GODZILLA VS. KONG Director Breaks Down The Ocean Brawl Action Scene in the Film
Godzilla Vs. Kong was a fun flick filled with all kinds of ridiculousness. It pretty much ended up being exactly what I expected it to be, a movie that tells a silly story that makes no sense, but awesome action sequences involving Godzilla and King Kong fighting.
The director of the film, Adam Wingard, recently collaborated with New York Times to make an “Anatomy of a Scene” video. In it, the filmmaker breaks down the first fight scene between the two titans that takes place on the ocean as Kong is being transported.
The director says he used Jaws and Die Hard as a frame of reference for certain moments in this scene and also shares how he created visual links between the monsters and human characters.
Godzilla enters the scene with a splash in this high-energy moment from the latest in the MonsterVerse franchise.
Kong is being transported from Skull Island by ship and has an ocean encounter with a very agitated Godzilla. Some of the action in the sequence borrows from “Jaws” and “Die Hard” alike, and the director Adam Wingard said he wanted to lean into the spectacle.
“This is why you do these movies,” he says, narrating the sequence. “When you get to these moments, it’s all worth it because it’s basically like playing with C.G.I. toys.”
But it’s not all just visual-effects theatrics. The action moves back and forth between what’s happening with the humans on the ship and what’s unfolding in the water with the creatures. Wingard wanted to parallel specific movements to provide a sense of grounding. So he cut from a shot of Godzilla swimming to one of the characters, Nathan (Alexander Skarsgard), doing the same, or a close-up of Kong roaring to one of Nathan yelling.
“It’s like you’re dealing with characters that are 6 foot and below, and 300 feet and above,” he said, “so how do you link them up? You try to find these little visual cues that subconsciously tie the two worlds in together.”
Check out the video below and let us know what you thought about Godzilla Vs. Kong.