#Ilene Nathan

[woozapooza]

Black Sails 3x01 / The Wire 2x06

[gorillageek27]

Hello! I just watched Godzilla vs. Kong and couldn't help but ship Ilene Andrews and Nathan Lind. But I can hardly find any post about them on Tumblr. I wonder if I'm just delulu?? What are your thoughts on them??

I honeslty feel like they work better as coworkers or friends. Like ilene doesnt seem to be interested to have a relationship, and nathan seems to be engrossed in his work too. When I watch them i wasnt thinking "oh these two would make a cute couple" i was thinking "okay these guy are just friends or at the very least friendly associates"

[hrodvitnon]

Suko: *crying holding a broken humvee* i'm sorry ms. Ilene. Please don't be mad

Ilene: *siiigh* its okay. You just didnt know how sensitive it was.

Suko: *sniffling* y-you're not mad a-at me?

Ilene: no i'm not mad. However this does give me an idea.

Later

Suko: *happily smashing old disgarded monarch vehicles*

Scientist: um dr. Andrews. What is this suppose to be testing?

Ilene: durabilty. We get to see how can upgrade the armor on our vehicles, and he gets to have fun

Nathan: Aw, it's like when I played with my Hot Wheels as a kid!

Ilene: I know, right?! So cute!

*Suko crashes two vehicles into each other, the scientists all go "awwwww!"*

[directmag]

[Regarder] Godzilla x Kong : Le nouvel Empire (2024) Film en streaming VOSTFR – VF

papadustream.cfd

-Regarder Godzilla x Kong : Le nouvel Empire en streaming sur Papadustream.cfd : Streaming Le dernier opus de la franchise Monsterverse de Warner Bros. montre des signes d'une imagination anémique. Rien dans “Godzilla x Kong : Le Nouvel Empire” ne fait sens, ce qui n'est pas, en soi, un problème. Nous ne sommes pas installés confortablement dans nos sièges de cinéma avec notre popcorn rassis pour discuter de métaphores et de science ; nous sommes ici pour les stars du titre. À propos de ce titre : “Godzilla x Kong” (censé évoquer divers autres titres dans d'autres films Godzilla, non hollywoodiens) pourrait signifier Godzilla multiplié par Kong, ou Godzilla croisé avec Kong, ou encore Godzilla contre Kong — une sorte de permutation de titans. Quoi qu'il en soit, il y aura des coups. Nous sommes là pour les coups.

Ce que nous ne sommes pas là pour voir, ce sont les humains, ce qui est chanceux, car ils tombent comme des mouches. La plupart des personnages des derniers films — y compris celui de 2021 “Godzilla vs. Kong” (également réalisé par Adam Wingard) — ont disparu, largement sans explication. Notre personnage principal maintenant est le Dr Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), mère adoptive d'une préadolescente, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), membre de la tribu Iwi, qui communique directement avec Kong par le langage des signes. J'ai particulièrement regretté l'absence du Dr Nathan Lind d'Alexander Skarsgard, dont l'absence est en quelque sorte expliquée mais pas pleurée, et qui a été remplacé, pour des raisons narratives, par un vétérinaire farfelu des titans joué par Dan Stevens. (Pour une raison quelconque, je suppose pour signaler l'excentricité, Stevens arbore un accent australien exagéré.)

Ils sont rejoints une fois de plus par Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), le podcaster-blogueur-documentariste-bizarre du dernier film. Pour une raison quelconque, il est convaincu que personne ne croit ses histoires sur les titans, même si le véritable Godzilla erre sur Terre et est montré aux actualités télévisées. (Je suis plus bloqué sur l'idée étrangement fantastique qu'il soit un blogueur populaire. N'aurait-il pas déjà un Substack à présent ?)

Ces humains sont assez ennuyeux, plus anémiques que dans le dernier film. Ils sont là uniquement pour propulser le récit à travers cette histoire, qui commence avec Kong vivant dans la Terre Creuse (exactement ce que ça semble être) et Godzilla à la surface. Tant que les deux ne se rencontrent jamais, tout va bien — et par tout, je veux dire l'humanité.

Ce qui signifie, bien sûr, qu'ils se rencontreront. Les scientifiques repèrent Godzilla en train de faire la sieste dans le Colisée, puis de se frayer un chemin à travers l'Europe et le nord de l'Afrique, absorbant apparemment autant d'énergie nucléaire qu'il le peut car il sent une confrontation arriver. En même temps, quelque chose ne va pas du tout dans le monde de Kong en dessous. Et Jia fait aussi des rêves étranges — des rêves qui mènent à une expédition dans la Terre Creuse.

Ce qui suit est une tentative d'établir beaucoup de mythologie pour la franchise Monsterverse. (Leur terme, pas le mien.) C'est une grosse erreur. Vous pouvez dire que c'est une erreur, parce que toute cette mythologie doit être révélée dans un dialogue explicatif fastidieux. Plus important encore, une fois que vous savez ce qui s'est passé dans le passé, vous savez précisément ce qui va se passer dans le présent, ce qui arrache tout suspense restant au film, ne laissant que les coups. (Tellement de coups.)

D'ailleurs : cette série a-t-elle besoin d'une mythologie ? Godzilla et Kong ont tous deux une riche histoire cinématographique sur laquelle s'appuyer — c'est le 38ème film pour Godzilla et le 13ème pour Kong, et bien qu'ils n'aient pas partagé l'écran jusqu'à récemment, ils apportent tout leur bagage et leur histoire avec eux. Cela ressemble à une tentative désespérée pour la franchise de crossover de justifier à la fois son existence et sa continuation.

Ce qui n'est pas surprenant. Le bilan de cette série donne le tournis. Le film de 2014 “Godzilla”, une sorte de redémarrage de la série originale de Toho mettant en vedette le personnage, était un film légitimement excellent, équilibrant spectacle et pathos humain. Mais ensuite sont venus “Kong: Skull Island” et “Godzilla: Roi des Monstres”, tous deux censés construire un univers partagé, tous deux non seulement mauvais mais vraiment déprimants. Ensuite, il y a eu “Godzilla vs. Kong”, qui n'était pas, techniquement parlant, bon — mais il promettait une confrontation et l'apportait, avec un coda tardif de coopération involontaire et visuellement spectaculaire entre le singe massif et le lézard nucléaire. C'était un plaisir à regarder, surtout parce que le climax arrivait enfin : les deux monstres avaient enfin leur rencontre tant attendue.

Mais avec ce zénith dans le rétroviseur, “Godzilla x Kong : Le Nouvel Empire” n'a plus beaucoup de route à parcourir, et ça se voit. Les meilleurs moments impliquent Kong se déplaçant à travers le paysage, Godzilla piétinant et écrasant des choses, et bien sûr la confrontation finale inévitable, qui réserve quelques surprises. Kong en particulier semble n'avoir aucun problème à communiquer sans langage humain, et ces scènes prolongées sont tellement amusantes à regarder qu'il est décevant de revenir aux humains.

