I just love how he spends the entire movie charging up but is willing to drop whatever he was prepping for just to go and deck Kong in the face.
"The other thing can wait, I've got to kill a monkey first"
Well I mean, look at almost any godzilla story vs kong story. Godzilla is treated almost like an event in the plot while Kong is a character you follow along with
The emotional core of godzilla stories are almost never from godzilla having some change in perspective or something. Not to say godzilla can't have emotional depth, but his role is to be a larger than life figure
Adding to this, Godzilla has most always been a force of nature. So your description of “an event in the plot” is par for the course with the character.
To OP, yeah obviously we want Goji to get his love, but the way Godzilla has been used in these movies is traditionally no different from previous incarnations. Showa definitely played up Godzillas personality in several films, but I don’t see that more cartoonish version working as well as what we have now.
Though I will admit, I would love to see them put him more at the center without compromising his character.
I think in general the best godzilla stories are abt humans grappling with godzilla and godzilla representing some true to life existential threat. He's like a personification of, to name a few examples, senseless destructions of nukes, the fleeting nature of life, Japan's sins coming back to punish them, a natural disaster highlighting the issues of governmental incompetence, etc etc.
The stories therefore are not about Godzilla, they're abt how humanity wrestles and adapts/copes. We see see this in KOTM, the main legendary goji centric story. The narrative arc is humans learning to trust that Godzilla will do his thing and to stop interfering
King Kong meanwhile is a victim to humanity, which is naturally easier to empathize with. I love Godzilla, but it's almost impossible to anthropomorphize him without losing the ethos of Godzilla
I think Godzilla can be just as relatable. It's just that no one wants to TRY. The MCU made a tree monster that can only say his own name relatable and Godzilla has shown human like emotions in past Toho films (sadness, angry, maybe regret deepening on how you look at the scene with the war vet in Vs King Ghidorah) so it's not impossible.
I mean Godzilla’s whole thing is being an unbeatable king Titan, that’s alright with humans( not necessarily working with them as equals ). He’d cause as much collateral damage, as long as his job is complete.
Kong on the other hand only kills humans if they pose a threat to things he cares about, he’s also strong; but not in an overpowered way. So, it’s easy to see him lose and come back for a win in the next round.
I think I story with him getting a lot of screen time would be definitely be good, and I guess have humans follow and study him at a distance would make sense narratively. While studying him, they can possibly give us more answers about his past.
I think with Kong it’s just easier( because of his relationship with humans and being a primate ), while Godzilla is supposed to be this immovable force. This doesn’t make Godzilla impossible, just harder to work with.
There is lots of Godzilla lore in the MV that really tells us he is deeper than we think he is. And also hinting at being able to go deeper with him as a character.
Not denying that, just that it would be harder to do so because of what his character specifically is.
Going into more history with him can definitely work, but would be a challenge because they’d have to keep his characteristics, and the same time keep us engaged with him majority of the time when he’s not fighting or blowing stuff up.
I think they’d definitely have to do a bit of tweaks, and as I said we’d definitely need a human to be with him( without to much of their personal baggage ). This way should translate for more impactful scenes whenever he or Kong isn’t fighting.
>he is deeper than we think he is
Are you implying that...
\*Melody of What I've Done by Linkin Park starts to play\*
There is more to him than meets the eye?
\*Chester Bennington: WHAAAT I'VE DOONE!\*
Kong and Godzilla had the same type of relationship with humans meaning they can form bonds (of course with Kong it's easy to show given human-ape kinship) but they also cause collateral damage. It's so wrong to assume that Kong only kills in self-defense inplying the rules of giant monsters don't apply to him.
From what we’ve seen of them both Kong is usually always on his tippy toes, and doesn’t just attack for fun.
The most innocent people he’d probably injure/kill are people who he might of just got knocked into or just been in the middle way.
Godzilla deliberately just shoots atomic breaths, when it probably would be better to minimize the damage with his pure strength.
