Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: All Out Monster Attack

[daveblackeye15]

In preperation for Chirstmas tommorow I decided to re-watch "All Out Monster Attack" and it is certainly better the second time around. I think the first time I was dissapointed because I expected a battle royale with all four monthers, and I was bitter that Baragon died early in the film. I use to think that the final battle was slow but then I realized that it was not only a battle between the Guardians and Godzilla but the humans as well.

Pros:

Great menacing Godzilla costume.
The return of Baragon!
Nice new looks for Mothra and King Ghidorah.
Better than average story with good twists to the original monster's mythos.
Characters are a bit more developed than average Godzilla characters.
Total put down to Gino (the American Godzilla)
The music.

Cons:

I'm one of the few people cool with this but most people seem to hate rooting for Ghidorah, just this one time. And don't worry he'll always be a great villian to me. Plus he's weak but I don't mind since he's suppose to be a good guy.
Baragon get's some great screen time but that's not enough (plus his heat beam is gone)
Mothra needs more action.
Depending on the mood some might dislike the story that goes on during the final battle.

Last word: Once I found this movie flawed but now I think it's the best of the millenium series and greatly underrated At least until I see Final Wars then I can properly judge which is the best.

[Just Plain Horse]

I just saw Final Wars today and while I think it's pretty damn good- much better than most of the critics said it was- I have to say GMK is still number 1, Final Wars gets number 2 and Tokyo SOS gets a number 3 spot. Why? The Godzilla suit in GMK moves incredibly well, Godzilla shows how he is both tenacious and cunning, and the fight between Godzilla and Baragon is one of those special moments kaiju fans like me will remember forever. (I also love the part where Godzilla bites and tosses Ghidorah around, but I don't know if most people enjoyed that or not...)

GMK pros:

Characters that actually have a part in the big battle between monsters
"If you ask me, Godzilla's old hat."
Baragon is less laughable than before
I love Godzilla movies in letterboxed format!
Nice, subtle Dr. Yamane reference- same with Serizawa
That tail whip that sends Baragon into the chopper
Godzilla's "powering up" sound effects
Take a bite out of Ghidorah
Taking two monsters at once- breifly
Mothra's death scene
Gulp!
Yuri? Father?
My heart will go on- literally!

GMK cons:

Long buildup
If the dragon is supposed to have 8 heads, than why does he only have 3?
Why the scifi channel shows this in fullscreen is beyond me...
"We have to wait for the cabinet's decision" (great, I'll just go ask the rampaging behemoth to wait for sanctions to take effect...)
Yuri seems to have a deathwish... may be inherited...
All the monsters die the same way...

Cheap thoughts: If you thought they b***h-slapped the American Godzilla in GMK, then it basically gets ass-raped in Final Wars... not that I mind much. Final Wars had more monsters, lots more action (Plot? What plot?) and some nice touches (classic music themes, old clips, Manda's and Kamacurus' death scenes, Godzilla's total annihilation of Monster X, some very quirky characters) but GMK is best watched from beginning to end... and that's a rare thing.

[daveblackeye15]

Yeah I know what happens to Gino in Final Wars and I grinned with happyness at the thought.

And the reason why the 8 headed dragon has only three heads is because I think it's not finished growing. I guess with the first two thousand years only three heads show up but by the eight thosuand years mark I believe all heads were to have been formed by then. That's what I thought.

Where did you see Final Wars? I thought I saw a mini poster for it at blockbuster on shelf, but no movies of it there. I figure it's here but just rented out at the moment.

[Scott]

At first I thought you guys were talking about DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. Really liked GODZILLA 2000 and I have been wanting to see the latest 2 that came out. I hear they are good.

How many have come out since GODZILLA 2000? I think it's two.

[akiratubo]

I didn't care for this movie.  Here are a few of the reasons off the top of my head.