Certes, les humains peuvent être une partie fructueuse de ces films de monstres. Le récent film japonais “Godzilla Minus One”, produit pour une fraction du budget de “Godzilla x Kong” et récipiendaire de l'Oscar des meilleurs effets visuels cette année, parvient à combiner la créature avec un véritable pathos et un accent sur le coût humain de la guerre, de la culpabilité et du traumatisme. C'est plus en phase avec l'origine de Godzilla, aussi, en tant que

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[adamwatchesmovies]

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

I might’ve been a little starved for blockbusters the first time I saw Godzilla vs. Kong and rated it. In my defense, it was during the pandemic and the other movies I was able to see during lockdown were mostly disappointments. Reviewing the film again, I recognize that the human’s plot is undercooked while everything with the monsters is spectacular. Well, at least the movie knows where its priorities stand and considering what its audience wants to see…

When Godzilla suddenly attacks Apex Cybernetics’ Pensacola facility, conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) becomes convinced they somehow provoked the titan. Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) - an avid fan of his podcast - shares his suspicions. They rope her friend Josh (Julian Dennison) into investigating and confirm their fears aren't entirely unfounded. After the attack, Apex insists mankind needs to develop a weapon against Godzilla and asks Monarch to give them access to Kong. They believe the titan ape can lead them inside the vast caverns below our world to a power source formidable enough to take down the king of the monsters.

Though Godzilla’s name appears first in the title, this film is about Kong much more than the radioactive dinosaur. It’s a good choice, as the ape is resourceful, an underdog in this fight and intelligent enough to communicate with Monarch via sign language. Godzilla might’ve protected the Earth/humanity in the previous movies, but was it really a heroic character, or was the nuclear reptile just killing its rivals? Kong, on the other hand, has actual human friends. Even though the Iwis we met during Kong: Skull Island have been wiped out (seems like a missed opportunity), Kong still has a link to them in the form of Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a deaf-mute Iwi survivor adopted by Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall). Nonetheless, his situation gives him a very relatable quest: he wants to know if there is a new family for him out there.

One-half of the human's story fares fairly well. With the help of Apex Cybernetics, Dr. Ilene Andrews, along with Jia and hollow-earth scientist Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) follow Kong into this hidden world beneath our feet that houses all sorts of monsters and an ancient rivalry between Kong and Godzilla (seems wacky, but it does lead to some fun developments). These characters are following Kong on his journey so when the 8th wonder of the world is put in danger, they are too. The other humans, however, feel like they only appear to deliver exposition or to give us some familiar faces. You could easily re-jig this story to remove them.

But of course, you didn't come to this film for the human element. Yes, kaiju films are better when the "tiny" protagonists are compelling, but if there's one aspect of this movie director Adam Wingard had to get right, it was the Godzilla and Kong stuff. I'm happy to say you won't be disappointed. The Titan battles are varied, clearly shot, tense and action-packed. You get three rounds between Kong and Godzilla, with a clear winner at the end that will leave fans of either camp satisfied. I know a lot of purists will say a Godzilla film isn't the same without rubber suits, but this picture does so much with modern special effects. Varied locations, varied angles, moves no human could do, etc. That last brawl in the neon-lit Hong Kong will make you say "wow!".

There have been a lot of Godzilla films since the character appeared. Some have been dramatic, others comedic or somewhere in the middle with an emphasis on dumb fun. None have featured action scenes as good as the ones in Godzilla vs. Kong. Even if you only have a passing interest in the characters, the highlights are strong, strong enough to make you forgive the parts that could've been strengthened. It's not even a guilty pleasure; it's gargantuan fun. (On Blu-ray, March 27, 2024)

[askarsjustsoswedish]

Alexander Skarsgård, Rebecca Hall, Kaylee Hottle - Bts Godzilla vs Kong ‘21 - Dr Nathan Lind, Dr Ilene Andrews, Jia. Kiaju News Outlet yt/CEqIM8s1w9w&t=624s/ 18 Mar ‘21

[scorevechkin]

"Nathan, are you okay?"

[incandescent-creativity]

Episode Twelve

Previous: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven |

Next: Episode Thirteen

Word Count: 3,775

—

When Matt opens his eyes, his roommates have formed a semicircle around his bunk.

Folding his arms behind his head, he tries to maintain a casual air. This isn’t the strangest thing he has woken up to before on the USS Spark, but it doesn’t put him at ease. Even if there are smiles and giggles from everybody gathered.

“Morning, y’all,” he says, trying to sound more awake than he is. “What’d I miss?”

“Your little bauble had babies,” Jason says. He sounds skeptical, but Matt appreciates the prompt answer.

“What?”

Matt swings his legs around the edge of the bed, and his peers make room for him. As expected, his pink fuzzball from the Klingon warrior queen Onash is sitting right where he placed it. What he didn’t expect is the scattering of smaller fuzzballs littering the surface of the dresser, the couple of drawers the other ensigns must have opened, and there are even a few on the floor.

All of them are brightly colored, but not all of them are pink. His original one is, and some of the new ones are, but some of the new ones are also white, yellow, orange, purple, any number of colors.

“Wow, guys,” Matt says, genuinely impressed. “I knew we were in a prank war with the other ensign pods, but this type of infighting is a whole new level.”

“We didn’t do this,” Ilene says, her voice heated. “How could we have done this?”

“I know for a fact that Starling is the best sewing artist in this room,” Matt says, waving a hand over to the chair in the corner, where they are hard at work at their needlepoint.

“You flatter me,” they say without looking up.

“I suppose you think we destroyed all our plants as part of a prank, too?” Ilene says.

“Wait, what?”

A quick spin around the room confirms it. The succulents on the windowsill, the ferns by the bathroom, the plants hanging from the ceiling… They’re all gone. Their pots and the soil they lived in are still there, but any actual greenery has disappeared.

“But… That doesn’t make any sense,” Matt says.

Still in thought, he leans over the miraculously materialized fuzzies to pick up his original pink one. It purrs and trills as he settles it in his arms.

Startled, Matt almost throws the little thing to the ground. As it is, he jumps, and bobbles it between his hands until he is holding the—

“Is this a creature?” he asks out loud.

His fellow ensigns gather around him again. Nathan reaches out and pokes a finger into the rounded body. Sure enough, it makes an alert little beep of a sound, like a cat startled out of a nap, before it settles back into its regular purring noise.

Synchronized sounds of adoration and entertainment come from everybody, Matt included. He begins to pet it, which he had been doing already, but he thought he had been stroking a soft fashion item. That’s how he had transported it back onto the Enterprise, after all.

Under the watch of his peers, Matt presses the fuzzball onto his shoulder.

He feels the same gathering bunch of fabric that he had before. At the time, he had thought it was a natural reaction of the fibers. There are plenty of crawling plants, or tidepool creatures with feelers, that employ the same mechanics. But now, he sneaks a finger underneath his pajama shirt, and nudges his knuckle up into the bottom of the creature.

“I think they have mouths,” he reports.

“Of course they have mouths,” Jason says, as if this was obvious. “They ate our plants.”

“We’ll get new ones,” Matt promises. “Starling, do you—”

He cuts himself off, trying to choke back laughter. Starling is still doing needlepoint, but they are holding a baby-blue fuzzball in their lap. Matt has no idea when they picked one up.

“Do I?” they prompt, voice as uninterested as ever.