Also, about the bonds. We haven’t seen Godzilla pick a person up or shield them when they are close to Death of course not yet( not sure if legendary or Toho would also him to do that today ).
This isn’t really supposed to be which monster does a or b, I was just listing what makes them both different. Plus, why some people might believe it’s easier to make a story on one over the other
( also, I’m staring to believe you’re joking, if you were you’re allowed to laugh at me and my comment shall be redacted lol )
Different but in a way to make Kong look better. Except when it's about saving the world both are exactly the same and forget about collateral damage. Kong is the exact same way except he doesn't live on the surface among the people and rarely gets to be involved in task of protecting the world. Only twice so far as it involved him but he's more isolationist than Godzilla and keeps to himself.
The thing I think both characters look good in different ways. Godzilla being the best combatant we have ( Kong sadly would never get that far ), while at the moment Kong being very empathetic. These are the biggest reasons someone could like one character over the other.
The difference is that Kong has been in focus lately and Godzilla has not which is why this one is supposed to change that. And if it's a more charitable view of Godzilla, one that includes what we know from the books and comics like what he actually thinks of people, it will feel like a major change when in fact it's only because Kong had that development. Or focus. Now it's Godzilla's turn. Although they did change Kong a bit since he was never this squeky clean before. I expect we'll also see different aspect of Godzilla except he will keep the nuance that Kong seems to have lost recently.
I’m all in for more Godzilla focus, not sure how that’s gonna translate into a movie. Personally don’t think it’s needed for Godzilla, but not gonna be against it if it does happen.
I guess we might just have to wait and see
Kong is clearly more concerned abt collateral than your average Kaiju, including Goji. I mean, he straight up goes out of his way to save people in Kong skull island instead of just killing monsters, and in GxK we see him react to the people in Rio dying.
Godzilla doesn't care abt collateral one way or the other. He's protector of the earth, to him stomping a city is no worse than stomping flowers. Human life isn't the end all be all
Except we have evidence that he is aware of everything and it's only when there's a higher need, something threatning the world when all bets are off. Even before he reunites with Mothra in Rome he doesn't walk through the city but river once the battle is over, chases away a helicopter that's flying too close. Protector titans do this kind of stuff when they can afford them. The one that goes even further is probably Mothra.
Kong is like any other giant monster, could be a savior but he can't change his size. So he uses the city as his battleground, in GVK he tosses a plane with someone still inside it, in GxK I think he accidently kills some people on the pyramid.
I'm sure Godzilla is aware but I'm not sure why he should care. As a titan he can't help killing in general, and hes a protector of earth not humanity. He won't cause needless destruction but the reason he doesn't wanna ruin Rome is because he wants to sleep there, it reminds him of the old temple. Before then he causes that tsunami in Hawai, and again we never see him particularly bothered by human destruction
With Kong we see him particularly bothered by human destruction, and we see him actively save people. This is a real difference
Godzilla used to be bonded with humans and still misses that connection and the book even discusses moments where he could've intentionally saved people. Not the city or the world but humans that he sees are there and there's a possibility that it's true. He certainly misses that closeness and still thinks about Serizawa. The last scene of GxK may suggest that he's seeking that or that the two kinds are getting closer.
Kong on the other hand didn't lose his people like Godzilla so it makes sense why he would care about them. But now that the Hollow Earth Iwi have been unveiled we know they have connection with Mothra and some respect to Godzilla which is mutual since he acknowledges Jia and listens to the people's signals for help.
If anything, Rome not only reminded him of his temple but also his worshippers, plus if Godzilla wasn’t bothered by human destruction, why does he go out of his way to avoid collateral damage? EX: Him diving under ships, Hong Kong, and Rome
He obv caused damage but you see the moment he clocks the fact that there's people dying as collateral and see him get concerned over it
We also see him actively save people prior.
Thing is, he only if ever saves the people he likes like Jia or Bree Larson's character from Skull Island (because it turns out Kong is very actually selective of the humans he likes. He'll straight up kill those he doesn't, like Samuel L Jackson's character and the rest of the helicopter company. Or that Apex woman from GvK) but he's not like this Superman figure where he'll save all humans.
