ruined his entire athletic fucking legacy in one moment against a YouTuber? That's kind of how the fight was at first. You know, without the axe. Without the axe, King Kong stands no chance. But he has the axe. So I think the first round, if I remember, goes to Godzilla. And then the second round goes to Kong.

And then if I remember at the end, I think that Godzilla wins the third round of fight. So that means that Godzilla won. And then there is another adversary, which there always is in these movies, that pops up and we get sort of a team up at the end. For the fight itself, Lex, what did you think of the fight itself, which is, of course, the reason to watch this movie?

Yeah, I thought they were all executed very well. But, I mean, Godzilla fucking killed him. Like, literally killed Kopp. He literally killed him. They had to jump his heart. They had to jump his heart. By the way, that was fucking dumb. I'm sorry, bro.

Like, I know, like, there's a point in these films. George Clooney talks about this. George Clooney talks about the fact that when you sit down, you make a deal. As a movie goer, you make a deal, right? And the deal is like, hey, I'm going to believe this. I'm the audience. And the only way that the movie is bad is when that deal is broken. When the audience goes, there's something a little wonky or something's off or there's bad acting or there's bad, whatever.

that almost was a deal breaker for me. And for what the Lensis is talking about is they fight, Kong's heart stops, and then they go, we have to generate enough energy to power up. I'm about to start his heart to defibrillate Kong. It was crazy. Yeah, it was insane.

Like, they really had a fucking defibrillator. Like, what are we doing here? Right. Like, what are we doing here? Like, they blew up a ship on my dude's chest. Like, I just, I'm not, I'm not getting.

it. So like, yeah, you know, my guy took an out. Like, it's, it's very clear. He had that little axe thing and it didn't do shit. It didn't really work. It didn't really work. Well, the axe did help kill Mecca Godzilla, though, so at least it did something, yeah. Let's talk about Mecha Godzilla. So Damien Bashir plays the evil head of a tech corporation. By the way, in the future, all villains will be tech corporation guys. All of them will be. It really was already like that when you think about it. It was like, but it's like really Lex Luthor became like a real

person in the form of Jeff Bezos, which is so funny how as a society, we're watching Jeff Bezos morph into a real Lex Luthor and nobody's stopping it. Like nobody is stopping Jeff Bezos. One day Jeff Bezos is going to go,

hey, guess what? Amazon owns everything west of Missouri. And we're going to be like, well, it seems like it makes a lot of sense we can get our products faster. No one's going to stop him from doing that when it's happening right before our eyes. This guy was a shady tent dude who decided he wanted to build a Mechagodzilla so that the Titans didn't overrun the Earth. That angle, Mechagodzilla, your initial reactions. I got to be honest with you.

I didn't think Mechagodzilla looked that great. How did you guys feel like even the look of the character in this film? Yeah, I mean, the look was a bit funky, but I kind of liked how they incorporated. created like some of the ways that like he could basically watch Godzilla. Like he has like the rocket propulsion to like stood up like he shoots rockets. Like he has cool abilities even though I feel like he looked better in the secret underground base where like, like he looks better when he's not like in like sort of direct sunlight. I feel like he just has a better look kind of shrouded in darkness, you know, with his like glowing,

you know, creepy red eyes. But I did love just, I feel like. I feel like, you know, it's kind of, like, there's been lots of similarities between Godzilla versus Kong and Batman versus Superman. And kind of like how Jesse Eisenberg is basically Mark Zuckerberg. I mean, he played him in the social network, too, as Lex Luther. You know, you have Damien Bashir as like this sort of, I mean, almost like a mustache twirling villain. And like in half of his scenes, I don't know if you notice he's like holding a glass of like scotch or something. I mean, like perfectly can't be performance.

Yeah. Yeah, it feels like we're going to just continue to like reflect like real life problems. in society into our films without taking any inventory about what the problems actually are. But I thought that, like, Mecca Godzilla, I don't know, he looked kind of toyish to me. Like, I was like, yo, this dude kind of looks like a Lego. Like, I'm not going to lie, especially in the broad daylight. But, you know, his weapons were like, real deal. Like, that laser breath really, like, bucked him up.

I thought one of the best scenes in the film was when Godzilla and Mecca the Godzilla are like both using their like, you know, fire breath against each other. And you see that like the robots just throwing. It was very like Dragon Ball Z. Yes, yes, it was. It was. Yeah. So I thought it was good.

