Godzilla 2014 went for drama with the humans, best human char gets killed too early, others are too limp to carry it and the movie is obsessed with cutting away from the monsters
Godzilla King of the Monsters went with more hammy type stuff, some would say aping MCU but it felt more like '90s Independence Day (or Godzilla with Broderick) level schlock to me, more time spent looking at monster mayhem, but the human stuff was possibly worse, like the same level of humanity as 2014 but with more action/monsters would be a slam dunk
Kong Skull Island is kinda like an adventure film, made me think of Indiana Jones or if Apocalypse Now was more "fun", humor lands more often, some characters weren't worth your time, though (Captain Marvel I'm looking at you, worst Kong love interest to date) monster action was great and actually felt like it all got enough screen time
King Kong (Peter Jackson) - ultimate treatment one of these films could get, amazing visuals, amazing action scenes, all the time in the world to develop likeable characters, the problem is TOO MUCH for most people, they don't want to watch a 3 hour movie about a giant ape (I do, though)
Shin Godzilla - pretty much the perfect balance, people often cite it as their favorite entry while bemoaning 2014 for lack of Godzilla screentime (this film has very little as well, it's how you use it, not how much there is) there's just the right approach to humor in this that in no way diminishes the horror and tragedy that comes with the events, a tonal balance perfectly struck and the film doesn't overstay its welcome like Jackson's film did for people
Adam Wingard is great at tonal balancing, movies that are funny without losing their edge in the process, he's not necessarily great at honoring source material (I liked Death Note, taken for what it is) but if you judge it by his social media he's trying to fix that with this film, I have high hopes, the problem is the market right now isn't reacting well to MCU, they don't know how to do what MCU does but they're all trying, it's weird since MCU to me is just what the Godzilla films already did back in the '60s and '70s, team-ups, vs films, even their own Avengers type flicks occasionally... on that note the Dark Knight trilogy, the rival company's dark and gritty masterpiece is basically superhero Gamera Trilogy from the '90s (watch that shit, fools) as much as I think Joss Whedon is a hack they probably need to find a way to match the comic timing or at least do something similar, these new Spider-Man and Avengers films are doing fine without that pasty ass predator on them so someone doing these films should be able to figure it out if they want to be billion dollar franchises
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