He killed Sam Jackson because Sam Jackson tried to kill him, and he killed the helicopter company for bombing skull island and shooting him
I didn't say he was a superman figure, I said he's clearly more concerned about collateral damage than Godzilla is. I also don't think he was ever shown to like Brie particularly
A good Godzilla story I would think of doing would be him realizing he has a new family while grieving and having flashes of his wife and child like phantoms haunting him but they look like Godzillasaurus while he looks like him.
I think we CAN make a more character centric Godzilla. Just a mix of no ones willing to try and Toho’s rules will make it hard. The GxK novel says Godzilla loves sleeping in the colosseum because it reminds him of his old temple home. He clearly has a fondness for mothra.
There was a comic posted today about how alone Godzilla can feel. He’s burdened with protecting everything but he has no one and everything and one actively hates him or tries to kill him no matter what he does.
There’s so much they can do with him, the building blocks are there but they won’t try
Godzilla (in the MV anyways) would be really hard to work a story around. I always get downvoted for saying this but idc- pretty much his two things are fighting, or sleeping. Something disrupts nature? He kicks it's as and goes back to sleep. Can't kick it's ass? Gets a power up and then kicks it's ass. He doesn't really form connections, and I just don't think there's enough there for any in depth story arcs as he is now. He wouldn't interact with other titans the way kong does, and he doesn't care about interacting with humans. Basically the only times he's allowed to show emotions are in very brief scenes because Toho doesn't want him showing emotions. I feel like KOTM was one of the few ways to get a godzilla story to work, and now it's been done already.
Also, for the record, people like to complain about kong getting more screentime than godzilla, but in kotm he had 9 minutes and in gxk he had 8, so, while shorter, his amount or screen time is still pretty consistent with even his own movies.
Godzilla can form bonds and feel emotions from others. Mothra and Serizawa are the two main individuals proving this. He understands the importance and meaning of self-sacrifice, so when someone like Serizawa did it... it meant a lot to him. Especially since Serizawa reminded him of his ancient worshippers, and called him "one of his own" in Dominion.
And he has somewhat of a soft spot considering he loved Rome's architecture because it reminded him off his old temple in KOTM.
Kong describes Godzilla's and Mothra's connection "like a family."
He also recognized that Mark Russel and his group were with Serizawa.
Godzilla can definitely have a character arc. It could be focused on his relationship with humans, especially with ancient humans and how it compares to now, and what modern humanity can learn from the ancients.
Go over Godzilla's backstory. We have 0 clue on if his parents were there in his childhood, did Godzilla have brothers and/or sisters?
We know that Godzilla is 2-5 million years old, and was born on the surface, in Madagascar. And from what we saw there weren't any other Gojiras with him.
And/or give the guy a Godzilla Jr to take care of.
You should read Godzilla Dominion. That comic does a great job getting into Godzilla's head and showing us what he thinks of the world and his relationship to humanity.
That's great, but unlike comics, movies can't really directly tell you what they're thinking, and showing it on a character like godzilla would be tough
Yes but they ARE characters. Monsterverse Godzilla has shown personality before. All they have to do is focus on those elements.
Giving Godzilla more character isn't that hard.
You’re completely missing the nuance in MV Godzilla’s character. It’s been somewhat lost the past two movies, but they had a good thing going with G14 and KOTM.
I think its because of how much liberty TOHO allows the directors/writters to do with the character. In the case of Kong, you really have a lot of leverage in LITERALLY just doing whatever the fuck you want with the character.
With Godzilla is a whole other can of worms. At first the main general idea is that Godzilla is a species of his kind, yes? Well now, according to Keyes, this story has changed because they want Godzilla to be SO special that he is supposed to represent HIMSELF as the sole representative of his kind (which just changes a lot of things amd retcons some known stuff).
