Reviews

The ghost/vengeful spirit of Cho Kyung-could have killed his crazy father & took his revenge without possessing some random individuals, then committing some random crime. Particularly, the killing in Dongsungjang Inn was unnecessary, as the spirit was able to travel to the Inn, he could have possessed anyone to haunt & kill Byung-sun on any day as he owned the Inn and was hiding on the top floor for quite some time. That ghost was intentionally seeking media attention, I guess.

Overall, MARUI got a decent budget & fine production value; I just expected it to be a lot more creepier as an Asian found footage horror. There aren't much quality FF flicks out there from Asia actually. I've seen very few so far; i.e. NOROI, INCANTATION, OCCULT, A RECORD OF SWEET MURDER and THE MEDIUM.

Conceptually it wasn't bad; just needed a different take that should have treated the idea with more creepy set pieces instead of its somewhat 'conventional thriller' approach. The last 10 minutes or so was fun but I didn't expect the demon to show up in a broad daylight! The final revelation should have been more atmospheric, engaging & eerily done. It would be better if one or two "Possessed female prisoners" had little more importance or space in the script, I guess.

Overall, not a terrible film but could have been more twisted & entertaining. The dubbing was alright except for Prior Andrzej.

The story arc of Corey Cunningham wasn't a terrible one, just doesn't fit in a popular franchise like Halloween. They could have used it in a standalone film as an origin story for a murderer or a next possible slasher icon.

ENDS felt more like a middle part (4,5 or 6) of a long running series that no one ever asked for to happen. I'm pretty sure many fans of this series won't like the way they treated Michael in this film.

Expected a lot better from David Gordon Green & Danny Mcbride duo. They managed to give us a promising start back in 2018, followed by a flawed sequel (KILLS)....that at least had the better premise in terms of providing the "necessary End" to this reboot trilogy. Anyway, little disappointed to see Gordon & Danny concluded their efforts in a such uninspired, dull & forgettable fashion.

Paap Punyo comes with a good story where the cast tried hard to pull it through mostly.

But the thing that frustrated me most was flat, uninspired direction by Gias Uddin Salim. Probably due to dull camera work, editing or lack of BGM, he failed to capture the total essence of the story effectively here. In some parts, scene transition or moving one sequence to another felt quite clumsy. In multiple occasions, there were moments that supposed to be emotionally impactful but sadly failed to reach the mark that they were intended for.

Moreover, the whole trunk incident in the train was kind of questionable. Chanchal's character was an honest chairman of a locality but how come he turned out to be so stupid to take the responsibility of such a suspicious luggage from some unknown people?! Considering the timeline of the story, the whole thing actually happened AFTER he killed Al Amin (Siam) and put his dead body to a similar luggage and threw it to a river! Btw, that res suitcase was too small for a Siam-sized body :D We get the irony of his fate but this series of events could have been portrayed in a more believable manner.

Overall, it was a fine, twisted story that deserved better screen adaptation, IMO.

Considering the end credit scene, putting Leatherface in that old Orphanage setting in the middle of an abandoned town didn't make any sense at all. It seems they did it just to make that massacre in the bus to happen....what a load of crap! How they pitched this idea to the studio?! And some morons even bought that!

The kills were fine but the director & the cast just needed a far better script to work with.

Though Adam Wingard always been a hit & miss director for me but have to admit he have done a great 'fan service' with GvK. The way he constructed the fight scenes with clear showcase of the brawl and almost zero human intervention...was the best part of this installment.

Kaiju or Giant monster films struggling with relatable human characters isn't a new thing but that doesn't mean it's something impossible to manage in this genre of films. Few Toho made Godzilla films even delivered in Heisei era. Even the very first in MonsterVerse, the 2014 Godzilla movie with Bryan Cranston's Joe Brody was a fine example but they stupidly killed him off very early in that film. This whole franchise could have move forward with that character alone exploring his struggle to live in a world full of Titans that killed his family, his suspicion & rebel against Govt & pvt. Agencies like Monarch & Apex which could have been a sensible arc for this films.

But like the predecessors (mostly KOTM), GvK is also filled with too many characters, some of them were quite unnecessary including M Bobby Brown's Madison Russel, the Deadpool kid, Eiza Gonzalez as Maya Simmons & even Kyle Chandler as Mark Russel. B T Henry's pod caster character, Bernie Hayes could have been developed in a more interesting or serious way with someone like TJ Miller on that role instead.

When you're making a film like this with a "Vs" in the title and particularly keeping the fan base in mind, I think GvK in that regard was quite self-aware film, it almost delivered exactly what the Kaiju fans were expecting...where the plot or much sense in it eventually becomes secondary in the process.

As it's only the 2nd film for Kong in MonsterVerse, GvK turned out more of a Kong movie where Godzilla mostly appeared as a plot device or secondary character to some extent. But man...loved every second of those fight scenes. Glad finally able to see a MonterVerse movie (featuring Godzilla) with no blurry or dark screen.

My only major complaint is they made MechaGodzilla excessively strong against Godzilla, the way Mecha G beating the hell out of Big G was terrible to watch as Godzilla failed to make any proper strike in response...which is kind of unusual as I can hardly recall any earlier Godzilla movie where this kind of thing happened with Godzilla in a singe fight continuously. Good to see Kong become the ultimate savior of the day.

Let's hope this is not the end of MonsterVerse, they need to extend the contract with Toho with more films for this franchise.