Godzilla!

[shaolindogpaw]

I know the Godzilla movies are pretty bad, but that makes them oh so good. I've found a new love interest; Godzilla.

I've been reading Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters by William Tsutsui, and it's a great read so far. It's sparked my interest in all things Godzilla. I remember when I was a kid I used to watch the animated show, and I remember watching the movie where Godzilla has a baby = awesome!

I thought I had grown out of loving the big lizard, but after reading that book, I sat down and watched 3 Godzilla movies back to back. I've also had that Blue Oyster Cult song in my head for 2 days...

I don't know what it is, I know it's a B-movie but it's so enthralling.

Anyone else love Godzilla? I can't be the only one, I never usually see any posts about Godzilla. If you like him, what's your favorite movie? Mine is Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.

Oh no, they say hes got to go

Go go godzilla, yeah

Oh no, there goes tokyo

Go go godzilla, yeah

[Way of the Dragon]

I have the black and white orginal Godzilla movie, but i havent watched it yet. I got it free in the newspaper

when i was kid i used to love reading the comics on Godzilla, I was a massive fan, I had a big toy on him which i used to cuddle as a child whilst everyone had soft teddy bears lol.

i really want to see Godzilla vs King Kong!

[peringaten]

Godzilla is good. Get something out of all of them mostly. X Mechagodzilla is probably my favourite, fun & retained the nightmareishness/frankensteinish element of mans destructive creation theme very well; funny enough I thought the follow-on Tokyo S.O.S. paled in its wake, was disappointed with SOS for sure. GMK is greeeaat, love that Baragon battle in it. Hedorah is some brilliant trippy fun. Biollante - what a creation, when it gets rumbling at the end my mind couldn't comprehend the rubbersuitedness of it all, just too well done. G2000 had the best looking G going for my tastes, so I dig on that one sure; how can you not love Vs King Ghidorah ("Take that, you dinosaur!). Hey, Son Of is tight!, etc., etc.. Final Wars was a pile of shiiiiittttttt; it's akin the problems with old and new martial flicks (the rest of the millenium G series being generally very nice though) - pretty boy cgi bullshit. Original b/w Japanese (forget Raymond Burr - go see Rear Window if you want to see him in a good '56 release) is the masterpiece/best if only for all that it represents; still probably least likely to get respun in the player though.

[daisho2004]

I love Godzilla Movies been watching them ever since I was a little Boy. I was very disappointed with Godzilla Final Wars was excepting something so awesome. But it really just didn't deliver. I was always hoping to see a Godzilla vs. Gamera Movie. That would've been awesome they could've fought against each other, then teamed up to battle some new Alien Monster Threat.

[froffeecoffee]

I love Godzilla movies!! In fact, Godzilla vs. Megalon, was the 1st movie I ever saw at the theaters. Yes, they are cheap-looking, the dubbing is bad, and the plots ridiculous, but they are sincere. The makers put a lot of effort in making them and it shows. But as a kid, I didn't notice any of the flaws. All I saw was cool-looking monsters fighting and wrecking cities. What kid wouldn't love that!?!

I bought anything Godzilla and still do a little. The Shogun Warrior figure, the Marvel comics, the Godzilla Gang figure. This was before it was easier to get original Japanese collectibles. All I could get was what was in the U.S. toy stores.

My favorites are Godzilla vs. Mothera (64), Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (74), and Terror of Mechagodzilla.

The modern movies are good, but they aren't as fun as the originals. They take themselves too serious.

[jiujitsu77]

i posted something about the godzilla fest in the general discussions threadgroup. check it out if interested

an interesting note on godzilla vs king kong. the fellow who wore the king kong suit was a kudokan judo blackbelt and jiujitsu expert. teh fellow who wore the godzilla suit was also very fluent in judo. hence the fight choreography for that film

[venoms5]

I've been a huge G fan since childhood. However, I don't see them as B movies at all. At least not all of them. Some of them are genuinely very well made movies. The original in its unexpurgated form is one of the greatest films of all time, IMO. Rife with emotion and deep character development and a level of violence unseen in films from the time period. The Burr version pales in comparison.