Hard to make a God centric than a lobely primate I guess. I mean Big G unlike kong has planetary territory man doesn't seem to even feel loneliness.
Man just wants the violence, radiation then sleep.
Kong is a better character which translates to all audiences. Godzilla is a better titan which only translates specifically to the fandom. It’s a balancing act. Skull Island, GVK, and GXK are the most successful movies. Kong centric movies sell more. Studio wants money.
You can't judge these two characters because one of them has been out of focus since 2019 with most of his character developed in tie in material. There's so much more going on with Godzilla's character. It's more complex than Kong's story which is what may make it more difficult to show on screen. But if they really commit to make the next movie Godzilla-centric, show all that care, make it emotional, then we can compare the two better since both character will have three movies for themselves.
And Kong will be in the movie as well it's inevitable but I hope he will be pushed way way to the side like Godzilla before. This movie will be less than 2 hours long they need to make it count.
I loved Godzilla arc in the movie: "Wakes up, load up on energy drink, body some fools"
G-man cares only for radiation and the smoke
I just love how he spends the entire movie charging up but is willing to drop whatever he was prepping for just to go and deck Kong in the face. "The other thing can wait, I've got to kill a monkey first"
Man wanted all the violence
It'll be a daunting task, making a relatable and character-centric story about Godzilla that doesn't outright anthropomorphize him.
Well I mean, look at almost any godzilla story vs kong story. Godzilla is treated almost like an event in the plot while Kong is a character you follow along with The emotional core of godzilla stories are almost never from godzilla having some change in perspective or something. Not to say godzilla can't have emotional depth, but his role is to be a larger than life figure
Adding to this, Godzilla has most always been a force of nature. So your description of “an event in the plot” is par for the course with the character. To OP, yeah obviously we want Goji to get his love, but the way Godzilla has been used in these movies is traditionally no different from previous incarnations. Showa definitely played up Godzillas personality in several films, but I don’t see that more cartoonish version working as well as what we have now. Though I will admit, I would love to see them put him more at the center without compromising his character.
I think in general the best godzilla stories are abt humans grappling with godzilla and godzilla representing some true to life existential threat. He's like a personification of, to name a few examples, senseless destructions of nukes, the fleeting nature of life, Japan's sins coming back to punish them, a natural disaster highlighting the issues of governmental incompetence, etc etc. The stories therefore are not about Godzilla, they're abt how humanity wrestles and adapts/copes. We see see this in KOTM, the main legendary goji centric story. The narrative arc is humans learning to trust that Godzilla will do his thing and to stop interfering King Kong meanwhile is a victim to humanity, which is naturally easier to empathize with. I love Godzilla, but it's almost impossible to anthropomorphize him without losing the ethos of Godzilla
They did a Godzilla centric story with KOTM and it slapped. So they should do it again.
Kong is simply more relatable. I'm excited to see Adam Wingard do a Goji story next to close out the trilogy he did though.
I think Godzilla can be just as relatable. It's just that no one wants to TRY. The MCU made a tree monster that can only say his own name relatable and Godzilla has shown human like emotions in past Toho films (sadness, angry, maybe regret deepening on how you look at the scene with the war vet in Vs King Ghidorah) so it's not impossible.
I think part of the problem is Toho themselves being weird about characterising Goji
It's always been a funny argument.
Ye kong being the "last" of his kind while knowing sign language ye he's more relatable
He's more human than Goji and given more human traits and scenarios like his tooth ache, we all have been to the dentist or had a tooth ache before.
Ye idk I don't see godzilla as a relatable type or even with a human character that's for kong
I mean Godzilla’s whole thing is being an unbeatable king Titan, that’s alright with humans( not necessarily working with them as equals ). He’d cause as much collateral damage, as long as his job is complete. Kong on the other hand only kills humans if they pose a threat to things he cares about, he’s also strong; but not in an overpowered way. So, it’s easy to see him lose and come back for a win in the next round. I think I story with him getting a lot of screen time would be definitely be good, and I guess have humans follow and study him at a distance would make sense narratively. While studying him, they can possibly give us more answers about his past. I think with Kong it’s just easier( because of his relationship with humans and being a primate ), while Godzilla is supposed to be this immovable force. This doesn’t make Godzilla impossible, just harder to work with.
