TALKBACK #16: The Return of Godzilla

[eabaker]

G'85 may be too important to my development as a Godzilla fan for me to be wholly objective about it. Seeing that thing on the big screen at 6 years old, and then having it as my first Godzilla movie on VHS, it was one of the few definitive movies in my initial conception of the King of the Monsters.

That said, unlike KG above, I wouldn't quite make this one top 3 quality - although I couldn't possibly narrow a list down to just 3, anyway, or even down to 5.

But it is solidly... somewhere in my top 10, among which I don't really build many tiers.

As with GRA, the characters aren't all that great, and there are some pacing issues (though much less severe in this case), but it really comes down to atmosphere. The atmosphere of G'85 feels right to me. In purest form, my Godzilla is a monster out of a horror movie, and in many places G'85 feels like horror.

I also love big ensembles in which no one character drives the narrative, but rather everybody contributes a piece here and there, each character shapes a little bit of the big picture, and events grow from interactions. G'85 doesn't entirely succeed as this kind of objective ensemble (certainly not as well as G:KOTM had, or GvsB would), but it's an approach I appreciate, and it's basically pulled off here.

[MekaGojira3k]

[eabaker]

[king_ghidorah]

[Legion]

[king_ghidorah]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Legion]

[king_ghidorah]

[MekaGojira3k]

[eabaker]

[king_ghidorah]

[EricDent]

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

[jellydonut25]

[metal_bryan]

[jellydonut25]

[Andrew Nguyen]

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

[Goji 84]

[Irish Gfan]

[Goji 84]

[Giganfan]

I sat there giggling like a fool during the sequence where Godzilla bascially erupts from Tokyo Bay, and the SDF throws everything they got at him to no avial. Just one blast of his atomic breath, and the dock is completely wiped out! And then, that iconic roar! Forget being the first movie, or Godzilla movie I've ever seen, Godzilla 1985 is my earliest memories of existence! I watched this tape to death when I was a youngster, so much so, my family was getting irritable about it lol! Up until last Tuesday, I hadn't watched this movie in about five years or so, and had forgotten how much I dig it. In retrospect, this film was a "right place, right time" type of scenario. It belongs wholly to the eighties in that the Cold War background is an ideal setting for Godzilla's return to play against. Having him destroy a Russian sub, and then having the Soviets blame the US is a tailor-made concept for the historical relevence of the King of the Monsters. I find it virtually impossible for me to be even remotely objective of this movie. Goji '85, in either version means so much to me from a personal perspective, I cannot help but vault all the way into my top 10 "personal favorites". I had fairly forgotten how much I enjoy it.

Oh, and Teruyoshi Nakano finally gets to do a "bad-ass" Godzilla movie, and he really delivers. There's plenty of hell-fire and black, billowing smoke, and some impressive miniature work. My favorite, aside from the aforementioned sequence, is when Godzilla tips over the skyscraper on top of the Super-X. Awesomeness-incarnate!

[Destroysall]

[MekaGojira3k]

Each time I watch this I realize I love it. I mean, I guess it's because I'm dumb, because it's like it seeps out of my brain how much I like this. I think it's also because it doesn't have multiple kaiju. The original film only has Godzilla, but I think there's plenty in that movie to be enthralled with.