“Uh, do you want to go to the garden room with me?” he finally finishes his sentence. “Or do you want to stay here and hang out with your new pet?”

“Wait, we can have some?” Nathan says.

“You think I want to take care of all these by myself?”

That’s all Matt has to say. His circle of friends moves to gather around the fuzzies instead of him. Nathan claims a white one of medium size; it stands out against the dark brown of his skin and the concentrated red of his uniform shirt. Jason picks up an orange one, pleased with his favorite color. Ilene, for all her irritation, grabs two: a purple and a pink. She puts them on her head gingerly, affixing them as barrettes or clips.

“Careful,” Matt cautions her. “We don’t know what these things are, or what they can do.”

“If they were going to poison us, yours would have killed you yesterday,” she sniffs.

“Or while we were sleeping,” Sterling adds.

Their argument is sound, but Matt can imagine what his captain would say: “Still, stay on your toes.”

The garden room is just as Matt remembers it: humid, and crowded with lush, thriving plant life. It actually reminds him of the jungle they are still orbiting around.

It must remind the fuzzball of it, too, because both Matt’s and Starling’s make excited chirps. The pink one on his shoulder promptly detaches. He can’t catch it before it falls to the ground, but it just bounces and rolls into a corner.

“Hey—get back here!” Matt says, laughing and getting after it.

He scoops it up, but not before it slurps up a vine like a string of spaghetti.

“Didn’t they feed you?” he asks affectionately, scratching his finger on what he imagines could be the top of its head. “Don’t worry, we’ll go to the cafeteria after this and dispense some potatoes for you.”

“Got you wrapped around its little finger,” Starling observes.

“As if you don’t want to care for the little blue one,” Matt shoots back.

“Find some plants,” they tell him, apparently having had enough of the conversation.

His arms are full of plants, and the pink fuzzball on his hip is actively trying to crawl up and eat them, when Matt’s communicator alerts. Dumping the plants onto a table near the exit, he receives it.

“Matt here.”

“Ensign,” his captain’s voice greets him.

Oh, shit. What is she doing hailing him directly? She could have just pressed a button that alerted his shift manager that he was needed on the bridge. There’s no need to talk to him in a one-on-one channel.

“Oh, hi,” he says, startled.

Before he can ask what she needs, Captain Agau gets straight to the point.

“We could use your expertise down in the engine hold.”

Starling cuts him a look that Matt reads perfectly: We’re ensigns. We don’t have expertises yet.

He waves a hand at them. “On my way, Captain.”

Grabbing his fuzzball from the table, Matt gives a quick, “Sorry, gotta go!” before running out the door.

He’s only been down to the actual engine hold once. Some of his shifts and supply runs have taken him down to Engineering, sure, but not to the actual engine. It’s completely different down there. Cautionary signs plaster the walls, and just as many lists have the protocols printed on them.

Somehow, it’s always quieter than Matt expects. He always thinks the closer you get to the engine, the louder things will get. Right? You’ll hear the thrum of the pulse engines, or the shivering power of the warp core.

But the only clue that you’re getting close to the engine hold is the vibrations in the walls, and the floor.

Matt doesn’t even notice them at first. Only when he puts his hand on the wall to catch his breath outside the door—it wouldn’t do to stand in front of his captain, out of breath like he hasn’t hit the gym in a month—does he feel them. The entire ship is shuddering back and forth.

It gets worse when he actually opens the door and joins Beth and Finnigan in the engine hold. At that point, he can feel the buzzing vibrations through the soles of his shoes.

Squeak must feel it too, because the neon pink creature crawls around to Matt’s back and hides under his shirt.

“What was that?” Finnigan asks as he tugs it back down over his exposed skin.

“Good, you’re here,” Beth says, turning with her hands clasped behind her back. “What do you make of this?”

One of her hands emerges, unclasped, to indicate a scraped and battered section of the cooling system.

“Woah, who did that?” Matt asks, drawing closer to it.

“Who?” Beth repeats.

“Yeah…?”

“Not what, or how did that happen?”

Understanding the distinction, Matt explains, “Oh, yeah. See how the transparent aluminum is worn away, but not the actual cooling lines? That takes control, and planning. It looks like wild scrapes, but it’s intentional.”

“The alerts only go off if the cooling lines are breached,” Finnigan contributes.

“If the lines are intact,” Beth says, “how did they malfunction?”

“With the metal worn away, and the area exposed to the air, the pressure required to drive the liquid nitrogen through the tubes was disrupted,” Finnigan says.

“This could have been a lot worse,” Beth understands.

“I mean, It’s still bad,” Matt says.

“The lad’s right,” Finnigan agrees. “Whoever did this knew what they were doing, and they didn’t get caught.”

“Not yet,” Beth says stiffly.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Matt contributes. “They’re well supplied, whoever they are.”

She looks at him, and Matt struggles not to be intimidated. It’s okay. He’s spent a lot of time on the bridge, and even a couple moments with the captain herself. She called him here to hear what he had to say. He can say it.

“What makes you say that?” she prompts him.

He steps forward, closer to the damaged area. Beth and Derrick move aside, giving him room to lecture. When he leans in to indicate what he sees, Squeak nearly drops out from her perch on his back, but he puts an arm beneath her to catch her as he talks.

“See this pattern here? It doesn’t match any tool I’ve seen. And it needs to be some kind of duranium or tritanium tool, because that’s the only thing that is hard enough to peel away this outer layer.”

“I see why he’s the one you called,” Finnigan comments, apparently impressed.

Matt flushes at the compliment, but keeps going.

“So even if it were feasible to search every individual on board for a trit tool, you wouldn’t turn anything up. Because it’s not uniform, see? There are deeper cuts here, but lighter ones here. There are straight lines here and here, but very natural looking S-curves and wiggly ones here.”

“Could we scan for it?” Finnigan asks. “The metals you’re talking about, I mean.”

“Maybe?” Matt asks. “We’re starting to get out of my depth here, Captain. But duranium and tritanium are used in starship construction, too. Even if you did scan for it—”

“There might be too much interference to get an accurate scan,” Beth says, the realization making her voice grim and displeased.

“Exactly.”

“Thank you, Matt. Dismissed.”

Grateful to be away from the scene of the crime, Matt makes sure his pet is still on his back and hightails it out of there.

—

“What did you say happened?” Hallie asks, making sure her patient is comfortable on the table.

“She just fell over,” the boyfriend says, obviously worried. “We were in the cafeteria, and everything got knocked to the ground.”

“And you were actively eating and drinking, so it isn’t hunger or dehydration,” she thinks out loud as she starts checking for signs of various poisonings.

“What can you do for her, doc?” he asks, anxiously.

“Stuart, get an IV in this one,” Hallie commands.

She turns away to get a more formal test kit, but turns the movement into a full circle when she hears a gasp. Her patient is sitting up—looking woozy, but sitting up. The boyfriend has moved in close, supporting her, so he has that covered. Hallie moves closer, too, but in a more professional capacity.

“What happened?” the patient asks.

“Precisely what we are here to determine,” Hallie says, hoping her tone does not come across as cold. “Now: what do you remember?”

