Greetings and salutations. This is Jordan Bloom. And Patton Oswalt. And we are the writers of Minor Threats over at Dark Horse Comics. And you are listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles. Hello everyone, welcome to episode 151 of the Oblivion Bar podcast, the official podcast of the fantasy shop in St. Charles, Missouri. I'm your friendly neighborhood Titan veterinarian, Chris Hacker.
And joining me this week is the man who isn't afraid to admit that Bustin' makes him feel good, my co -host and BFF, Aaron Knowles. Bustin' makes me feel good. I ain't afraid of no ghosts. Aaron, this week on the show we are doing a... You call it like the Empire's Strike Back, right? The double feature. I've been saying this for weeks and I thought it was one of the most wittiest things I've ever come up with. I think it is too.
It's just, if I was to make the title of this episode any longer, people would not know what we're talking about. So I think that like the, the subtitle of this episode is movie reviews slash double feature, semi -colon, the Empire's Strike Back, Godzilla X -Kong, the new empire and Ghostbusters frozen empire. That's a long, that's a long fucking title. That's a long title. Okay. I don't know. Side quest. Okay. When you were younger, did they ever make you take like typing classes?
Yeah. You got like how fast you can go? Yeah. Like words per minute, all this stuff. So we had this one, it was like Mavis beacon or Mavis beacon, however you say it. And it was like a haunted house. Okay. So they, it was like a complete ripoff of Casper. Sure. But you go in and you'd have to like type out the words and like, there was like haunted words like, Ooh, and then you type them out, but, but, but, but, but there was this little ghost that would like, give you the cues of what to type.
And for some reason, core memory locked in there is this ghost would say, semi -colon. Like core memory is this ghost, semi -colon. And it's like, do you know when to use a semi -colon though? That's the, I still don't know to this day when to use a semi -colon. So to use a semi -colon, just nerd. Everyone, we're going to talk about Godzilla and Kong and we'll get there. But we need to learn about semi -colons really quick.
Okay. Semi -colon is basically think of like, an additional clause to a sentence. You remember the movie, the Santa Claus? Yes. Like, hey, whoever puts on the suit becomes Santa Claus. And then there's like an additional, like there's like additional annexes. Basically anything that that adds to that sentence, like I am very hungry. So, Nicole, I could eat, you know, like like for you know, for tacos or like, you know, for tacos for that. Like, that's not that's not exactly 100 percent right.
I could eat a TMI. Yes. There you go. It's like I am Godzilla and I'm very hungry. Semicolon. I should eat myself a TMI. Like with a with a with a comma, kind of the information is needed to conclude that sentence. But with a semi -context, it's yeah, exactly, exactly. So when you use the dash, everyone, sorry. But so I use a dash a lot. If like I have a sentence that I'm trying to complete, but I want to add a little like I want to finish that thought in a separate sentence. I use a dash.
Is that am I using that correctly? That's not correct. That's not right. Well. You don't come to the oblivion bar for grammatical correction, although we did just give you the correct way to use semicolon. So today's show was brought to you by the semicolon. What was the little diploma from schoolhouse rocks? What was his name? Do you remember? I have no, you know, that was, I'd never watched schoolhouse rock.
Okay. Ever. Ever. I feel like I missed out because everybody's like super obsessed with like, I'm just a bill. I'm just a bill. And like, I, I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. Well, everyone, no worries. You're not going to be learning about political ramifications as a preteen or even semi -colon talk anymore. That's all over with. This week on the show, we're going to finally be talking about Godzilla Kong. Now, Aaron, it says Godzilla X Kong.
X Kong. The X. We'll talk about this here in just a bit during the review, but that is not X. It's not multiplied. It is collab. Collab. It's a collab. It's a collab. The new Empire. Yeah, it's for the, it's for the Tik Tok. It's for the Godzilla Collabs King Kong. This ain't your daddy's Godzilla Kong. This is, this is for the youth of the nation. Big monkey fights, big lizard. That's right. And then we also have Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. So Aaron, this is a very Aaron centric episode.
This is all me baby. This is all you. So I'm going to be looking to you to lead the pack and be our subject matter expert on all things monkeys, lizards and busting on ghosts. So got it. I'll bust all over these monkeys and lynxes. Aaron, tell the people how they can support the Oblivion Bar podcast. What? You don't know? Patreon .com forward slash oblivion bar pod. For your support, you could have access to our weekly exclusive grid podcast, which is called the grid.
I don't know why I keep saying the grid, but I'll, and I'll throw it in there a couple more times. It's a weekly Patreon exclusive benefit. It's basically the oblivion bar pod after dark. It's unformatted. It's unfiltered. It's unfettered. It's total stream of consciousness on the top of our brain. Yes. It's just random. Well, I love it. It's an inside look on our friendship because all we do is press record and start talking. Whatever we have. No idea. No idea.
We just we start because if you know anything about Aaron and I, if you listen to the show long enough, you know that we can ramble. We can talk about all types of things. We can sign a segue with the best of them. That's where we get all of our side quests and segues out of the way is over on the grid. Because we don't we don't have the wrinkly brains like some of you folks. We've got smooth, smooth ass brains over here on the board.
You also get access to episode transcripts before the show releases. You can kind of see what we're going to be talking about. And that includes everything, all of our notes, all of our links. It's really like it's something that Chris puts a lot of time into. It's amazing. And, you know, it's something that we really it sets us apart here on the on the Oblivion bar pod. early access to normal episodes and a special shout out at the end of each oblivion bar pod episode.
So you'll hear that later on from me. It's honestly the best way to support the show. Everything that you guys put into the show comes back into the show. We don't take any of it. We just use it purely to make the show better. Yeah. Patreon .com forward slash oblivion bar pod. Aaron, one more note before we get into our news and notes. Well, a note before the news and notes. We have a panel at C2E2 with the first issue club and the short box. Aaron, we got another panel. So exciting.
Panel. Was that a DJ horn that you were about to do? You want to do it? No, it's just me going panel, panel, panel. Do a DJ horn for me. There it is. Yeah. On Friday, April 26th at 11 15 a .m. Join us in room S4 05 slash B to hear a live recording of our three shows getting together, talking about comics, talking about podcasting. It's again, Bader over at the short box. You've got Greg Licktig and Andy Vargas over at the first issue club. plus us two hooligans, we're all gonna get together.
