Masaaki Tezuka's Godzilla films

[tbeasley]

Tezuka directed Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, the second Millennium film, and the Kiryu duology, Against Mechagodzilla and Tokyo SOS, the only Millennium films to be connected.

For me, Tezuka falls in line with Okawara as one of the more by the numbers returning directors in the series... Megaguirus is one of my least favorite installments, but I have come to like the Kiryu films more over time. I think they pair nicely actually, GXMG establishes the world and has some satisfying monster action, allowing GMMG to jump headfirst into the action, which is alright with me. Looking back, despite his blander faults as a director, I wish Toho had gotten him to do the 50th anniversary film.

Took me awhile to wrap this up, but make sure to check out my other Godzilla director threads -

[Geno]

I don't think any of his films are particularly good, but GAM is the most tolerable.

[eabaker]

There are a handful of isolated moments in Megaguirus that I find enjoyable and effective, most notably the opening, the early "horror movie" moments with the Meganula, and Kiriko riding Godzilla (which is just so cool on the big screen).

Against Mechagodzilla is just too rushed. Nothing is given any time to develop.

Tokyo SOS is quite possibly my least favorite Godzilla movie ever. It's just bland, sloppy and meandering. I have only once succeeded in watching the whole movie in a single sitting, and I'm basically incapable of retaining anything that happens after the first half hour or so.

[lhb412]

This is super hard.

Tezuka's films feel more like competent fan-films than actual movies to me. Megaguirus is incompetent on a lot of levels (maybe the worst looking Godzilla film ever) but has fun bits, like the final battle between Godzilla and Megaguirus. Tokyo SOS is the most technically accomplished, the best looking, but it also feels the most like a fan film - copying sections from other films, introducing some potentially interesting character setups then utterly failing to do anything with them. It feels almost empty.

I think Godzilla x Mechagodzilla may win the top spot: it's a tight movie with a solid structure and a neat idea (Godzilla's bones being made into Mechagodzilla) in its center... but at the same time I think the other two films stand out more. It wins by default.

[eabaker]

I've never really understood the claim that Tokyo SOS looks particularly good, especially the sfx scenes. Although the miniatures are well crafted, the lighting and camera angles really do nothing to sell the illusion of scale, so they all just look like well crafted miniatures.

[lhb412]

^ I think it's the most consistently polished of the three, but I agree that there's a flatness to it.

[Giganfan]

I wish Tezuka had gotten the chance to direct Final Wars. I think he deserved it, because what he lacks in actual direction, he more than compensated with passion and loyalty to the source material. I actually like all of Tezuka's Godzilla movies. The monsters, and the action sequences are thoroughly entertaining. Of the three, I voted for Godzilla X Mechagodzilla. I thought he felt he needed to compete with Shusuke Kaneko's film, and he drew inspiration accordingly.

[canofhumdingers]