King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Originally reviewed on 8/26/23.
The first Godzilla movie in color starts silly and camp and stays that way throughout the entire film. Gone is any seriousness or respectability.
Before anything I have to point out how racist this movie is. The skull island (faoro island in this) natives are literally called ignorant savages and they're portrayed by people in brownface dancing around in grass skirts and brightly colored party city feather crowns. The King Kong IP has an inherent issue with this, but Toho is not without blame.
Moving on, the human plot in this is near nonexistent. Plot is delivered through newscasts exposition dumping. I will say, Tako sure is memorable for being a slapstick doofus. There is a strange attempt to recreate Kong's origin story, with people visiting the island and discovering Kong and bringing him back, and then him randomly fixating on a woman for one scene. Random beats brough back just to bring them back.
Godzilla is still a villain in this era, bullying the underdog Kong. He's also stated to be stupid and he certainly acts that way too. In later movies he's depicted as having a sort of intelligence that isn't human, but is beyond animals too. But yeah no here he's just a dumb brute.
The effects are great for their time. Though the original King Kong has it beat visually. I'm almost jealous of old films, in a way. Nowadays you have to be hyper-lifelike or else the viewers may realize the movie they're watching is a movie. Back in the day you could swap between real animals and puppets and have crappy greenscreen effects where guys are fading halfway into the void and have lighting on them thats completely different from the background.
It's entertaining at the best of times, and extremely uncomfortable at the worst of times. Historically, I think this has value as a way to look into the past and see the history of Godzilla and Kong and giant monster films in general. Truthfully, if you just want some fun, just watch the monster fight scenes on youtube. Because good god are they silly. This is why people don't take Godzilla seriously, one has to note.
★★☆☆☆