Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire arrives in theaters this weekend, and with the popularity of Godzilla at a high right now thanks to Godzilla Minus One, I have a feeling this movie is going to have a strong opening at the box office.
The director of the film, Adam Wingard has talked about a lot of the things that inspired this film over the past several months including movies like Fast and Furious 5, Michael Mann’s 1981 film Thief and its star James Caan, buddy-cop films from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and the style of classic Saturday morning cartoons.
We can now add another influence on the movie, John Carpenter’s classic film They Live. Particularly one fight scene that involved complicated motivations and misunderstandings between the characters. Wingard explained in an interview with /Film:
“There is a rematch in this movie [between Godzilla and Kong], but it’s not as straightforward as that. That’s too easy. It’s more complicated. These monsters are characters. And the concept of the battle between them in this film was something that was inspired by my favorite movie, ‘They Live.’ If you’ve seen that film, that’s a movie where the best action scene in the movie is not the villain versus the hero, it’s the two heroes fighting each other because of a misunderstanding. So, that was one of the things that I was really, really excited about going into this movie.”
Wingard is referring to the awesome alley brawl between Nada (Roddy Piper) and Frank (Keith David) in They Live. This is one of the great fight scenes in movies and you can watch it below! I’m glad that Wingard brought this up because it makes me want to watch They Live again!
Godzilla x Kong has been met with mixed reviews so far. There are people who love it describing it as an “Atomic Blast!”, “A fantasy rock opera”, and “The most enjoyable MonsterVerse movie yet.”
Others describe it as “Underwhelming”, “The human stuff is notably clunky”, and “misses more than it hits,” and, “This thing is so insanely colorful and toyetic, it’d shock Joel Schumacher.” I’m sure I’ll eventually see the movie, but I’m in no rush. I’m more excited about rewatching They Live at this point.
In the film, “The epic battle continues! Legendary Pictures’ cinematic Monsterverse follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new adventure that pits the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence—and our own. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire delves further into the histories of these Titans and their origins, as well as the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.”
The film stars Rebecca Hall (Godzilla vs. Kong), Brian Tyree Henry (Godzilla vs. Kong), Dan Stevens (Legion), Kaylee Hottle (Godzilla vs. Kong), Alex Ferns (The Batman) and Fala Chen (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).
The screenplay is by Terry Rossio (Godzilla vs. Kong, the Pirates of the Caribbean series), Simon Barrett (You’re Next) and Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight), from a story by Rossio, Wingard & Barrett, based on the character “Godzilla” owned and created by TOHO Co., Ltd..
The movie will be released on April 12th, 2024.
