‘Godzilla vs. Kong ‘has once again brought to the fore the subgenre of the giant monsters tanning their backs. Is one of the best western films that has been dedicated to showing us two colossi settling their differences old-fashioned, but certainly not the first. Both Kong and Godzilla have a long history of adventures together or separately, and we have selected 11 of them that you can watch right now on various streaming platforms. The combat begins.
King Kong (1933)
Kong’s first classic is one of the absolute myths of fantasy cinema, with its archetypal tale of an untamed beast infatuated with a beautiful human woman and facing the technology of men until his ambition (and lust) makes him perish. The special effects of the classic, obviously outdated today technically, nevertheless maintain a magical primitive force thanks to the incredible work in stop motion de Willis O’Brien.
Kong’s Son (1933)
Ernest B. Schoedsack, one of the co-directors of the original film, repeated in this sequel that it does not retain an iota of the fame of the original film. But although it lacks the poetic breath of that one, it holds the guy thanks, again, to the effects of Willis O’Brien, and has a great chase sequence with a Styracosaurus. The tone is vastly lighter, if not overtly comical.
King Kong contra Godzilla (1962)
The original movie that showed the clash of the two colossi is a funny kaiju eiga which was the first color film for both of them. The argument is the same as always, only that after the expedition of rigor and the transport of the giant gorilla to civilization, here who has to be measured is not with the army but with a giant saurian. The Japanese montage, rarely seen in the West, is practically a satirical comedy about the working class Japan, and the film broke box office records at the time, being even today the most watched Godzilla production in history.
King Kong is escapa (1967)
The second and last Japanese movie with King Kong on board is even more fun and insane than its predecessor. With some models, some costumes and some fights between gargantuan critters absolutely delicious, also includes in the Mad Scientist package, wonderful dances without sense of proportions and sizes and, above all, the great Mechanikong, robotic gorilla double and one of the most delicious and unforgettable designs in the history of the kaiju eiga.
Alien Invasion (1968)
If you can only see a movie of chanantes monsters devastating large population centers, this is it. The sum maxima of the kaiju eiga is a gathering of (attention) Godzilla, Mothra, Ghidorah, Rodan, Baragon, Varan, Kumonga, Manda, Minilla, Gorosaurus, and Anguirus, controlled by invading aliens. An authentic barrabasada brimming with imagination, ingenuity, bicharracos and beauty brutalist.
King Kong (1976)
Even though the ape in this 70s version pales in comparison to the original (it’s a ridiculous gorilla costume), this -otherwise quite ostentatious- recreation of ‘King Kong’ at the hands of Dino De Laurentiis has a few attractions. On the one hand, the uncomfortable erotic high voltage that is established with Jessica Lange, in the key of pure exploit seventies. And on the other, the final ascent of the ape, not to the Empire State Building, but to the south tower of the World Trade Center. A film, then, that will not be repeated for various reasons.
Godzilla (1998)
The first fully North American reboot of ‘Godzilla’ is a entertaining adventure film, with enough action, riot and humor to be interesting, but it’s not exactly a Godzilla movie. To begin with, because of the (comparatively) tiny size of the saurian, too much like the T-Rex in fashion at the time thanks to ‘Jurassic Park’. Lacking the bleak devotion to the monster of its Japanese counterpart, it’s a good big bug movie, but it’s not Godzilla.
King Kong (2005)
A luxurious, somewhat stale version of Peter Jackson from the original film, which has the good taste to recreate itself in the initial part of Skull Island, recovering combat sequences between Kong and the local fauna taken not only from the original film, but also inspired by ‘The Son of Kong’. Remembered, in addition to its tremendous digital monkey, for the stupendous climax reformulating and spectacularizing the original.
Godzilla (2014)
The only Legendary Monsterverse movie available on platforms of streaming (although ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ and ‘Kong: Skull Island’ are available for rent on different platforms) this is the first, in which Gareth Edwards recycled the idea of his indie hit ‘Monsters’ with several million extra budget. This is, an emotional drama with a monster breaking things in the background. The result is estimable above all because of the scale of the bug and the impact of the sequences of destruction of public property.
Shin Godzilla (2016)
Hideaki Anno, creator of ‘Evangelion’, is co-responsible for the best modern Godzilla movie, a delusion in which all the elements of previous saury films are multiplied by a thousand, from the aberrant mutation of the creature to social satire (here an authentic anti-bureaucratic bombardment), passing through the monster’s own size and the scale of its destruction. With as many readings as a pop myth of the stature of Godzilla deserves, ‘Shin Godzilla’ proves that it is still possible to make a complex, funny, shocking and memorable giant monster movie.
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)
20,000 years after Godzilla conquered Earth, humans believe they have found a way to kill the saurian and take back the planet. An especially apocalyptic version of Godzilla that presents him as an overwhelming monster and different from the protector of humans in the movies. The adventure, the monster’s first animated film, is divided into three films, all available on Netflix: this one, ‘The city on the brink of battle’ and ‘The Planet Eater’.