We're gonna talk about all things comics, movies, podcasting, all the things. It's a - Hooligans, cause we're hoes. Aaron and I, we actually have an exclusive C2E2 image that we're gonna put on stickers and shirts and posters. It was made by our good friend and patron, Elliot Dixon. So shout out to Elliot for that. It's an incredible homage to Wolverine number eight, where you've got the Joe fix it version of Aaron. And then you have the Wolverine slash patch version of me.
looking up at each other, all menacing like. So very cool. We'll be giving those out for free. We'll actually be having a panel exclusive sticker. It's a holographic version. So make sure you guys come. If you're in the C2 E2 area or Chicago area, come hang out with us for a bit. It'll be a lot of fun. Your support means it's going to be a blast. That's right. And you can also visit the link in our show notes for more details on that panel.
So enough of all that, Aaron, let's go ahead and get into our news and notes. and notes. Our news and notes segment is sponsored by Omnibus, backed by some of the top publishers in the medium. Omnibus hosts an extensive back catalog from Image Comics, Boom Studios, Dark Horse, IDW Publishing, Ahoy Comics, Titan Vault, and many more. And they're about to just release some big news coming up, folks. We can't speak on it, but it's going to be huge.
Yig. Yig. And most importantly, Omnibus supports in -app purchases. Download the Omnibus app in the app store or read at work on your desktop. Like me, Android users, your time is coming. The beta for the Play Store is almost finished. Also, make sure you follow them on their socials at the Omnibus app. Omnibus by fans for fans. All righty. Up first, we have Marvel cast Julia Gardner in the Fantastic Four as Aaron Drumroll, please. The Silver Surfer, my favorite character of all time.
So obviously this is a big news for me, whether I am for it or against it. I guess we'll find out here in just a moment, but. Let's get a little background on Julia Gardner. Erin, are you familiar with the show Ozark over on Netflix? Is she the one that like she looks like she has like a perm? This is crazy. I don't know shit about fuck. Yep, that's her. That's her. That's her like famous thing on Ozark. She doesn't know shit about fuck. OK, OK. She was also in Inventing Anna.
So, oh, yeah, she was really good in that one. Incredible actor. Like it's exciting surface level, but let's let's get through the fine details before we give our opinions on it. So she's obviously taking on the role of shallow ball, who is normally the love interest of the normal incarnation of the Silver Surfer, Noren Rad. Shalabal was created by Stan Lee and John Prishama in Silver Surfer Number One in May of 1968.
Ball is the Empress of the planet Zen -La, a civilization of peace and enlightenment. Gardner joins Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Iban Mas Bakrak as Ben Grimm. Fantastic Four will hit theaters on July 25th, 2025. Aaron, before I give my thoughts on this, I'd love to get kind of your temperature check. What is your...
You know, your thoughts on Julia joining not only this cast, but the MCU as the Herald, the Herald, the Herald of Galactus. Yeah. So I mean, I have more of a question for you to be honest. Like, OK, so obviously, Norin Rad has been a male has been represented. The Herald of Galactus has been the Silver Surfer. How do you feel about Shalabal? Because is this is this like just a different like Earth or a different multiverse? There's a series called Earth X by Alex Ross.
that I think she becomes a version of the silver surfer. But my understanding of Shalabal has always been when Galactus comes to Zen Law, basically, Noren makes a pact with Galactus says, Hey, listen, if you to basically to save Shalabal and his entire planet, I will become your herald. I will seek out planets for you to consume, to keep this galactic balance within the universe and everything.
Right. Eventually, obviously, Noren bands with the Fantastic Four, fights off Galactus when he comes to Earth.
Because he sees the the right in humanity all that to be said Shallow ball her her character arc from my understanding reading through like the Ron Lim stuff and a lot of the 90s stuff Of course the Stan Lee stuff and the Jack Kirby stuff my understanding of shallow ball is essentially she is like this anchor for Noren when he comes back to zen law and the rare times that he does he always comes back and he's always thinking like he's thinking Oh, I've done all this
amazing stuff throughout the universe I've sacrificed so much to come back to zen law and a lot of times what he realizes that shallow ball is has like moved on. She's like, I'm good, man. I have, I've become the empress of this planet that you love. I don't really need you anymore. Like that's essential. That's what she's saying without saying it.
What she's essentially telling Norton anytime she interacts with him in like modern day is that like we had this love, but we've, we've gone in different directions. Our priorities are much different now and she's a very independent person. I think this is a very interesting casting. I'll say, here's my lizard brain response. I was like, Damn it, that sucks. Like I really wanted Noren Rad. Like obviously, like I have literally, I have Noren Rad on my arm right now. I love that character.
I love his arc. I love what he does. And I think if we're just gonna supplant Shalabal into that role and Noren Rad is kind of like maybe the emperor of Zen. Like they're just gonna literally gender swap it and make it Shalabal. I don't really see why. That's my thing is that like anything can be good. I think that Julia Gardner is incredible. She's an incredible actor. This could be very good. I just don't understand why they did it. And maybe we'll see it on the road. It's an odd choice.
And that's why, like for me, I accept it. I'm not super happy with it, but it's not like world shattering for me. You know, I'm more excited to see the implications of what does this do to the actual story, to the universe, whatever, because obviously there's going to be some universe defining moments when it comes to why Shalabal is the Herald versus why Nornrad, because I grew up. with Nora Rad, but for me, it's not such a staple that I can't get over it.
I'm more curious about when the time comes and this movie releases to see what you say. So I'm interested in that, but I am excited for this film. I am excited for, the more they do advertisements, the more they do, like they release like these, cause they, was it yesterday? They released all these cool like new posters and everything. And it looked like I love. I love the retro look, so I'm super excited because, you know, I don't know, that's just all exciting.
But again, I'm, and then Pedro Pascal, daddy, daddy, daddy. We got Zaddy in this, we got Vanessa Kirby. The cast is incredible. I think, I hope everyone doesn't hear what I'm not saying when I say that, like, while I was like initially disappointed that it wasn't nor rad, again, any one thing can be good. And I think, I believe in Julia Gardner as an actor. I think she's going to be incredible in the role regardless. I just hope that this wasn't a change to be a change.
