Springbreak with Godzilla.

[daveblackeye15]

For the last few days I've been enjoying Spring Break by watching a ton of Godzilla movies that I havn't seen in years.

*spoilers to whatever movies I'm going to mention*


First up is the Terror of Mecha-Godzilla. One of the darker movies from the Showa period and one of my favorites. It's two against one here with Godzilla vs Titanasaures and Mecha-Godzilla, once again Honda has a fantastic Godzilla movie and Ifukabe gives us a great score! Lots of city desturction from the evil duo! 4/5

The next day I watched Godzilla vs Monster Zero and Godzilla vs Mothra (original)

Monster Zero: The first appearance of the Xians and the return of King Ghidorah! Along with Rodan and Godzilla, the Xians attack Japan! We got some great shots of Godzilla destroying Toyko here, I like all the close ups his foot and tail smashing down on buildings. King Ghidorah is also great here, I especailly remember how he landed feet first into one building and proceded to carry his rampage on foot. Sadly a nice chunk of Rodan's action is stock footage from Rodan, but that's not so bad since I havn't seen that movie in a long time either. Nick Adam is in this! And we get two battles between the three monsters so it's a win. 3/5

Godzilla vs Mothra: I was always pretty well entertained by this when I was younger but it wasn't until this recent viewing that I realized just how good it is! It is now one of my personal favorites. This movie is a good deal grimer than King Kong vs Godzilla and I love Godzilla's evil look here. What makes Godzilla such a great villian in this is that they show how much despair and destruction he costs. With some of the more recent Godzilla movies, Godzilla is threatening but he just doesn't seem like much of a threat, I guess I should say that the characters don't do such a good job of conveying to the watcher why Godzilla must be stopped. Here they do a great job of that! Nothing seems to be able to stop Godzilla, not tanks, jets, napalm, the U.S. Navy, electricty, electricity with nets, nor the adult mothra. Which I must mention the battle between Mothra and Godzilla is spectacular stuff! Ifukabe gives a very mermorable score even by his standards. What more can I ask for? 4.5/5

Yesterday I was able to shove in three movie! Godzilla's Revenge, Godzilla 1985, Godzilla vs the Sea Monster.

Godzilla's Revenge: Y'know this movie isn't so bad. It's not as good as when I saw it as a little kid but I can certainly relate to main character. I know Gamera was the first one to the whole "friends to children" thing but I think overall this movie had a better grasp of it than did any of the old Gamera movies. This movie a more solid look to it than most of the older Gamera movies (except for Barugon and the original) I mean that adandoned building looks great! Gabera was kind of neat, I acknolege him as one of the Godzilla monsters. But I of course have to mention the bad, STOCK FOOTAGE! I would like this movie more if they had re-filmed all of those scenes and that's really my main problem . Oh yeah and the Minya puppet is just WRONG! I know I mentioned a lot of postivie things but this is still the weakest of the original series, I think. I'm not bitter about it like some people are, oh yeah and the opening music is awesome! 2-2.5/5

Godzilla 1985. After nearly ten years Godzilla returns in prime form! Even though I dislike how they've put footage in of Raymond Burr and the pentagon people drinking Dr. Pepper, I thought it was a nice touch (well the Raymond Burr part at least) If they did it in the original then it is a nice touch to do it in the return. If they realease this on DVD I hope the Japanese and American version are on it. Anyway, I remember watching this a ton of times as a kid and I can see why. It's such a dark movie! I love how the director went back to Godzilla's roots, turning him away from the Defender of the Earth stuff. I also heard that Ifukabe was asked to work on this but he was too busy to. Now I know it's blasphmous for me to say this but ..."thank god". Don't get me wrong, I'm positive that Ifukabe would have come up with another very impressive score, however Reijiro Koroku is a genius I love his work in this movie. There are so many great scenes: From the opening with the storm, to Godzilla's destruction of the Sovient Sub, to Godzilla's first appearance, to the air strike and ground strike, to to the battle with the Super X, to his fall into Mount Mihara, it's pure awe-inspiring!

I'd have given this a 4.5 however due to the idiotic younger officer that's in the U.S. version and some or Raymond Burr's corny lines I must cut it down to 4/5
I eagerly look forward to seeing the Japanese version someday.

Godzilla vs the Sea Monster. I'll try and keep this brief. This is a fun movie, it was a nice touch to have all of the main human characters help contribute to the destruction of the Red Bamboo base. We got a some neat fights here, both of Godzilla's battle with Ebirah are good stuff, is fight with a giant condor is fast and furious, and his battle with the Bamboo's air force is also cool as well as his attack against the base. And some pretty snazzy music from...I can't find the name is it Sato?
3/5

And I've re-watched "The X from Outer Space" as a break from the G but later on I'll be re-visting "Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster" and more in the following days.

[akiratubo]

Masaru Sato indeed composed for most of the Jun Fukuda Godzilla films.  His score for Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla (1974 version) is my favorite.

