I don’t understand the hate for the way the Hollow Earth was portrayed in GVK.

[Gojirafan2013]

I thought Wingard did a great job at making the Hollow Earth a literal world within our world rather than keeping it a series of interconnected tunnels. It opens the door for some amazing worldbuilding and exploration in future movies. I just find the idea of a primordial world with prehistoric creatures hidden beneath our feet to be fascinating, hence the reason I fell in love with King Kong.

I know some fans have complained about Wingard retconning the nature of the Hollow Earth, but I don’t see it as a retcon. In KOTM, we learn that the Hollow Earth is a series of interconnected tunnels beneath the Earth’s crust. Just because it's different than what was previously set up to be doesn't mean there were any contradictions. Monarch could have been unaware of the real Hollow Earth during KOTM and assumed it was just a series of tunnels underground.

And for anybody wondering what the Hollow Earth’s light source is, there’s a paragraph on page 82 of the GVK artbook that says this…

“Because gravity goes haywire inside [the] Hollow Earth’s inverted shell, one of the only navigational constants is the pulsating storm overhead that provides the realm’s only source of light. This pseudo-sun shines on misted rainforests and pinnacles of blackened granite, as the landscape cuticles upward in every direction. Sulfur volcanoes in Indonesia helped inspire the look of the lightning-lashed central storm. ‘They give off this strange, ebbing purple glow, and we looked to that as a light source,’ says Hammock.”

I’ve also seen questions regarding the presence of radiation in the Hollow Earth. My take on the matter is that there are some sections of the Hollow Earth that are more radioactive than others, Godzilla’s temple from KOTM being one of them.

[Janjira-York]

its absolutely assnine and complicated just for the sake of having a wild place with kaiju that isnt a cave.


its just confusing while make all of that

[GojiSquid]

this could have just been brought up in the official GvK discussion thread.

[_JNavs_]

As one of the biggest MV fans, I was a bit disappointed because of a few reasons.

1. The Hollow Earth was propped up as this horrific place of creatures and monsters, home of the Skullcrawlers who were said to come from Hell itself. A series of dark tunnels that makes Skull Island look like Disneyland. It’s like expecting to go to a screening of Sweeney Todd by Tim Burton, and being seated for something like Disney’s Jungle Book 2017(?).

2. It’s very empty. As many users have mentioned, the Hollow Earth just felt… well, Hollow. We saw like a snip of the ecosystem when the teams arrived down there, but during the wide pan shots, the world just looked dead. Yes, from what we knew titans were either extinct or asleep by the beginning of KOTM. But they all woke up, from KOTM to the GvK comics, the world was just popping with new extraordinary life. We really didn’t get that from GvK, we got about 3 or maybe 4(?) slightly large animals running around and Warbats.

We didn’t see Skullcrawlers, “King” Skullcrawlers, there were no giant families of Mother Longlegs, it wouldn’t have taken a lot to place a huge web on the upside down mountains above with Kong almost floating into a giant beefed up Longlegs (direct Kumonga reference??) ready to spin and eat him up. We didn’t see any of the KOTM titans, no new Titans in the distance, on the horizon line, nothing.

3. The tunnels were kind of just portals, which meant Godzilla never really went through much effort bouncing around the planet, which begs the question, was he swimming through the air down there? Was he crash landing and walking around the Hollow earth, only to jump an infinite distance to some suction tube somewhere else?

4. The light situation is kind of dumb, if it were light stemming from a storm, I’d expect it to be dark, dreary, lightning at all times, creatures lurking like demons in the night. Have soldiers get grabbed from random rock crevices by giant bugs and lizards like in King Kong 2005 and 1933. Have long legged alien looking creatures tear down hovering ships and disappearing into the purple fog. I expected something like the Mist or, again, 2005’s King Kong.

[Gojirafan2013]

As one of the biggest MV fans, I was a bit disappointed because of a few reasons.

1. The Hollow Earth was propped up as this horrific place of creatures and monsters, home of the Skullcrawlers who were said to come from Hell itself. A series of dark tunnels that makes Skull Island look like Disneyland. It’s like expecting to go to a screening of Sweeney Todd by Tim Burton, and being seated for something like Disney’s Jungle Book 2017(?).

2. It’s very empty. As many users have mentioned, the Hollow Earth just felt… well, Hollow. We saw like a snip of the ecosystem when the teams arrived down there, but during the wide pan shots, the world just looked dead. Yes, from what we knew titans were either extinct or asleep by the beginning of KOTM. But they all woke up, from KOTM to the GvK comics, the world was just popping with new extraordinary life. We really didn’t get that from GvK, we got about 3 or maybe 4(?) slightly large animals running around and Warbats.

