King Kong Vs Godzilla 1962 Film Review

Godzilla has his fair share of foes ranging from Mothra to Rodan to King Ghidorah but perhaps one of his most overlooked foes is King Kong. While alot of the more modern audiences will know of the American Godzilla and the American Kong being the best of friends those that grew up with the franchise prior to 2014's Godzilla will no that they aren't friends at all and well I thought that i'd take a look at the film that brought these two monsters together for the first time and so then join me as I review the film that was only made to spoof TV shows and there obsession with ratings with the film in question being called simply just "King Kong Vs Godzilla" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when a TV show sponsor gets wind there's a monster of some sort on the small island called Faro Island he sends two dimwitted employees to capture the beast all the while Godzilla returns and heads straight to Japan with the countries only hope being the monster King Kong. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. To be frank this films plot isn't as strong as it could and while this is something that is still a bad thing we don't usually go to a Japanese Godzilla film for the plot rather we go to see Godzilla destroying Japan that being said however. It still would have been nice if the film did have a more stronger plot to it as outside of the basic premise of Godzilla and Kong fighting there's nothing really to this films plot and yet when the early Godzilla films did have strong plots to them even dating back to the first film and yet here it felt like that the makers of the film were just doing the bare minimum amount of work when it comes to the films plot. With the films plot feeling like a generic early Godzilla film with nothing new added to it this is by no means a bad thing tho as this films plot is still an enjoyable plot to watch but it's one that could have been so much more better then what it ended up being with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Tadao Takashima as Osamu Sakurai , Kenji Sahara as Kazuo Fujita and Yū Fujiki as Kinsaburo Furue. Also starring in this film is Ichirō Arishima as Mr. Tako , You Only Live Twice star Mie Hama as Fumiko Sakurai , Jun Tazaki as General Masami Shinzo , You Only Live Twice star Akiko Wakabayashi as Tamie , Akihiko Hirata as Defense Minister Shigezawa , Somesho Matsumoto as Dr. Ohnuki , Akemi Negishi as Chikiro's Mother , Shoichi Hirose as King Kong and Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Again much like with the films plot you don't really go into a Godzilla film expecting the acting to be good especially if its a Japanese Godzilla film and while it is nice when a Japanese Godzilla film does have good acting in it it's not really needed and yet with this film we do get some fairly solid acting from all of the films actors as you can tell that all of this films actors are trying there best to turn in a good performance and if you've seen You Only Live Twice then you'll know right away what kind of performance both Mie Hama and Akiko Wakabayashi can do as they turn in the exact performance in this film that they would do in that film and heck even the actors playing Godzilla and King Kong were really good in this film. With the best actor in this film being Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla as he is the only actor to appear in alot of the early Godzilla films playing the same character and while there was a it of gap between this film and the second film he does slip right back into character almost as if he'd been playing him his whole life with being made clear as day that he is not only more confident in the role of Godzilla but is also having the time of his life in playing the character as well and that kind of love for the character is something that does shine through in his final performance. With the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

While granted alot of the human characters in any of the Godzilla films aren't that good they are at least better then the ones done in this film. As alot of the human characters in this film are mostly used for bad comedy relief which is something that this film really didn't need but what it did was well done human characters and yet you can tell right away that the makers of this film didn't give any thought to the films human characters as the characters on Kong's side of the story are just knock off characters from the characters in the original King Kong and the ones in the Godzilla side of things whilst they do have potential to be good characters just aren't given the time to showcase what it is that makes them standout in the first place. Heck even Mie Hama's character who is a key character in both plots is nothing more then a knock off of the Ann Darrow character from the original film as they both play the exact same role look fair enough you don't go into one of these films expecting good characters in fact the franchise is known for having badly done human characters but you still expect them to be passable and not have half of them just be there for bad comedy and the other half not have all that much to do in the films plot. As you could remove all of the characters that mainly appear in Godzilla's side of the plot and nothing would change as Godzilla will still be freed by the Americans and still head towards Japan for a fight with Kong whereas tho you can't remove the characters from Kong's side of things as it's due to them that Kong arrives in Japan in the first place. To be fair these characters aren't that bad as once you get past the fact that there's nothing to these characters there is some fun to be had with them and heck you could argue that much like the rest of the film this films characters are just the stereotypical Kaiju characters and nothing more then that.