Like I hope that there's a reason for it and they didn't just want to make a female silver surfer, you know, cause that feels also very disingenuous. Like of course, gender swapping, race swapping, all these things. If it makes sense for the story, let's do it. It's awesome. But I hope this wasn't just a switch to switch it up because silver surfer is not like a white, I really is a white dude. He's a white male, but like he's from Zin -La. He's this bald, like really weird looking species.
It's not like a normal cis. Midwestern white male like me, you know, he's like, he's just like, I don't know. Anyway, my point is that like, I am still very excited for fantasy four. I'm excited that my favorite character is in the MCU finally, in some capacity. I just hope that this is like a, I hope they're honoring the character in the correct way as my only reservation. And it's a very small reservation, I should say. Like I'm still very excited.
So Aaron, we need to take a little bit of time. I, you know, something incredibly tragic happened this past week. This is really our only other piece of news. We just want to cover it very quickly that comic creator Ed Pisker tragically passed away. He broke through. I want to give you a little back story on Ed Pisker because there is there's some controversy. Well, there's some there's some webs to weave.
I'll say that like we have some things to kind of go over before we talk about what actually happened. Pisker broke into comics in his 2016 project Hip Hop Family Tree, which documented the early years of hip hop culture, portrayed iconic figures like DJ Cool, Herrick.
Grandmaster flash and public enemy in 2018 and Aaron this is where I kind of got familiar with that Piskar Piskar took a similar all -encompassing Ensemble approach to Marvel superhero mythology with x -men grand design an attempt to synthesize the complicated history of mutants and the coheat and its cohesive narrative So if you know anything about the x -men their backs their their history The comics are all over the place time travel different kids like all the things. It's very convoluted.
So Piskars goal was to basically condense all that and make it digestible for new comic book readers. He and fellow Pittsburgh cartoonist Jim Rugg also hosted a long running comic theme YouTube talk show Cartoonist KFab. Okay, so here's where it gets kind of rough. So on March 25th, a city paper article alleged Pisker of sending text messages to a young fan whom he befriended from a Facebook comic group. She was underage and described the situation as grooming inappropriate.
Pisker then put this very long drawn out post on Facebook that Basically, I mean, some are kind of seeing it as a suicide note. The cause of death was not disclosed, but it can be assumed that this was a self induced situation based on a lengthy note. Like I said, on Facebook, Pisker was 41 years old. So no situation is too big for this kind of thing to happen. We should not let the voice of public opinion ever let something like this happen.
Maybe Pisker did some very inappropriate things, but it wasn't worth losing his life. I'll say that for definitively. Right. Like if he was doing some groomy crap, that's not a good deal, man. That's not good. But it is not worth a very talented and otherwise loved person in the comic comic community. Like he should not be gone because of that is my thought. So what are your thoughts, Aaron?
We live in a society right now where it's it's difficult for that to be for situations like this founded or unfounded to be dealt with, because we're very much in a day and age where. you're guilty until proven innocent.
And so anybody these days, especially like with the Me Too movement and all this stuff, I understand, like I absolutely side on this, I'm with the victims, but I do think that we need to have a fairness to the way that we look at this to where we are allowing people with dignity respond and fix what they've done or the issues, because who knows? I mean, there's a lot. Nothing is just black and white. I understand like if it's wrong, it's wrong. Let it be found as wrong.
Let it let the right people dig into it, investigate and be wrong. But we as a society need to stop destroying people from head to toe and top to bottom from back to front. Like their entire legacies. I've thought about like this before with other creators and things like that. And it's true. Like no matter what, we need to let people deal with these things with dignity. And that way a life is not. worth it.
And also if they're guilty of doing such atrocities where it's like grooming or sexual assault, things like that, they need to face the consequences instead of Jake. I mean, in some cases, death might be the easy way out for them, or it seems like it's the only way out for them. We need to not allow that to happen. Yeah, he felt like his career was over essentially, and that this was his only way out. And that's really unfortunate.
He says in his note that people were reaching out to his elderly parents. There were news. These news outlets were trying to get a hold of him constantly. He was losing work, like all these things. And, you know, like you said, we always sigh with the victim, of course, but like there have been instances where people have falsely accused folks of things like that has happened. Right. So like, this is just really sad.
It's not worth losing a life, especially someone as talented and again, beloved as Piss her was in the comic community. And again, like you said, there are opportunities to grow. There are opportunities to look at it and go, Hey, I made a mistake. People make mistakes. And there are some things that are irredeemable, absolutely. But I think personally, this is my, and call me controversial, but this is not worth complete destruction of your life, your livelihood.
And yes, again, like being alive, like that, none of that is worth it in my opinion. So I think if nothing else, this is a good time for us as the comic community to like listen and learn from this situation, right? Like this is not a good deal. There's no way to put it. As you can see, Aaron and I are fucking spinning our wheels, trying to figure out how to talk about this.
But like, it's like you said before, it needed to be talked about and be, you know, it's, it's something that's, that is, that is important to the community. And you know, it's, you can't just avoid the hard stuff to talk about. So it's something, it's something to be commented on and discussed, but not overlooked and not be overly, overly opinionated upon. Like this is the time to learn. This is not a time to like, be like, Oh, he, he should throw him in the trash. Like people on the.
fucking foul people on Twitter and otherwise saying that this is deserved in some way is disgusting. Yeah. Like I, I don't know if many cartoons could be like truly happy no matter what, just because it's like, it's not you, every page you have an opportunity to create the best comic page ever and you fail every time, but you're doing all right. You know, you, you, you, you, you're progressing, you're learning. There's a yin and yang to it. Like this, this is what makes mom proud.
This right here is the money. Cause that's going to go on, you know, that'll be in my obituary, dude. I got to become a New York Times bestselling author. It's ridiculous. There must've been an off week in publishing that week. Let's move on. Let's get into our main topic, which again is covering Godzilla X -Kong, the new empire and Ghostbusters frozen empire, Aaron. But before we get there, Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.
