This article is from WeChat official account:Entertainment Chill (ID: yuci-er) span> , author: Jun Wei, editor: chu weeks, from FIG head: “Godzilla adamantyl Wars”

Godzilla vs. King Kong is like two big men “playing CP”.

In the fourth “Godzilla vs. King Kong” movie of the Bizarre Beasts universe, Godzilla and King Kong are ancient feuds. Since ancient times, red and blue have produced CP, King Kong destroyed the sky and put out flames, and Godzilla breathed blue light.

“Godzilla vs. King Kong”

On the naval ship, King Kong punched Godzilla; during the Neon Hong Kong War, Godzilla stepped on King Kong. Even if you beat me and I beat you, King Kong and Godzilla are happy in it, and never want to kill each other. At the end of the film, Godzilla uses atomic breath to charge King Kong’s tomahawk, and the two work together to kill the “Little San” mechanical Godzilla.

This seemingly fierce CP actually hit the audience’s refreshing point.

On March 26, 2021, one week in advance in North America, the fourth “Godzilla vs. King Kong” movie of the strange beasts universe was released on the mainland theaters. The pre-sales started with 54 million yuan, breaking through 100 million yuan in one day, and 300 million yuan in two days. According to this trend forecast, the final box office will break through one billion yuan.

“Godzilla vs. King Kong”

Since the resumption of work in mainland theaters on July 20, 2020, the performance of imported Hollywood films has been mediocre. Nolan’s new work “Creed”, which was sent to the rescue masterpiece, has a final box office of 456 million, “Mulan” 278 million, and “Wonder Woman 1984” 167 million, “Avatar” only received 329 million at the box office for 16 days of rebroadcasting (as of 23:00 on March 27). The last Hollywood movie that broke 500 million in the Mainland dates back to Frozen 2 in 2019.

After the epidemic, Hollywood blockbusters were almost defeated in the mainland market, but “Godzilla vs. King Kong” fought a beautiful turnaround. In the movie, Godzilla, the king of monsters, played against King Kong, ruining the world; the box office outside the movie was soaring, and the blockbuster rescued the market, once again letting Chinese audiences feel the charm of Hollywood movies.

A brief history of “monster fights”

Why do audiences love watching monster fights? This starts with the history of monster movies. The most representative image of giant monsters in movie history, Godzilla in the East and King Kong in the West.

The history of Western King Kong is even longer. As early as 1933, the American director Merian C. Cooper filmed “King Kong”, using a model to shoot in stop motion animation. The movie tells the story of the monster King Kong being caught by humans and sent to New York for exhibition. King Kong makes a big fuss in the New York Metropolis in pursuit of the blond beauty he loves.

1933 “King Kong”

At that time, American society was experiencing an unprecedented economic depression. In the face of unemployment, company closures, and social chaos, people were eager to seek short-term excitement and pleasure in movies. The strange story of King Kong and the blonde beauty, coupled with King Kong’s battle against human weapons, triggers a visual spectacle on the screen.

After 72 years, in 2005, Peter Jackson’s remake of “King Kong” was released, and the love between King Kong and the blonde beauty was renewed with new movie special effects. King Kong was in the emperor.The National Building tore the plane and was shot to death by humans and dropped to the Empire State Building. This tragedy ended. Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” is more humane, constructing a pure relationship between King Kong and beautiful women, to satirize human greed and arrogance.

Peter Jackson’s “King Kong”

The Oriental Godzilla started after World War II. In 1954, “Godzilla” directed by Honda Inoshiro came to the stage of history. The image was a fusion of the body of Tyrannosaurus, bird forelimbs, sword keel plates and tail spines, and crocodile scales. The head became a mushroom cloud after the atomic bomb explosion. The image of the Sla monster has been closely linked with nuclear fear once it came out. As the only country in the world that has been bombed by an atomic bomb, the Japanese projected their fear of nuclear explosions and radiation on Godzilla.

Honda Inshiro version of “Godzilla”

Since 1954, Godzilla has become the resident image of Japanese monster movies, shooting 28 before and after. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Godzilla’s birth in 2004, the last Godzilla movie “Godzilla: The Last Battle” was released. For many years thereafter, no Godzilla-related movies were made in Japan.

Until 2016, the Godzilla project restarted, “Neon Genesis Evangelion” director Anno Hideaki took over, and “New Godzilla” came out. Anno Hideaki injects a new realism style into Godzilla movies. He brings a fantasy monster movie back to social realism.