The 70's G films kind of went astray but that was because more children were going to see the films than adults. This was further amplified when GAMERA (1966), Godzilla's biggest competition, came out and unleashed an even more childish series of monster movies. What's odd is that the Gamera films often had startlingly gruesome monster fights that was at odds with the goofy nature of the films.

Peri and myself must be kindred spirits of sorts as I agree with pretty much everything he says most of the time. I wrote a long review of FINAL WARS some time back and I absolutely DEPLORE that movie. Kitamura should be kept away from ever directing such a film again. IMO, Maasaki Tezuka should have been retained to direct this one as he seemed to be the only director that came close to capturing the flavor of the Showa period G films (although Takao Okawara came close enough). His action scenes were very energetic and creative. Far different from Kawakita's lazy fight scenes featuring the monsters standing on opposite ends of the screen firing lasers at each other for 20 minutes.

I enjoyed his MEGAGUIRUS quite a bit. It seems a lot of fans dislike this one, but I found it very entertaining. Especially the ULTRAMAN vibe it had going on and it was neat to see the creatures from RODAN being utilized in a far more menacing fashion. The film is kind of all over the place (being deadly serious one minute and jokey the next) but the action scenes and effects work were very creative and full of life that was missing from most of the Heisei series. The last two MECHAGODZILLA entries were also great fun. TOKYO SOS I enjoyed much more upon the second viewing. It seemed more of an "extension pack" to the previous film than an actual sequel as it didn't really expand on anything. However, MG looked even better in this one, IMO.

The absolute BEST of the Toho monster films IMO are

GODZILLA (original '54 version)

RODAN (1956)

MOTHRA (1962)

GODZILLA VS MOTHRA (1964)

MONSTER ZERO (1965; a bit silly at times, but great fun and characters)

THE MYSTERIANS (1959)

BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE (1959)

GORATH (1962)

TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA (1975)

GODZILLA (original '84 version)

GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE (Omori disliked this type of movie but he made a great go of it trying to do something different. Kawakita's best FX work)

[jiujitsu77]

godzilla looked bad as a mofo in GMK. my personal favorite of the new ones

and war of the gargantuas rocks

[venoms5]

I like GMK but I thought the Godzilla and Ghidorah suits were awful. The white eyes was great but everything else...Plus, Ghidorah wasn't very strong in this one. He died like three different times and brought back to life just as many. Also, having the humans vanquishing Godzilla was a bit hard to swallow here. Nonetheless, there was some great sequences here and creative ways of shooting the action scenes.

GARGANTUAS (FRANKENSTEIN MONSTERS: SANDA VS GAIRA) is a favorite of mine, I just don't think it's one of the best ever. Mostly due to Russ Tamblyn whom I read was difficult to work with on this movie.

[CrazyFrog]

Anybody see the most recent Gamera (Gamera 3: Awakening of the Iris)? I thought it was pretty good.

And I love Godzilla; my favorites are G vs. MechaG, Destroy All Monsters aka Monster Island, Mothra, G. vs. Mothra, and kinda liked Godzilla 2000. Have not seen Final Wars or Tokyo S.O.S. God, they keep doing Godzilla until the end of time far as I'm concerned!

I think it's time for a new Godzilla!!

[venoms5]

Anybody see the most recent Gamera (Gamera 3: Awakening of the Iris)? I thought it was pretty good.

There's been another GAMERA film since then. 2006's GAMERA THE BRAVE aka GAMERA: LITTLE BRAVES.