Aaron, do you remember what it's like when we first started recording? If the world of podcasting was not hard enough to figure out, we also often experience issues with unreliable internet connections, dropped or lagging calls, or the limited recording times from the other online recording studios. Absolutely, man. We often had to re -record or invest in backup recording alternatives to make sure our show was always top notch. But that's the thing of the past, right? That's absolutely right.
because here at the Oblivion Bar, a nerd culture podcast, we've officially switched over to Riverside .fm. Riverside .fm is the easiest way to record podcasts and video interviews in studio quality from anywhere. Bad internet connections don't affect the recordings because the platform records audio and video locally on each participant's device. The audio is uncompressed and the video is up to 4K resolution. Yeah, that's right.
And they also just released a beta version of their new media board. which allows you to upload your own themes and transitions and include them in your recording on a separate track. So check them out at riverside .fm and change the way you record your podcast. That's riverside .fm and tell them the oblivion bar sent you. Alrighty, let's get into our first review, Aaron, of our double feature, The Empire's Strike Back, right? That's right, that's like a running title.
And the first one up is gonna be Godzilla X Kong, The New Empire. So, Aaron, initial thoughts on this fifth installment in the Monsterverse? I believe so. I think it's fifth, I think we talk about it later on in the review. I think it is the fifth installment. We got Godzilla, we got Godzilla, King of Monsters, we've got Kong, Skull Island, we've got Godzilla versus Kong, and then this, right? That's five. Initial thoughts. Yeah. Were thoughts. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm initially getting to them.
I'm answering the question. Initial thoughts were, uh, cause I have to think back cause I saw it, you know, a few days ago, incredibly fun, incredibly fun. Like one of those ones that you just, you're just like, yes, yes, yes. You know, like while you're watching it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Same. I think for me, So I texted you right after I saw this, because I saw it at... You called me. Oh, yeah, that's right. I did call you. Yeah. And I was like, this is awesome.
This is like totally my thing. Like, I loved every part of this because I think this is officially taking... Like, the Monsterverse has officially taken the place of the Fast and Furious franchise as just total brain candy, smooth brain entertainment. Yes. Whatever this is, like what they've completely dove into. Like, go back to Godzilla. It's very grounded, it's dark. It's kind of like you barely see Godzilla. And then you go to this, we've completely devoid, we've devoid it into absurdity.
Like not - We don't even care about the humans anymore. No, not at all. Like we're destroying whole cities, landmarks, the Colosseum, the pyramids, the pyramid. Everything is getting destroyed at this point. The Colosseum is basically a giant doggy bed now. That's right. And I don't care. I love it. I love every part of it. I don't give a rat's ass. Like you get Godzilla. Sleeping like you said like in the Coliseum.
I'm like in that adorable curled up like a little cat That's right little bumbly bumbly cat. It's funny you say that cuz we'll get into why that is here But I love I really love this Aaron like I don't think I can really Articulate how much I enjoyed myself. Is it stupid 100 %? It's very dumb everybody. This is not it. This is not a smart This is not highbrow entertainment. Okay?
But if you're looking for a fun popcorn movie at the theater, I don't think you can get much better than this, to be honest. Like this is exactly what you want. This is Big Monk fights Big Liz and it fun. Times Orange Monk. We got Karate Monk. Yeah. Karate Monk. Karate Monk versus Power Glove Monk. Yeah. Okay. Plus Ice Dragon. Times mini Diddy Kong type of orangutan. Yes. Yes. Diddy Kong and... Uh, we got pink Godzilla, pink Liz, pink Liz. That's right. Yeah. Cotton candy lizard.
Cotton candy lizard. All right. Let's go and do a summary here. Why? I don't know, but let's do a summary for Godzilla Kong, the new empire with the agreement that the king of the monsters, Godzilla protects the service world and the almighty King Kong defends hollow earth. The two Titans must be grudgingly banned together to face an ancient threat hidden deep within the planet's core. Yep, like we said just a moment ago, the new Empire is the fifth installment in the Monsterverse franchise.
If you don't include the Netflix animated series Skull Island and the live action Apple TV plus series Monarch Legacy of Monsters. Aaron, have you seen Skull Island? I have not seen Skull Island, but I did want to talk about the connection between Legacy of Monsters and this movie. Please, because I don't know. I have not seen Monarch. I know it has the two Wyatt's. They got the you got. or not Wyatt, the two Russells, excuse me. You've got Wyatt Russell and Kurt Russell, right?
Yes. So the interesting thing about this, okay, is, and we're going to talk about it, but again, spoilers ahead, spoilers ahoy. Oh yeah, we didn't give a spoiler alert. Good job. We didn't give a spoiler alert. What you need to know right from the start of this movie, if you have not seen Legacy of Monsters, is that there are, like, think of the earth. We already know that there's layers. All right, think of it as an ogre parfait.
Okay. There are so many fucking layers of the earth and we see this in new new empire because we now have a subterranean hollow, a subterranean realm of hollow earth. So like now they're just now they're just making up more shit, which I kind of love at the same time, because in, in legacy of monsters, there's even like a almost purgatory ish, like between the realms area.
So now you have, the surface, you have this like between the realms, then you have hollow earth and now we have subterranean earth or subterranean hollow earth. So it's like, we're just going to keep adding shit to the earth. Like who knows how thick it gets. Yeah. But it's going to be there. And it's so it's, I think it's, it's really interesting. And so, so does Monarch cover all of that? Is that kind of the point of the show is to like go to the different realms?
Yes and no. So in legacy of monsters, we find out that. Like God's. So we find out that the monsters can't. Okay. So humans cannot travel without the monsters through the portals. And I, I feel like that might be wrong. No, no, no. They did because in Godzilla versus Kong, they followed Kong through the portal. But yeah. So it's much like the same rules of Pacific Rim where they cannot get through the portal without like being close to in proximity of a monster.
You need it like a Titan handshake, essentially. Basically. Now in King of the or Legacy of Monsters, it has like a time dilation aspect to it. So like somebody may be like stuck in that between realm and it's like being near a black hole. So time for them is very slow, but on Earth, like time passes like super or like goes by normal. Sure. So do Godzilla or Kong show up in Legacy of Monsters? Yes, they do. OK, yes. So yeah, quite a bit.