Look it might seem like i'm hating on this film for no reason but i'm really not infact I do like the film as the film is the kind of Godzilla film that you could have on in the background and still find enjoyable it's just that there is alot of things that don't work in the film. Like for example the suit for Kong in this film whilst there are some shots in the film where the film does look really good there are alot more shots in the film where the suit does look really goofy looking yet when you compare this with the suit used for Godzilla you can tell the difference right away as Godzilla's suit yes it does look a bit goofy in a few shots but it mainly looks awsome whereas with Kong his suit does look a little low effort granted this be because of the fact that the makers of this film based his appearance more of an actual gorilla. However if they based how he looks in this film more of how he looked in the original film then his suit might have looked a little bit more better granted tho there is only so much that you can do to make a gorilla suit look good but at the same time tho there did need to be some thought and effort into making the suit be as good as it could have been whereas here in this film it did feel like that the makers of this film had no ideas on what they wanted the character to look like and therefor they just went with the most basic approach to the suit as they could have done but to be fair to this film tho the suit is for the most part hidden in darkness and therefor we don't really get to see what the character until near the end of the film which is a good way to build up suspense as to how Kong is going to look in this film but all of that suspense is gone when you see how goofy he looks alot of the time, this is something that would have been OK if the film was being targeted more towards kids as then you could argue that his design was tweaked to get kids to like him but it wasn't therefor there should have been a little bit more effort put into making his suit look not better then but as good as the suit used for Godzilla.

As was said in this revie this film is the kind of Godzilla film that you could have on in the background and you'd still no what's going on. Which is by no means a bad thing as sometimes you do just want a stereotypical Godzilla film to watch but given the fact that this franchise started of on such a high note it is shocking to see the quality dip with this third film as there is no talk all throughout the film but what nuclear bombs could do to us humans if we keep on using them like there was at the end of the first film we instead get a rather ham fisted message about not caring about TV ratings and just enjoying life which is something that really only applies to this films more satirical take on how far people are willing to go to get good ratings. This isn't a bad message persay as while the first part is something that it could very well be argued is very satirical the second part of the message however is one that could still be applied to this day as we do still get people over working themselves and shutting themselves of from others with them not really taking the time to stop and smell the flowers every once in a while and just take things more slowly as that is something that could end up with us feeling over worked and while the film doesn't really delve into that side of the message all that well as the film does seem to be more focused on its satirical message then it is in being a heartfelt the film itself still does deliver that second half of the message really well as we do see characters in the film that do over work themselves and that do care just as much about work then they do about seeing a loved one with the film even using Godzilla as a metaphor as to how that can effect you by having those characters go after Godzilla and chase hm around the countryside in a way that does over work them even more and heck even Kong is used as metaphor when it comes to TV stations getting good ratings as Mr. Tako , Osamu Sakurai and Kinsaburo Furue all spend a good chunk of the film trying to capture him in the hopes of getting good ratings.

