I liked when he was friends with Mothra and Mothra had babies. I think that was Godzilla Jr., though.
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I liked when he was friends with Mothra and Mothra had babies. I think that was Godzilla Jr., though.
The Blu-Ray sets of all the 1965-1980 Gamera movies just came out. I'm gonna try to watch 'em all in the next few days... wish me luck! I'll need it!
I actually don't hate the old Gamera films. I can enjoy silliness, but in making these movies so simple for little kids I've always felt like they have a lot of filler and redundancy built in so that kids can easily (re: slowly) follow the simple plot. They feel like an hour and a half of movie and 45 minutes of actual content, you know?
Quite exciting, all the kaiju stuff because of the release of the new Godzilla. This month Nashville's Bellcourt Theater will be showing the '54 Godzilla, '61 Mothra, '33 King Kong, and King Kong vs. Godzilla. I plan on taking the multi-hour trek to see at least a couple of those. There are similar showings occurring at art house and revival theaters across the country, with the original Godzilla especially. It's actually going back into limited release. Check your local theaters!
Heh Gamera. Funny you should mention him, I just bought the Mystery Science Theater Gamera dvds off Amazon. The did the first 5 movies and have been really fun so far.
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGRHqvC7f_o"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGRHqvC7f_o[/URL]
Gamera! Gamera!
Gamera is really neat!
Gamera is filled with meat!
We've been eating Gamera!
Shell!
Teeth!
Eyes!
Flames!
Claws!
Breath!
Scales!
Fun!!
I'm hoping that this is the start of a new era of kaiju films. I'd really love to see some new movies from Toho. My favorite Ishirō Honda movie is probably the 1956 film Rodan. A vast improvement from the special effects in the original Gojira.
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtzSP8VjkcE&list=PL86F4D497FD3CACCE]Honest Trailers - Godzilla (1998)[/url]
looking back, it was truly a piece of garbage.
[QUOTE=Art School Dropout;77465]I'm hoping that this is the start of a new era of kaiju films. I'd really love to see some new movies from Toho. My favorite Ishirō Honda movie is probably the 1956 film Rodan. A vast improvement from the special effects in the original Gojira.[/QUOTE]
Mothra is my favorite of these films, even over the original Godzilla. My ten favorite giant monster flicks from Japan are probably (in no real order) ...
Godzilla '54
Mothra vs. Godzilla
Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster
Monster Zero
Mothra
Rodan
King Kong Escapes
Gamera 2: Advent of Legion
Daimajin
and Yokai Daisenso '69 (kinda cheating to include this one, as this film is actually about folkloric monsters of vaguely [I]human size[/I], but in the finale the baddie grows to giant proportion)
On the non-giant front, I love Ishiro Honda's three 'human transformation' films: H-Man, Human Vapor, and Matango. I also like Atragon a lot, which has a giant creature for marquee value, but it's really an afterthought.
[video=youtube;jf9lQ7OvRYY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf9lQ7OvRYY[/video]
Didn't like the new Godzilla movie all that much. It was more about the villains & how the world reacted to the monsters, Godzilla just sort of has this weird justification for being a territorial predator and is simply there now and then. He's a sidecharacter to the human characters and the monsters he has to fight.
[IMG]http://www.teefiend.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/godzilla.jpg[/IMG]
I'm just not sure if I want to see the new film. It looks enjoyable enough, but.....
I [B]REALLY[/B] hated Monsters!
I just learned that Yoshimitsu Banno, the director of the otherwise forgettable Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster in 1971 (also his only Godzilla movie), returned to the franchise to become executive producer of the new movie. I love it when generations come together in movies, and that there's a link to the past behind the scenes.
[QUOTE=Professor Moriarty;77558][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtzSP8VjkcE&list=PL86F4D497FD3CACCE]Honest Trailers - Godzilla (1998)[/url]
looking back, it was truly a piece of garbage.[/QUOTE]
Doesn't really require "looking back". It was always such a shameless [I]Jurassic Park[/I] rip-off without any spark of its own. Not only was it a derivative, bombastic mess, it was a BORING derivative, bombastic mess.