Disappointingly, Kayci doesn’t remember anything of consequence. She reports the same thing her boyfriend does: eating together in the cafeteria, suddenly feeling woozy, but then waking up. Even Hallie is forced to conclude that she is hardly worse for wear.

She sends them away with instructions to return promptly if any issues recur. They make ardent promises to do so, but something tells Hallie she won’t see them in again.

Instead, she will see exactly seventeen individual fainting patients.

After the first five, she pings the captain. She must be busy, because she doesn’t reply. After five more, she hails her directly, as well as every standby attendant she can. They all show up with the speed a red alert demands, and then settle into their roles without qualm.

Her sick bay has never been so crowded, but nobody seems to be operating under too much duress. There is chatter, but no panic. As one final display of functionality, all of the patients, attendants, and concerned loved ones part for their captain when she shows up.

Hallie has kept her apprised, so she is able to walk right up and say, “Any breakthroughs?”

“No, ma’am,” Hallie reports.

Beth’s bright blue eyes flash to various points and patients around the room.

“What’s with the… these?”

She holds up a particularly fuzzy oval. It is neon green in color, and emitting a soft trilling sound.

“They’re everywhere,” she says, frowning.

Sure enough, now that Hallie is looking around with fresh eyes, she sees that nearly all of her patients has one. They’re not all the same color, and not all the same size, but there are at least a dozen of them attached to her patients.

Taking the green one from the captain’s hands, she deposits it on the scanner.

“Computer,” Hallie prompts. “Analyze.”

After a series of lights and beeps, the answer comes back.

“Closest genetic relative to specimen is Polygeminus grex, colloquially known as a tribble. A small, non-intelligent lifeform. Close studies have found that their remarkable reproductive rate takes up to 50% of their metabolism, leading individuals to be born pregnant, and that their cooing sounds have a tranquilizing effect on the human nervous system.”

As soon as she hears the name of the creature, Beth pulls up a screen of her own. She waits for the computer to finish talking, then speaks up.

“These reports were made over one hundred years ago,” she says with a frown. “Perhaps that is the source of the discrepancies.”

Leaning over her shoulder, Hallie questions, “Discrepancies?”

“Visually, and behaviorally, too,” Beth confirms. “The tribbles that this… McCoy documented are not as vibrant, and they actually eat. Meanwhile, we have brightly colored creatures that haven’t even touched our food stores.”

“They must be eating something, though,” Hallie points out. “They’re multiplying.”

“Continue your examination,” Beth orders. “In a separate room, if possible. I’m going to call the others in.”

The two of them split off in separate directions. Her captain steps away, fingers flying over the keys. And Hallie moves toward her office. It may be a tight squeeze for all six of them, but she’ll deal with that when it comes to it. For now, she is far more interested in the creature nosing around on her desk.

Does it even have a nose, though? A cursory examination of both ends of the creature (usually ill advised, but the computer has emphasized their harmless nature…) proves fruitless. This conflicts with the report that it has a strong sense of smell, which “offends it to the Klingon race with nearly universal disapproval.”

She reads this just as the door slides open.

“Oh, good. Christian, come here.”

“What?” he asks suspiciously, although he is already moving over. “Why?”

“Hold this.”

The tribble doesn’t shriek or squirm away. Christian is of Klingon blood, but it settles on the inside of his arm with the same peace it does everybody else.

“Fascinating,” Hallie comments, pulling up her own notes.

Christian takes a seat in the chair opposite her desk. “What is?”

“Wait until everybody gets here,” Beth commands.

It doesn’t take long. Soon, Finnigan and Hans are standing next to Beth. With Christian at her seat, and Hallie herself behind her desk, she judges everybody of importance to be here.

“These are tribbles,” she starts, holding up her green test subject. “But they are not the Polygeminus grex that is already established.”

“Polygem—how many of them are there?” Hans asks.

“What?”

“Explain,” Beth commands.

“If that’s their species and genus name, taxonomically speaking, it means there’s a lot of them.” Hallie is taking notes, but she does see Hans look around at the others in the room. “Did nobody else take Dead and Exotic Languages at the Academy? Poly, many. Geminus, like the twin Gemini thing. And ‘grex’ is the word for flock or herd.”

Beth looks at Hallie, absently petting the soft creature with the hand not taking notes. “But you said they are not the same.”

“From my examination, I believe these are a separate subspecies,” Hallie confirms. “I would propose—”

The door to her office slides open, interrupting her. “Sorry I’m late!” Matt exclaims. He already has a pink one on his shoulder. “I was busy helping—oh, good, you’re here,” he says, seeing Hallie. “Uh, my friend Starling—”

“Passed out?” Hallie guesses.

“Yeah. Wait, how’d you—”

“It’s going around,” she says. “Beth and I suspect the tribbles are the root cause, but we have yet to figure out how.”

“The what?”

“The tribbles,” Hallie repeats.

“That thing on your shoulder,” Christian adds.

“What, you mean Squeak?”

“You named it?”

“It was a gift!”

“From who?” Finnigan asks.

“The Klingon warrior Onash,” Matt answers promptly, proudly. “We visited her down on the jungle planet, and she gave me this to push me forward, or something.”

“To make you stronger,” Christian mutters.

“Can we focus, please?” Beth snaps. “I don’t see how this is relevant.”

“It’s very relevant,” Hallie says. “The original grex tribbles disliked Klingons. But these don’t seem to have a problem with them,” she says, gesturing towards the green one on Christian’s arm. “In fact, if the ensign is to be believed, they were found living quite happily with them.”

“I’m to be believed,” Matt says tiredly. “I mean, would I have run all the way here, dragging my unconscious friend, if I wasn’t?”

“She’s being well taken care of,” Hallie promises.

“They,” he corrects. “Hey, can I…?”

He moves towards Christian, indicating the chair he is sitting on, but he doesn’t finish his sentence before his eyes roll back and he falls forward.

Finnigan and Hans exclaim, and Beth makes a startling movement. None of them are faster than Christian, who pivots to catch Matt in his arms. He hauls his body into his lap like he weighs nothing, and rips the pink tribble off his neck. Christian flings the creature backwards, where it hits Hallie’s wall with a squeak and a splatter of blood.

“Hey!” Hans exclaims. He moves to pick it up.

“Be careful,” Beth cautions him. “Is he okay?” she asks Christian.

Hallie is already moving to make sure that he is. She can already see that his breathing is even, and, though his face is paler than usual, he is not shaking or in undue distress. Christian is stabilizing his head and holding him securely, so he is as stable as possible without being out on a table in the sickbay proper.

“Pressure on his neck,” is her only suggestion. She doesn’t know where the blood is coming from, but—

“It’s not the tribble’s blood,” Hans reports, looking at the underside of the creature. “And, uh, it has teeth.”

Leaving Christian to tend to Matt, Hallie moves to join Beth in her examination of the creature Hans is holding. He has his fingers in its mouth, holding it open. Hallie doesn’t know how she had missed the wide, gaping mouth on its underside, or the rows and rows of tiny, delicate, razor-sharp teeth contained within.

“It is the tribbles,” Beth realizes, connecting the dots at the same time as Hallie.