We all know but the long since denied legend of there being two different endings for the film depending on which version of the film that you saw. However there was actually a never filmed ending that got cut before filming began as there was originally going to be an epilogue where an announcer says that traces of Kong and Godzilla can't be found with the scene then shifting to the two characters fighting only or it to be revealed that it's all for a commercial with Mr. Tako acting as the director and Osamu Sakurai and Kinsaburo Furue acting as both Kong and Godzilla respectively yeah it is easy to see why this ending got cut from the script as even for a film that is more lighthearted as this one is it is a pretty bad way to end the film. The scene does go on after at with Sakurai suddenly remembering that it's his sisters wedding with both men running out the door still in costume running out of the door and on to a flatbed which speeds away being whist being chased by police cars before ending the film for good, thankfully this scene was cut from the final script as it was seen a being to much of a farce and yeah even from reading the brief scene in Godzilla: The First 70 Years it does read as being something that would be more at home in a spoof of the Godzilla films and not an official Godzilla film as all throughout the film they do balance the comedy and serious tones of the film quite well and this one scene would have tipped it to far into being a comedy with the ending that we did get with Kong swimming back to Faro Island being a great way to end the film as it confirms that Kong i alive and it makes it possible for there to e more Godzilla films due to the fact that they never confirm if Godzilla is dead or not therefor fans of both character ultimately win.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty seven minuets. Whilst this is a decent running time for the film to have the film takes well over an hour for Godzilla and Kong to meet up and fight whereas something that's quite literally this big should have been something that the film arrived at at a much more earlier point in the film as we don't need to see every aspect of Kong's journey to Japan but we do need to see how Godzilla got out of the ice that he was left in at the end of the previous film and that's really it with the film having more then enough plot there to really cover that amount of running time. The film really doesn't use its running time all that wisely as the film doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot and whilst this is still a bad thing it is something that you do expect from a Japanese Godzilla film as alot of them do have bare bones plot and alot of them don't have fully developed plots as the main focus is where it should be on Godzilla however tho the few films that do fully develop there plots like for example Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One they do end up being all the more better because of it and whist this film really didn't need to have a more fully developed plot it would have helped the film out quite a bit if it did but the makers of this film seemed to be more focused on giving us badly done comedy human characters then they did giving us a well developed plot. Unfortunately the films characters do also suffer as none of them get any kind of character development which is something that you do expect from Godzilla as he is meant to be the one essentially teaching us a lesson but you do expect a character like Mr. Tako to learn to not be obsessed with ratings which to be fair is something that does somewhat happen in the film but the film has him go right back to his old ways pretty much right away which is fine as he's meant to be a more comedic character but it is still that does hurt the film as you can be a more comedic character and grow as a character you don't need to be one or the other and this is something that the makers of this film failed to understand with them being more focused on showing us every aspect of Kong's journey to Japan then they are in giving us well thought out characters but I really will admit that that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho. 

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. While it might seem odd that the characters are acting more like Pro Wrestlers for the time this is something that was done on purpose as the makers of this film felt that new TV programming like oddly enough wrestling was dumbing down the Japanese audience and therefor one of the things that they satirized was wrestling by having the characters and Kong and Godzilla fight like wrestlers however they do still fit in alot of the more traditional Godzilla action by showing us Godzilla wreck several local villages in Japan all of which is really fun to see in the film. With the best action scene in the whole entire film of course being the fight between Godzilla and Kong with both monsters using what powers that they have against each other which for Kong isn't that much as he only has super strength and that's really it but we do get to see him and Godzilla just beat each other up whilst crushing mountain villages beneath there feet as if there nothing which is something that will always be fun to see and while yes there will always be these more goofy moments like Kong trying to force a tree down Godzilla throat we do get some equally cool stuff like like Kong using his head to try and knock Godzilla and while that does result in him knocking himself out as he does hit his head on a rock it also results in his comeback as lighting strikes him with this Kong gaining more strength from lighting and while the result of this dual is pretty much a draw it is still a really cool fight to see in the first place with the rest of this films action being just as a good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall whilst the American film Godzilla Vs Kong is the better made film it's this film that is the more fun to watch as allot of the faults in the film are the things that make it enjoyable and while the film is just the stereotypical Godzilla film and nothing more then that that's all this film really needed to be and to be it is good at being exactly that as the only thing it needed was the stereotypical Godzilla film and really nothing more then that in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.

Now the as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Wikizilla and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Wikizilla this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Wikizilla are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Wikizilla really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.