So let's talk about everything in the film that wasn't the fight. We talked a little bit about the fact that the performances weren't exactly top tier, but they don't have to be in a film like this. Was there any character outside of Godzilla, Kong, or Mega Godzilla that you thought was like a dope or awesome character? Did you care about anybody? That pause means no. I just want to let people know.

Like, they answered the question. Like, I asked that question. They both accessed the creative portions of their brain. Like, they both looked up and to the right to make some shit up. Because the answer is just we keep it a buck. The answer is no, right? At the very least, I was just extremely entertained by Brian Tyree Henry playing, like, the conspiracy theorist who, like, his podcast logo was like the Eye of Providence,

but the eye was Godzilla's eye. Like that's like an incredible silly detail. And I enjoyed him sort of playing against type a bit because he was like, I think the primary source of like comic relief in this movie. And it was a very goofy performance. Yeah, I enjoyed Paper Boy. Like I enjoyed that. I did not see him having a podcast.

That was pretty shocking. I was like, wow, my guy. I don't know. Besides that, honestly, like I just was not feeling any of the other characters. But like, who cares? Like, why would I show up to a movie about a giant monkey and a giant lizard and want to, like, get attached to anyone other than the giant monkey

or the giant lizard? Like, that just doesn't make any sense to me. Is it disrespectful to call him a monkey? All right, so I saw that and I was like, is this a slur? Like, I saw, I saw the people doing it. And I was like, yo, she does not. Shut up. I was joking.

Like, Alex is getting triggered. Oh, my God. That's funny. because she said it with the hard R all right yeah so look I thought the movie worked and the reason why it works is because

despite the human characters are there just to move your story along right just to move your story along and then by the time we get to the end of the film where these two guys are working together fighting against Mechagodzilla which we know that there's going to be something that they have to fight against and beat

they always come together I thought it was cool They're working together. They're, you know, they're throwing the axe to one another. Like, King Kong is, like, wielding the axe. Like, he's, it really is kind of a Thor, bring me Thanos moment at the end when he, when he kind of drops in with the axe. It was definitely very, very cool to see.

So the movie got there where it was supposed to get in terms of delivering enough story to give us these big, huge fights between monsters. Also some cool scenes. You know, there's a scene where Godzilla is shooting. shooting the atomic breath and Kong is trying to get out of the way and he's running through the cityscape jumping off buildings. When I say just trillions of dollars of damage to property, the older I get, the more I have a problem, like, who's going to build that back?

Hong Kong was totally destroyed. I mean, there's millions and millions of people's homes are gone. Do you know what they should do? Rather than like try to study these Titans and figure them out, they should abandon an island for them to fight and just say, hey, you guys can fight as much as you want. But, you know, I'm trying to eat dinner over here. I'm at a restaurant. And there's all of a sudden a lizard outside.

And now people are getting killed. Anyway, these are the things that when you get a little bit older, when you guys, you know, mature and go through puberty, these are the things that you'll wonder about when you watch these films. Oh, no, I was just going to say, one thing I genuinely did. think about, though, was like, with the boat being stuck in the Suez Canal, like, if you had Godzilla just roaming the ocean, like, he's destroying global shipping routes. Screwing them all up.

That's stupid-ass boat. Okay, so, we're here now. The movie is upon us. It's well-reviewed. It seems to be well-liked. Who knows how the economics of big-screen movies

will be different now with things going to streaming. You know, who knows how that goes? I'm expecting that this movie will still have some sort of theatrical release. I was at a movie theater last night. So, you know, things are coming out. Not a lot of people in there, but things are coming out. What do you think the future of the monsterverse is after this film, Lex? A lot of people are saying that the future, the immediate future of the monster verse sort of was hinged on this film.

From what you saw on screen, do you think the monster verse has a future? I mean, I think whenever you're dealing with, like, a character as, like, popular as Godzilla, or, like, a character as popular as King Kong, like, there'll be someone who's going to repurpose it. I mean, shit, we have, like, how many jokers do we have right now? Like, three, two, I don't know. Like, you know what I mean? Two jokers. Might be adding another one.

