King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

A Disappointing Continuation

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Godzilla's third epic (and first in first colour) finds Japan's giant mutated dinosaur squaring off against America's immense ape*. Some liberties have been taken with Kong's size (the original beast would only been up to Godzilla's knee), and given that Godzilla has radioactive fire breath, the match would seem a bit one sided BUT, it turns out that Kong has some hitherto unsuspected powers, so the match is closer than the punters would expect. Not much more to say beyond the title about the rudimentary plot. The film itself is unimpressive and is the first of the series to slip into the camp silliness that many people outside Japan associate with the Godzilla films. A Japan/US co-production, the movie is interspersed with 'reports' from the UN (relayed through what had been the "Mysterians" (1957) space base) featuring a completely unconvincing 'reporter' and a droning 'scientist' expressing ridiculous observations and opinions about the goings on in Japan. The Godzilla suit is fine but King Kong, who looks like he has mange, has a rubbery, unexpressive face, long dangly arms (that shorten when necessary), and a distinct human posture. The miniatures are not up to the standards of the two previous outings and in many of the matt shots, the foreground humans are blue and indistinct. In a distinct departure from the first two entries into the canon, much of the film is played for laughs (especially Mr. Tako (comedian Ichiro Arishima) who is painful for anyone over the age of eight to watch), presumably targeting families with kids. Likely related to this, the story-line is light-hearted, the action almost slapstick, and the movie lacks any of the soberness of the original and first sequel: while cities are destroyed, there is no sense that anyone actually died. Billed as a battle between two iconic monsters, "King Kong vs Godzilla" is a step down for the nascent franchise and, although followed by the vastly superior "Mothra vs. Godzilla" (1964), represents the beginning of the long (albeit profitable) slide into child-friendly goofiness of the late '60s and '70s entries. *This review is for the American dubbed version. The original Japanese version, while suffering from same production limitations, is supposedly much better.

How do Godzilla and King Kong ever run into each other? The answer is worse than the special effects in the this,the 3rd Godzilla movie. With clearly visible zippers and lots of continuity errors,this movie isn't half bad. The monsters get more screen time in this one and it features lots of ridiculous action.That combination makes this one of the best movies in this very long and boring series. If you watched all the Godzilla movies in order,this one would make you expect good things from the franchise. Then after watching several terrible movies with interchangeable plots,monsters and humans, you will be extremely disappointed at what is essentially a series of unwatchable poop starring a monster that died in the first one.

Consider King Kong in this movie: he looks like crap. Let's just be honest about it, folks, how many who came to this expecting to see a major fight between the two iconic figures in the world of movie monsters, for different reasons in different countries (one of them came out of the nuclear panic after two atomic bombs and the other... wasn't that) would likely come to discover one of these figures is not how they were originally visaged. This doesn't have Willis O'Brien, it doesn't even have Ray Harryhausen doing any of the work on that lovable tough mother of a King of the Kongs. This is a guy in a bad rubber gorilla suit that is scaled to size against a creature who, even when you're four years old, recognize is not scaled to size.I know all of this and know it's not a good movie at heart. But I also don't care inasmuch that I come to this movie wanting to see some cheesy fights and Monster-Movie-Moments, and I get them. The story, from what I can remember (even after first seeing it it didn't stick much less months or years later), is about how a pharmaceutical company (damn you bit Pharma!) brings King Kong to fight Godzilla for TV ratings. TV Ratings! It's not subtle and the human actors are rather hapless in the wake of the two movie creatures. Indeed there may not be quite enough fighting to justify the title - shouldn't it be like at least 70% ape vs lizard and the rest over the top English dubbing? But I take what I can get, and this is as good as it could get for 1962 on a low (Japanese) budget.Good God it's bad, but I just don't care.

This is the 3rd King Kong movie. It also the 3rd Godzilla movie. Better King Kong movies would be King Kong (1933) King Kong (1976) King Kong (2005) and the 2nd King Kong movie Son of Kong. I'm not going to name all the Godzilla movies that are better. But here some examples. The first one Godzilla King of the monsters. The fourth one Godzilla vs M.O.T.H.R.A. The sixth one Godzilla vs monster zero. This is better then the second one Godzilla raids again. The best Godzilla movie is the remake from 1998. Maybe you don't think so. That's OK. But if you are really mad about it get a life you chowder heads. But still this is very very good movie. All the King Kong movies are. Most of the Godzilla movies are very good. Two iconic monster battle can't go wrong. Good fun See it. Classic. Most see.