We didn’t see Skullcrawlers, “King” Skullcrawlers, there were no giant families of Mother Longlegs, it wouldn’t have taken a lot to place a huge web on the upside down mountains above with Kong almost floating into a giant beefed up Longlegs (direct Kumonga reference??) ready to spin and eat him up. We didn’t see any of the KOTM titans, no new Titans in the distance, on the horizon line, nothing.

3. The tunnels were kind of just portals, which meant Godzilla never really went through much effort bouncing around the planet, which begs the question, was he swimming through the air down there? Was he crash landing and walking around the Hollow earth, only to jump an infinite distance to some suction tube somewhere else?

4. The light situation is kind of dumb, if it were light stemming from a storm, I’d expect it to be dark, dreary, lightning at all times, creatures lurking like demons in the night. Have soldiers get grabbed from random rock crevices by giant bugs and lizards like in King Kong 2005 and 1933. Have long legged alien looking creatures tear down hovering ships and disappearing into the purple fog. I expected something like the Mist or, again, 2005’s King Kong.

I see where you’re coming from in regards to the light source situation. Even though it is stated to be a giant storm in the artbook, a user on Reddit told me that WETA supposedly said that they had no idea what the light source was and had to put a random sun in every shot. If that’s true, perhaps what was stated about the giant storm in the artbook was supposed to be from early in development when the Hollow Earth was supposed to darker and stormy. Then the light source was changed to be a “sun” to match depictions of the Hollow Earth in other forms of media.

As for the lack of other Titans and fauna, while I understand the disappointment, we should remember that just because we didn't see a lot of them in GVK doesn't mean we won’t get more in the next movie, which is being directed by Adam Wingard. With him and Terry Rossio returning, I’m sure we’ll learn more about how the Hollow Earth works and see more megafauna. They might even address the light source to make the fans happy.

[JAGzilla]

The lifelessness was my only real gripe. That can be corrected going forward, but you only see a place for the first time once. They could have made a flashier, more exciting first impression.

[king_ghidorah]

I thought it was great. I expected a scary cave which is pretty typical of most sunken/underworld environments and so getting something vibrant and thriving was a shocking breath of fresh air to me.

Plus it allowed for Kong to have a happy ending which was unexpected.

[Handsome Shrek]

FTR, the Hollow Earth as portrayed in King of the Monsters is far cooler. Godzilla lives in a fucking magma chamber with lava falling everywhere. How fucking metal is that?

[_JNavs_]

FTR, the Hollow Earth as portrayed in King of the Monsters is far cooler. Godzilla lives in a fucking magma chamber with lava falling everywhere. How fucking metal is that?

Exactly, a dark Magma Fortress where people would come to praise and worship him?? I’d take that environment anyday.

[king_ghidorah]

It would be more metal and far more obvious. An environment fit for Godzilla and other horrors to be sure, but not one fit for Kong.

That being said, it kind of makes more sense to depict it the way you guys want. While it would Rob Kong of his happy ending, it also makes less sense for Kong’s species to have left such an inviting environment and relocate to Skull Island.

Perhaps the next movie will explain this.

[LSD Jellyfish]

I’ve never seen any hate for the Hollow Earth, at least on here. I thought it was a pretty unique and interesting setting that made the Monsterverse stand out and not just feel like a Toho-clone.

My only gripe with it, is that I wish it played more a role in Godzilla vs Kong. I wanted to see Godzilla fight Kong there (and drafts indicate that was the case). It also seems like they cut a lot of the monsters down there, and as a result it feels a little less hectic. There are some moments where Kong feels like he’s just wandering an empty void and it could’ve used more monsters or background critters to just make it pop.

[Legion1979]

Who hates hollow earth? Nit wits on Reddit?

[Janjira-York]

pretty sure reddit loves most of the weird just there to be cool moments on that movie

[Spuro]

I wasn't aware there was hate for the way the Hollow Earth was portrayed to begin with.

[Cryptid_Liker]

I don't hate GvK's Hollow Earth. A Pellucidar-style hidden world is pretty cool on its own. But when you take the prior MonsterVerse into consideration, it becomes a perfect metaphor for GvK as a whole: a flashy nothing-burger that contradicts everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, that came before.

[darthzilla99]

I don't hate GvK's Hollow Earth. A Pellucidar-style hidden world is pretty cool on its own. But when you take the prior MonsterVerse into consideration, it becomes a perfect metaphor for GvK as a whole: a flashy nothing-burger that contradicts everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, that came before.