[jiujitsu77]

some contend that the monster gamera fights in the new one should have been what godzilla looked/acted like in final wars,,,i kinda agree. that monster was great

[venoms5]

Yeah, the creature (Jidas I think was the name) was pretty cool and reminded me of Barugon from GAMERA VS BARUGON (not the Toho Baragon spelled with an 'a') from 1966. I liked the direction in which they took this story. I only didn't care much for the look of the new Gamera, though. I think probably my favorite of the Gamera flicks is the much maligned GAMERA SUPER MONSTER (1980) because it's like a greatest hits package of all his past movies. Plus, the fight scenes have been edited to move with a better rhythm and the funky soundtrack was cool. The three supergirls were kind of cool, too. The masculine one was pretty tough....and butch. My next fave of those would have to be GAMERA VS JIGER (1970). Lots of action in that one.

[crazedjustice888]

I love the Big G. In fact, my gf in Germany just bought me the brand new Godzilla boxset for christmas. She even likes watching them with me.

My personal favorite is one that not many people seem to enjoy. Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla. I don't know why, but it just appeals to me. I guess it would be the moster design of the SpaceG himself.

[Tosh]

I love Godzilla, I don't know what it is but I never grown out loving these movies, this was one of my first introdutions into Asian cinema and have found memories of watching these movies on Saturday afternoons and late night on the weekends, probably seen the old ones 20-30 times when I was a kid.

I mentioned on another thread on the new Rodan release there's a documentary on Godzilla that shows the generations of people that played the big guy(and the horror stories of the water scenes), talks about the original creator and has the original set designer and how he came to work on these movies, those guys where working 20 hour days and recreating actual streets in Tokyo.

I'll never grow out of loving Godzilla.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I love the Big G. In fact, my gf in Germany just bought me the brand new Godzilla boxset for christmas. She even likes watching them with me.

Sounds like a keeper right there haha.

[CrazyFrog]

Venoms5, how's the newest Gamera?

Godzilla and all the kaiju had the same status for me as kung fu movies but as a child they were even more omnipresent as they would be played 2 or 3 times during the weekdays at my daycare right after school so I would be able to catch some portion of almost every Godzilla movie up until 1980.

[inframan]

Been a fan for as long as I can remember. I'll take Showa over Heisei any day. The best ones will have this combo, Directed by Honda, music by Ifukube, spfx by Tsuburaya.

My favorite is probably Monster Zero. Its got it all, Aliens that look like DEVO, awsome monster battles, and of course Nick Adams.

[venoms5]

Venoms5, how's the newest Gamera?

It's better than I thought it would be. It's very different from the previous three films and although it begins with a very old Gamera battling a group of Gyaos birds, it's not a continuation of that trilogy. The monster action is very creative and it returns to the child friendly Gamera style but not like the 70's films. I think MB is releasing this soon over here.

[kungpowmaster]

I LOVE Godzilla movies. They are not "bad" at all. They have a bad rep, I think because of how they were shown on TV years ago. But you watch one on a newer DVD in the widescreen with a great picture, and it's a whole new great experience.

I bought 2 Godzilla DVDs yesterday.

Mothra Vs Godzilla with Godzilla Vs The Thing(Classic Media DVD)

All Monsters Attack with Godzilla's Revenge(Classic Media DVD)

These are newer Classic Media DVDs that have both the Japanese version, as well as the English dub and edit.

I already had the English versions as I have the OOP Simitar DVD set.

I have all the Godzillas on DVD.

I probably should get the US DVD of Final Wars, I only have a Chinese version, of the English dub, but it's weird in that it's missing a scene. But it's decent widescreen print.

I wait for a good widescreen DVD of Megalon and 85.

I also like/love Ultraman, and Gamera. The Gamera films of the 90's are awesome! I haven't seen the newest Gamera. And while I do have a LOT of Ultraman, there still is a lot I haven't seen.

But I love the Kaiju and Takosatsu films.

Chosen One

[inframan]

Was anyone else completely let down by Final Wars? I rented it and it just couldn't get into it, even the references to the older movies and Godzilla killing Gino seemed didn't do much for me.

