TALKBACK #17: Godzilla vs. Biollante

[walshiam]

Godzilla in a battle with a giant rose bush never struck me as a gripping story.

[Gman2887]

[Russzilla]

[H-Man]

[walshiam]

It seems like Biollante was never at any time a real threat to Godzilla. the challenge was weak and so was the battle. That's why it always puts me to sleep.

[lhb412]

See, I feel like the battle between the two isn't the emphasis if the film, so the one-sidedness isn't a problem for me. It's a Godzilla vs. the world movie, like it's immediate predecessor.

[walshiam]

And yet these films are categorically referred to as "Science Fiction Action" pictures. This one, in particular, could make a viewer wonder "were's the action?" Monsters beating the hell out of one another is preferable to watching a lopsided standoff where only a few tickle me moments and Godzilla's breath is the extent of the battle.

[lhb412]

I feel the threat of Godzilla and mounting the several attempts to stop him provided enough drama.

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Russzilla]

[Russzilla]

[king_ghidorah]

[kiryugoji04]

[Dr Kain]

I definitely think this movie is one of the best Godzilla films, but it is most certainly not THE best.

[Jared]

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

Yeah, I love the music in this movie and never understood the hatred for it.

[Jared]

I agree, most of the music does rock...but about half of it doesn't really fit what's happening on-screen, which isn't a surprise, seeing how the composer had to write the score "blind" without the context of the film's images and editing.

The half of it that does happen to fit, though? Great stuff, and it really helps give the film some real atmosphere, much like THE RETURN OF GODZILLA.

[Dr Kain]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Gman2887]

[Jared]

I love that Scified interview with Ed Godziszewski, it's the closest thing we'll get to his unreleased audio commentary. The film's problems (especially the technical ones) are a lot more understandable when one realizes how rushed the entire production was. It's kind of amazing the film turned out as good as it did, under those circumstances. It has the best monster-related effects of the era, for one...

[lhb412]

^The mind boggles at the fact that this film has the most polished visuals of the era and yet was such a rushed production.

I just don't understand it!

[Jorzilla]

Maybe because it was rushed, they didn't have a lot of time to do expensive money shots that ended up looking bad despite probably being expensive? That's to say, this film features a lot of miniature work, but not a lot of rotoscoped destruction of the later Heisei era. Kawakita wasn't going around getting B-Roll of Hong Kong that just happened to show people casually strolling through the streets. I'd say the effects in Biollante look good specifically because they were constrained to what they can pull off traditionally:

- No panning shots to blue screen/rotoscope work.
- Lots of miniatures a larger scale than the other 90s films.
- Focus on puppetry and suit effects.

[klen7]

Flipping through the storyboards for Godzilla vs Biollante in the Godzilla Chronicle book, i came across this sequence in which Godzilla rips Biollante out by her roots and throws her into a city, then Biollante returns the favor