# Godzilla Vs. Kong - OK, so did anybody else see this thing? (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies, hbomax-wb-dc\ **Created:** [April 1, 2021, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126 "2021-04-01T01:20:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/41 "2021-04-04T23:12:25Z")
That’s what I thought, but it wasn’t spelled out in any way. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/42 "2021-04-04T23:30:03Z")
All these critiques but no one has brought up what seems like another obvious question. Is the nighttime Hong Kong skyline really dominated by a whole bunch of multi-colored neon skyscrapers? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/43 "2021-04-04T23:40:34Z")
My wife said the A.I. tapped into the DNA of the ancient Titan. She seemed to think the movie made it clear. Did it say that? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/44 "2021-04-04T23:41:05Z")
Great question. Did they pick Hong Kong for that look? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/45 "2021-04-04T23:42:40Z")
The answer is, strangely enough, yes: [![](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/13-08-2019-HK-Jing.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg) ](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/13-08-2019-HK-Jing.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/46 "2021-04-04T23:42:48Z")
Kong was always an enormous ape, but Godzilla was always as tall as the Empire State Building. How did they end up at comparable heights? ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/47 "2021-04-04T23:44:52Z")
I thought Rebecca Hall was cute. \< dives for cover \> ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/48 "2021-04-05T00:11:02Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Kong was always an enormous ape, but Godzilla was always as tall as the Empire State Building. How did they end up at comparable heights? Well, here is the thing. Kong in Skull Island was a lot shorter. The director of this latched onto the statement that he was “still growing” in the Skull Island movie. I believe he is 3-4 times bigger in this movie, though. Godzilla? I don’t remember his size in the recent two movies. Same? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/49 "2021-04-05T00:36:47Z")
I was really looking forward to this with fairly low expectations. The movie was a major _meh_ for me. I dunno, maybe I’m too old to really enjoy the modern-day versions of Godzilla and Kong. There used to be a sense of wonder to go along with the awe of the great monsters, now it seems to me it’s all just mega-destructive overkill. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/50 "2021-04-05T02:06:23Z")
> [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](#): > > I thought Rebecca Hall was cute. > > \< dives for cover \> She’s cute but she always plays “sad woman”. Also, I disagree with a plot or character development not being required. You need something to anchor the story to the audience ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/51 "2021-04-05T02:23:06Z")
Both Godzilla’s and King Kong’s size have varied dramatically from movie to movie, and sometimes within a single movie. Historically, GZ was bigger, starting around 150’ and scaling up to 400’ or so. King Kong was only around 40’ in the 1933 movie (although it varied during the movie) and he got bigger over time. But the 2021 movie is the largest incarnation of Kong yet presented on film. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/52 "2021-04-05T04:45:42Z")
What was Kong eating this whole time? A couple bananas wouldn’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/53 "2021-04-05T04:49:58Z")
They showed him eating a barge load of fish when he was chained on the ship. But I think it’s implied that these monsters are fueled by that weird hollow earth energy source and don’t have metabolisms that work like other animals. ---
**Author:** ![Zack\_Poppet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/f07891/32.png) [@Zack\_Poppet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zack_Poppet)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/54 "2021-04-05T12:24:43Z")
Previous Kong film showed him eat other monsters. I suppose they could just feed him any kind of meat (or anything, really, since he’s an omnivore) ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/55 "2021-04-05T13:15:15Z")
Kong slurped up the brains of that flying creature he killed in the Hollow Earth. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/56 "2021-04-05T13:47:57Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > When I was seven, it never occurred to me that those were rubber costumes. I knew they weren’t real, but I really had no curiosity about how the film makers did it. > [@solost](#): > > Yeah I wasn’t too concerned with the craft and technique either when i was 7, just that it was awesome. As opposed to my kids who grew up much more jaded watching movies, seeing effects that were light-years more advanced and saying stuff like “that CG looks soooo fake!” To this day I prefer simple effects like that. It is much easier to suspend disbelief with a guy in a rubber suit playing Godzilla. Great modern special effects don’t look any more realistic, way too much time is put into the technical aspects of their creation than an understanding of how to make good use of the character in a film. They spent a lot of effort in highlighting the anthropomorphic qualities of Kong in this film, but never came close to portraying the pathos of the original character as it was done almost 90 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/57 "2021-04-05T15:30:22Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > To this day I prefer simple effects like that. It is much easier to suspend disbelief with a guy in a rubber suit playing Godzilla. And the thing is, even those “simple” effects weren’t as simple as we often think. A tremendous amount of effort went into crafting the various monster suits and miniature effects. It’s fairly common to talk about “guys in rubber suits knocking over cardboard buildings.” In fact, those miniature buildings were never made of cardboard. They were mostly wood and plaster, and a lot of work went into them. For example, the miniature of [Atami Castle](https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Atami_Castle#/media/File:The_great_showdown.png) that the monsters destroy in the original _King Kong Vs. Godzilla_ was incredibly detailed. It was a very recognizable structure that everyone in Japan would have known. Hours and hours of work went into building that miniature, just for the two suit actors to destroy it. The same is true of the [National Diet Building](https://wikizilla.org/wiki/National_Diet_Building) (the seat of the Japanese parliament), seen in many films. These were not effects that were just casually slapped together. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/58 "2021-04-05T15:33:48Z")
And the man-hours that went into the original Kong’s stop motion animation was probably comparable to the CGI used in his latest outing. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/59 "2021-04-05T15:35:38Z")
Answering the important question of the movie: [Godzilla vs. King Kong: Whose Poops Would Be Bigger? | Mental Floss](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/644356/godzilla-king-kong-whose-poops-would-be-bigger) ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126/60 "2021-04-05T17:43:30Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > She’s cute but she always plays “sad woman”. I’m Positive that this is not the limit of her range. That these may be the roles offered to her by those who feel her acting only excels in that category makes me sad. I might have met her once… and there was absolutely nothing sad about her. Maybe it wasn’t her, maybe it was her Doppelgänger. ( …but holy smoke, that Doppelgänger was a Hottie…! ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-vs-kong-ok-so-did-anybody-else-see-this-thing-open-spoilers/939126.md?page=4)