[QUOTE=Cyke;78972]I just learned that Yoshimitsu Banno, the director of the otherwise forgettable Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster in 1971 (also his only Godzilla movie), returned to the franchise to become executive producer of the new movie.[/QUOTE]
Forgettable?? Man, that's one of my favorites! Hedorah (Smog Monster) was more than a match for Godzilla, whom without human intervention may have been killed. I can't believe how Kitamura crippled this fantastic kaiju in Final Wars. Even Kamakaris was needlessly shafted. I wish Final Wars could be forgettable, but it's so terrible in it's portrayal of Toho's greatest kaiju (and Matrix-fu), that it's forever burned in my memory.
So Banno had a hand in Legendary's Godzilla? Interesting... If it takes off, perhaps we'll see a Legendary Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, or a Toho Gojira x Hedorah...
[QUOTE=Scorpio;78232]Didn't like the new Godzilla movie all that much. It was more about the villains & how the world reacted to the monsters, Godzilla just sort of has this weird justification for being a territorial predator and is simply there now and then. He's a sidecharacter to the human characters and the monsters he has to fight.[/QUOTE]
You just described quite a few of the TOHO Godzilla films. It can't be 90 mins to 2 hours of monsters fighting or destrying things. As cool as it sounds it would cause fatigue in the audience.
[QUOTE=Professor Moriarty;77558][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtzSP8VjkcE&list=PL86F4D497FD3CACCE]Honest Trailers - Godzilla (1998)[/url]
looking back, it was truly a piece of garbage.[/QUOTE]
I really wanted to like it...and it works as a disaster movie
but not Godzilla
Hank Azaria was funny
[QUOTE=Scorpio;78232]Didn't like the new Godzilla movie all that much. It was more about the villains & how the world reacted to the monsters, Godzilla just sort of has this weird justification for being a territorial predator and is simply there now and then. He's a sidecharacter to the human characters and the monsters he has to fight.[/QUOTE]
Sounds like every other Godzilla movie.
[QUOTE=Cyke;78972]I just learned that Yoshimitsu Banno, the director of the otherwise forgettable Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster in 1971 (also his only Godzilla movie), returned to the franchise to become executive producer of the new movie. I love it when generations come together in movies, and that there's a link to the past behind the scenes.[/QUOTE]
That movie is fantastic! The Anime Network has been airing it non-top and Hulu has the undubbed version up now.
[QUOTE=bloodyarts;79232]Forgettable?? Man, that's one of my favorites! Hedorah (Smog Monster) was more than a match for Godzilla, whom without human intervention may have been killed. I can't believe how Kitamura crippled this fantastic kaiju in Final Wars. Even Kamakaris was needlessly shafted. I wish Final Wars could be forgettable, but it's so terrible in it's portrayal of Toho's greatest kaiju (and Matrix-fu), that it's forever burned in my memory.
[/QUOTE]
I enjoyed Final Wars but thought Tokoyo S.O.S. was the better ending of the Millennium series. I thought Giant Monsters All-Out Attack was vastly underrated; Big G was pretty nasty in that film. I'm also one of the few that really enjoyed the Millennium series.
[QUOTE=Cyke;78972]So Banno had a hand in Legendary's Godzilla? Interesting... If it takes off, perhaps we'll see a Legendary Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, or a Toho Gojira x Hedorah...[/QUOTE]
I would expect some new take if this new film does well enough.
[QUOTE=DonnyMac27;79250]You just described quite a few of the TOHO Godzilla films. It can't be 90 mins to 2 hours of monsters fighting or destrying things. As cool as it sounds it would cause fatigue in the audience.[/QUOTE]
Final Wars has that ... so do a couple of others. The best Godzilla films intertwine both nicely.
Final Wars was ridiculous and awesome
Don Frye is the best actor ever
[QUOTE=Vibranium;79674]Final Wars was ridiculous and awesome
Don Frye is the best actor ever[/QUOTE]
American Mustache!
[IMG]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hJgdTMQLo10/UiDw2LvF5UI/AAAAAAAACJQ/rfuPUfpM9Ik/s1600/tumblr_lw8zs8lmQ61qezl5y.gif[/IMG]
[QUOTE=bloodyarts;79232]
So Banno had a hand in Legendary's Godzilla? Interesting... If it takes off, perhaps we'll see a Legendary Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, or a Toho Gojira x Hedorah...[/QUOTE]
Okay, if you put it that way, then I wouldn't mind seeing nuSmog Monster :)
With the new Godzilla movie about to drop, I'm thinking of doing a mini marathon.
What would be your top 3 Godzilla movies (not Final Wars)?