That's what I mean. So, like, he'll be back. I don't know where they're going to go, but I mean, shit. If Fast and Furious can go to space, all right, Godzilla can go to space. Let me tell you got something last night. Last night we're in the movie theater, the trailers come on. And the trailer for Fast 9 shows, they just don't give a fuck anymore. They don't care.

The shit that they're doing, they don't fucking care anymore, bro. It doesn't even, it makes no sense. Hey, that's Vin Diesel's brother. He's a master heist, criminal mind, and he's a precision driver. How many people are master criminal mind? master thieves and precision drivers. How can you become a master thief, master criminal mind,

and have enough time to learn how to whip around a charger? It just doesn't seem like it makes a whole lot of sense, but they're going for it. I mean, ludicrous and Too Fast Too Furious when his character's introduced, he's running like a really cool garage in Miami. Now he's like a super hacker, you know, can hack into anything for the government.

And in the entire trailer, all of his lines are just like pointing out how weird the plot is. Like, is that a magnet plane or like, is that a car strapped to a rocket engine? Like, that's his character now. They jump the shark like years ago. It's crazy. These dudes start off as like fast car street driver car thieves. And there's one thing where he jumps off of a cliff with like a tethered to the car and then it whips around. I'm like, yo, man.

And he's not wearing a seatbelt. If you look it over, he's not. even wearing a seatbelt when he's doing that. Don't need no fucking seabelt. He hasn't needed. Your thoughts about the future of the Mars of Versa? One thing that I was actually thinking about in terms of like if they want to, you know, keep going with this franchise, like try to like bring something different to it.

I don't know how familiar you guys are or like if you're a fan of like the Pacific Rim movies. Yeah, they're dope. Yeah. So it's like the same company like legendary entertainment. Like they have the rights to Godzilla Kong and the Pacific Rim like, like, those movies as well. So, like, in theory, you can actually just put them all together

and it's like, maybe it's not Mechagodzilla, but now humans are like, we got people in these big suits, like trying to fight the kaijus or whatever. Like, it's technically possible. Like, it's all the, you know, IP under the same corporate umbrella.

Like, I want to see that happen. I want to go see Pacific Rim. I picked Pasadena because Kanye West screened it. This is obviously before. And Kanye West said Pacific Rim was the best movie he ever saw. Oh my God. And so I'm like, oh shit, you know, this guy made beautiful dark, Twisted Fantasy.

If he said Pacific Rim is the best movie he ever saw, then it must be way up there. And I think that I unfairly judged Pacific Rim, the first one, by that. You know what I mean? Because it's a good movie. It's fun to watch. But it's not the fucking best movie of anything. It's not the best mech movie ever made. You know what I mean?

So, anyway, one of the crossover battles would you guys like to see? So we got Godzilla versus Kong. You guys are a huge monster versus guys. Like who else do they? Do they have any more monsters out there to throw into these movies for these two big guys to fight? Because the movie ends, Khan doesn't look like he wants to fight anymore. Kong looks like he's retired. He's flipping around down there in the hollow earth.

They're down there monitoring him. He looks like he's found himself. He's having a good time. Godzilla is reclusive. All right. He's the frank ocean of monsters. He only comes out every once in a while just to do damage and he goes somewhere. We never see them.

Who else do they have? Who else can they throw on the screen? What else can we look forward to? I mean, in terms of like the sort of monsters like from, you know, sort of Godzilla's whole sphere, like they've kind of exhausted most of their cool options. Like they got Kidora, they got Mechid Godzilla. Mothra showed up and died, which is tragic. Kill Mothra.

Yeah. Yeah. How dare they? I, you know, it's kind of hard to see. to see them go into a direction like that unless they have like the rights to like Ultraman or something. Ultraman is that guy with that helmet, right? I've seen him before.

Yeah. I've seen Ultraman. He was also in cartoons. That would be cool. It would be cool to see Ultraman. I've seen him before. Lex, what about you? Where can they go from here?

What happens now? I don't know. In the original Kong versus Godzilla film from the 60s, it was actually supposed to be Kong fighting Frankenstein's monster. I don't know if they have the rights to that. But they could probably try and go in that direction. I don't know who, like, wants to see Frankenstein in 2021. But, you know, I don't know.

