Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but I just watched GFW yesterday, more or less for the sake of trying to really determine what problems I have with it.

After a thorough viewing, I've decided that I take major issue with 3 things...

A. Direction

Kitamura's direction for this film isn't just wrong for the source material, it's generally wrong for the script as well. The dialogue may not be perfect, but it also doesn't beg for crazy camera angles and ridiculous over-acting. It's just too much. Not to mention the way over-used color filtering...

B. Lack of Monsters

This is basically a script criticism. Godzilla doesn't show up until over halfway through the movie, and we barely get even a few minutes of kaiju screen time by that point. In fact, overall, I think the monster screen time added up to something like 20 minutes or so...and that's for 11 monsters! Totally absurd...

C. Score

Horrible. Totally horrible. Keith Emerson is great in ELP. The score in full is an interesting listen by itself. But overlaying this super-synth/cliche action music over the film just drags it into a whole new level of embarrassment. In fact, I think this is my main problem. I could have almost tolerated the direction and script with a good classical score.



And the worst part is that these are pretty much all Kitamura's mistakes. He (obviously) directed it, he rewrote the script, and he handpicked Emerson (and the other score contributors). And Kitamura's only there because Toho specifically chose him for his "edginess".



I'm sorry. Just needed to get that out. I'm done.

i think this should become the standard board facepalm

Ya know, GFW was possibly the most redicoulus movie in the Godzilla cannon since the 70s, but it still was a hell of a lotta fun to watch. So I guess I wouldn't mind seeing him do another kaiju film. It might be better to see him tackle an original monster, though.

Kitimura's films seem to be either really serious, like Alive, Azumi, or The Midnight Meat Train, or really goofy like Versus, Sky High and GFW.

i'd go along with your assessment there...one thing though is that his films are quite over the top