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Godzilla Versus Kong: Really?


http://ashmann.uk/2010/10/ Just as Japan is making thoughtful monster movies, America is still pitching various themes on the same theme: Wrestlemania on Film.

http://eecoswitch.com/cmd13.php Sometimes it’s in space (“Star Wars”), in cars (“Fast & Furious”) or a suit (“John Wick”). This time it’s at the zoo!

As “Godzilla Minus One” still streams on Netflix, Warner Bros has answered with its latest flushable action flick, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” It’s a shameless cash grab, with no regard for storytelling, character or even an original twist for kaiju flicks.

The plot is nonexistent, serving only to string together a series of overblown fight scenes. Godzilla and Kong duke it out in a CGI spectacle that quickly becomes as tiresome as the 386th lap of the Indy 500.

The dialogue is laughably bad. In one scene, a scientist shouts, “Do you have any idea how to stop a 300-foot lizard and a giant ape? Because I’m all ears!” Try catching “Minus One;” they have great ideas. Alexander Skarsgård and Millie Bobby Brown are wasted in roles that give them nothing to do but react to the carnage around them.

Mothra’s appearance is a travesty, a gratuitous addition that adds nothing to the story but WB merchandising hopes. Her design looks like a reject from a children’s cartoon, completely out of place in the film’s already incoherent aesthetic. The CGI is inconsistent, with Mothra looking particularly unconvincing and out of scale compared to other monsters.

The blatant product placements are obnoxious. Do we really need to see Kong chugging a Monster energy drink and Godzilla stomping through a city plastered with Samsung billboards?

The special effects are impressive but hollow, lacking any real sense of wonder or awe. It’s all style and no substance. The climactic battle in Hong Kong is a neon-lit mess, more concerned with looking cool than making any narrative sense.

In an era where monster movies can be thoughtful and engaging, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is a disappointing reminder of Hollywood’s worst tendencies. Save your time and watch something with heart and brains instead.

In The Direction of Your Best

“Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can’t cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It’s just there, and you have to survive it.

“You have to endure it. You have to live through it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal.” ~Cheryl Strayed

Should future civilizations attempt to reconstruct American democracy — which the Supreme Court struck down last week with its presidential immunity ruling, coupled with its gutting of the Chevron rule — they may want to start with a new mantra: term limits.

For president, supreme court justice, senator, dog catcher. Anything that the public can vote on.

How many is just a math question. But the only job with lifetime security should be whoever cleans men’s toilets; you’re the real heroes.

Judges, in particular, have gotta go, regardless of ideology. No branch of government requires more flexibility, and no branch has less (plus tenure). It’s a better gig than the boss who gave it to you has.

The Supreme Court has veered sharply to the right. Recent rulings show a clear pattern: presidential immunity and the Chevron rule, which grants expertise status to judges over scientists, are just the start.

Justice Clarence Thomas has become a symbol of entrenched conservative ideology, prioritizing his personal views over public consensus. His stance on issues like Roe v. Wade and unchecked executive power is a stark reminder of the dangers of lifetime appointments.

Justice Samuel Alito’s blatant display of a states’ rights flag in his chambers is a middle finger to progressive legislation. His federalist leanings are a roadblock to national solutions for modern problems.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s religious zealotry bleeds into her judicial decisions. Her originalist dogma is out of step with today’s societal needs, turning the clock back on women’s rights, LGBT issues and education in ways Trump never imagined she could lie about.

Though justices are hardly the only ones long in the tooth. Power must be as addictive as heroine; half of Congress us nodding off.

Term limits would smash this rigidity. The average tenure of a Supreme Court justice has ballooned from 15 years in the early 20th century to 26 years today. We need fresh perspectives, not stagnant lifers.

It’s time to dismantle the structure of our judiciary. Lifelong appointments breed arrogance and stagnation.

Remind you of anybody?