How does the Hollow Earth contradict the monsterverse movies before GvK? The Hollow Earth was hinted at since Godzilla 2014 (they mention the titans going underground when the surface became less radioactive) and we only saw an underground city in KOTM. That doesn't mean that was the Hollow Earth.

And just because GvK went for a flashy light hearted tone doesn't mean that contradicts the more subdued realistic tone of Godzilla 2014.

From a plot standpoint, what elements of the Hollow Earth are continuity plot holes to the other monsterverse movies? I hear this criticism all the time and people say retcons but I don't see the what is retconed.

[king_ghidorah]

It doesn’t contradict anything. That’s insane.

We saw one chamber that Godzilla was resting in before this. A chamber that had flooded a long time ago and may not have even been in the hollow earth proper for all we know.

[Legendary Gojira]

As one of the biggest MV fans, I was a bit disappointed because of a few reasons.

1. The Hollow Earth was propped up as this horrific place of creatures and monsters, home of the Skullcrawlers who were said to come from Hell itself. A series of dark tunnels that makes Skull Island look like Disneyland. It’s like expecting to go to a screening of Sweeney Todd by Tim Burton, and being seated for something like Disney’s Jungle Book 2017(?).

2. It’s very empty. As many users have mentioned, the Hollow Earth just felt… well, Hollow. We saw like a snip of the ecosystem when the teams arrived down there, but during the wide pan shots, the world just looked dead. Yes, from what we knew titans were either extinct or asleep by the beginning of KOTM. But they all woke up, from KOTM to the GvK comics, the world was just popping with new extraordinary life. We really didn’t get that from GvK, we got about 3 or maybe 4(?) slightly large animals running around and Warbats.

We didn’t see Skullcrawlers, “King” Skullcrawlers, there were no giant families of Mother Longlegs, it wouldn’t have taken a lot to place a huge web on the upside down mountains above with Kong almost floating into a giant beefed up Longlegs (direct Kumonga reference??) ready to spin and eat him up. We didn’t see any of the KOTM titans, no new Titans in the distance, on the horizon line, nothing.

3. The tunnels were kind of just portals, which meant Godzilla never really went through much effort bouncing around the planet, which begs the question, was he swimming through the air down there? Was he crash landing and walking around the Hollow earth, only to jump an infinite distance to some suction tube somewhere else?

4. The light situation is kind of dumb, if it were light stemming from a storm, I’d expect it to be dark, dreary, lightning at all times, creatures lurking like demons in the night. Have soldiers get grabbed from random rock crevices by giant bugs and lizards like in King Kong 2005 and 1933. Have long legged alien looking creatures tear down hovering ships and disappearing into the purple fog. I expected something like the Mist or, again, 2005’s King Kong.

Agree with all of this. Plus, I didn’t like that Houston Brooks wasn’t involved. We’re introduced to the Hollow Earth Theory in the MonsterVerse because of him, but he plays no role in its exploration in GvK? Disappointing.

[Mac Daddy MM]

I don't hate GvK's Hollow Earth. A Pellucidar-style hidden world is pretty cool on its own. But when you take the prior MonsterVerse into consideration, it becomes a perfect metaphor for GvK as a whole: a flashy nothing-burger that contradicts everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, that came before.

So... exactly like the rest of the Godzilla series when put up against G'54, right?

Added in 2 minutes 52 seconds:

Agree with all of this. Plus, I didn’t like that Houston Brooks wasn’t involved. We’re introduced to the Hollow Earth Theory in the MonsterVerse because of him, but he plays no role in its exploration in GvK? Disappointing.

I mean... Why would he? He barely survived Skull Island in his prime. He'd be pushing his 70s, if not 80s, by GvK.

[Legendary Gojira]

I don't hate GvK's Hollow Earth. A Pellucidar-style hidden world is pretty cool on its own. But when you take the prior MonsterVerse into consideration, it becomes a perfect metaphor for GvK as a whole: a flashy nothing-burger that contradicts everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, that came before.

So... exactly like the rest of the Godzilla series when put up against G'54, right?

Added in 2 minutes 52 seconds:

Agree with all of this. Plus, I didn’t like that Houston Brooks wasn’t involved. We’re introduced to the Hollow Earth Theory in the MonsterVerse because of him, but he plays no role in its exploration in GvK? Disappointing.

I mean... Why would he? He barely survived Skull Island in his prime. He'd be pushing his 70s, if not 80s, by GvK.

Serizawa was a contemporary of his. Didn’t stop him from being where the action was.

Hell, even if I grant you that, though, to not mention Brooks at all when the Hollow Earth Theory was his baby was a missed opportunity.