Warning: Spoilers for Godzilla vs. Kong
After Godzilla vs. Kong, the next MonsterVerse movie should have no humans in it at all. The grand culmination of the MonsterVerse movies and the ultimate kaiju smackdown all in one package, Godzilla vs. Kong has been acclaimed for its battles of gigantic monsters while receiving some criticism for its underdeveloped human characters. Of course, in a movie promising the ultimate showdown of a towering lizard and a giant gorilla, compelling human characters aren't generally seen as a high priority, but this criticism, however secondary it may be in the movie's overall positive reception, does give one pointer about where the MonsterVerse should head next.
Put simply, the next chapter of the MonsterVerse could do well by ditching the human presence altogether and focusing entirely on the Titans. As stated above, gigantic monsters like Godzilla, Kong, and Mechagodzilla are what propelled Godzilla vs. Kong to the biggest theatrical opening weekend since the COVID-19 pandemic began, alongside the film's success with its day-and-date release on HBO Max. Audiences came to see two behemoths slug it out and then team up to take down a mechanized opponent, and they got their money's worth.
With the focus already essentially on Godzilla and Kong anyway, the next MonsterVerse movie could be an entirely new kind of kaiju film by simply leaving the humans out of the equation and showing the Titans living and battling among each other. There'd be multiple ways to go about this, whether by doing a Titans-centered prequel in prehistoric times, setting the whole story in a human-free Hollow Earth or the MonsterVerse of Monster Island, or showing the Titans as the lone survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, the MonsterVerse has plenty of avenues to take the human presence out of the story and devote it to the stars of the franchise.
Paradoxically, this could also be the best mechanism for genuine storytelling that the MonsterVerse could implement. Without humans being part of it, such a MonsterVerse movie would have to tell its story entirely from the perspective of the Titans. While certainly a tough act to pull off, it wouldn't be impossible, and it could do something truly unheard of in a kaiju movie.
Theoretically, some form of narration or non-traditional communication could be utilized (Kong already having shown skill with sign language in Godzilla vs. Kong), but making an entirely Titan-centered MonsterVerse movie without narration or typical dialogue would be even more of a game changer. A MonsterVerse movie in such a vein would show the community and rivalries among Titans in its most distilled form ever, telling its story in literally visual sense by how they interact with one another and the social heirarchies that form among them.
The ending of Godzilla: King of the Monsters itself even shows this in action, with Mothra sacrificing herself to enable Godzilla to defeat Ghidorah, and the remaining Titans bowing before the triumphant Godzilla. Godzilla vs. Kong itself delves into this too, with Kong dropping his axe and acknowledging Godzilla's victory in the end. An entire MonsterVerse movie whose storytelling was driven in this way would call upon a lot of creativity on the part of the filmmakers, but it'd also be a kaiju movie the likes of which has never been seen before. In its future, the MonsterVerse could really live up to its name by letting mankind sit the next movie out and letting the Titans run the show themselves.
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April 09, 2021 at 05:02AM