So, oh, well, not no Kong. Godzilla is in there quite a bit because he's kind of like they're still trying to track him around on Earth. He also shows up in this nether realm. So Godzilla is apparently the Titans are just there. It's easier for them to access any of the realms that they want to go. Like they know how to get to each realm, whether it's the in between one or the subterranean, whatever. So I find this really interesting.
And we have this whole new vehicle of like transport through the earth around the earth. It's really cool. Yeah. I knew you would like that. When you start talking about that, you were going to see that on an Apple TV. I was like, you're going to be my subject matter expert. Because I, as much as I love the Russells, I just haven't checked it out yet. I don't have Apple TV like most folks. So it's a pretty good show.
And it's, and as we've talked about before, Apple TV is doing a lot of really good stuff because legacy of monsters is like gorgeous. Like it is cinema level. So if you have not seen it, I highly recommend going and checking out legacy of monsters because they do show a lot of the same maps. You can see where monarchs involvement and their mapping of this kind of realm is playing a part in there. But obviously this new empire, it takes it to a whole new level. Yeah, it's obviously not necessary.
Everyone listening right now, for some of you who haven't seen Monarch, you don't necessarily have to watch the TV show. It's more of just like more back matter essentially. But speaking of the show, I started winning comic book writer, Matt Fraction, who, Aaron, you know, wrote the Hawkeye series with David A -ha and then Sex Criminals with Chip Zdarsky. He was the co -showrunner of Monarch alongside Chris Black, who also wrote episodes of Xena, The Princess Warrior.
Desperate Housewives and Severance over on again, Apple TV Plus. Before releasing Takahashi, whoa, I'm gonna really need your help here, Aaron. Takahashi Yagasuki? Yamazaki? Yamazaki. Very close. The writer and director of the acclaimed Godzilla Minus One. Aaron and I, didn't we give that our surprise hit of the year last year? Yep, yep. For the last call? Did PR for this film by watching it early and promoting it on social media stating, I was able to watch it on the big screen early.
It is super fun and gorgeous. Be sure to watch it on the big screen. And Aaron, as we talked about a moment ago in an interview with CBR, director Adam Wingard revealed that the X in the movie title is silent. Both stands for collaboration. It's a common practice for brands and businesses to collaborate with artists. Again, this is not your daddy's Godzilla X -Kong. It is now just Godzilla Kong. So, Aaron, get into the budget here. Well, believe it or not. It's pretty big.
Much like Godzilla's penis. That's what she said. That's what she said. Budget was one hundred and thirty five million dollars. But this is the cheapest monster verse entry to date. Yeah. One thirty five. That's really cheap. I mean, think about like a lot of the MCU films for some reason we keep continuing to use as our benchmark. A lot of their films are two hundred million dollars. I think wasn't it Dune was one fifty. So this is cheaper than Dune.
And from my eyes, I love to hear your thoughts on this, Aaron looked pretty good. Like there are some shots that look kind of CGI, like very CGI heavy. But in terms of the monsters fighting and the way the monsters look, just like the emoting of the monsters and the like the destruction of the cities and all the things for my eyes, it looked really good. I mean, I'm not looking for like realistic human like, you know, that definitely because because because none of the humans were like CGI.
I don't feel like it, at least not that I can look in this. There were a few interesting shots of the young like, um, ee wee princess that were like, uh, but you, but she's so small. You can't really tell. Uh, but that's what we're looking at. We're looking at the monsters here and the monsters looked awesome. Absolutely. It was, I mean, who gives a shit on it? It was, they looked great. There's a certain level of just like glaze that you have to watch these movies with, right?
Like you just have to understand that this is going to be extremely CGI heavy. I thought the opening scene. Like there's there's some shots where it's like a close up on Kong and you don't like get a good look at his scale. Like you don't realize how big he is actually in Hollow Earth because everything is so huge. But I thought some of those shots looked kind of iffy.
But I think once we got past that and I think very specifically when Kong has his toothache and you've got Dan Stevens as Trapper goes down and gives him like a carbon fiber tooth like a canine sharp tooth. That looks definitely my my favorite fucking character. Yeah. Yeah. We'll talk about Dan Stevens here in just a moment. He's an incredible addition to this film.
So the box office as of April 4th, the new empire has grossed ninety four point six million domestically and in Canada and one hundred and fifteen point one million other territories for a worldwide total of two hundred nine point seven million. So this is already the sixth highest grossing movie worldwide in twenty twenty four just from its opening weekend. So yeah, pretty incredible. I'm a little mad, though, because.
I obviously we went like opening week weekend and my movie theater didn't have any of the cool shit like any of the cups or the markets, the merchandise, nothing. I went to AMC and they had the scar king cup. Like basically it's like a like a hollow earth looking cup. And then on top you have scar king sitting on the straw. So that's kind of what that what that was. So a day being at 80 million dollars in his opening weekend, the new empire topped the box office.
in its first two weeks becoming the second best opening weekend of the Monsterverse. It is also the fifth best Easter weekend entry of all time. So really, this is like a kind of a crazy surprise hit, you know, I think that we're going to talk about.
I want to just go and bring it up now, Aaron, is that between the two movies that we're talking about this week with the New Empire and Frozen Empire, these are both legacy sequels that came out in 2021 originally with Afterlife and with Godzilla versus Kong that during Covid were both. pretty big hits, honestly, like pretty, I would say like huge hits, but pretty moderate to like better than average. Yeah. Like they, they brought people to the theater, right? So yeah.
What's interesting about that is that they both kind of came around the same time and they're both doing extremely well in the box office right now. So shout out to Sony and Warner Brothers for figuring it out. I mean, I would say as two of the studios that are often shooting themselves in their own foot more times than not, it seems like they made a good decision with both these films. I find it super interesting. the timing of the release. Yeah, like a week within each other.
Well, no, I guess that, but also the fact that these are generally like summer hit films and this is such an early release window for both of these films. I would be curious if I could ever get in a room with any of the like the individuals who are in charge, like the release date for these, like I would want to know why release them now versus like a summertime hit. Obviously. They probably have some bigger, you know, movies coming out this summer.
But this just seems like like a crazy early time frame. Yeah. And I think it might have something to do with the movies that are coming out in the summer. Obviously, you've got more than likely this summer is going to be extremely packed. You've got the fall guy. I'm going to just name off a couple here. You've got the fall guy. You've got Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. You've got Tarot, which is those horror films.
