Thirty minutes into sitting in my movie theater seat, Dune: Part Two finally began. There were 30 minutes worth of commercials and trailers beforehand!
They even played an Army National Guard commercial a second time, near the end, before playing a trailer for a Kevin Costner film “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1”.
Hollywood has fallen in love with the lovely long movie title featuring a colon and a part or chapter number!
One trailer reminded me that I did see another movie in the theater after Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. (there’s the colon and sequel number title again!)
That movie is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (another colon!). The trailer was a visual overload.
It felt like Godzilla crossed with Planet of the Apes and a video game while on some strong hallucinogens.
It was at this time I realized on December 5th, 2023, I saw Godzilla Minus One. What a movie! It’s still the best movie I’ve seen in the past year.
Even more impressive, Godzilla Minus One had a budget of around $12 million. The special effects were flawless; the writing, superb; the acting, utterly believable.
They did more with less in that movie. I did enjoy Godzilla vs. Kong, in 2021. But they went crazy with computer effects and the budget was over $155 million.
This sequel, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, has cranked the excess up further. The budget is already over $200 million. Who knows how high it’ll go?
P.S. MINOR DUNE: PART TWO SPOILER ALERT! SKIP IF NEEDED. Where did all the glowing blue eyes go in Dune: Part Two? I thought they were all inhaling spice. Oh well.