[QUOTE=harpier;79164]Doesn't really require "looking back". It was always such a shameless [I]Jurassic Park[/I] rip-off without any spark of its own. Not only was it a derivative, bombastic mess, it was a BORING derivative, bombastic mess.[/QUOTE]
I said "looking back" because I haven't thought about this movie in many years, until this Honest Trailer.
This new movie was actually the first Godzilla movie I had ever seen and it was pretty cool. If there were any flaws, Bryan Cranston got sort of screwed over in this movie and I could have done with more scenes of Godzilla fighting the monsters rather the than human protagonists. However, when Godzilla used his atomic blast, I lost my shit.
Also, can some of you hardcore Godzilla fans give me a list of movies to watch? I've been wanting to get into kaiju movies for a while now but have had no idea of where to start.
My all-time favorite is Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2, from the second series/wave of movies. Baby Godzilla! Rodan! Psychic twins! Mothra! Robots! Singing!
Final Wars was a beautiful way to say goodbye and hello, again. Everything somebody loved about some Godzilla movie all crammed together into one two hour burst.
I have a real soft spot for the Mothra-featuring movies, in general, including the for-younger-audience solo Mothra flicks, three of which were dubbed to English and shown on SciFi back when, but apparently only two of which are available in English on DVD.
[QUOTE=!Pharozonk!;82855]Also, can some of you hardcore Godzilla fans give me a list of movies to watch? I've been wanting to get into kaiju movies for a while now but have had no idea of where to start.[/QUOTE]
Depends on what kind of movies you like, or what you'd be looking for in a giant monster smash city movie. Some focus more on the monsters, some more on the people, some are slower than others, some faster, some more political, some are sillier, so try to be very very serious. Some are scary, some are funny, some are nostalgic action flicks.
[QUOTE=!Pharozonk!;82839]when Godzilla used his atomic blast, I lost my shit.[/QUOTE]
This gives me hope.
[QUOTE=!Pharozonk!;82855]Also, can some of you hardcore Godzilla fans give me a list of movies to watch? I've been wanting to get into kaiju movies for a while now but have had no idea of where to start.[/QUOTE]
No better place to start the the original 1954 [B]Gojira[/B] film. The 1956 American version [B]Godzilla, King of the Monsters![/B] with Raymond Burr would also be acceptable.
Marvel gave us this fun little series back during the 1970s:
[IMG]http://www.comicsbronzeage.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/godzilla1.jpg[/IMG]
[color=red]Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)[/color]
[QUOTE=Art School Dropout;82936]This gives me hope.[/QUOTE]
I cried tears of joy when it happened.
Godzilla was great. Perfect? No. But God Damn did I enjoy myself. Going to go see it again on Sunday!
[QUOTE=Buried Alien;82953]Marvel gave us this fun little series back during the 1970s:
[IMG]http://www.comicsbronzeage.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/godzilla1.jpg[/IMG]
[color=red]Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)[/color][/QUOTE]
Hmmm I'll look for this at the convention I'm going to next week.
I think I prefer the scarier Godzilla movies to anything overly campy so I'll look into those movies first,
Half Century War is an amazing Godzilla comic, for those interested.
[IMG]http://www.nerdcenaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Screen-shot-2012-08-12-at-4.37.37-PM.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb444/Batagor08/godzillaHCW3-p6_zps52dd19b8.jpg[/IMG]
Big, loud giant monster action. Great pacing. Beautiful art. And, some great shifts in terms of the eras covered.
Just got back from Godzilla. The last 15 minutes or so are pretty good. The rest... meh.
I get that you don't want to have [I]too[/I] much monster action or it all becomes white noise. But, that being the case, it's therefore essential that the human characters who carry most of the movie should have.. you know... an actual [I]character.[/I] And it's not the fault of the actors. They're just playing the most generic of standard, one-note roles that could have come straight out of a made-for-TV movie.
Yes, the atomic blast is a moment of pure awesome. And there's a couple of other great moments here and there. But that's what they are. Moments. And in a two hour movie, you need more than just moments.
This is quite interesting.
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27379962[/url]
As I was watching the movie, I actually did think to myself that it was quite Jaws-like, in so much as the monster(s) only appeared sporadically and were not always clearly visible for long (certainly for the first 90 minutes or so, at least). However, what I also found myself thinking, and it seems to be the key aspect that Edwards has missed, is that Jaws (and Close Encounters) films were carried by fantastic actors playing well written, interesting and layered characters. Godzilla, however, has a group of great actors playing what amounts to little more than 'filler'.
