Toho should replace the man in a suit effects with CGI...

[DannyBeane]

Do a poll on Godzilla's greatest enemy on some of the facebook groups and I'm sure the overwhelming victor will be Bagan. I don't care about polls even though Biollante is a top notch film.

[Legion]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

[Legion]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

A lot of that is true, but sadly enough it was brought before that the efforts on releases on the domestic market in Japan. None of those releases in the US mean anything if the focus is the Japanese market, where home media releases are grossly overpriced.

Just sounds like "How can anyone not like the Showa era" rambling to me.

I just think Japan has "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" taste.

[Legion]

[DannyBeane]

[kiryugoji04]

[jellydonut25]

Chiming in for a "me too" on the whole "Grew up in the 90s, didn't see the 90s movies until later" thing.

I'm 29, my childhood that I remember most vividly runs from probably about 1989 until 1998 when it was crushed into a bloody little pulp of sorrow and disappointment in May. I didn't even REALLY know about the 90s films (aside from vaguely remembering a brief news story about Godzilla 'dying' which I now realize was a 12-second fluff piece from 1995) until I read The Official Godzilla Compendium, and picked up the "Best of Godzilla" soundtracks. It wasn't until those movies were released by Tristar in the aftermath of the 98 film that I ever saw any of them...and I remember Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II being notoriously difficult to acquire. It was released AFTER Spacegodzilla and Destoroyah, and it took me MONTHS to finally track down a copy as it kept selling out at all the stores I frequented.

[XvGojira]

[ebirahsmeg1]

[walshiam]

One of the most regrettable things regarding G merchandise is exactly what you mentioned above. The fans have been drilled with figures from the latter 2 series as if the Showa series never existed and I think it's a shame. With exception to X-Plus, it seems like most other toy producers keep putting out the same lame crud over and over again from G movies of the '90's and 2000's with a particular flood of Heisei G items. Bandai is the worst for it while some of the Showa stuff that has been done is so expensive now no one can afford it. What's worse, even the current reissue line of items from X-Plus is priced beyond affordability from most. I think it's just plain crazy how some franchises are money grabbing from consumers as they are. It's their gain and our loss.

[lhb412]

I have figures of characters from Heisei and Millenium films only because I love their Showa counterparts. I'd just as soon junk 'em if I had toys of them based on their circa 1960s forms.

[Legion]

Think about some of the most recent releases from each company. NECA: a 1994 Godzilla. MonsterArts: an adult Jr, which is basically just another 1994 Godzilla in a line that already includes a 1994 Godzilla (that was issued twice, and again as a SDCC exclusive) and a Burning/1995 Godzilla. X-Plus: a big Burning/1995 Godzilla. What currently is one of the most popular and frequently reissued Marmits? The Burning/1995 Godzilla. What's one of the most common Bandai Creation Godzillas? The Burning/1995 Godzilla. This one specific style of Godzilla (whether it be the "Space Godzilla" version or the Burning Godzilla) is everywhere, and has basically turned into the default Godzilla for many companies. It's gotten old.

[Rody]

On top of that, there's the new Toho building painting which portrays Godzilla as, once again, the '94 design.

Frankly, I think Moge-Goji is one of the worst Godzilla designs to date, so I'm certainly tired of seeing it as well. If it were at least Bio-Goji, or even 84-Goji, it wouldn't bother me - but Moge-Goji's just, ehhhhhh.....

[walshiam]

I don't know. That G suit was pretty "wrinkle-free", particularly when making landfall on the beach. You do have a point though. I think the original would have been a better choice for obvious reasons.

[Jared]

Hi, I'm Jared and this is my first post. Glad to finally join a forum after a lifelong fascination with Godzilla and kaiju!

I think the best results for special effects in Godzilla films can come from combining practical effects and CGI - have a suit with miniatures, an animatronic, a motion capture-suit, and of course a Godzilla fully rendered in CGI. By having all four techniques at their disposal, an FX crew could choose which is optimal for any given scene, and if done right, could acheive a uniformity/consistency of believable effects rather than the hit-or-miss FX work we're used to.

For example, CGI works a hell of a lot better for a closeup of Godzilla's foot coming down - the airport scene in GODZILLA (2014) proved this. But as soon as we get the big reveal to Godzilla's face a few moments later, it reeks of noticeably fake CGI - in which case a suit or animatronic could have done the trick.

All water scenes should be done CGI, because a) you can't miniaturize water, and it often ends up looking like a big bathtub, and b) the big pool was extremely dangerous for the suit actors.

Some of the work in the Millennium films used a mix of CGI and practical decently, but never to a degree that seemed fluid. The Gamera Trilogy did a pretty great job, considering the budget, particularly when Legion burrows into the ground...first time I saw it, I had to rewind to check if it was the suit or CGI (and it proved to be the latter of course). Get similar talent, give them a much bigger budget and more time, and Toho could finally live up to their potential for modern tokusatsu effects. That is, if they ever make Godzilla movies again...

[kiryugoji04]

[ebirahsmeg1]

[Outkaster]

What we have to think about as fans in comparing CGi or suitmation is just that, we are fans so our opinions will be skewed one way, and it’s not necessarily bad. If you are at my age you have seen the whole action/science fiction film industry change. The bar is set at the big budget almost over the top films that the studio’s turn out every year, that’s what our public wants. In all the bitching about the G14 film I never once read anywhere it was because they used CGI or a suit, it was more the time on screen the monsters were there. Tell you the truth sometimes it looked like a guy in a suit and not CGI. I think when the new Toho film comes out it won’t translate well to our modern audiences. It’s not anyone fault but remember we are a built in audience. We knew Godzilla was a guy in the suit back in the 1970’s and that was OK, it was a sign of our times. The thing is people are almost too sophisticated for their own good so the bar continually is set higher and higher. Things are a lot less accepted now and because of the internet the audience is so fickle.

[Reaper G]

I'd love for Goji to still be a man in a suit, but I'd be fine with motion-capture CGI. After all, Andy Serkis and Doug Jones are celebrities just like Nakajima, Satsuma, and Kitagawa.