What About Godzilla?

[Tommy]

What About Godzilla?
by Tommy

Does anyone plan on making the effort to see GXMG in December in Japan?  If so, it will probably be a waste of time, unless you get some Bandai Godzilla toys, because I’ve read several bad reviews already.  As usual the movie suffers from the usual Toho syndrome: bad acting, poor script and cheesy effects.

The last Godzilla movie I took seriously was “Godzilla 1985,� granted I was in the third grade. All the other Godzilla outings: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, G vs. King Kong, G vs. Mothra etc... were all just fun and corny entertainment.

In that respect, I think the newer Godzilla films aren’t very good.  Attempts by Toho to present Godzilla in serious films have failed because the human subplot is usually very boring and now so have the Godzilla scenes.  So much focus has been put on Godzilla’s emotional content that you lose the idea that he’s a Big Green Indestructible Monster that destroys everything.  The content itself is pretty poor too.

Toho needs to let loose the Big G.  We don’t sappy stories about Godzilla’s feelings, just have him destroy Japan when he’s depressed.  Godzilla movies will never get much better so why not just let the Big G be a wrecking machine?  Godzilla is a classic B-Movie monster, that’s where he should stay.

[Steven Millan]

                Hey,Tommy:long time no hear!
           You'll really just love hearing this news:Kadokawa Publishing and Toho Studios are working together to make "Godzilla Vs. Gamera".
         That's right:"Godzilla Vs. Gamera" is going to be made,and is in the planning stages as the next big monster mash effort.
          Maybe we'll all be lucky enough to see Godzilla do the John Travolta disco pose,the Spinaroonie(WWE wrestler Booker T's back spinning breakdancer move),and the Worm,as well as seeing both big Gs taking on the American (Roland Emmerich)Godzilla.
          Get ready for the feedback here,folks!!

[AndyC]

I did enjoy the newer Godzilla films, but I think you're right on two counts. The human subplots are boring, and Godzilla himself should not be complicated. Some of the best movies are the ones in which he is treated as a force of nature, like a storm or an earthquake. He's best when he's a mindless creature, guided by some primal urge we don't immediately grasp. He's also very good in the old movies where he has a personality, but it's played for laughs.

[Tommy]

Oh, Hiyah Steve-O... Nice to know someone still remembers me... But Yeah, that's great news, I've been contemplating that idea for a while as I know have some folks.  I just hope we don't end up with a another draw or inconclusive ending like G vs. King Kong.  What a ripoff.

[Chadzilla]

Dude in suit stomping on stuff...that's all I need to get a big doopey grin on my face.  Inshiro Honda always felt that Godzilla worked best as a threat/symbol of nuclear devestation.  I'm okay with that, the first Godzilla was a serious horror movie and worked quite well (it is to Japan what Jaws, or better yet, the original King Kong is to America) and, though the Hensei Godzilla's are favored punching bags by many fans, I think Godzilla Versus King Ghidorah and Godzilla Versus Destroyah are just about as good as anything made during the series Golden Age.  And the stories are better thought out than the dreck that served as story in King Kong Lives or the plotless and bloated mush that was Deanzilla (go ahead, tell me what purpose those characters served in the 'story' other than to chase and be chased by the monster, heck the characters of Velma, Shaggy, Fred and Daphne are more three dimensional)

As far as the acting and stories go, most are no better or worse than the plethora of Big Bug/Ray Harryhausen movies that choked theaters in decades past.  Heck, some of the older Godzilla had better stories than those (King Kong Verus Godzilla - the original Japanese version, NOT the John Beck hack job - was a cagey satire of the Japanese media and Godzilla Versus Mothra, 1964, was pretty nifty as well).  If you try to tell me with a straight face that The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad had better acting or script (or direction), prepare to get your ass laughed off (same goes for The Black Scorpion, Clash of the Titans, The Deadly Manits, and countless others).  Truth is, very few of these giant monster movies ever acheive any level of greatness, you have King Kong (1933), Them!, and Gojira (the original Japanese version, not the Raymond Burr insert job), the rest are just b-movie filler, but then again they were never, ever meant to be anything but that.  As far as chugging along film franchises go, the Godzilla movies (to me) show a heck of a lot more life in them that say Star Wars, James Bond, or the never dying Halloween, or the just resurrected Friday the 13th and Freddy movies.  Toho is making a mistake by only allowing certain famous monsters to be used while ignoring others, frankly I think a return of Megalon or Hedorah would be cool, but I'm a minority there.  Still I have a great hope for the series, Versus Gamera or not.  Godzilla will never die.

The one new Godzilla movie I'm dying to see is GMK, directed by the man responsible for updating Gamera into a Whoop Ass monster show and supposedly a welcome return to the Bundle of Rage that Godzilla was when he first stomped into the theaters back in 1954.  If only they could get Kaneko to make Godzilla Versus Gamera, wow.

All I can add is that I refuse to hold movies up to insanely high expectations, I just ask them to entertain me, nothing more/nothing less.  As long as the Godzilla series delivers on that  level, I'll happily shell out cash for suitmation.  Others are free to grumble in disgust and not do likewise.

[Flangepart]

What he said.
....Angilus needs some screen time. Same with Baran/Varan. Daikaiju Baran remade could be cool. Yeah, The original KK Vs. G was a much better cut. Far preferable to the U.S. version.
...Heh. In "Deanzilla"...maby Animal was Shaggy after he got ambition. Gotta pay for those scooby snacks some how!

[babydoll]

When are they going to release the new Godzilla Movies in the US on DVD?

[Chadzilla]

No word from Columbia Tri-Star about when, if or ever they will get around to releasing the movies they are sitting on.  Hopes were high that GMK would see a theatrical release, but Columbia is still stinging from the box office disappointment of Godzilla 2000.  Also, the suits see Godzilla as a campy childrens series and GMK's serious tone makes it a hard sell, for them.  Evidently releasing the movie in its original Japanese language version, subtitled in the art house circuit is out of the question.

Release might be held up pending on the evidently in development somewhere of Deanzilla 2.  However, my feeling is that they just don't care because, to their wallet filtered eyes, the fan base simply isn't large enough to waste time and money on.