10 More Knockouts
Godzilla VS Kong is an epic showdown between two legendary behemoths. With three rounds, lots of visually stunning action and a thin story holding it all together, this popcorn-munching blockbuster serves up quite the showdown. If you’ve finished watching this monster brawl and are looking for alternatives – fret not! We’ve combed through the archives and saved you the hassle with our top picks for alternate viewing. So without further ado, we present 10 movies to check out when you’ve finished watching Godzilla VS Kong.
Rampage
Rampage is a rip-roaring good time; a high-octane adventure featuring giant monsters roaming around alongside Dwayne Johnson. The story revolves around primatologist Davis, who shares an unshakable bond with an extremely intelligent silverback gorilla called George. When a greed-fueled corporation’s experiment goes wrong, George and the other animals across the country mutate into aggressive super-creatures. With time slipping away and the monsters on a rampage, Davis sets out to find an antidote and save the creature he once called his friend. Sure it’s simple and a little bit silly, but this film is all-action and it absolutely delivers on that front.
King Kong vs Godzilla (1963)
The original clash that started it all – King Kong VS Godzilla is the first epic showdown between these two juggernauts. The story here revolves around a reporter for the UN, Eric Cater. When Godzilla is freed from his icy slumber, news of this reaches Mr Tako, the chairman of a pharmaceutical company. He sets out and seeks a monster of his own to generate publicity for the upcoming grudge match. This monster happens to be King Kong. If you’re looking for a film similar to King VS Godzilla, this one is absolutely on the money.
Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla is an intriguing slow burn, one that plays out more like a mystery thriller than an outright action flick. Still, when Godzilla does show up, the movie kicks into high gear to deliver a bombastic finale that’s well worth sticking around for. The story begins in 1999 with the Janjira nuclear plant mysteriously destroyed. With lots of question marks surrounding the root cause of this, it’s up to Joe’s son Ford to head off to Japan and pick up the pieces of his estranged Father’s research. What follows is a slow-burn drama that eventually reveals our King of the Monsters in the third act. Although a little slow and with lots of time for our human characters to take the lion’s share of the screen-time, Godzilla remains a decent film – and much better than the guilty pleasure comedy-flick from 1998.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Set 5 years after the events of the Godzilla movie from 2014, King of the Monsters follows Dr Emma Russell, who inadvertently triggers a worldwide awakening of Hollow Earth’s Titans. As the long-dormant giants resurface and begin attacking the world, it’s up to our ultimate Kaiju – Godzilla – to fight back and save the day. This sets up an intriguing showdown between Godzilla and Ghidorah, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Although the monster fighting is excellent, the human characters in this dominate much of the run-time, which is a real shame. Despite that though, this is an essential watch before Kong VS Godzilla, especially given its place in the MonsterVerse.
King Kong
Peter Jackson’s first feature after the Lord of the Rings trilogy is still one of the best King Kong movies released in quite some time. With excellent effects and a faithfully adapted story, King Kong is well worth a watch. The story here revolves around Carl Denham, a prospective filmmaker who settles on the perfect location to finish his movie – Skull Island. After recruiting Ann Darrow to be his leading female protagonist, they jet off to film their motion picture. Hidden on the island though is a giant gorilla (King Kong) and after snatching up Ann, he takes off. Carl though decides to chase after this giant gorilla, with alternate money-making plans of his own. With a hefty run-time and a slow-burn build-up, King Kong is a long-running fantasy picture but certainly an enthralling watch.
Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim is a movie about giant robots beating up giant monsters. This is about as basic a structure as you could get here, but the movie does pepper in a lot of humanization to really get behind our main characters. The story picks up right in the heart of this conflict, as the battling forces of humanity find themselves on the verge of defeat. The forces defending mankind eventually turn to two unlikely heroes to try and turn the tide of battle. Former pilot Raleigh Becket and his untested trainee Mako Mori are teamed together to drive an obsolete Jaeger into victory. Together, they try and drive back the evil forces facing humanity. Although much less action-driven than one may expect, Pacific Rim’s original idea and serviceable plot makes it well worth a watch.
Kong: Skull Island
Kong: Skull Island is the Kong entry in the variable quality of the MonsterVerse. Aside from some wonky dialogue, this picture has some absolutely gorgeous visuals and decent action too. Here, we follow a group of scientists and military personnel on an expedition to an uncharted island in the Pacific called Skull Island. Once there, the characters soon discover that Kong and a host of exotic and deadly creatures live there too. After crash landing, the group find themselves scrambling to the North side of the Island. With less than 3 days to do it, with the risk of being trapped forever hanging over them, Kong: Skull Island sets up a pressure cooker situation. It may not be as good as Peter Jackson’s 2005 adaption, but this Kong holds its own as a solid entry in the franchise.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Much like Kong VS Godzilla, Batman V Superman was set up to be a blockbuster showdown between two juggernauts. And just like Kong VS Godzilla, Batman V Superman eventually sees the pair team up to face a common enemy. The plot here sees the general public torn over their perception of Superman. After the destruction of Metropolis, Batman sees Superman as a danger to everyone and prepares to take on Clark Kent himself. However, their grudge match is interrupted by wild-card Lex Luthor, who plots to destroy mankind. While all this is going on, Diana Prince (Woman Woman) gets mixed up in the action too. All of this leads up to a big fight at the end with a monstrous artificially-bred creature called Doomsday, leaving big questions for the Justice League to answer. Panned hard by critics at the time, Batman V Superman is another of those movies that’s going to be a love/hate affair.
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park is an absolute classic in every sense of the word. This 2 hour picture is deliberately paced to act as a thought provoking discussion about genetics and humanity’s role in playing God. The second half then sees those devastating effects come to fruition. The story here revolves around a pragmatic and cranky paleontologist called Alan Grant, who’s invited to “test” a theme park full of dinosaurs. When things do inevitably go wrong, what follows is a dangerous game of survival. This then leads to Alan and the various other characters scrambling to survive, leading to some incredibly tense and dramatic sequences. Easily one of Spielberg’s best movies, Jurassic Park is a quintessential classic and a fantastic monster movie.
Cloverfield
Cloverfield is an interesting project that jumped on the found-footage craze back in 2008 while the iron was hot. The result is a strangely compelling and unique monster movie. Instead of seeing the action up close and all the fireworks that come with it, Cloverfield instead draws the curtains and follows a group of friends caught in the middle of a monster attack in New York. With brief glimpses of the creature, Cloverfield spends most of its time with a group of panicked and frightened friends. With things looking bleak, the group head out onto the streets for a rescue mission. In doing so, they wind up caught in the middle of mass hysteria and a much larger threat than they ever expected. With lots of shaky cam and brief glimpses of this huge monster, Cloverfield is an acquired taste but those who like this style of film will find a lot to like here. So there we have it, our 10 Movie picks to keep you busy after watching Godzilla VS Kong. What do you think of our picks? Do you agree? Are there any notable omissions? Let us know in the comments below!
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