They look at each other at the same time, blue Vulcan eyes meeting brown android ones. Neither of them are particularly proficient at emoting, but Hallie still sees the rush of new information behind her gaze. After a brief moment of understanding, the two women stand straight to tackle the problem.

“Hans, go help remove tribbles from patients, and keep them in any container you can find,” Hallie asks him.

“Finnigan, take Hallie down to the warp room so she can write an equation that will target every tribble on the ship. We have to get them back on their planet.”

Unlike Hans, Finnigan doesn’t move to his task right away.

“Captain, we won’t be able to do that without putting significant strain on the warp engines. If Matt’s integrity assessment is correct, we’ll have to fix the cooling lines before we can deal with the tribble problem.”

“Are your mechanics up to the task?” Beth asks, her words brisk and clipped.

“Maybe if we had the lad to guide us through, but seeing as he’s out of commission…”

“Captain,” Hallie speaks up, not wanting to suggest her idea. “It is a significant show of trust that may not be warranted, but we do have a mechanically minded individual still on board.”

Beth blinks, understanding the unusual idea. If there were ever going to be a time to tell her about the extra crate in storage, it would be now.

Hallie hesitates for just long enough. Beth turns halfway away, operating her communicator to find the correct channel.

“Michael, this is your captain speaking. Report to the engine hold, and expect to work with a team to restore our warp capabilities.”

Leaving her officers to attend to their duties, Beth leaves Hallie’s medbay with Finnigan in tow. Hallie watches her go: quick, confident strides, blonde hair tied back and bouncing, pointed ears slicing through the air.

She hopes she is not sending her captain into a trap.

[star-going-supernova]

So. Madison Russell. Godzilla vs Kong. Welcome to my ted talk.

From a writing perspective, they totally wasted her character. She, Josh, and Bernie were almost exclusively used just as a method of showing the audience what was happening "behind the scenes" at Apex. Pouring the whiskey on the computer was about the only thing of note they did, and even that didn't do much. Mechagodzilla was only slightly hindered by it, and if they'd just written Kong and Godzilla differently in the fight scene, they could have skipped the whiskey part entirely. They could have done so much with having people "on the inside" but Monarch as a greater organization barely had any presence at all, which negated the need to have people on the inside. 

Maddie's steadfast insistence that Godzilla wasn't a bad guy at the beginning had so much potential, but it became the conspiracy thing instead. It felt less like she wanted to prove Godzilla wasn't turning against humans, and more like she and her new conspiracy friend wanted to crack open a shady organization, which was frustrating. If they wanted to depict her as someone who was forced to become competent at a young age, which was part of the serious, intense vibe I got from her, instead of the inexplicable personality shift, they should have showed her doing something to help. Getting in contact with her dad/Monarch, giving them evidence to begin a city wide evacuation outside the Apex Hong Kong HQ, messing something up or making it harder for the Apex people to get Mechagodzilla up and running—just, anything. 

The fact is, we had Maddie being very proactive in KotM. Stealing the ORCA was the game changer. Instead of taking that to the next level in GvK and giving her an opportunity to continue that aspect of her character—that is, being someone who refuses to sit by when she can do something to help, even if it’s dangerous—they rendered her obsolete. 

The movie wouldn't have significantly changed if you took her character out. If Bernie went by himself and ended up in Hong Kong, nothing would have changed, because Maddie didn't do anything of personal importance. She went from being an active character in KotM to being a passive one here, which are a pet peeve of mine. If you saw my post about what I liked and didn’t like about Godzilla (2014), that might sound very familiar.

It would also have made so much more sense if she developed a love for studying Titans instead of focusing on conspiracy theories. Plot-wise, it would have given her claim to her dad that Godzilla was being provoked more credence, and could’ve opened an interesting dialogue between them to reinforce that she knows what she’s talking about. Monarch was obviously still a big part of their lives, given that Mark had rejoined, so it would’ve been the perfect opportunity for Maddie to pursue a Titan-related future. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I loved Jia, and wouldn’t want to take her out of the movie or even diminish her presence in it. In fact, I think they should have focused on Jia, and only on Jia. 

Hear me out: Godzilla vs Kong should’ve been split in two. A Part 1 and Part 2 situation. 

For Part 1, we keep a lot of the GvK canon, especially the Kong-centric stuff. Include even more scenes showing us that he’s protective of Jia, don’t just have Dr. Andrews say that he is. Have him defend her from something dangerous, maybe even from some humans. Include their backstory, how he saved her during the storm. And start it even earlier, before Godzilla attacks Apex the first time. Keep the whole Hollow Earth plot, keep the fight scene in the ocean, keep the discovery of the temple and the axe.

And on the Godzilla side of things, start earlier on that as well. Keep the other Titans in, have humanity tentatively believing that a time of great peace is upon them. Their mere presence is restoring the planet. There was an emphasis of nature, particularly in relation to the Titans, in KotM that I really think they should have included more of in GvK to better tie the two movies together, if only they hadn’t swept all the other Titans under the rug. They wanted a movie about a fight, not about the Titans. So, undo that. Show us a little of what Mark does, do a sweep of the other KotM cast (cameos at the very least) to show how they and Monarch are working to uphold that peace post-Boston. I’d also have loved to see Boston itself, too, five years later. 

Instead of giving us a Generic High School scene, show Maddie learning about the Titans alongside the experts. Bring back the wonder and amazement she had when she saw Mothra for the first time, when she reached out and touched her. She’s second generation Monarch, make that mean something. When Maddie took the ORCA to Boston, she had a conviction. She couldn’t not have. She was there in part to lure Ghidorah in, but I can’t even pretend to believe her plan ended with that. She knew Godzilla would come. 

That sort of belief is hard to kill, and if death via Ghidorah wasn’t enough to scare her off, no way anything else in those five years afterwards did. Her belief that Godzilla is good survived to GvK, and should’ve been a main focal point of her character. Godzilla attacks Apex—she and every other Monarch person who has spent years studying the Titans knows something is up. 

Keep Mark’s character development regarding his opinions on Godzilla. He believes Maddie when she says something has to be wrong, not just because he trusts his daughter, but because he looked into Godzilla’s eyes and saw more than just an animal. 

They’re in Part 1 only minimally, just to establish their presence and how they feel about Godzilla destroying Apex. The focus is clearly on Jia and Kong’s side of events. 

Sorry, but I’m leaving Josh out and seriously dialing back Bernie’s role. Instead, the character we follow inside Apex is Ren Serizawa. We see his motivations, his ambitions, and he becomes a character with more than just a few lines. Does he resent Godzilla? Or does he resent his father, too? Serizawa’s sacrifice was willing, after all. He was no accidental casualty. 

Part 1 ends in the Hollow Earth, with Ghidorah taking control of Mechagodzilla on the surface. Alter the timeline just enough so that Godzilla has only just arrived to Hong Kong, and Kong’s still in the Hollow Earth. The final scene is Mechagodzilla emerging into the city as the sun rises. The post-credits scene is our KotM cast in the Argo, location unknown, watching a screen with Mechagodzilla on it. 

Part 2 begins with a reveal: Ren Serizawa isn’t dead. 