1) I didn't like the way Godzilla looked.  He was too fat-assed and the white eyes just didn't do anything for me.
2) Actually, I didn't like the way any of the monster looked.
3) Mothra without the Cosmos was not Mothra.  The Cosmos are what make Mothra more than just another giant bug.
4) Too much time spent on the human characters.  Even during the battles, espeically the final one, it kept cutting to and spending large chunks of time on the humans.
5) Godzilla and the other monsters being ancient spirits was a novel idea but nothing became of it.  It was just put out there and not developed much.
6) The nail in the coffin: the monster battles weren't very good.  Godzilla bulldozed his way through all opposition.  The best Godzilla movies are the ones where he gets his ass kicked early on and then comes back later to win after a hard fight (re: the '70s Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla).
7) I think we were supposed to be rooting for the other monsters but since Godzilla was the focus of the film, it was hard to cheer for anybody but him.
8) It had a "message".  Having a serious message in your movie is fine. But this is a giant monster movie, it's supposed to be lots of fun watching stunt men in rubber suits beating the crap out of each other and model cities.  Constantly referring to your "message" throughout the film takes a lot of the fun away.

I'd watch almost any other Godzilla movie before this one.

[Shadow]

Scott Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How many have come out since GODZILLA 2000? I
> think it's two.


More like five:

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
Godzilla against Mechagodzilla
Godzilla, Mothra, MechaGodzilla â€" Tokyo SOS
Godzilla Final Wars

[daveblackeye15]

<1) I didn't like the way Godzilla looked. He was too fat-assed and the white eyes just didn't do anything for me. >

At first I called it fat, then I started to call it bad ass muscle. Either way he'd kill us all.

<3) Mothra without the Cosmos was not Mothra. The Cosmos are what make Mothra more than just another giant bug. >

Holy crap! I thought I was the only one who liked the Cosmos. And I was cool with their absence since Mothra was given a different history this time.


<4) Too much time spent on the human characters. Even during the battles, espeically the final one, it kept cutting to and spending large chunks of time on the humans. >

Now originally I thought this was a weakness but now I find it as one of the films strength. I think the original ,especially the japanese, version is the only one that really dealt and gave personalities to it's characters. This one certainly put more effort into it. And this time I didn't mind so much cutting to the humans during the final battle, I guess last time I wasn't paying attention.

<6) The nail in the coffin: the monster battles weren't very good. Godzilla bulldozed his way through all opposition. The best Godzilla movies are the ones where he gets his ass kicked early on and then comes back later to win after a hard fight (re: the '70s Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla).>

I disagree I found the battles quite good, they were more primal and had more of a "tooth and claw" style to them. Not so much the monster wrestling of Godzilla vs Megalon but not so much the "stay the hell away from the other monster and shoot beams at them" of Godzilla vs. Mecha-Ghidroah. And Godzilla getting his ass kicked only happened to him beacuse he was a good guy, though I wouldn't mind that happening to him as the evil monster, that would be kind of cool. However Mechagodzilla becoming busted and then having to be repaired is getting hella annoying. That's happend like four out of five of his movies (G vs MechaG, Godzilla vs MechaG II, Godzilla Against Mecha Godzilla, Godzilla S.O.S Tokyo)


<7) I think we were supposed to be rooting for the other monsters but since Godzilla was the focus of the film, it was hard to cheer for anybody but him.>

His really evil look kind of helped me out here. And it was odd at first to root for Ghidrah however   watching Mecha Ghidorah helped me out, plus Mothra (pretty much always a good monster) helped balance it out. And Baragon fought and died liked a Samurai!

8) It had a "message". Having a serious message in your movie is fine. But this is a giant monster movie, it's supposed to be lots of fun watching stunt men in rubber suits beating the crap out of each other and model cities. Constantly referring to your "message" throughout the film takes a lot of the fun away. >

The original Godzilla had the message of the dangers of nuclear weapons and the subject was handled seriously, even with a giant monster in the movie.

I can't blame anyone for disliking a movie, especially one where I once found it mediocre. I just telling you how I liked the movie and I wasn't bothered by some of the things you brought up.

But we can defenitly agree that we both like Godzilla in general.

[Just Plain Horse]

I was pleasently surprised with GMK prescisely because I went in expecting to hate it only to be pleased again and again. I hate Mothra, so I was pleased her appearance was brief, and her ending was nicely done. I didn't like the Godzilla suit at first, but as I've already said, it outpreformed most of its predecessors. I'm a big fan of the "tooth and claw" battles, provided things continue to buildup as it goes on... which is the main thing I liked about the way the Mothra/ Godzilla/ Ghidorah fight went towards the end of the film. Although I have often felt Godzilla's breath is almost always overused, GMK almost gets the ratio of physical battles over "effects" battles right. Too much of either element, and it spoils the whole thing... it really requires quite a bit of proper pacing.