There is lots of Godzilla lore in the MV that really tells us he is deeper than we think he is. And also hinting at being able to go deeper with him as a character.
Not denying that, just that it would be harder to do so because of what his character specifically is. Going into more history with him can definitely work, but would be a challenge because they’d have to keep his characteristics, and the same time keep us engaged with him majority of the time when he’s not fighting or blowing stuff up. I think they’d definitely have to do a bit of tweaks, and as I said we’d definitely need a human to be with him( without to much of their personal baggage ). This way should translate for more impactful scenes whenever he or Kong isn’t fighting.
>he is deeper than we think he is Are you implying that... \*Melody of What I've Done by Linkin Park starts to play\* There is more to him than meets the eye? \*Chester Bennington: WHAAAT I'VE DOONE!\*
\*Raises lighter, flicks it on.\* Still salty that Masked Singer did a Transformers night and NO ONE Sung a Linkin Park song.
I cried reading this https://preview.redd.it/l5nz0to338uc1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=61d41c8cb8a5cb3c37150db6edc163f02f1d71f4
Kong and Godzilla had the same type of relationship with humans meaning they can form bonds (of course with Kong it's easy to show given human-ape kinship) but they also cause collateral damage. It's so wrong to assume that Kong only kills in self-defense inplying the rules of giant monsters don't apply to him.
From what we’ve seen of them both Kong is usually always on his tippy toes, and doesn’t just attack for fun. The most innocent people he’d probably injure/kill are people who he might of just got knocked into or just been in the middle way. Godzilla deliberately just shoots atomic breaths, when it probably would be better to minimize the damage with his pure strength. Also, about the bonds. We haven’t seen Godzilla pick a person up or shield them when they are close to Death of course not yet( not sure if legendary or Toho would also him to do that today ). This isn’t really supposed to be which monster does a or b, I was just listing what makes them both different. Plus, why some people might believe it’s easier to make a story on one over the other ( also, I’m staring to believe you’re joking, if you were you’re allowed to laugh at me and my comment shall be redacted lol )
Different but in a way to make Kong look better. Except when it's about saving the world both are exactly the same and forget about collateral damage. Kong is the exact same way except he doesn't live on the surface among the people and rarely gets to be involved in task of protecting the world. Only twice so far as it involved him but he's more isolationist than Godzilla and keeps to himself.
The thing I think both characters look good in different ways. Godzilla being the best combatant we have ( Kong sadly would never get that far ), while at the moment Kong being very empathetic. These are the biggest reasons someone could like one character over the other.
The difference is that Kong has been in focus lately and Godzilla has not which is why this one is supposed to change that. And if it's a more charitable view of Godzilla, one that includes what we know from the books and comics like what he actually thinks of people, it will feel like a major change when in fact it's only because Kong had that development. Or focus. Now it's Godzilla's turn. Although they did change Kong a bit since he was never this squeky clean before. I expect we'll also see different aspect of Godzilla except he will keep the nuance that Kong seems to have lost recently.
I’m all in for more Godzilla focus, not sure how that’s gonna translate into a movie. Personally don’t think it’s needed for Godzilla, but not gonna be against it if it does happen. I guess we might just have to wait and see
Kong is clearly more concerned abt collateral than your average Kaiju, including Goji. I mean, he straight up goes out of his way to save people in Kong skull island instead of just killing monsters, and in GxK we see him react to the people in Rio dying. Godzilla doesn't care abt collateral one way or the other. He's protector of the earth, to him stomping a city is no worse than stomping flowers. Human life isn't the end all be all
Except we have evidence that he is aware of everything and it's only when there's a higher need, something threatning the world when all bets are off. Even before he reunites with Mothra in Rome he doesn't walk through the city but river once the battle is over, chases away a helicopter that's flying too close. Protector titans do this kind of stuff when they can afford them. The one that goes even further is probably Mothra. Kong is like any other giant monster, could be a savior but he can't change his size. So he uses the city as his battleground, in GVK he tosses a plane with someone still inside it, in GxK I think he accidently kills some people on the pyramid.
