Well, this is annoying.
Nate and I were transferring files between our respective laptops, and in the shuffle an older version of “Jimmy’s Notes” overwrote the newer version.
In other words, my notes on episode 38 (Godzilla vs. Kong) were lost.
Damnit, Marchand!
I can tell you that my notes included bullet points about:
- Eric mispronouncing something.
- H.E.A.T. being sent to the Hollow Earth to get Titanus Doug succeeded in finding him, and he was released on Monster Island today.
- The fact that a kaiju version of Alcoholics Anonymous should probably be started in light of Kong’s latest antics. Speaking as someone who’s been known to drink a bit too much Jack Daniels on occasion (and get into bar fights), I know how Kong feels.
- Realizing I’m 0-2 against Kong with Mechani-Kong Mk. 2. In my defense, I was trying to incapacitate and not kill him both times. If I ever went all out with Mechani-Kong Mk. 2, the results would’ve been much different. Regardless, my pride has recovered since then.
- Nate needing to get his own tux! He asked me to loan him mine, but it wouldn’t fit. He owes it to himself to get his own, just like Eric said.
- How getting Jet Jaguar fitted for a tux was … weird. Especially now with his Singular Point mods. I had to call in a favor with a special tailor.
- How it wasn’t “Kongtainment,” Nate. It was just “Kong Containment.”
Here’s Nate’s leftover notes … which is a lot.
The Film
- Someone should merchandise Jia’s Kong doll. (I’m sure the Board will get on that. –Jimmy)
- I like the MV credits sequences. There are lots of throwbacks to past MV films in here. Like Randa talking about the many ecosystems. Then we get a rundown of Godzilla and Kong’s past exploits.
- I heard some people say that Bernie was Alex Jones. That’s not far off. I didn’t mind him, but that might be because I know a few people like him. (Even Alex Jones is right sometimes. –Jimmy)
- Like in K33, they just put Kong on a huge raft with no explanation of how. I prefer that. Given the big jump in technology in this, you just learn to accept it.
- Some things get repeated a bit too much at first. “Ancient rivalry” is one.
- Call me crazy, but the finger touch reminds me of the Da Vinci painting of God touching Adam. (I thought Kong was the “king” not the “god.” –Jimmy)
- I love the van scene because it makes me think of Stranger Things with the ‘80s-sounding techno.
- I heard someone complain about the Tide pod reference. It would’ve been a long time after that, but it makes sense that he’d be leery of internet challenges and would still be dealing with lawsuits. Maybe it was an adlib?
- The score doesn’t have nostalgic tunes like KOTM, but it does have shades of them. It’s somewhere between G14 and KOTM.
- I love how Kong is puzzled by snow. (Sometimes it puzzles me, too, so he’s in good company. –Jimmy)
- Josh naming MG seems a bit odd. It really should’ve been Ren Serizawa. (Or me. –Jimmy)
- I really did feel a bit sorry for the Skullcrawler MG kills. It does show how much of a threat MG is because those things were terrifying in Kong: Skull Island.
- The Heisei Gamera trilogy is all over the MV G-films. This has Gamera 3 in it. Godzilla is protecting the Earth/nature and not humanity, which means he causes lots of collateral damage without regard to humans.
- When Jia signs about Kong’s heartbeat, she beats her chest a bit like Kong. I like that. (It’s cute. Is it her sign for Kong? –Jimmy)
Toku Topic: Theaters vs. Streaming
These are mostly quotations from the following sources:
- https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/02/movie-theater-owners-are-frustrated-about-streaming-but-their-survival-depends-on-studios.html
- “According to a study held in June 2020, just 14 percent of adults said that they strongly preferred seeing a movie for the first time in a theater, and 36 percent said that they would much rather stream the film at home than visit a cinema. Preferences for watching a new release in a cinema instead of via a streaming service in the United States changed significantly between 2018 and 2020, signaling a shift in consumer behavior and potentially a risk for movie theaters in the country. Also important to note is the effect of the coronavirus on consumer confidence. There was a drop in the share of movie fans willing to visit cinemas between March and June 2020, likely the result of consumers fearing the risk of infection and feeling more comfortable viewing movies in the safety of their own home.”