You know, Aaron always do well, like the low budget horror films always kill it. You've got If, the movie with the John Krasinski film starring Ryan Reynolds. Speaking of Ryan Reynolds, you have Deadpool, obviously Deadpool versus Wolverine, or Deadpool and Wolverine. Furiosa, the Garfield movie. The Crow is another one that's coming out this summer. Inside Out 2, like our summer is going to be extremely jam -packed. Oh, Bike Riders with Austin Butler and Tom Hardy.
Also A Quiet Place Day 1 is coming out this summer. Like, I'm just, like, there's a ton of... Twisters like there's so many movies coming out this summer that like I think they just wanted to get ahead of it, right? Oh, an Alien Romulus is coming out in August. God, there's so many. OK, well, I mean, that makes sense. And like I said, I was just purely curious because these seem these are big budget films. But I think that's obviously looking at it kind of like early big budget.
Like these are like maybe our our version of big budget is is different than the current version of big budget. And we'll see. We'll see what happens. So I thought it was a chump change, you know, you were going to save room for the $200 million ones, right? I mean, when, when minus one F was 50 million, 50 million, something like that. Yeah. 50 million. Yeah. Like fuck it, man.
Um, we'll talk about it during the next review of frozen empire, but frozen empire was actually initially supposed to come out in November of last year, but it got pushed because of the sack after drive strikes. So that's why it's interesting. Like you said, very interesting that both these are coming out at the same exact time, but it works. And they struck back. That's right. The empires, they struck back as they as they tend to as as history has shown.
Yes. So we got director Adam Wingard, who, as you know, directed Blair Witch in 2016 Death Note 2017, which and then got Godzilla versus Kong in 2021. Did you see the 2016 Blair Witch? I have not. No. And I have not seen Death Note. You seem you gave a raspberry indicating you did not like it. It was so if you could if you could Americanize. One of the best animes. Oh, wait, we do that all the time. Yes. Oh, wait, that's something we do often. Something we do often.
Yeah. This as you can tell, it was fucking horrible. Yeah. It was. I mean, it's no. And I don't remember the Blair Witch being very highly reviewed. Like, I don't think people loved it, to be honest. So it seems like while I will say and this is coming from someone who really enjoyed this film. Again, this is not thought provoking cinema. Right. This is like smooth brain. monkey punches lizard. So it's and it's good.
Like I'm not I'm not like I'm not trying to sound reductive, but like Adam Wingard, it seems like he's found his niche. Like, yes, both with Godzilla versus Kong, which I found to be extremely fun. Like I honestly think this is better. Godzilla Kong, the new empire is better than Godzilla versus Kong. But I really enjoyed Godzilla versus Kong. Yeah, I did, too. And I think you're right. I think he's found his his. I think he's found where he belongs.
Yeah. Speaking of, well, so good friend of the show, David Buhr, comic writer, who's been, you know, he's wrote, he wrote TMI over in the Monsterverse comics. He also is currently writing the Ghostbusters books. Funny that we bring him up right now. It could be Kismet, right? But he once told us on the show that the dumbest things have the biggest audiences. So like, yeah, even if it's a bad thing, like even if it's like low brow entertainment, people will find enjoyment from it.
Like reality television is a good example of that. Like some people just need to turn their brain off sometimes. Yeah, like Jackass. Exactly. Bow now now. I'm Johnny Knoxville and this is Jackass. I'm Godzilla and welcome to welcome to Jackass. Welcome to big monk punched me in the face. All right, so run. OK, Aaron, remember this number for me. Just keep everyone listening right now. Remember this number runtime one hour and 55 minutes. Just keep that in mind. Let's move on. I already know why.
You already know what? OK, perfect. Don't say it yet. We'll get to it eventually. Clipping her cast. Aaron, let's go over the cast really quick. All right. Small one. Yeah. Rebecca Hall is Dr. Eileen Andrews. Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie Hayes. Dan Stevens is Trapper. Kaylee Hoddle as Gia. Alex Ferns is Mikhail Rachel House as Hampton. Who cares? None of that matters. Doesn't matter. Only one worth noting truly is like. kind of Brian Tyree Henry. I like him. He's a podcaster.
So obviously we have, we are contractually obligated for the, for the, you know, the medium, the medium that we love, the one that we're currently talking on, we got to talk about Brian Tyree Henry. Uh, and then also Trapper, who is like the best part of this movie. He is hilarious. He's just charisma, just dripping off of him in every scene. He is a Titan veterinarian. That is the coolest job ever. Who also maybe kissed Rebecca Hall at some point.
Like they definitely kind of talked about a little bit briefly. Definitely bumped uglies, but let's talk about the true stars of this movie Aaron. Why don't you go over the actual the tight? Yes of this film I hope you had some epic sound effects of this cuz I'm so pumped. Okay, you got God so starring Titans in Godzilla collaboration Godzilla King of the Monsters King Kong or just Kong. Do they call him King Kong once in any of these movies? I think they just call him Kong.
Maybe that's a rights thing or something. Yeah. You got Mothra, Titanus, Mosura, or Queen of the Monsters. Did you know that she was Queen of the Monsters? Yeah, I did not know that that literally as I was doing research for this up for this review. That's when I found that out. That was really cool. I find it to be one of the weirdest things because like there's this weird, weird relationship between between Godzilla and Mothra. And it's just like it's it's not symbiotic. It's not essential.
Is it sexual? It's not sexual. It's just like maybe. But like, like, like, it's just interesting. But like, The other thing is I saw several interesting advertisements by the studio and like some other like places where people were, they were like, I felt like they were using like weird AI images because there was like King Kong being carried by, by Mothra. And then there was one where it was like, it basically became King Kong merged with Mothra.
It was like King Kong with like butterfly arm wings. It was like the weirdest thing. Mothra Kong. Mothra Kong. Yeah. King Kothra. But it was just like, what if Godzilla, Kong and Mothra mixed together? What would that be? God, God, Kong, Mothra, God, God, Ratha, Khan, Khan, Ratha, there you go. There it is. It's just like an interesting, like, so the Godzilla Mothra relationship is just an interesting thing because she's always been there to kind of like assist and aid Godzilla.
