La Ron S. Readus
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Kong Deserved a Skull Island Sequel (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2021-03-29 20:00:03 +0000 UTC(Yells) The REAL monster is MAN! (Waits a second) Okay, now that all the CHILDREN are gone, let’s have an ACTUAL discussion about Godzilla vs. Kong.
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No Readers. This isn’t me giving in to the discourse of my fellow YouTubers and finally picking a side between Godzilla versus Kong.
I stand by the statement that picking a side in a movie that’s CLEARLY not going to let either of these monsters fall to the other is stupid. ESPECIALLY since we finally have confirmation that Mechagodzilla is involved and is more than likely the reason these two are fighting in the first place.
As a matter of fact, Mechagodzilla’s involvement kinda has a lot to do with why I’m making this video in the first place if you think about it.
Because while I enjoyed Godzilla and Godzilla: King of the Monsters as its own franchise and is initially the light I first and foremost look at these two movies in, I tend to forget that they’re actually part of this Monsterverse -- even though it should be called Kaijuniverse -- that Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures are making for themselves.
And just as importantly, the film Kong: Skull Island is ALSO part of said universe, with both franchises in this universe set to clash in the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong.
So since they gave one to Godzilla before leading up to his involvement in the film, how come Kong only has 1 film under his belt? Why doesn’t HE have a solo sequel leading up to Godzilla vs. Kong? Because Kong: Skull Island has proven that he DEFINITELY deserved one.
Now before some of yall start hoopin’ and hollerin’, let me put an end to one reason why Skull Island never got a sequel.
No. It wasn’t because of box office numbers.
If we compare 2014’s Godzilla to 2017’s Kong: Skull Island number-wise since they’re both origin stories for the characters, some people would find them pretty surprising. Godzilla had a budget of 160 million while Skull Island’s was 25 million more, but neither movie cost more than 200 million.
But despite him being more of the household name, what 2014’s Godzilla made in the box office was almost 530 million and Kong: Skull Island’s take home was just under 567 million; almost 38 million more than Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla. So if you do the math, the box office profit of Kong: Skull Island surpassed the profit of Godzilla by almost 13 million worldwide.
If we were going off of box office results alone, the at-the-time execs at Warner Brothers would’ve immediately seen the idea of greenlighting another solo Kong film as a no-brainer.
I mean, give both of them sequels of course; 369 million in box office profit is nothing to scoff at, even if Kong Skull Island made 13 million more
But the fact that only Godzilla got that follow-through with King of the Monsters when Kong: Skull Island not only proved that it deserved one, but is in desperate need of one in order to help flesh out his involvement in this Monsterverse considering his importance, is foolish decision-making that may come back to bite the studios in the ass.
What do I mean by that? Well, allow me to explain.
Now, some would argue that the reason why we received a Godzilla sequel instead outside of box office numbers was because he has more of a mythos to pull stories from.
He has other kaiju that are just as unique to his brand as characters like Robin, Commissioner Gordon and Joker are to Batman and you could easily pull from that well of pre-established creativity to create a follow-up story.
And while Godzilla has that, Kong doesn’t. He just has the original story written in 1933 by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper. But that’s PRECISELY the reason why he deserved a solo follow-up.
Kong Skull Island clearly took liberties regarding how Wallace and Cooper’s Skull Island is not only portrayed, but also in regards to introducing new monsters, kaiju, titans (whatever) that neither the 1933 original Kong, the 1976 Kong, or Peter Jackson’s Kong had.
/And it did so with the Skullcrawlers; an entirely new monster that’s not only original to this version of King Kong, but is actually a part of his lore in this variant./
/And more of that creativity, exploration and worldbuilding is deserving of Kong just like it was of Godzilla when they used King of the Monsters to introduce his already established ally and villains into this universe./
Now I know what you’re thinking:
But La’Ron, aren’t all those aspects of the Monsterverse version of Kong going to be further explored in Godzilla vs Kong?
Well Readers, the answer to that question is yes.
They’re going to explore the origin of the Titans, how the hollow earth theory is going to play a part into the existence of Titans as a whole, and Kong’s existence in general considering he’s the last of his kind.
But by dedicating so much focus on Kong in what’s basically the equivalent of an Event Film in this universe, it takes away from the actual main event and the eventual team-up.
I’m not saying that Godzilla vs. Kong CAN’T be about Kong. But having a follow-up that explores at least 30% of the things GvK is going to explore taking place before it, not only opens up a lot more room in the movie we’re actually going to get, but it also gives us a better chance to connect with Kong and absorb this new mythos we’re establishing for him if we had solo follow-up before it.
Because outside of what we learned about him in the first Skull Island, we have nothing to go on outside of the fact that he’s grown to be Godzilla’s size over the course of 50 years.
He’s clearly had adventures of his own, learned to connect with Skull Island natives, and even encountered other non-native humans from Monarch over the course of the time between his movie and the team-up. Why can’t those adventures and the discoveries unearthed from them factor into what the story of Godzilla vs Kong is trying to tell without trying to shoehorn them in a movie that may not be able to hold it all?
Unlike Godzilla who has years of Toho produced characters to pull from and establish in this American monsterverse, we have nothing to go on with Kong, and trying to use the event film where he fights Godzilla to tell the story of the journey he clearly should’ve gone on beforehand is only going to diminish the main reason for the event film in the first place.
And that’s the same mistake Batman v Superman made back in 2016.
Because there was no solo follow-up to Man of Steel and Superman’s next appearance following it was an event film, the dedicated Superman narrative felt rushed and ill-paced because we had his bout and interactions with Batman to get to.
/The plot of Lex trying to prove that “if God is all powerful, then he cannot be all good” by trying to show the world that they shouldn’t put their trust in Supes and instead in him is a BRILLIANT hook for a follow-up to Man of Steel considering how it ended. Because with that, you’re establishing how Superman reacts and handles situations Lex would throw at him in this new universe, seeing how his actions impact some people while disheartening others. Then said discourse caused by Lex’s initial division attracts the attention of Bruce to make Dawn of Justice be its own thing -- an actual event./
Dawn of Justice tried to fit in THAT, Bruce’s want to destroy Supes, Diana’s subplot and the Trinity fight with Doomsday, when all it would’ve taken to make it the spectacle it was initially meant to be was just give Man of Steel a sequel that focused on Lex turning the people of earth against Superman first.
I truly believe that if Kong Skull Island ALSO had a follow-up like Godzilla did -- to explore more about the machinations of Skull Island, give Kong his own Ghidorah, give him something new to discover about himself and his species of Titan, and maybe even dabble a bit more into the hollow earth stuff like when Serizawa’s team found out about the ancient sunken civilization that worshipped Godzilla when they went to feed him an atomic bomb...
Not only would it establish so much more about the lore of this version of Kong, but it would free Godzilla vs. Kong to be what it TRULY is; an event film.
There! I’ve DONE IT! I’ve made yet ANOTHER video that doesn’t feed into the juvenile-ass Team Godzilla Team Kong discord!
Now for my next trick, I’ll explain why everyone who likes Namor -- even those who are just thirsty for him -- are wrong.
But, I digress, Readers. Your homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below if YOU think we should’ve gotten a Skull Island 2 before Godzilla vs. Kong
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, what you would’ve liked to have seen in a hypothetical Skull Island sequel set before the big bout.
Whichever you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts.