Anno Hideaki’s “New Godzilla”

In “New Godzilla”, Godzilla can be used as a nuclear bomb, a nuclear leak, the Wenchuan earthquake, or the new crown of the epidemic, a metaphor for humans’ fear of unknown destructive power. The opposite of Godzilla is Leviathan represented by the country, government, and international relations. Godzilla vs. Leviathan, contrasts the degeneration of bureaucracy and the actions of promising politicians.

In the history of monster movies, “King Kong” presented people’s realistic anxiety and desire to enter theaters to enjoy the excitement under the economic crisis, and “Godzilla” presented the Japanese people’s fear of nuclear weapons after World War II, and This fear is projected on the screen to reflect on the war.

Legendary Pictures was able to create the monster movie universe thanks to a Japanese. The famous Japanese special photo director Sakaya Yoshimitsu (Representative: “Godzilla vs. Hedora”) after stopping filming of Godzilla in Japan, I found an American producer in 2007 and proposed the idea of ​​shooting an IMAX 3D version of Godzilla. From this idea, Legendary Pictures gradually began to promote the Godzilla project.

In 2014, “Godzilla” was released in the United States, becoming the pioneering work of the strange beast movie universe. The film pays tribute to the ancient version of Godzilla. The traditional Godzilla modeling and devastating special effects scenes made monster movie fans crazy, and the global box office totaled 525 million US dollars. It is precisely because of the high commercial return that Warner Pictures saw the business opportunity of Monster Movies. Legend and Warner announced their cooperation, King Kong and Godzilla joined, the monsters of the East and the West gathered, and the strange beast movie universe gradually grew.

2004 US version of “Godzilla”

In 2017, “King Kong: Skull Island” was released. This film plays a key role in the story of the strange beasts movie universe. In this shadowIn the film, worldview settings such as the Emperor’s Plan, the hollow of the earth, and primitive monster murals gradually emerge, and the strange beast movie universe is reported to be linked for the first time. At the end of the film, the original mural shows Godzilla vs. King Gidola, which paves the way for the next one.

“King Kong: Skull Island”

Different from the two previous solo movies, “Godzilla 2: King of Monsters” released in 2019 has been upgraded in an all-round way. The genre has diverged from the traditional monster and disaster movies, but has risen to the ancient myth. System and sci-fi method of alien invasion.

“Godzilla 2: King of Monsters”

In addition, “Godzilla 2: King of Monsters” doubled the number of monsters. Godzilla, the three-headed behemoth King Gidola, Mothra, and Raton all appeared on the stage, fully satisfying the audience. Visual stimulation. And there is interaction and cooperation between the monsters, Mothra assists Godzilla, and Gidola summons Larton to fight Godzilla together. At the end of the story, Godzilla successfully defeated Gidola and reached the top of the king of monsters. The monsters came and bowed their heads.

In 2021, the fourth “Godzilla vs. King Kong” in the Bizarre Beast Universe will be released in North America one week ahead of schedule. Fairy fights, visual wonders, and geographical space will also change from the previous single population, densely built cities, or original vegetation coverage. Isolated islands, transferred to sea warships, hollows in the center of the earth, and neon Hong Kong.

The two giant Titans fight each other, and the shocking visual scene makes “Godzilla vs. King Kong” the ultimate Hollywood movie. This is similar to the summary of the first stage of the Biography of Strange Beasts movie universe. There is no easter egg at the end of the film. Instead, it puts the most popular beasts of the East and the West in a movie for the most powerful battle.

Why do audiences love to watch “Monster CP”?

From the original “King Kong” and the first Japanese version of “Godzilla” to the current strange beast movie universe, the development history of monster movies is the history of the development of film technology. At first, the model was used for stop-motion animation shooting, and now the hair, skin, expressions, eyes, and monster films created by CG special effects have become more and more realistic and shocking with the blessing of technology.

“Godzilla vs. King Kong”

At the same time, the audience’s psychology of watching monster movies has also changed in the long history. Monster movies were originally just to relieve reality anxiety or fear, but now the strange monster movie universe presents a complete set of worldviews and monster pedigrees, as far as Human mythology, up to alien creatures. Nowadays, viewers watch monster movies as a continuation of fan-to-fan movies like Marvel and DC.