[venoms5]

I hated it with a passion. Awful movie. I thought it was going to be terrible when I heard Kitamura was attached to direct. Why the Toho execs thought this was a good idea is beyond me. They did say they wanted a new approach for the last film and they got it. And it's even more sad that they were pushing this joke, no.....insult of a G film for distribution in US theaters. The movie even tanked in Japan. I would much rather of had Tezuka doing the last film. I enjoyed his entries very much and he seemed the only person capable of capturing the spirit of the Ishiro Honda days (outside of Takao Okawara) as well as delivering some very imaginative and creative action scenes.

[SamuraiDana]

Was anyone else completely let down by Final Wars? I rented it and it just couldn't get into it, even the references to the older movies and Godzilla killing Gino seemed didn't do much for me.

I'm lucky in that I got to see GODZILLA FINAL WARS at a film festival with a packed house of G-fans and everyone laughed at the funny parts (and there are LOTS of them) and cheered every time a recognizable classic monster appeared. Plus, I liked the fact that old-school G-stars Kumi Mizuno and Akira Takarada had decent parts. (For a woman in her late 60s Kumi looked great!) So there was an enthusiasm in the air that might not have been there if I watched it alone on a DVD. I'm not defending the movie's bizarre excesses, and I can certainly understand Godzilla purists' anger at it, I'm only saying that the circumstances under which I watched it made it an enjoyable experience for me. I haven't re-watched it on DVD yet.

Just for the record, I also saw TOKYO SOS on the big screen and can honestly recommend that as the best Godzilla film since...1993's GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA (released in English as GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA II), my favorite of the heisei Godzilla films.

[Tosh]

There was a Kaiju art exhibit in Miami I went to last week that was at the same time as Art Basel, some awesome art in there and they were playing Godzilla movies! I could of stood in there all day, the chick I was with thought I was nuts, I swear I'll marry the girl that's into Godzilla and KF/Samurai movies as much as me.

It's going on all month, I'll go back down and take some pics as a forgot my camera. Hell I dug it more than Art Basel and it was free.

http://www.artcentersf.org/exhibitions/current.htm

[JazzandZen]

I know the Godzilla movies are pretty bad, but that makes them oh so good. I've found a new love interest; Godzilla.

I wouldn't say that the Godzilla films are "pretty bad."

However, I would say that they aren't up to "the over-expensive standards" of Hollywood.

With that in mind, the Godzilla films are fun and for me, an escape from reality. He's a childhood hero of mine, and once I understood what his smybolism is, it intrigued me further. Knowing that the King of the Monsters is a symbol of nuclear war, and those that died from the atom bomb really makes me look up to the original creator.

Godzilla has had many films (not including the garbage Hollywood remake). Some films were great and others not so great.

For the record, here is my top Godzilla films.

Godzilla (1954 original)

Godzilla vs. Mothra (old school original)

Son of Godzilla

Godzilla vs Gigan (many fans either love it or hate it. But I love it)

Godzilla vs. Mecha-Godzilla (1973 original)

Godzilla vs. Mecha-Godzilla (1993)

Godzilla vs Space Godzilla (1994)

Godzilla vs Destroyah (1995)

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Dai-Kaiju Sogogeki (GMK)

Godzilla: Final Wars (fans either love it or hate it. But I like it, not love it)

[Stuntman Jules]

Most of the Godzilla films ain't high art, but the original is quite a masterpiece. A very meaningful about the terrible consequences of mankind's aggression.

My appreciation for The Return of Godzilla (the 1984 reboot) has grown heavily. Very 80s and dated but it wonderfully transplants the brooding feel of Honda's original to the Cold War hysterical Reagan-era 80s.

War of the Gargantuas, Matango, Majin (the first two), Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell, Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, Prophecies of Nostradamus and the Kaneko Gameras are also the shit as far as Japanese sci-fi films go.