Backtrack. This part focuses more on the Godzilla side, and Monarch. It’ll have flashback scenes from the five years between KotM and now, showing exactly why Monarch as a whole firmly believes Godzilla is reacting to something instead of being anti-human all of a sudden. The Titans are not inherently malicious; destruction is a side effect of their size, no more, no less. He earned his title of King in KotM—make it mean more than just trying to make Kong “bow.” Make him a protector, a guardian. He’s nature’s balance. By definition, he must protect humans as well. 

What Monarch needs to figure out is this: what is he trying to protect them from? 

They investigate Apex in search of the answer, but knowing from past experience the sort of things Godzilla gets proactive about—the MUTOs, Ghidorah—Monarch mobilizes. They prepare for another fight, at Mark’s instructions. He witnessed both San Francisco and Boston firsthand, even if the former was from a civilian standpoint. 

Godzilla has more hunt scenes. He targets a second Apex lab after his ocean fight with Kong, telling Monarch that they’re on the right track. 

Maddie, being a minor and not dragged into the thick of things (yet), has to stay home. Remembering the podcast she sometimes listened to, when the topic was focused on the Titans, she tracks Bernie down, and he tells her about what he saw: the eye. 

The two of them go to the ruined Apex building and discover the eye is gone before getting caught. With Monarch currently breathing down their necks, they recognize Maddie to be Mark’s daughter and take her to Hong Kong. Sorry, Bernie, but that’s mostly as far as you’re involved. Timeline-wise, this is roughly when Kong puts the axe in the temple floor and Godzilla blasts a hole to the center of the earth. Monarch is following Godzilla, but they’re behind a bit thanks to the tunnel shortcuts. They’re still unaware that Maddie has been kidnapped and is en route to Hong Kong.

This is also when Mechagodzilla gains a life of its own. Walter Simmons is killed and Ren Serizawa becomes trapped in the link to Mechagodzilla, serving as the bridge between the robot and Ghidorah’s mind. Ghidorah is essentially controlling MG by controlling Ren, who is controlling MG. Make sense? He’s the puppeteer’s puppeteer. 

We reverse some things. Godzilla fights MG first, gets beat around but not as much as in GvK because he isn’t fresh out of a different fight. Kong returns to the surface through the tunnel Godzilla created, having carried the one remaining HEAV out himself, because Nathan Lind has never flown one before and doesn’t know how they work. Kong wants to protect Jia, and Ilene Andrews and Nathan Lind are very lucky that Jia likes them. 

Mechagodzilla sees Kong and takes off, and Kong decides now would be a great time to fight Godzilla, who’s having a pretty bad day. Monarch arrives, and half of them split off to follow MG while the rest stay to try and deescalate the situation. Other than Godzilla faring slightly less well, the fight goes mostly the same as in the movie, except for one big difference: one of the Monarch crafts pick up Jia and Co, and she’s able to get Kong’s attention from the back of an Osprey well enough to tell him to stop fighting. There’s a bigger threat out there, and Godzilla definitely needs to be okay enough to fight it. Either they work together, or they reschedule. 

She’s very stern about it, and though no one’s really sure what the two Titans decide on, they stop fighting. They leave together to go after Mechagodzilla, who is currently being slowed down by Mothra, because she deserves to be in this movie. The other Titans basically hinder Mechagodzilla as much as possible as it rampages, telling Godzilla where it is. Monarch finally figures out that it’s heading for the nearest entrance to the Hollow Earth, right around when they also figure out that Ghidorah is involved. With Dr. Andrews and Nathan Lind’s input, they theorize it intends to take more of the power source down there to further strengthen it. 

They do their best to clear the cities in its path, evacuating as many people as possible. It’s all they can do. As in the past, they must trust Godzilla to do the heavy lifting. Around the same time, an assistant tells Mark that some guy named Bernie called and is asking for him. This is how he finds out Maddie was taken to Apex’s Hong Kong location.

Meanwhile, the Apex guards and Maddie finally arrive to find the facility abandoned and damaged, MG gone, and Simmons dead. The guards more or less split, leaving her there alone. Maddie, being Maddie, goes deeper until she finally discovers Ghidorah’s skull and Ren Serizawa inside, trapped in his own head with Ghidorah. It’s killing him. 

He’s aware enough to have a conversation with her. They argue about the Titans. He wants Godzilla destroyed out of anger over his father’s preference for Titans, rather than his own son. 

(“You’re not the only one with ghosts!” she yells at him. “You’re not the only one who resents a parent for putting Titans ahead of you when you needed them!” He chokes out, “I do not resent my father—” “Coulda fooled me. Why else would you be spitting on his sacrifice like this? Who are you trying to help, huh? All the other kids out there who are losing their moms and dads because you let Ghidorah out? Sorry, mister, but the last time someone did that, your dad paid the price.”) 

Ren is getting worse. He’s going to die if he stays in the link much longer, but he can’t disconnect. Maddie, looking around, gets to work on something. The camera slowly pans around to show that there’s a second pilot seat, back-to-back with Ren’s. It would allow for seamless switching between pilots without MG ever not having someone at the controls. 

Even with the other Titans’ help, Godzilla and Kong are unable to stop MG from going through the tunnel and into the Hollow Earth. Monarch is unable to follow, because of the gravity issue. They’re both tired from the journey and their fight, especially Godzilla. This is their last chance. If Mechagodzilla reaches the power source, it’s all over. 

The fight doesn’t go in their favor. They’re both bad at working together, so their attacks are uncoordinated at best, actively hindering each other at worst. Kong gets flung off a mountain and MG pins Godzilla. Even thought he caught himself, Kong isn’t going to make it up in time to help him. 

Maddie puts on an identical pilot setup, and with Ren’s instructions, switches the link over to herself, freeing Ren. He collapses forward, immediately falling unconscious from the release of the strain. Fighting past the pain and overwhelming presence suddenly in her head, Maddie does what she does best: she causes Ghidorah problems. 

She screams, and it echoes like a roar through his skull. 

In the Hollow Earth, Mechagodzilla stumbles. 

It’s the beginning of the end. She can’t control it or even really stop Ghidorah, but she gets in his way as much as possible, giving Godzilla and Kong the edge they need to finally get their act together and use some teamwork to take Mechagodzilla down. They destroy it and return to the surface before parting on amicable terms. 

After too long, Mark arrives at Apex with a whole team of people. Ren Serizawa is found comatose but alive, and he’s quickly removed for medical attention. Though Maddie’s also alive, there’s something else clearly wrong. She’s still wired into the piloting gear, stiff and unseeing, as if she’s frozen. Her eyes are open but distant, pupils virtually gone from how constricted they are, and her jaw hangs open slightly. Despite how tense her body is, she’s limp. Nothing they do wakes her up, even after getting her out of the skull. 

They wheel her out on a gurney to where a handful of Ospreys landed, but as they leave the building and step out onto the roof, they find Godzilla has returned. He watches them, and he’s exactly as aware as Mark remembers. 

(“She tried to help you,” Mark calls out to him. No one knows exactly what happened in the Hollow Earth, during the fight, but the scene in Ghidorah’s skull was telling. “No, she—she did help you!” For the second time in her life, Maddie put herself in Ghidorah’s path and, ultimately, won. Only this time, her victory came with a price.) 