One thing in particular that has gotten my attention in recent years is how many people find the role reversals of Godzilla and Ghidorah rather confusing. They grew up with Ghidorah the villian and Godzilla the hero. Nevermind the fact Godzilla was originally considered the terror of Tokyo Bay that wiped out an etire city in one night. Ghidorah was later created to help alter Godzilla's image as a more neutral monster. Thankfully, Final Wars (and Tokyo SOS) helps to address this lightly, though it may take those who've grown up with a set of standards a bit of adjusting to... Godzilla is essentially a child of the atom bomb, which was made by people whom- as a species- have caused tremedous destruction and degradation over the centuries. Godzilla treats this threat as he would any other- to fight it. It often puzzles me why Mothra the mediator doesn't try to talk Godzilla out of his rampages against humanity instead of attacking him head-on (granted it wouldn't be as entertaining, but it seems fair to say that it beats ending up a flaming fireworks piece). Godzilla and Ghidorah are neither evil or good, they're just doing what they feel they must, and Tokyo often gets caught in the middle. Neither are mindless killing machines nor are they champions of justice, they have their own motivations just like every other entity.

[daveblackeye15]

Very good points Just Plain Horse.

I think the best way to think of the monsters is that they are in fact animals, no real sense of good or evil to them. Godzilla destorying a city is a very bad thing to do but sometimes he's after nuclear energy for food. That's pretty much the only times animals kill each other is for food or out of defense (and sometimes mating purposes).

However I've none the less thought of Ghidorah as knowing what he was doing was evil, flat out killing people with no reason, even though I know when he came around the movies were in their "good monster, bad monster" stages, that's how I've alwasy thought of Ghidorah.

[Just Plain Horse]

Ghidorah and Gigan both seem to be monsters that "love their work", but since they're almost always under the control of an alien intelligence, I view them more as a mere physical extension of their masters desires. Gigan in particular is probably my favorite "love to hate" monster, being both nasty (not unlike Megaguirus), and yet strangely cowardly (not unlike Gabera).

I can stand to see Ghidorah be the baddie one more time, but I've had my fill of both Mothra and Mechagodzilla. I've always been fonder of the "lesser" monsters, like Kamacuras, Ebirah, Baragon, Anguirus, Gorosaurus and Titanosaurus. It's sad that it seems like Toho needs both two of their big three foes to open a Godzilla movie. Final Wars may not be as well done as GMK, but I found it very good nonetheless... and seeing "X" throw a hissy fit was hilarious.

[daveblackeye15]

I love the less used monsters as well.

I don't mind if Ebriah never returned but it would still be kinda neat. Kamacuras could return, they're not strong but in a group they'd make good fodder monsters, I mean one blasts kills them. Baragon was awesome in GMK and he doesn't have to reappear right away since he was used kinda recently (as much as I love the monster we can't go Mechagodzilla on him). Anguirus: It is a serious offense that he hasn't been brought back sooner! Gorosaurus I've been interested in since seeing him get some good action in Destroy All Monsters. Titanosaurus was great in Terror of MechaG but I don't mind waiting longer until he returns. Biollante needs another movie, and I'd like to see Manda again.

As well as new monsters that are good. Orga was kinda boring but I liked the new look of Megagurius.

[Just Plain Horse]

The funny thing about Ebirah is that while I don't find it a particularly menacing or powerful monster, I've always loved the performances of the guys in the suits playing him... Rather curiously, both in the classic G series and in Final Wars, Ebirah has been played by the same suitmation actor(s) who also play Anguirus.

Megaguirus would've have been a much better monster if some of the scenes in its fight with Godzilla had been edited to make it not look like a marionette on wires; I think it may be the one kaiju that could use some computer graphics to add realism... to the wings, anyway. I sort of liked its half-cousin, Battra (especially in design), but the older monsters still reign supreme.