- “Studios and exhibition have always had a lovely but contentious relationship,” one movie theater operator with locations in the southern part of the U.S. said on condition of anonymity. “Exhibition is basically a business that has blank screens and empty seats and we can’t do what we do without the studios.”
- “These windows were created by studios decades ago in an effort ‘to get multiple bites out of the same apple,’ another movie theater operator said.”
- “Netflix Inc has streamed original movies at the same time, or just a few weeks after, their debut in cinemas. Competitor Amazon Studios has said it would like some of its films to play for only two to eight weeks in theaters before hitting the Amazon Prime Video streaming service.”
- “Director Steven Spielberg told Britain’s ITV News last year that movies seen primarily via streaming should compete for Emmys, not Oscars. A representative declined to comment on whether the director will urge the Academy to address the issue.”
- Before the pandemic, there was talk of extending the theater duration times for big budget films and allowing smaller films to head to “direct-to-consumer” channels faster. But when cinemas were forced to close for six months (or more), cinemas were forced to adhere to much shorter releases. Many faced bankruptcy.
- Theaters owners and other industry observers were quick to criticize Warner’s move. Chris Johnson, the CEO of Classic Cinemas, called Warner’s decision “ridiculous and short-sighted,” and Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC Theaters, argued that Warner would “sacrifice a considerable portion of the profitability” of movies that bypassed the traditional theatrical release. David Sims piled on in The Atlantic, saying of Warner’s decision, “Audiences will have little incentive to pay more to see these films in theaters.” His conclusion? “Theater chains are right to fear for their survival.”
- You know who else hated it? Christopher Nolan. He spoke against it vehemently in defense of the theater-going experience (it might’ve been to promote Tenet, but who knows).
- “PwC partner CJ Bangah told me her big consulting firm’s annual media and entertainment outlook is projecting a 65% drop in global revenues for the movie sector.”
- “Worse, Bangah said, recovery for the film industry is a long ways away. As she delicately put it, it’s ‘within the realm of possibility’ that the industry will fight through an “uphill battle” to full recovery, but ‘we’re not forecasting a return to 2019 revenue levels in the five years of our forecast for cinema.’”
- “Shorter windows would keep some customers at home, said Greg Marcus, chief executive of The Marcus Corporation, owner of the fourth-largest U.S. theater chain. ‘If you damage the business and take away 10 percent of our customers, we won’t be able to reinvest in the theatrical experience,” Marcus said. “That would ultimately hurt content providers.’”
- “In the study, we analyzed what happened to theatrical revenue in Korea from 2015 through 2018 — a period during which Hollywood studios significantly shortened the exclusive theatrical windows for their releases, from three months to only one month. We found that, after controlling for differences between movies with early digital releases versus traditional release windows, early releases had a statistically and economically insignificant impact on theater sales, equivalent to around a 0.8% drop in total theatrical revenue during the first eight weeks of the movie’s theatrical run in Korea. Most theatergoers, it turned out, remained loyal to the theatrical experience even when they had the option of watching the movie at home while the movie was still showing in theaters.” Take this with caution.
- “What we learned in our Korean study suggests that a similar effect may exist for movies, which in turn suggests that John Fithian, the president of the National Association of Theater Owners, was right when he argued that ‘theaters provide a beloved immersive, shared experience that cannot be replicated’ — but that Jason Kilar, the CEO of WarnerMedia, was also right when said that early digital releases provided an opportunity to give customers a choice ‘whether that choice is to enjoy a great new movie out at the cinema, to open up HBO Max, or to do both.’”
- In 2019 (before the dark times—before the COVID), Christina Garnett wrote, “Maybe we’ve already chosen the user experience we want… instant, at our fingertips, and cheaper than the traditional alternative.”
Okay, it wasn’t as much as I expected.
Next week you’ll hear the return of another member of my ever-growing rogues gallery, and this time he brought a friend: Jack “GMan” Hudgens and J.R. Villers from The Drift Space podcast. They came to continue the “Year of Gamera” with a movie that dramatizes an exciting chapter of my life: Gamera vs. Viras. Yes, I have lasso skills and helped Gamera fight aliens. How do you think I got a job at NASA? Then poor Nate has to suffer through a second Gamera movie in a row with Gamera vs. Guiron, and he’ll be joined by Luke Jaconetti of the Earth Destruction Directive podcast and Greg Meyer, who hosts several podcasts.
Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome
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