How bigger they make you, Frankenstein? Yeah, I got, well, what Frankenstein is like, I think Frankenstein is like six, eight. Yeah, I don't know if you, yeah. He's a power forward in the NBA. He's not going to last long. I mean, he's basically Zion. He's basically, that's basically, he's basically, he's basically, that's basically, I don't think he can handle the ball as well.

He looks like he's, you know, he's got some court. nation issues, but he's basically Zion. By the way, you know, the reason why we can't have Frankenstein come back is because I feel bad for Frankenstein. Like, Frankenstein didn't do anything. He didn't, he didn't ask to be made. That's what I used to tell my parents. Don't act like you did me a favor. I didn't ask for this. You take care of me. Take me to Blockbuster, rate me the video game. You know what I mean? Like, I just to keep me, so I don't know. I think Frankenstein would be different. It is interesting to see what legendary does because they also have, you know, There's a lot there.

It just, it all depends. But I'd say this, in a serious, on a serious note, they have to find a way to ground these movies a little bit. I know that these movies are big and spectacle, but spectacle gets people to the theaters, but story makes them come back. So at some point, there's going to have to be some investment made

into create a narrative around these characters that make you really care about them. And they kind of did that with Kong a little bit, and it's hard to do with monsters who growl and destroy cities and stuff like that. But, you know, for these IPs that we see that keep coming back over and over and over again, it's normally because we're invested in these guys

in some kind of way. So I'm interested to see, like, how they can do that, if they can do that, and if they do, how they pull it off. But I tell you what, I enjoyed this film. It was a lot of fun to watch, you know, It was a lot of fun to watch. Any final thoughts from either one of you guys? Yeah, I mean, if they're going to go, like,

have another round after this, at the very least, Kong needs to have the axe whole time. Otherwise, it's not a contest. He does. Like, he needs, like, a little sheath on his back that he can carry the axe. Can we get him armor of some sort?

That's a good idea. Like, it was very sad. He really, like, did him like a cat would, like, your cat. I mean, like, I was like, what the fuck? I was so upset when I saw that. I was like, yo, I'm done with this shit. It was tough.

I'm like, look, bro, like, he got, he got free at the end. It was cool. But Kong, they did it to Kong on this one. They definitely did. But I'll tell you what, the movie was a lot of fun. You guys that have seen the film, hit us up on all our socials at the Ring ofverse. Tell us what you thought about. Tell us what you thought about this podcast.

Miles, Lex. We appreciate you guys. We appreciate you guys for joining us on the Ring ofverse today. In the Ring of Verse today. We're not on the Ring of Verse. we're in the ring ofverse. And I'm letting you guys know that on Friday, we will have instant reaction

to the third episode of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The second episode was absolutely brilliant. It was amazing. Are you guys watching Falcon and the Winter Soldier right now? Yeah, I'm not a fan so far. I'm waiting for it all to come out and then I'm going to watch it. I don't know. I'm just having Marvel to peevely.

We're never coming back to Rigginers after that. That's literally it. Did I blow my chance? I just don't know if there's, is there like a screening process or, I mean, like, because, you know, they say, hey, you're, they say, hey, Van, there's two great guys that you're going to be doing this with. They're very knowledgeable about monsters and stuff like that. And they love all of this stuff. And then, uh, Lex is abstaining from, uh, watching it. He's the, he's the AC Green of Marvel right now.

He's abstaining. Okay. and Miles is, it's down on it. Miles is not enjoying it. Wow. I like the Snyder cut. If you have me on for that,

I would have had nice things to say I'm like, I enjoyed the Snyder Club, but let's not deflect. Let's talk about what we're talking about. I know what it is. It's the same reason why you didn't help the black couple

in the theater because this show has a black leader. Okay, I get it. I see you, Miles. Oh, my God. I see you, Miles. I see you, Miles. I see you,

I'm just fucking with you. Hey, guys, I'm just fucking with miles. It's a joke. I've talked to more people who say that the Falcon and the Winter Soldier needs to pick up. I'm already forwarding my resume out. Yeah, no, I'm just joking because people will take that shit and run with that shit. Guys, we're going through a nuts. Give us a fucking break.

I'm fucking with my co-workers here. Subscribe to the Reingverse and follow us on all of our socials. I appreciate both of you guys joining us today to talk about Godzilla versus Kong. not forget to watch on Friday, guys. Also, do not forget to tune in Tuesday for Mallory's deep dives and all of your mailback questions. We are out.