[B]SPOILERS - Honestly, don't look if you haven't seen the movie![/B]
[spoil]Sadly, the only vaguely interesting character is killed off in the first 30 minutes. And that leaves Taylor-Johnson with some hefty shoes to fill, which his role simply doesn't allow cos it's never anything more than 'soldier'. And that's it. Likewise, Olson is in the standard hero's-wife-who-is-a-nurse-who-mostly-cries-on-the-phone. [/spoil]
So, I haven't been checking this thread for fear of spoilers, but one of my favorite movie review podcasts, Digital Noise did an episode with frequent guest Matt Frank (Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, Godzilla Neo) and other fans reviewing the 7 Godzilla blu-rays released this month.
[URL="http://oneofus.net/2014/05/godzillacast/"]Digital Noise: Godzillacast/[/URL]
[QUOTE=Vworp Vworp;84599]Just got back from Godzilla. The last 15 minutes or so are pretty good. The rest... meh.
I get that you don't want to have [I]too[/I] much monster action or it all becomes white noise. But, that being the case, it's therefore essential that the human characters who carry most of the movie should have.. you know... an actual [I]character.[/I] And it's not the fault of the actors. They're just playing the most generic of standard, one-note roles that could have come straight out of a made-for-TV movie.
Yes, the atomic blast is a moment of pure awesome. And there's a couple of other great moments here and there. But that's what they are. Moments. And in a two hour movie, you need more than just moments.[/QUOTE]
I consider it a deeply flawed film that I enjoyed. I agree that Godzilla needed a lot more screen time, but the mythology and history they built around the creatures was really cool so I dug hearing about them.
[QUOTE=Vworp Vworp;84703]
[B]SPOILERS - Honestly, don't look if you haven't seen the movie![/B]
[spoil]Sadly, the only vaguely interesting character is killed off in the first 30 minutes. And that leaves Taylor-Johnson with some hefty shoes to fill, which his role simply doesn't allow cos it's never anything more than 'soldier'. And that's it. Likewise, Olson is in the standard hero's-wife-who-is-a-nurse-who-mostly-cries-on-the-phone. [/spoil][/QUOTE]
Yeah, that part kind of pissed me off too, especially considering that they advertised that he would be a huge part of the movie.
[QUOTE=!Pharozonk!;82855]Also, can some of you hardcore Godzilla fans give me a list of movies to watch? I've been wanting to get into kaiju movies for a while now but have had no idea of where to start.[/QUOTE]
If you are new to it, you might want to skip the 60s/70s camp.
Let's see, I'd start with the original classic Gojira (it isn't dubbed, so if that's a deal breaker go for the English edit Godzilla with Raymond Burr, not as good for the stuff left out, but still pretty great). Then maybe a few of the 80s/90s stuff. The 1985 one is good (think it's 85), and Godzilla vs Destroyah is great. Also check out the three Gamera films of the 90s. And the two featuring Mechagodzilla in the 2000's are good, ending with Tokyo SOS. There are others, probably a lot, but of those I have seen (maybe somewhere between a quarter to half) those are the most serious ones, and therefore best for a new comer (I love the campy stuff, but I'm old school fan since birth).
If you are willing to do a bit of camp, I think Godzilla vs Megalon had some of my favorite monster action. Story isn't good, but for monster fighting monsters I love the big battle scene. Also, although the special effects are kind of cheesy, King Kong vs Godzilla actually isn't that bad from a story angle, usually a lot of camp/cheese comes from the terrible plots, often involving aliens, but this actually has a fairly straight forward, simple plot and that works in it's favor. So that's two.
There's more, but out of the giant monster movies I have actually seen (there's just so many and I'm only one man with limited resources) these are what I'd recommend to start.
The Post-millenium movies ...
I would recommend
GMK (2001) - this is set in a different continuity from most godzilla movies as this movie is set like 50 years after the original godzilla movie. Godzilla is the villain of the piece , hellbent on destroying japan , all the other monsters are the guardians of earth defending against godzilla. Think this was the first time in the history of godzilla movies that King Ghildorah was actually a good monster.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohbMHoX2B48[/url]
Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (2002) & the follow-up , Godzilla : Tokyo SOS (2003) (the story continued from the first movie to the 2nd) - i loved the redesigned mechagodzilla so it's my fave. The 2 movies are essentially the japanese military (and their giant robot) vs godzilla , the 2nd one added mothra into the mix as a humankind ally against godzilla. (loved the mothra twins and their song to awaken mothra)
Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cotXakan9ng[/url]
Godzilla : toyko SOS
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D2c34KDbEk[/url]
Updated Mothra song (The mothra song has been sang since the 60s)
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR7Edk7MUr8[/url]
Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'll check one out tonight, probably Godzilla 2000 to start off.