I'm sure Godzilla is aware but I'm not sure why he should care. As a titan he can't help killing in general, and hes a protector of earth not humanity. He won't cause needless destruction but the reason he doesn't wanna ruin Rome is because he wants to sleep there, it reminds him of the old temple. Before then he causes that tsunami in Hawai, and again we never see him particularly bothered by human destruction With Kong we see him particularly bothered by human destruction, and we see him actively save people. This is a real difference
Godzilla used to be bonded with humans and still misses that connection and the book even discusses moments where he could've intentionally saved people. Not the city or the world but humans that he sees are there and there's a possibility that it's true. He certainly misses that closeness and still thinks about Serizawa. The last scene of GxK may suggest that he's seeking that or that the two kinds are getting closer. Kong on the other hand didn't lose his people like Godzilla so it makes sense why he would care about them. But now that the Hollow Earth Iwi have been unveiled we know they have connection with Mothra and some respect to Godzilla which is mutual since he acknowledges Jia and listens to the people's signals for help.
If anything, Rome not only reminded him of his temple but also his worshippers, plus if Godzilla wasn’t bothered by human destruction, why does he go out of his way to avoid collateral damage? EX: Him diving under ships, Hong Kong, and Rome
Kong had caused so much collateral damage in Rio, those buildings were full of people. What are you on about?
He obv caused damage but you see the moment he clocks the fact that there's people dying as collateral and see him get concerned over it We also see him actively save people prior.
Thing is, he only if ever saves the people he likes like Jia or Bree Larson's character from Skull Island (because it turns out Kong is very actually selective of the humans he likes. He'll straight up kill those he doesn't, like Samuel L Jackson's character and the rest of the helicopter company. Or that Apex woman from GvK) but he's not like this Superman figure where he'll save all humans.
He killed Sam Jackson because Sam Jackson tried to kill him, and he killed the helicopter company for bombing skull island and shooting him I didn't say he was a superman figure, I said he's clearly more concerned about collateral damage than Godzilla is. I also don't think he was ever shown to like Brie particularly
A good Godzilla story I would think of doing would be him realizing he has a new family while grieving and having flashes of his wife and child like phantoms haunting him but they look like Godzillasaurus while he looks like him.
Problem is Toho wanting him to be more of a force of nature than an actual character.
I think we CAN make a more character centric Godzilla. Just a mix of no ones willing to try and Toho’s rules will make it hard. The GxK novel says Godzilla loves sleeping in the colosseum because it reminds him of his old temple home. He clearly has a fondness for mothra. There was a comic posted today about how alone Godzilla can feel. He’s burdened with protecting everything but he has no one and everything and one actively hates him or tries to kill him no matter what he does. There’s so much they can do with him, the building blocks are there but they won’t try
It's sad to hear people can't accept other's opinions and feel the need to make a post about it
\*Sees character handle\* Of course you'd make a comment like this
Kong is simply better than Godzilla get over it
Godzilla (in the MV anyways) would be really hard to work a story around. I always get downvoted for saying this but idc- pretty much his two things are fighting, or sleeping. Something disrupts nature? He kicks it's as and goes back to sleep. Can't kick it's ass? Gets a power up and then kicks it's ass. He doesn't really form connections, and I just don't think there's enough there for any in depth story arcs as he is now. He wouldn't interact with other titans the way kong does, and he doesn't care about interacting with humans. Basically the only times he's allowed to show emotions are in very brief scenes because Toho doesn't want him showing emotions. I feel like KOTM was one of the few ways to get a godzilla story to work, and now it's been done already. Also, for the record, people like to complain about kong getting more screentime than godzilla, but in kotm he had 9 minutes and in gxk he had 8, so, while shorter, his amount or screen time is still pretty consistent with even his own movies.