But like as like, like, you know, you ever like a summon, you ever play like RPG? Yeah, yeah. Like she's a white mage. Yeah, I summon. Mathra, you know, so you got then you got Scar King, who's basically he's an orangutan. Yeah, essentially. He carries like this bone, like spine whip. I feel like they had it was like a missed opportunity to make that like to give like some backstory of that being like a Godzilla type creature. Oh, sure. Yeah. That's where the spines come from.
Yeah. Yeah. Because his parents are killed in the beginning of do they show the death of his parents in one of the films? Is it Godzilla versus Kong? Or is it Kong's go? I think it's, I think it's, I think it's Godzilla versus Kong. Yeah. Yeah. Um, then you got, uh, he carries a S the one of the Shimo like spikes that's on the tip of, which is weird because I don't know why that allows him to control Shimo. Maybe it's like Bluetooth. Like if you have one spike, you control the entire system.
Yeah, maybe Shimo is an ice dragon, basically like an H they, they were, they described Shimo as an ancient tight. Which I hope we get more on that but an ice dragon being manipulated by scar king and and and Shima was basically the the bringer of the first ice age and then you have suco essentially Diddy Kong who's like like what's called Diddy Kong?
He just looks like he he is obviously a small ape But he has like red fur because I believe he's like a scar king type like like hybrid Well, we talked about that fun facts Aaron. We'll get to it. Yeah, although not mentioned in the film the as we just said suco is the name is never revealed. It's revealed actually in the toys. So it carries a significant meaning as when written phonetically in Japanese, it can be broken down into two characters that ultimately mean essential child.
Interestingly, Suko is typically a female name in Japanese and perhaps coincidentally is a Filipino word for surrender. So I thought that was pretty interesting. And again, we don't get the word, the name Suko is just again in the toys. So director Adam Wingard elaborated on Scar King. He's sort of an anti -Kong with motivations grounded in human desires for power and control. Despite being non -human, Skar King's actions resonate with human themes of domination and ambition.
Explaining the reasons behind this, Wingard said, his motivations are very grounded in human motivations like power and control, as he said. He is the type of super dictator living in Hollow Earth, which we see very clearly. He's got folks working hard labor, not getting any rest. He's got his little... entourage who are pushing people around who are essentially and I found this really interesting in the film when Kong and Suko go down to like Scar Kings layer, I guess you'll call it.
A lot of the apes are essentially the same size as King Kong. I thought it would be interesting to show like how much bigger King Kong is than everybody. But he looked a bit bigger. I mean, he's like a writer, but they're like the same like eye level. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. And then as you said here, Shima was the Japanese word for frost or gray hair is believed that. She is the main cause of King Ghidorah's freezing in Antarctica. I think that's in some of the comics that they talked about that.
Okay. Yeah. There is, yes, there is a prologue, a tie in the way. Yeah. That I've been meaning to read. Let's talk about some times get murked in this film, Aaron, because there are a couple, right? And I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this because you are obviously a much bigger Kaiju, Toho, Godzilla fan, right? So some of these characters are big characters and you know, in the in the mythos of the not only the monster verse, but just like this universe. So go into that.
But Silla basically the crab that's attacking. I want to say like Rome. I always when I when you do the little things, I always think of crabby from Pokemon. Oh, yeah. I killed. Yeah. Killed by Godzilla in Rome. Just completely just decimated Rome. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so yeah, these Silla and Tiamat. Tiamat is the one that's living in the Arctic Circle that's gathering energy from the magnetic spectrum of Earth.
And both, to be honest, I don't know a lot about those lore, because those are, I mean, I'm more of like, I like the ones that are in the movies, like Gigaura and some of those like stupider ones, King Gigaura. They were both killed relatively easily. Right. Very easy. Like especially Tiamat. I thought Tiamat was going to be at least a little bit of a challenge for Godzilla. But then we just see like the head of Tiamat float to the top. Right. Yeah. Like those laser.
And he's just like, it just comes up like sushi. I thought it was OK. So yes, I always wish that there was a little bit more, because if you ever go back and watch the original Godzilla films, there is always like every battle is the focus of the film. Every battle. not just like the main battles, whereas this one, we all knew that Godzilla was like, get to the fucking point.
There are multiple times in this film where this giant monster is presented in front of Kong or Godzilla and then it cuts away. And then the next scene is just the head of whatever monster they were fighting flying across the screen. And like, they just killed him off screen, which is kind of disappointing, but it makes sense. Like you got budgets and. You got to save it for that final gravity fight at the end. I get it. Exactly. They're teasing you.
They want you to like want these big battles and see like we like they gave us exactly what we wanted. We want to see fights where Godzilla just fucking tears them apart. Like like again, like Scylla and Tiamat, but Scylla Scylla was one of the best fights because I'm just watching this this fight. And all of a sudden he just like opens his mouth and like holds the the the choppers and just goes and like just. fucking like laser blasts like, you know, I love that, right?
Like that's one of my favorite Godzilla things is him just taking someone's dome, opening it up as far as they can go and just atomic breathing right into us. And so they knew that they gave us exactly what we wanted. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Let's before we get into our fun facts, I want to just kind of talk about the finale. So at the end of the film, we get the, you know, the final battle, we get the power up from Godzilla with the Tiamat pink energy.
You get Godzilla getting his power glove after a fight with Skar King earlier in the film. you get the interaction between those two because Godzilla is like trying to tell him like, bro, that he'd help. He was like, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Like, come on, come on, come on, come on, no. It's like Tony and Agent Voltron. sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep. Yes. So the only thing that I wanted, there was that where, where Godzilla is like running.
He's like, he just runs up to Godzilla. I wanted him to do like a spear kick and just like, just fucking like, uh, like right into Godzilla. I didn't, I mean, the King Kong didn't get that, but I, okay. I want to talk about the relationship between like trapper and Godzilla and the fact that he is just like this Godzilla fan. And you could tell he's a fan because he creates like this gear for him. Yeah. You mean he's King King Kong for King Kong. Sorry.
Yeah. Like I like this needs to be a game and like you need to have Trapper like he is your like Armory guy. You know, and that's exactly what he is. And it's so cool. Like I can't wait to see like I hope I hope when the next movies come out, Trapper is just like Godzilla Armory. And like it's it's almost like Neon Genesis where it's just like, OK, hey, we got something new for you. It's like this fucking spear comes up or something. So excited for that.
