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louisak
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Steven Greydanus has a review at National Catholic Register of the new film “Kong: Skull Island” which contains some delightful passages. The really interesting parts don’t pertain to “Kong” itself - which seems to be rather predictable - but to the larger cinematic “world” or “universe” (as they say now) to which this film belongs. The review begins:
Welcome to the MonsterVerse.
That seems to be what Legendary Entertainment is calling their new shared universe — which so far features Godzilla and King Kong — although this might cause confusion with another monster-based shared universe, the Universal Monsters series, debuting later this year with The Mummy, to be followed by Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and so forth.
He goes on to discuss what other monster characters might appear in future installments of the MonsterVerse, and speculates about whether Mothra will be one of them - and if so, which side will it be on? And this is where the really interesting part comes in:
…when these three square off [Kong, Godzilla and Mothra] whose side will we be on? It’s kind of like Captain America vs. Iron Man.
Which, I guess, is the idea. Eventually, along with Batman v. Superman and Godzilla vs. Kong, I suppose we’ll get Frankenstein vs. Dracula, and perhaps Transformers vs. G.I. Joe in the HasbroVerse, and Warcraft vs. Angry Birds in the GameVerse — not to be confused with the BoardgameVerse of Battleship vs. Risk and Chutes and Ladders vs. Candy Land.
And eventually all of these shared universes will collide with all of the others, including Alien vs. Predator and Freddy vs. Jason, in a Brobdingnagian rumble pitting Jedi against Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminators against Borg, and Muppets against Smurfs, world without end. Even if for some inexplicable reason that doesn’t happen, the LegoVerse will make it happen.
So I wanted to throw that out for our wonderful Catholic Answer Forums community to discuss. How do you feel about the cinematic future that he predicts? Does the idea of seeing Terminators square off against Borg thrill you, disturb you, or bore you? Does the prospect of seeing Muppets onscreen with Smurfs fill you with joy, or dread, or something else? And what about this new trend of everything getting sucked into the Lego universe, and all the characters reduced to little plastic figures with tube-shaped hands?
Welcome to the MonsterVerse.
That seems to be what Legendary Entertainment is calling their new shared universe — which so far features Godzilla and King Kong — although this might cause confusion with another monster-based shared universe, the Universal Monsters series, debuting later this year with The Mummy, to be followed by Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and so forth.
He goes on to discuss what other monster characters might appear in future installments of the MonsterVerse, and speculates about whether Mothra will be one of them - and if so, which side will it be on? And this is where the really interesting part comes in:
…when these three square off [Kong, Godzilla and Mothra] whose side will we be on? It’s kind of like Captain America vs. Iron Man.
Which, I guess, is the idea. Eventually, along with Batman v. Superman and Godzilla vs. Kong, I suppose we’ll get Frankenstein vs. Dracula, and perhaps Transformers vs. G.I. Joe in the HasbroVerse, and Warcraft vs. Angry Birds in the GameVerse — not to be confused with the BoardgameVerse of Battleship vs. Risk and Chutes and Ladders vs. Candy Land.
And eventually all of these shared universes will collide with all of the others, including Alien vs. Predator and Freddy vs. Jason, in a Brobdingnagian rumble pitting Jedi against Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminators against Borg, and Muppets against Smurfs, world without end. Even if for some inexplicable reason that doesn’t happen, the LegoVerse will make it happen.
So I wanted to throw that out for our wonderful Catholic Answer Forums community to discuss. How do you feel about the cinematic future that he predicts? Does the idea of seeing Terminators square off against Borg thrill you, disturb you, or bore you? Does the prospect of seeing Muppets onscreen with Smurfs fill you with joy, or dread, or something else? And what about this new trend of everything getting sucked into the Lego universe, and all the characters reduced to little plastic figures with tube-shaped hands?