This weekend, to mark a decade of Legendary’s MonsterVerse, which is still dominating the box office thanks to Godzilla x Kong, we asked you to name your favorite film or TV show from the most successful shared movie universe after the MCU. Topping our results with 38.1 percent of the vote was 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts’s fantastic Vietnam War era reboot, which lent a suitably stylish flair to the violent first encounter with the big gorilla – it also arguably still features the best human cast in the films, with Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, and John C. Reilly’s absence all sorely felt in subsequent entries.
In second place with 19 percent was the second Godzilla film, 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which was a surprise given the film was considered a setback on release (director Michael Dougherty hasn’t helmed a movie since.) While it features King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan, the film was hampered by its stormy fight scenes, and largely boring and tedious humans. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its moments though: Rodan’s set piece is exhilarating, Serizawa’s sacrifice is genuinely compelling, and Bear McCreary’s score, which remembered to use the classic themes, was sublime. (Not to mention it gave us the Ghidorah meme.)
In third place with 14.3 percent each we have a tie between Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and the film that kicked it all off, 2014’s Godzilla. It’s an interesting contrast, given Monarch has been praised for having a compelling cast of humans, while Gareth Edwards’s Godzilla was criticized for killing off Bryan Cranston’s Joe Brody so early, mostly leaving us with his boring son Ford (poor Aaron Taylor-Johnson.) Still, both projects did a great job of honoring the darker spirit of the original Godzilla film, and it’s clear you prefer that to the vibe of the goofier later films that the Godzilla/Kong movies have been channeling. In any case, I’m sure we can all agree it’s often better to have some Godzilla, than no Godzilla at all.
Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to stay tuned for our next Reader Poll on Friday.
