 Image c/o Legendary Pictures By Matthew Colvin Entertainment Columnist When Ishiro Honda’s original 1954 Godzilla film was first released, the eponymous giant monster was intended to be a creature that was all too relevant to the times; an allegory for the nuclear bomb. Godzilla was portrayed as a giant, unstoppable entity, with the desire and capability to do nothing but kill and destroy, powered by nuclear energy and setting its sights on leveling Japan. At the time it was a nation that, only nine years after being subjected to two atomic bombings, was still recovering from traumas both physical and mental. However, as I sat to watch Adam Wingard’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire on Saturday afternoon and witnessed that same monster being ridden by a giant ape into battle in an underground Hollow Earth against another giant ape riding a similar, ice-breathing giant lizard, all in the name of protecting humanity, I was struck by a single thought. This is not that Godzilla anymore. And that’s not entirely a bad thing.
Godzilla x Kong is silly and it knows it. Its premise builds on the previous Godzilla and King Kong films by Legendary Entertainment, though you hardly need any investment in the franchise to understand the film. All that matters is that at the start of the film, Godzilla and Kong are both tentatively on good terms with humanity, but on terrible terms with each other, and they ultimately will have to set aside their differences buddy-cop style to team up against a threat too great for either of them to defeat alone. The film follows three concurrent plotlines; one for each of the titular kaiju, and one for the humans trying to convince them to fight together. The human plotline, while trying to carry most of the thematic weight of the film, is by and large deadly boring, and feels like a creative afterthought when compared to the level of fun the filmmakers are having with the monsters. In all fairness, the cast, led by Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews, aren’t doing a bad job here, they’re just given no material to work with and as immature as it sounds, I found it difficult not to spend all of their screen time just waiting for the monsters to show up again. Despite Godzilla getting top billing in the film’s title, King Kong is the character who the film gives far more attention, galvanizing the whole plot and getting an entire found family character arc that took me by surprise. It’s not particularly poignant or profound, but given that he doesn’t speak a word for the entire film, I was impressed at the fact that the filmmakers were able to communicate a full, cohesive story for him. The sound design is densely layered and well-designed, and Wingard knew it; I found myself grinning like an idiot at an extended fight sequence in the film’s finale where the music completely dropped away and the solid VFX and booming audio immersed me in the scale of the monster brawl completely. Cinematographer Ben Seresin crafted some goofily fun shots as well, from a tracking shot where the camera moved through a cresting wave as it froze over, to some wild rotations during a zero-gravity sequence within Hollow Earth. They’re cheap tricks, but for a movie like this, cheap tricks are all that are required. So, is the film good? I’m tempted to say no. The story is borderline incomprehensible and if there are themes, they’re buried under a mountain of mindless action and circuitous plotting. But calling it bad seems beyond unfair, because I’ll be damned if this movie didn’t make me smile a whole lot. It’s not Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla. In fact, it’s probably the furthest thing possible from the original anti-war statement that Godzilla was meant to embody, to the point that it likely isn’t meant to represent much at all at this point. It’s also a far cry from Japanese publisher Toho’s recent Godzilla outings, such as the brilliant Godzilla Minus One. But if you’re looking for the specific kind of joy that only a giant ape smashing an airborne building to bits with a power glove can provide, this might be the film for you.
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A look at the documentary which uncovers the disturbing secrets behind some of your favorite childhood shows.  Image c/o Max/HBO By Madison Sciba Editor-in-Chief The Nickelodeon channel was a staple in many childhoods for those who are younger millennials and older Gen Z. Shows like iCarly, Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, and All That dominated the world of children’s television. Shows on Nickelodeon were targeted solely towards kids ranging from age 6 to mid teens, and were comedies that did not hold back from being goofy and outrageous. Unlike the shows that aired on the Disney channel, Nickelodeon’s comedies were not centered around a plot where the main character learns some kind of life lesson. Instead, Nickelodeon shows were purely meant to entertain making audiences laugh. However, the facade of Nickelodeon crumbled as the new Max docuseries, Quiet on Set, revealed the dark hidden secrets and scandals that surrounded the famous children’s television studio.
While a lot of famous names were brought up in the documentary, most noted were Drake Bell and Amanda Bynes. Both were major stars on the channel and have since had very public issues with the law and mental health. The Max docuseries revealed that Bell was sexually abused as a young teen by an acting coach who was working on the set of The Amanda Show. While this may have been the most shocking revelation to come out of Quiet on Set, it was seemingly not the focus of the miniseries. Former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider and his questionable actions on sets were the primary focal point of the series. Schneider was responsible for creating some of Nickelodeon’s most popular shows like iCarly, Victorious, Zoey 101, and Drake and Josh. Not only did Quiet on Set reveal that Schneider acted inappropriately to coworkers and subordinates on sets. Former female writers for The Amanda Show recalled how poorly they were treated and how they received a significantly smaller salary compared to the other male writers on the show. Quiet on Set’s main criticism of Schneider is his history of having child actors, specifically female child actors, perform scenes and actions which were considered sexual in nature. Having a teenaged Ariana Grande grunt while squeezing a potato and a whole skit on iCarly actors Miranda Cosgrove and Jeanette McCurdy’s toes. One most notable was a character on The Amanda Show, Penelope Taint, played by the young Amanda Bynes. All references that would not make sense to Nickelodeon’s targeted younger audience but deemed highly inappropriate by a more mature audience. The reason that Quiet on Set has become such a talked about topic on social media is because of how shocking it is that this kind of behavior has been allowed in areas which were supposed to be focused on children. Quiet on Set exposes the dark side of the children’s entertainment industry and the inappropriate actions of a showrunner who was seemingly given complete power over those more vulnerable at Nickelodeon. |
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