Film critic and movie player Luo Zhong has always had a special liking for monster movies. He told Yu Cier about three reasons why audiences love to watch monster movies:

First of all, audiences love to watch monster movies, which is consistent with the psychological basis of watching many Hollywood blockbusters, that is, to enjoy the visual stimulation brought by special effects blockbusters. Because monster fights are bound to be accompanied by a large number of special effects shots, which will present a very shocking visual spectacle. Including monster fights require environmental support. The devastating attacks of monsters will destroy the environment, such as urban environments and virgin forests. Such destruction will bring devastating visual effects.

In “Godzilla vs. King Kong”, the final battle between Godzilla, King Kong and Mechanical Godzilla was placed in Hong Kong, which is full of skyscrapers. With the blessing of the night scene, monster fights under neon lights have the effect of destroying the world and the earth, and they also have a colorful sense of cyberpunk in the near future.

“Godzilla vs. King Kong”

Secondly, monster movies are not a single genre. It has many genre elements, which fully meets the audience’s needs for multiple types of movies.

Science fiction movies, the existence of monsters is a sci-fi setting; disaster movies, monsters are powerful enough to destroy a city and destroy human homes; action movies, such as “Godzilla vs. King Kong”, do a lot of monster action scenes For example, in thrillers, some monsters will have a horrifying effect. The mechanical Godzilla tearing the skull lizard in “Godzilla vs. King Kong” has a strong sense of horror.

“Godzilla vs. King Kong”

Finally, monster movies are portraying some universal emotions common to humans, which are eternal things. Monster movies are also giving emotions to monsters, so that the audience will sympathize and feel the emotions of monsters. “Godzilla vs. King Kong”, the audience will always have an emotional support, or will love Godzilla, or will love King Kong.

As “Avatar” director James Cameron said: “I think the key to sci-fi monster movies is to arouse our fears and fantasies and escape from a safe nightmare.” Humanity is experiencing a new crown The nightmare of the epidemic, the audience hopes that reality, like the movie, escapes from a nightmare of safety.

Where will the monster universe go?

From 2014 to 2021, Legendary Pictures has produced four monster movies: “Godzilla”, “King Kong: Skull Island”, “Godzilla 2: King of Monsters” and “Godzilla vs. King Kong”.

Although the fourth “Godzilla vs. King Kong” did not leave any easter eggs, and Legendary Pictures did not disclose the plans for the next monster movie, the legendary strange beast universe has already become a trend.

“Godzilla vs. King Kong”

The idea of ​​the movie universe dates back to 2008 Marvel Pictures “Iron Man”. To this day, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is still the most successful cinematic universe. Marvel President Kevin Fitch is also known as the best producer in the world who understands the audience, who has carried forward the concept of the cinematic universe and has a far-reaching impact.

Biography of the strange beasts movie universe is still a continuation of the Marvel movie universe’s ideas, constantly accommodating new monsters, and constantly expanding new worldviews. In the current situation, Godzilla and King Kong, the two most popular titans, are fighting. The 17 Titan behemoths that appeared in “Godzilla 2: King of Monsters” are not very well-known, and the risk of making a single movie is very high.

Previously, Legendary Films had filmed “The Great Wall”, which presented the gluttonous monsters of China’s “Shan Hai Jing” on the screen. However, due to the market failure of “The Great Wall”, the film has no follow-up, and Gourmet has not entered the ranks of the strange beast universe.

“The Great Wall”

On the other hand, the “Pacific Rim” series under Legend Pictures has become the best choice to integrate into the Bizarre Beast movie universe. In the “Pacific Rim” series, the mecha versus the monsters is the same as Godzilla and King Kong nowadays.Represented by the linkage of the strange beast universe, it may open up a new world view and story line.

But the headache is that “Pacific Rim” pays more attention to the interaction between humans and mechas, and monsters are mainly eliminated as villains. In the strange beast universe, monsters are more important than real people. The emotions of monsters must surpass human emotions. How to achieve the integration of the two worldviews is a big problem for Legendary Pictures.

“Pacific Rim”

From the perspective of the most successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, making a cinematic universe requires long-term story planning. Whether it is a single movie or a group image movie, it needs to gather popularity. Only in this way can the fan effect be amplified and the commercial value can be repaid.

Although the Legend of Weird Beasts Movie Universe has achieved staged success, it still does not have a long-term layout like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Making a long-term story layout is also a big issue for Legendary Pictures.

The success of “Godzilla vs. King Kong” opened up a new way of thinking for Hollywood blockbusters. In the future, with the blessing of top-notch movie special effects, monsters such as Godzilla and King Kong may become the national memory of a new generation of people like superheroes.

This article is from WeChat official account:Entertainment Chill (ID: yuci-er) span> , author: Jun Wei