Talkback #22: Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

[DannyBeane]

I liked Destroyah and would have liked to see him return

[Psycho Soldier]

[Gman2887]

[Psycho Soldier]

I'd have to check again, but I thought it was just Godzilla's blood that remained, rather than the wounds proper.

[eabaker]

[Jorzilla]

There's something about the new monsters of the 90s that really don't make a lot of sense outside of the movie they were created for. As in, they don't feel as 'timeless,' they adequately fulfill the role needed in the script as a punching bag for Godzilla.

The only non Showa monsters that I would really care to see on screen against are Orga for the regenerative factor which I was was explored more, and Megaguirus which is kind of cheating because she originally was just the Meganulans. I would have also removed her energy absorbing ability.

[eabaker]

[Jorzilla]

[Gman2887]

[Jorzilla]

I would have liked Battra a lot more if they had made the Mothra/Gigamoth movie instead of hammering it into a Godzilla film. As it stands now I could take him or leave him. The only capacity I would be okay with seeing him again is as a direct twin to Mothra (tone down the design for the larva form, but keep some characteristics). At least that way you could have a Gargantua type subplot. As another monster with poor motivations that was crapped out of the Earth? Pass: In fact, while more poorly executed, I find Megaguirus to be a better design.

[Psycho Soldier]

[Jorzilla]

I honestly believe if Godzilla didn't die at the end and everything else was constant, this movie we be considered a lot worse. It's not really possible to detangle the death element from this film, but I think people largely forgive most of this movies faults for 2 minutes of cinema.

[Gman2887]

[jellydonut25]

[eabaker]

[Jorzilla]

When I watch people casually strolling through Hong Kong while their entire city burns due to a giant radioactive monster, I always ask myself: People really think this is a top 5 or even a top 3 Godzilla movie?

[MekaGojira3k]

[eabaker]

Well, I can forgive sloppiness on the FX end if it's counter-balanced by a strong enough narrative. Not that this movie does have a strong enough narrative, but, really, limitations in the available Hong Kong footage for compositing are far from its biggest failing.

[Jorzilla]

I know that it's unfair to really knock Godzilla films on the SPFX, but to me its a sign for how much quality control they put in the overall film. I applaud Destroyah for breaking a lot of the paint-by-numbers plot structure and story-lines, but at the same time it really fails to meet my expectations for greatness.

G2K, funny enough fixes a lot of the elements I didn't like about the Heisei movies, so maybe it was Kawakita retiring the franchise that we actually go to move on from the 90s film tropes (granted, they still recycled a lot of the monsters).

[jellydonut25]

[Gman2887]

[Legion]

[MekaGojira3k]

[jellydonut25]

[eabaker]

While both Ghidorah and Destoroyah have their clunky elements, I find that Ghidorah's more engaging characters, cleaner narrative structure, and overall more graceful assembly (we spend a lot of time discussing Omori's screenwriting, the good and the bad of it, but I think his skills as a director tend to be overlooked; I think he got much better performances and brought a significantly more interesting visual style than Okawara ever did) make the illogical and inconsistent bits stand out for the most part only upon reflection, whereas Destoroyah feels like its script is tripping over itself the whole time, and Okawara is mostly just going through the motions to get the scenes in the can, so every little flaw just sits there on display.