Godzilla snorts before leaning over the roof’s railing, moving toward the gurney. The humans all back away, even Mark, though he doesn’t go far. Spines humming, eyes flaring blue, Godzilla rumbles deeply. 

On the gurney, Maddie stirs. 

Later, much later, after Maddie and Jia have met—heaven help everyone else, honestly—they sit together on the edge of a pier over the ocean, Jia leaning comfortably against Maddie. It’s quiet. They’re alone, watching the sunset. A heavy footfall behind them, the feel of the vibration trembling through the wood, makes them turn around. Half concealed in the brush at the edge of the island’s foliage, Kong stands, facing them. 

They both wave before standing. They sign goodbye to each other, then part ways. As Maddie walks away to a waiting Osprey, we see behind her as Kong crouches to allow Jia to climb into his palm before vanishing into the forest. 

The Osprey takes off over the calm ocean. It has a different design than most, with a large door set in the side instead of at the back, more like an ordinary helicopter. It’s open as they go, Maddie secure inside as she stares out. A smile spreads across her face as jagged spines slowly breach the ocean’s surface, easily keeping pace with the Osprey, which lowers to be closer to the water.

For just a moment, in the fading light, Maddie’s eyes almost shine blue. The screen goes black to the sound of Godzilla’s roar.

[armoricaroyalty]

5, 13, and 23 for those storytelling asks!

Storytelling Asks

5. how do you choose your characters’ names?

In general, I like old-fashioned names that have fallen out of common use (at least in my corner of the world). Rosalind, Frederick, and Jacques are named after characters in Shakespeare's As You Like It, and their cousin Florence is named after the play's setting. Theo's name came from Hamilton, and her daughters' names come from saints, historical figures, and family members.

Elise has the most convoluted name history of any of my characters. Her early appearance, personality, and color scheme were inspired by Disney's Cinderella, so I wanted to name her after that character's voice actress, Ilene Woods. When she won the mini-bachelorette challenge I ran to pick Andre's spouse, I decided that I didn't like the sound of 'Queen Ilene,' so I picked a sound-alike.

13. from basic planning to a finished post, how long does that take you?

The brainstorming/plotting happens very, very slowly. By the time I go into the game to dress my Sims, build my sets, and take my screenshots, I've usually been thinking about the post for weeks or months.

Once I have my screenshots, it takes me a few hours to chose the best shots and actually write the script. I script after I take screenshots because I like to let the dialogue and mood of a scene flow from the screenshots. I can really only work on my story on the weekends, and if I'm not busy with other stuff, can produce 3-5 posts in one weekend.

23. choose your least favorite character so far

hmmmmmmm. I'm going to answer this in a few ways.

In terms of who I'd least like to get stuck in an elevator with: Roz and Nathan Chandra.

In terms of whose arc I'm least satisfied with: Andre and Elise. I just didn't know what to do with them in chapter 1, so I'm hoping to revisit their relationship in chapter 2 and give each of them an actual character arc.

In terms of who's hardest to write: Mary. Oh my god, Mary is hard to write. I am constantly rewriting her dialogue. I think of her as a Mr. Darcy figure, so she needs to be guarded (but still romantic) and dutiful (but still irreverent). Knowing in your head that a character is supposed to be funny makes writing their dialogue 4000x harder.

[thealmightyemprex]

Kongtraspective :Godzilla vs Kong

So now we come to the end of the Kongtraspective ,and we are ending on a rematch fans have wanted for decades .I will confess when I first saw this film this year , I was REALLY hyped for it ....And initilly disappointed with the film we got,though I did enjoy my second viewing more. Also cause this movie is so recent : Spoilers

In this 2021 film,Godzilla is going crazy so a group of scientists led by Dr. Ilene Andrews(Rebecca Hall ) and Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgard) bring Kong ( Eric Petey )on an expedition to the Hollow Earth,while the CEO of the Apex corporation ,Will Simmons (Damian Bichir ) has his own plans

I am happy to say on this rewatch ,I enjoyed it more then I did the first time .First off ,I love the main character :KONG . Yeah this is a very Kong centric movie ,he is unquestionably even above the human characters,the person the audience is meant to root for, this is the most heoric Kong I think we have ever seen and his friendship with a deaf girl Jia is really sweet .In facr Jia and her adoptive mother Dr Andrews are my favorite human characters in the film .Godzilla is really cool here,more of an antagonist here ,and all the fight scenes between him and Kong are great .We also have a third classic monster in the mix as the main monster villain :MEC?HAGODZILLA ,a personal favorite of mine ,and he makes for a great final boss for the monsters to fight . The action and monster scenes in general are the highlight of the film .There is also some really fun sci fi wackiness with all the Hollow Earth stuff which I dig,and I like the main human plot .Also Alexander Skarsgard gives a good performance even if he feels superfluous as a lead

Now as for flaws.....We have a few .There is another plot,what I call the "Godzilla plot " with Millie Bobby Brown ,Brian Tyree Henry and Julian Dennison looking for why Godzilla is going crazy.Now this is a trio of fine actors .............But I dont like this plot for one reason:A lot of it focuses on a quirky Conspiricy theorist .....And its not funny , I find it annoying and it is full of dumb predictable jokes .While the monster villain rocks ,the main human villains are bland as hell .ALso we have a weird trend where every main character has a dead relative and thats their defining feature and its kind of funny after a while .Also I dont like that the natives of Skull Island all have died off screen with the exception of Jia ,that felt like cheating

So it is VERY flawed,but the film does deliveron the monster action ,all the monster stuff is great .....You just got to sit through some boring people stuff .I did enjoy it more on this watch though and do reccomend if you wanna see cool big monsters doing cool big monster stuff

SWo think you for joinging me on this journey through the filmography of the Eighth Wonder of the World

@filmcityworld1 @ariel-seagull-wings @theancientvaleofsoulmaking @marquisedemasque @amalthea9 @lord-antihero @princesssarisa

[misscrazyfangirl321]

fandom: monsterverse

I​The first character I first fell in love with: I think Jia was my first favorite and I wanted to adopt her. 

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: KONG 

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: Madison. I mean, I don’t dislike her, but she’s definitely not one of my faves. 

The character I love that everyone else hates: I have no idea who anyone hates, but I feel like people might not like Nathan, and I do. 

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: TBH I can’t think of any. 

The character I would totally smooch: Whatever character Tom Hiddleston played

The character I’d want to be like: Ilene. (Jia’s mom.)

The character I’d slap: Walter Simmons

A pairing that I love: Whatever their character names were. Loki/Captain Marvel (the characters played by those actors, anyway) actually ended up being a solid ship. 

A pairing that I despise: What do people even ship in this fandom? I mean, Godzilla/Kong is a NOTP, so... There’s that. 

[emeraldspiral]

Having now seen GvK, I have some theories;

I believe it was said that GvK had already been filmed, if not assembled into a rough cut before KotM had even hit theaters and shortly after, in the wake of KotM’s disappointing box office, it was said that GvK would be undergoing reshoots. I think there were conflicting reports about whether these were regular reshoots, reshoots due to poor reception at test screenings, or reshoots in response to KotM’s middling ticket sales. I believe it was also initially reported that GvK would be rather short. The final cut is still the shortest of the four monsterverse films, but not that much shorter than it’s predecessors.