[daveblackeye15]

To me it seems like there were two pairs that did most of the Godzilla movies for the original series.

Honda and Ifukabe. Fukuda and Sato.

Ifukabe is my favorite but Sato is good as well. The first Mecha-Godzilla's intro music was really snazzy stuff.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Sheesh Dave, I should just stop by after work aas its on my way home.  You have much more movie fun than I do.  
-Ed

[daveblackeye15]

Sorry ed, I'm enjoying my Godzilla movies now before I get a career and/or family.

Hmmm, if I did I can picture my mom visiting her young grandchildren and to her horror she will see them watching Ghidorah blasting away at Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan.

Anyway it's update time.

*spoilers*


For a break I watched "The X from Outer Space"

TXfOS: Now this is a weird one, quite the understatement. I thought the effects man had some pretty good models of tanks,rockets, and jets. I rather liked the large scale of the city that Guilila destroys, thought it certainly didn't have the inside detail that Eiji and other Godzilla FX artists did for their films. Speaking of the monster it is certainly one of the oddest ever created as well as a rather creative and still odd way of defeating it. I'm pretty easy on this one since it's yet another movie I saw as a kid. It makes me think of putting a weird American Monster (like the Robo-man that has the body of a gorilla with a large diving helmet for a head) into the Japanese Kaiku setting. I'll give it a 3/5 just for the awesome 3 minute long monster attacking the city scene.

Back to Godzilla with Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster.
It's a pretty good follow up to Godzilla vs Mothra. However the movie is in need of a clean up job since the version I have makes this look older than GvsM. This is suppose to be the movie where Godzilla turns into a good guy but I'll still count it as he being one of the 'bad guys' since he didn't really save anyone he just helped fight off King Ghidorah. Who is a most stunning monsters with it's three heads, two tails, strange roar while spewing out energy bolts. Godzilla and Rodan's fight was pretty cool, as well as the three monsters vs King Ghidorah. I just wish Godzilla shot some fire at the Three Headed monster, I mean Rodan took two blasts and didn't die Ghidorah would have been fine. Speaking of fire breathing, Godzilla's does looks kinda weak in this one, with the exception of the blast he used to destroy the cruise ship. Sadly Ifukabe doesn't seem to be up to his usually stuff this time. The only really memorable music out of this was Ghidorah's theme, which is a classic.
The plot with the princess and the assasins after her does help add an interesting human story to it.
It get's a 3/5

Godzilla vs Biollante: Here we have a great sequel to Godzilla 1985, which that was a great sequel to the original movie. They once again have a great music composer, and this Godzilla does something that few other G movies did, they had a political struggle. It was over the Godzilla cells and it was pretty who ever got them would be the main super power, or something like that. GvsB earns major points for being very serious and I wish there more like it. Godzilla get's an even fiercer look, we have the more advanced Super X 2, and two incredible forms of Biollantee as well as two great Kaiku battles. I like the characters also, we have LT Gondo the cool solider that is also a bit cocky "stick to smoking", the quiet physic Miki Segusa, Dr. Shiragami the tragic doctor that tried to preserve his daughter's spirit, the Saradian Agent/Assain, and the young commander in charge of defending Japan against Godzilla (can't remember his name sadly). There was also potenial for an interesting relationship between two of the characters, this went off pretty well but they sort of forgot about it until the end. In a nutshell this is one of the best Godzilla movies and we need more like it 4.5/5

King Kong vs Godzilla. Here's one that I want to see an uncut version. Once again we have to deal with American inserts to help pace the story, sheesh some of the reporters are real idiots. And for some reason they replaced parts of Ifukabe's score with music from "The Creature from the Black Lagoon". I love the idea of pitting America's greatest monster agaisnt Japan's even if you'd have to scale one of them up or down. Now the King Kong suit is certainly poor compared to Rick Baker's Kong suit from the first remake, but at least this one seemed to act a little closer to the original. I heard that they originally didn't want Kong to be so comical. I do like Godzilla's new look but only from the side, from the front it looks kinda...weird. However this is the first time they stem from the serious theme, nor the last. At least Godzilla vs Mothra went back to it. We do get quite the exciting battle between Kong and Godzilla in the end, and some of the characters are a bit interesting. "It's only a lizard! Throw it down!" "I'm sick of Godzilla! Send a word: I want my own monster!"
3/5 a fun time but I'm certainly waiting for the original Japanese version.

I did have plans to rewatch Final Wars but that wasn't in. Maybe I'll also watch GMK.

[Flangepart]

X from outer space! Two word suffice...Lounge Music! Deeley Bobber monster and Lounge Music, all it needs is the riffing! Love it.

KK Vs. G....whats not to love?
When the reporter says of G's first rampage "The situation is grim.", i wanted to give him the "No S%$T  Sherlock" award for stateing the painfully obvious.