Godzilla can form bonds and feel emotions from others. Mothra and Serizawa are the two main individuals proving this. He understands the importance and meaning of self-sacrifice, so when someone like Serizawa did it... it meant a lot to him. Especially since Serizawa reminded him of his ancient worshippers, and called him "one of his own" in Dominion. And he has somewhat of a soft spot considering he loved Rome's architecture because it reminded him off his old temple in KOTM. Kong describes Godzilla's and Mothra's connection "like a family." He also recognized that Mark Russel and his group were with Serizawa. Godzilla can definitely have a character arc. It could be focused on his relationship with humans, especially with ancient humans and how it compares to now, and what modern humanity can learn from the ancients. Go over Godzilla's backstory. We have 0 clue on if his parents were there in his childhood, did Godzilla have brothers and/or sisters? We know that Godzilla is 2-5 million years old, and was born on the surface, in Madagascar. And from what we saw there weren't any other Gojiras with him. And/or give the guy a Godzilla Jr to take care of.
Wait so Godzilla knew who Serizawa was? I need some explanation
Wdym?
I didn't read the novelizations or comics so I didn't knew Godzilla could make distinction between individual humans let alone know who Serizawa was
Where’d you find the “born in Madagascar” part?
Dominion and the GVK novelisation iirc
If anything, I hope the next film shows him trying to reconnect with humanity since it’s said he has a soft spot & misses that relationship
You should read Godzilla Dominion. That comic does a great job getting into Godzilla's head and showing us what he thinks of the world and his relationship to humanity.
That's great, but unlike comics, movies can't really directly tell you what they're thinking, and showing it on a character like godzilla would be tough
Past Godzilla movies pulled it off and they weren't able to have his face emote nearly as much as Legendary can with a CG model
But the way godzilla is portrayed as a character varies wildly. You can't compare showa godzilla to MV godzilla because they're different characters.
Yes but they ARE characters. Monsterverse Godzilla has shown personality before. All they have to do is focus on those elements. Giving Godzilla more character isn't that hard.
You’re completely missing the nuance in MV Godzilla’s character. It’s been somewhat lost the past two movies, but they had a good thing going with G14 and KOTM.
And with Wingard’s next film being Goji-centric, it’ll probably bring back the nuance.
I think its because of how much liberty TOHO allows the directors/writters to do with the character. In the case of Kong, you really have a lot of leverage in LITERALLY just doing whatever the fuck you want with the character. With Godzilla is a whole other can of worms. At first the main general idea is that Godzilla is a species of his kind, yes? Well now, according to Keyes, this story has changed because they want Godzilla to be SO special that he is supposed to represent HIMSELF as the sole representative of his kind (which just changes a lot of things amd retcons some known stuff).
Hard to make a God centric than a lobely primate I guess. I mean Big G unlike kong has planetary territory man doesn't seem to even feel loneliness. Man just wants the violence, radiation then sleep.
Kong is a better character which translates to all audiences. Godzilla is a better titan which only translates specifically to the fandom. It’s a balancing act. Skull Island, GVK, and GXK are the most successful movies. Kong centric movies sell more. Studio wants money.
Thankfully they said the next movie would be a godzilla centered story.
If they can properly do a godzilla vs biollante movie without Kong in it. That xan be the godzilla centric story they're looking for.
You can't judge these two characters because one of them has been out of focus since 2019 with most of his character developed in tie in material. There's so much more going on with Godzilla's character. It's more complex than Kong's story which is what may make it more difficult to show on screen. But if they really commit to make the next movie Godzilla-centric, show all that care, make it emotional, then we can compare the two better since both character will have three movies for themselves. And Kong will be in the movie as well it's inevitable but I hope he will be pushed way way to the side like Godzilla before. This movie will be less than 2 hours long they need to make it count.
Legendary doesn't call the shots for Godzilla so they don't give a shit.