Between confirmation that reshoots happened for one reason or another, the final length being significantly longer than first reported (but still shorter than the others), and the way things shake out in the final cut, I’m inclined to think that originally this was pretty much entirely Kong’s movie, moreso than it already is, and the plot about discovering why Godzilla was attacking was either very different or entirely absent, along with MechaGodzilla.

The biggest reason is ultimately how little the Godzilla and Kong storylines intersect. Like, even when they all end up together in the same place at the end, Madison and co never meet or interact with Jia and co. Madison and Mark Russel are also the only returning characters from KotM and Mark is barely in it at all (still probably got more screentime and dialog than Rose Tico in TROS though). MechaGodzilla also ultimately ends up feeling completely superfluous to the story, even though it’s the whole driving force behind it. It really feels like the studio demanded they include him because they knew Kong wasn’t gonna be that big of a box office draw.

Likewise, I feel like Ren Serizawa’s character was probably a late addition. Like, when they were reworking the story they realized they needed a human character to pilot MechaGodzilla but they couldn’t use the CEO’s daughter for it because she was already gonna be killed by Kong in the Hollow Earth and they didn’t want to use the CEO himself for it either because they wanted him to be a shock death by MechaGodzilla when he goes rogue, or because they realized they were short on Asian rep for a Japanese property with a climax that takes place in Hong Kong. Regardless, what an absolute waste to make the character Ken Watanabe’s son and then give him nothing to do, no characterization or motives that make that fact relevant, and not even bother acknowledging the connection (while Madison’s parentage is mentioned multiple times even). I forget what exactly happened to him at the end of the movie. I think he was electrocuted, but not crushed or head esploded or anything they couldn’t walk back on. So I’m hoping that if they continue with the franchise they’ll say he wasn’t dead so he can come back and actually impact the story in some way. If he is dead for real, I’d still like to find a way for him to matter to the story. Like, for them to find his diary or his science notes in the next movie, or meet with somebody who knew him well to give a voice to the character we never got to know.

Another weird, sus thing about the movie is how Nathan Lind kinda looks and acts similar to Sam Coleman and Ilene Andrews is like a white Ilene Chen (they even have the same first name!). In fact, I think I recall hearing that Chen’s actress was supposed to return for GvK, but she never appears and none of the other Monarch scientists from KotM show up either, not even the older version of Brooks from Kong Skull Island. I’m pretty sure they’re not even mentioned. It’s like the actors were either all too busy for reshoots or were maybe even cut or replaced because of (overly, in my opinion) harsh criticisms of the human characters in KotM, with the exception of Madison, who’s played by a very popular child actress.

[hrodvitnon]

Since it's Mother's Day, what kind plans does Madison and Jia have for their adopted moms?

Madison: Mothra, Vivienne, and Ilene Chen

Jia: Ilene Andrews

Jia makes Ilene Andrews a little Ilene doll like the one she made of Kong (all she has to do is make one for Nathan and she’s got a whole family of handmade dolls).

Maddie makes like B Dylan Hollis and digs through the vintage cookbook Vivienne got from her mom to make a fun and weird cake for her moms... she doesn’t tell them it’s a chocolate-sauerkraut cake until after they’re like “hey this is good I never had a chocolate coconut cake”.

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)”

The movie that the entire Monsterverse was building up towards has come out. The premise is "Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home. Along for the ride is Jia, an orphaned girl who has a unique and powerful bond with the mighty beast. However, they soon find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla as he cuts a swath of destruction across the globe. The initial confrontation between the two titans -- instigated by unseen forces -- is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the planet". So does it live up to the massive hype or fails to deliver?

Firstly, the fight scenes between the two titular characters are amazing. The director, Adam Windgard succeeds in giving an epic brawl between the two and showing their distinct fighting styles. Godzilla has this brutal, animalistic and force of nature style that just demolishes everything compared to Kong's more cunning and agile is just a sight to behold. The fight scenes are some of the best in the series so far, without a doubt. What's even better is that there are fights that are actually in the daytime! The two previous Godzilla movies mostly had fights that were at nighttime in the rain with minimal light. Here there are daytime fights where every action is completely visible. While there are still some fights at night, the lighting is significantly better so even the nighttime fights are improved. Additionally, there is a clear winner between the two which is quite surprising.

The CGI is also still incredibly impressive with the two titular characters looking better than ever. The score by Junkie XL is also great as it makes the action scenes feel more exciting. Although, his work here isn't as great as say Mad Max Fury Road or Zack Snyder's Justice League but it still does a fairly good job. There are also some visually great shots by cinematographer Ben Seresin that illustrates the grand nature of Godzilla and Kong. Although, none of the shots is as gorgeous as in Godzilla: King of the Monsters but it still works for the movie.

One problem I did have with Godzilla: King of the Monsters was that the focus was too much on the human characters. Godzilla vs Kong rectifies this to an extent by having Kong's journey be the focus with the humans along for the ride. Another thing that was fixed is the runtime. It is under 2 hours, so I never got overly bored at points like in the previous Monsterverse movie. The pacing is just right and by the end, I felt satisfied. There is also a great relationship shown throughout between Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a young and mute orphan, who has a special bond with Kong. It's actually quite heart-warming to watch and gives Kong some more depth and personality. Ironically, Jia is the best human character so far in the series and she can't talk.

However, the same can't be said about the other human characters. Dr Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) is just the typical reluctant hero character and nothing more than that. Dr Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) is just a Kong exposition lady. Bernie Haye (Brian Tyree Henry) is comic relief 1 and Josh Valentine (Julian Dennison) is comic relief 2. Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) and Dr Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) return from Godzilla: King of the Monsters without any improvement in their characters with Mark's character arc from that movie being tossed out of the window here. Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir) is a typical evil CEO and Maia Simmons (Eiza González) is just evil henchmen.

There is also a giant waste of a potentially interesting character in Ren Serizawa (Shun Ogori) who is the son of the "Let them fight" guy from the previous Godzilla movies. While the "Let them fight" guy love the Titans and wanted to coexist with them, Ren is working on the opposite side that is trying to wipe them out. Why is he trying to wipe the monsters? Why did he not follow in his father's footstep? What was his relationship with his father? How did he feel about his father's death? The movie does not elaborate whatsoever on his character even though there is potentially an interesting idea here. Instead, he is only used to be name-dropped so that some people can go "oh he has the same name as let them fight guy" and fulfil one plot point.

Overall, Godzilla vs Kong delivers on a thrilling brawl between the titular characters. It is still unfortunate that none of the Monsterverse movies can provide compelling human characters where the stones are there. However, the director clearly understands the audience and what they desire. He doesn't insert an abundance of human drama or overly complicated plot threads. He gives the audience exactly what they want and that is a big lizard fighting a big monkey, and it is phenomenal. 

[askarsjustsoswedish]

Alexander Skarsgård, Kaylee Hottle, Rebecca Hall - Godzilla vs Kong ‘21 - Dr Nathan Lind, Jia, Dr Ilene Andrews. Trailer via TwitterMovies (x) Thanks Skarsjoy (x)