TALKBACK #25: GMK

[metal_bryan]

[Gman2887]

I've just found both the G2K/GxM suits and Kiryu-Goji suits equally hardened. I appreciated the robotic head used for close-ups in Tokyo S.O.S. but even then there was something so artificial about it compared to the Heisei and GMK animatronics. Like eabaker has said multiple times, technically it's fine, but in practice, and in comparison, it felt like an inadequate representation of a creature I'm used to seeing more "alive".

[jellydonut25]

This was my most recent random pull (just watched it). I wish I could go back to when I first saw it...or at least, my opinion of it could go back to then. I thought it was the best Godzilla film, hands-down, in YEARS...

I suppose that maybe it still is (though I dunno, I've warmed CONSIDERABLY towards G2K and have always enjoyed GxMG...and I actually am one of those annoying people who like GFW), but my enjoyment of this film has softened a great deal.

The plot is just an absolute MESS...I really find it to be all the worst bits of the Kaneko Gamera films, hamfisted mysticism, points that make little to no sense, characters who serve as avatars or something of some sort who aren't fully developed enough for me to care (the computer dude in G3, the old man here)...it's just ridiculous and borderline nonsensical. Stuff just happens. There's an under-developed plot about some statues containing the souls of world war ii victims ("Just like a CD-ROM!!!" ), something with magic fairy dust sprinkling monsters to life...or making them retreat into the ocean and do nothing to change their actions whatsoever.

When the story is at its most straight-forward is when it works best: A wannabe journalist trying to break from her stigma as a cheap "mockumentarian" and become a real journalist to make her dad proud while he struggles with his own pride and becomes powerless in the face of these unstoppable kaiju. Strip away all the garbage about souls of WWII, because it doesn't make a lick of sense, and just give me the straightforward monster movie and I'd enjoy this SO much more...

also, plastic Mothra no es bueno.


btw, I realize it looks like I kind of just took a dump all over this movie, but let me emphasize that it only amounts to maybe 15-20 minutes of the movie that I find to be ridiculous nonsense while the rest of it works rather well, and of course the monsters are executed better in this film than in any post-80s film save MAYBE GvsKG. let me stress EXECUTED though...because design-wise it's all rather middle of the road to me.

[Gwangi]

I had not seen this movie for a long, long time. Decided to take a look recently and see what my thoughts were this time around.

I tend to think it is the best film in the Millennium series (and Heisei for that matter). However, it does have its faults. Mainly, it is the mysticism that I particularly did not care for when I first saw it, and I still carry that same attitude. Plus, while I know the young reporter is the main character, there is also a heavy emphasis on getting a military point-of-view, which had been to death earlier in the Heisei period. In Kaneko’s Gamera films, the military always played a supporting role, and it was the civilians who were the focal point, and I always thought that was refreshing to see (much like in the Showa era).

Still, this movie does have some good effects. Godzilla, with the exception of the pot belly, looked great. It was nice to see the return of Baragon, even if he did not have the same roar, or any burst of flames shooting from his mouth. Mothra was OK, and it was nice to see that this time around, it did not have loads of beaming weapons coming out of her like we saw in Heisei trilogy (although, I have yet to see the last movie). And I am still waiting for a good looking Ghidrah to make its triumphant return. Have not really seen that creature in its full glory since “Destroy All Monsters”.

Would the movie have benefited from having both Varan and Angilus instead of Mothra and Ghidrah? Hard to say. It would have been nice to see those monsters, but a quadruped creature was already in the mix with Baragon, and I am not sure if we would be seeing the same type of battles with Godzilla.

[eabaker]

[jellydonut25]

[Jorzilla]

First of all, people's tastes change. There's another dynamic in play: GMK's effects are no longer as impressive as they once were. Films need to stand are their own with other aspects. GMK looked great when it came out. Slightly worse than G3, but it was a LOT more ambitious.

Now Godzilla movies are all at least 9+ years old. The freshness is going aware since they all just look older more dated. If I were to say which Godzilla film has the most consistent quality special effects, I might have said GMK a few years ago, but now I feel that title is back with Biollante.

GMK looks like an older movie now. Hell, it is actually closer to Biollante than it is to today in terms of years. It has to rely on it's other merits, and people aren't being as forgiving as they once were.

[Dr Kain]

Yeah, I never noticed them before, but it still doesn't hamper anything for me in this movie. I just love Otani's score as it fits with everything this movie does in mood and atmosphere. Although, I do sometimes have this desire for the Deathscythe or Epyon to appear from time to time during Godzilla's rampage.

And the mysticism is some of the reasons why I love this movie the most. That is one of the things that help make the Gamera movies incredible.

[william newell]

[Gman2887]

The subtitles/dubtitles are amongst the worst released stateside. Many of the nuances are lost on the Sony disc, which is a shame considering how great the movie looks on it.

William, what was Kpa's take on Godzilla's beating heart at the end of the movie?

[Psycho Soldier]

[klen7]

In response to Jelly-Ds post,

I think mysticism in films works best when it is treated as one possible solution to something unexplained, so i prefer the sections that you referred to as "under developed" to remain a little ambiguous. I think Gamera 3 worked for the same reason, that the mystical explanations were treated as theories. I do agree that GMK gets a bit "hamfisted" with the mysticism in a few places, particularly the sparkly souls of the defeated.

[william newell]

[jellydonut25]

[klen7]

[Gman2887]

[metal_bryan]

The whole mystical aspect of the film definitely has not aged well for me. I agree that it could have been minimized or even removed altogether and we would have had a better movie in the end. It's poorly presented as is and detracts from the overall plot of the movie. I still enjoy parts of the movie and I think a lot of it works, but other things drag it down.

[MekaGojira3k]

I don't necessarily feel as though the statues and the guardians of yamato or whatever is stupid, it's just...things like the ROCKS IS CD-ROMS. It needs more ambiguity for me (which is weird to say about mystical elements in a Kaneko film), because that scene sort of sits as weirdly with me as the whole Dreamcast Mana explanation thing in G3.

[metal_bryan]

That's really the root of the problem for me too. There's too much explanation for the mystical stuff which should remain ambiguous. Look at King Caesar. THAT is how you bring mysticism to G movies.

[Gman2887]

[jellydonut25]

Is it only three minutes?

[klen7]

King Seesar definitely has a mystical element in his summoning. The Shobojin seem more like SciFi to me than mystical in the Showa era

[MekaGojira3k]

[klen7]

I kind of felt like the Shobojin had a psychic connection to Mothra and to each other, so I guess I could go either way on the subject

[MekaGojira3k]