They talk about the film, how like the government they were creating these different pieces of technology to amplify and help the Titans defend the earth. And it was like defunded by by the government, by Monarch. And Trapper's like, but we kept working on it. We kept doing it like we're like, yeah, yeah. I kept going. What were your thoughts on? So again, we get that interaction in Cairo, get the destruction of the pyramids.
Mothra comes in with her feminine energy is like, bro, let's fucking chill out for a moment. Let's let's band together. That's all she had to say. No notes, Mothra. No notes. You said it. Yeah, we get that scene from the trailer where you've got Godzilla and Kong running, which if I can be honest, if I have one true knock, they kind of both come in the finale in the third act. A, I don't like the way that Godzilla runs in this series. I think he moves too quick.
Or she, is it she in this universe? I think it's a she. No, it's a he. King of the monsters. I know. I was confused by that, but I thought I remember her. Maybe it's the, oh, it's the 98 version as a she. Yeah, the Matthew Broderick. Yes. Yeah. So Godzilla shouldn't be able to move like that. He's huge. Like, I guess so is King Kong, but like Kong is a... an ape, right? So like, I don't know, what are your thoughts?
You're again, you're more of the Godzilla fan, but I just I find that so jarring when you have Godzilla running at like full speed. I thought like I feel like it's like when necessary, you know, like he like like he has the capability. He doesn't need to because you don't. But he's not. I mean, even in the old school ones, like he still has. It's not like he's just like two small little stumpy legs. He's like when like the Toho like in Godzilla minus one, for instance, he moves extremely slow.
Like he's like, boom. Boom, like each foot, no, no, yeah. No one foot can move at the same time in that movie, right? But yeah, in this one, it's just full on CGI madness. He also powered up. I'm just saying he also changed while he powered up. So he, he, you gotta, you gotta remember that. Yeah. Yeah. His entire, his body changed, his bone density went up. They think that some of the graphics said bone density, skin density, all that stuff went up by at least 20%.
He was so strong and so powered up. He had so much energy in him. that he's literally boiling the fucking ocean, which was so bad ass. Like the eyes, the eyes went like, like smokey. You got the smokey eye. I'm like, yes. Yes. Queen. Yes. Queen. Are we getting before I get my question, I have another one here. Are we getting like, are we getting like incredibly high power creep for Godzilla? Like King Kong can obviously be hurt.
We see it in the film, but Godzilla is essentially an indestructible at this point with the energy. Okay. So the one of the coolest things. Well, okay. So we saw in minus one when they blew up the mines in his mouth, we saw his incredible healing factor. Now we know when he's powered up, obviously his healing factor gets exponentially greater. But the cool thing was if you watched, uh, you know, legacy of monsters, he gets hit front and center with a fucking nuclear bomb and he's fine.
He eats it. He just eats it. So he's, we know that he's, he's, Nye like Nye indestructible, you know, sir. So I mean, I feel like we're going to see more stuff in the future. However, I will say this and I don't know if we brought this up anywhere in the notes, but I did read a recent article topic or I didn't read the actual article, but the topic was that they are hinting at the death of Godzilla.
I mean, I was going to say, so that seems to be the natural progression of this series because it seems like the last two films, Godzilla versus Kong and. New Empire are both very Kong centric, right? Like Godzilla is kind of almost like an afterthought or maybe just like a side character in these films. We need, I think we need more Godzilla maybe in the next one. Or maybe have like a villain that is up to par with Godzilla, maybe from space.
Cause these are, they already killed everyone from Earth. Yes. Natural progression of the series generally is like the next one will be, there is some kind of extraterrestrial threat. Now Ghidorah, which the three -headed, like, Hydra -looking creature. Lore has it that they said he came from the moon, but basically he is an extraterrestrial creature. And I think in the old school films, the aliens actually come back, resurrect Ghidorah to become King Ghidorah.
Then you also have a Mechaghidorah. So it just gets nuts. Let's get nuts! Let's get nuts. Before we get into our fun facts, I had, sorry, I have one more question. What were your thoughts on that final fight? The gravity? the fight in Rio de Janeiro, all of that. Like, was that all cool for you? Or you having a good time? Yeah, I had a really good time with it. I would say that the aspect of like using the gravity effect against them was really cool.
Once they get out of the, you know, because I just, I know, I think they did such a good job, even though I really, I'm not a big fan of the Skar King. I'm glad he's dead. Yes, I hope he dies. I hope he burns in hell. I hope he burns in hell. I'm glad. that they gave him that like moment where he like, when he comes out of the portal and he, when he sees like humanity and he sees the surface and he like looks up and he's like blinded by the sun. That was such like a fruitful moment.
I'm glad they added it in there because yes, he, that's a very, he is a very human Titan. But I also thought it was like the whole fight was pretty cool because it gave you exactly what you wanted. You knew that at some point, They were going to get that crystal away from Scar King. You knew at some point it was going to get destroyed.
You knew at some point Shima was going to go after Scar King himself and it turned and it all wrapped up super well, especially with like King Kong almost like treating Shima like his new pet. It's like a dog back down. Yeah. It was, I, I, I really enjoyed all of it. I really enjoyed how it kind of all wrapped together. You're absolutely right. The finale, I think again, the fight was just. pure insanity. I actually, I didn't say this earlier, but I saw it at the IMAX downtown at the museum.
So it was the biggest screen that I could possibly see it on. And that was very purposeful, of course. But the finale, the battle, it's all just very, there's no time to breathe. It's just very, just wall to wall brain candy action the entire time. And then the finale, you've got Godzilla going back into the Colosseum and going taking a nap. And you've got King Kong taking over that new realm with both Shimu and Suku. He's got friends now.
That's what he always wanted right and family and friends. Yeah, I love it I love that he gets what he needs you guys power glove back He got his his axe back like King Kong's living good right now, right? So and of course like we don't really care but the human characters are all good. You've got GS like oh no, Rebecca Hall I love you and sign language and all the things but we don't care about that because that doesn't matter They're there just for exposition. So let's get into our fun facts.
Aaron. Why don't you go and take a couple here?