[QUOTE]If you are new to it, you might want to skip the 60s/70s camp.[/QUOTE]
I disagree. The '50s - '60s films are the best - and not just Godzilla, there was a whole series of sci-fi and fantasy films by basically the same team of folks at Toho studios (Ishiro Honda directing, special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, music by Akira Ifukube, written by either Shinichi Sekizawa or Takashi Kimura): straightforward, fairly serious sci-fi in movies Godzilla '54, Rodan, Gorath, and Matango; entertaining crime capers that also have monsters in them like H-Man and Dogora; adventure films like Invasion of Astro Monster, Son of Godzilla, and Latitude Zero; and even a pitch perfect modern fairy tale in Mothra.
Really, the essentials of the kaiju genre are the '50s - '60s Toho films, the Daimajin films (made by rival Daiei studio, also in the '60s), and the Gamera films from the '90s (also from Daiei). If you want the campiest, low-rent kaiju then I recommend the '60s Gamera films or The X-From Outer Space (the sole kaiju film from Shochiku studios).
The '60s was the golden age for the genre, and you had a real variety of films. Since then it's been mostly Godzilla films made, and they've generally aped the older films and... to be honest a lot of them are quite dull. The biggest surprise has been the return of Gamera. Gamera was Godzilla's low-budget equivalent from a rival studio in the '60s, but since he was revived in the '90s his films have generally been superior to the Godzilla films made at the same time.
Why did the films become campy? Well, tastes were changing and there was undoubtedly pressure from the top to conform to what people wanted, but it was also personal. Tsuburaya began putting in a lot humor into the monster scenes because he thought it would be funny, and he wanted to entertain children most of all. Then you had Sekizawa, who revolutionized the genre with his steadfast refusal to do anything that wasn't really unusual. His monster movies were part sci-fi, part adventure, part comedy, part musical (!), part romance - total genre mashups that are way cleverer than they're given credit for. I mean, just the end of Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster is an amazing bit of writing, where you realize the entire movie has been a love story you hadn't noticed up to that point - and it makes perfect sense!
[QUOTE=Evil Sneak;81665]With the new Godzilla movie about to drop, I'm thinking of doing a mini marathon What would be your top 3 Godzilla movies (not Final Wars)?[/QUOTE]
[LIST=1][*]Gojira (not King of the Monsters with Raymond Burr) [*]Godzilla vs. Monster Zero or Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (now on Hulu!) [*]Godzilla 2000 [/LIST]
[QUOTE=!Pharozonk!;82855]Also, can some of you hardcore Godzilla fans give me a list of movies to watch? I've been wanting to get into kaiju movies for a while now but have had no idea of where to start.[/QUOTE]
If you want to get into the Millennium series (the most recent) and you like your films to have some continuity with only the Big G:
[LIST=1][*]Godzilla 2000 [*]Godzilla vs. Megaguirus [*]Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla [*]Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. [/LIST]
If you want to get into the Millennium series, are new to Godzilla, and don't care about continuity or if it's Godzilla:
[LIST=1][*]Godzilla 2000 [*]Gamera: The Brave [*]Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack [*]Godzilla: Final Wars [/LIST]
If you want to get introduced to giant monster movies and have a nice overview of the history:
[LIST=1][*]King Kong (1933) [*]Gojira [*]It Came From Beneath The Sea [*]Rodan [*]Mothra [*]Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster [*]Daimajin [*]War Of The Gargantuas [*]Them! [*]Gamera the Invincible [*]The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms [*]Ultraman (1967) [*]Godzilla vs. Monster Zero [*]The X From Outer Space [*]Godzilla vs Biollante[*]Godzilla vs. Destoroyah [*]Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (and the rest of the trilogy) [*]Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
or Godzilla: Final Wars [*]The Host [*]Cloverfield [*]Dragon Wars [*]Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers [*]Monsters [*]Troll Hunter [*]Pacific Rim [/LIST]